Money In Star Trek EXPLAINED

9. Background

Much of the Federation's history is the history of Earth and humanity’s evolution. That said, many of our real-world historical events also happened in the Star Trek universe. World Wars, space races, and humanity’s first flight all contributed to the formation of a world that was finally ready for true cooperation. But actually getting there required more struggle.

The Eugenics Wars broke out in, depending on your timeline, the early 90s or just a few years ago. Earth was devastated by the conflict with Khan Noonien Singh and his Augments, but there was yet more to come. 2024 brought the Bell Riots, spurred on by rampant homelessness and social and economic inequality. Just a couple of years later, in 2026, the United States was engulfed in a Second Civil War. This proved to be the breaking point, as it led to World War III, with humanity suffering a nuclear holocaust of its own design in 2053.

When your entire civilization sends itself back to the bottom, you’ve got to get back up or just roll over and die. Humanity by this point was barely holding on in most places, but there were still advancements being made. In 2063, despite living in a world with still super-constrained resources and being close to giving up on humanity himself, Zefram Cochrane made his first test flight of the Phoenix with her warp drive. He completely altered the course of the human race. This event, on April 5, 2063, would come to be known as First Contact Day. Some Vulcans who happened to be nearby in the Sol system witnessed the warp test and initiated first contact with the fledgling human race.

Here is where humanity began to not only rebuild, but to cooperate towards common goals of advancement. Technology boomed, especially in the following century, with the development of transporters and Earth’s first warp 5 capable ship, the NX-01. The 22nd century also saw the evolution of Earth’s economic systems. Most of the world up to this point had run on some flavor of capitalism, with everything being assigned a monetary value and currency being traded for goods and services. 

Turned out cooperation would result in other advancements besides just technology.