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In Star Trek, we encounter a few colonies that are made up almost solely(if not completely) of one subset of people, out to form their own colony on some planet. Just how many colonies seem to be comprised of these types of groups? We have at least three examples of this happening along nation state/racial lines. Caldos II, from Sub Rosa, was meant to be an authentic Scotland, to the point of transporting buildings brick by brick to the colony, adopting the dress and style, and trying to adopt a 'Scottish' life style. The 'Indian'/Native American colonies from the episode Journey's End that were ceded to the Cardassians, seemed to be of similar thought. Finally, the 'authentic Irish' colony from Up The Long Ladder wherein the colonists wanted to adopt a medieval and authentic Irish lifestyle.

There's also the colonies which were made solely because of their differences from others. Moab IV believed in a masterpiece society, and wanted to remain isolationist to keep their society 'perfect'. The colony found by Sisko and O'Brien in Paradise that consisted of no technology and was run by one woman's philosophy, etc.

So, what does this say about the Federation? Does the UFP try to throw away the melting pot? Is mixing of different cultures frowned upon, viewed as cultural appropriation of some sort? Are these just the outliers, kooks, and Utopians that abandon the modern world to make their own in a society of hundreds of billions and the UFP doesn't care about these fringe groups separating? Is it a boon for the UFP, as someone needs to settle the frontier of society,and these people wanted to be away from everyone else anyway?

What are your thoughts?

I think it's your last two sentances. It's modelled off the colonisation of the new world by europe anyway. Founding a colony is hard, and painful and leaving comfort and stability for poverty and possible early death requires you to be believe in something bigger than yourself (or be greedy and very risk tolerant).

It acts as a pressure valve for the federation, and once a colony or society grows to a certain size it'll start to fragement socially, over generations naturally moving towards something where most people are fine with joining the federation while a few die-hards move out to the frontier again.

The Federation, for the most part, is a cosmopolitan, multi-species society. I think those colonies you mention are simply separatists who have enough room to be separate - sort of like how the Amish and a couple other groups are embedded in the larger US. There's enough room in the Federation for both those who want to be part of a melting pot, and those who want to remain an unmelted nugget.

Do most colonies consist of separatists, or are these just the fringe ones?

FaxModem1 wrote:Do most colonies consist of separatists, or are these just the fringe ones?

I was assuming most of the colonies we see in various episodes are fringe ones (or have a fun Deep Dark Dread Secret™ for Our Heroes to uncover) — all the others are dull as ditchwater.

SpottedKitty wrote:

FaxModem1 wrote:Do most colonies consist of separatists, or are these just the fringe ones?

I was assuming most of the colonies we see in various episodes are fringe ones (or have a fun Deep Dark Dread Secret™ for Our Heroes to uncover) — all the others are dull as ditchwater.

yeah I think it's like it's with transporters in that we're only meant to pay attention to transporter use when something atypical is happening (like for example transporters aren't working for what ever reason) and normally no real attention is given to transporter use, it's like taking a bus/car to work. Same way I suspect that most colonies are "nothing special" and thus we're not suppose to pay attention to them as it wouldn't make really good to have an episode where the Enterprise makes a routine suppy run to a colony nothing special happend during the run "the end", where as if a colony has something special it's put into to focus, which creates the false image that all colonies are somehow special this is of course speculation but it's not totally unfounded.

What's the difference between a colony and a member world? Is it similar to the difference between a State and a Territory? Do colonies have any voting rights or representatives on the Federation Council, or are only member worlds represented?

Tribble wrote:What's the difference between a colony and a member world? Is it similar to the difference between a State and a Territory? Do colonies have any voting rights or representatives on the Federation Council, or are only member worlds represented?

I don't think it was ever stated in any official material.

Lord Revan wrote:

Tribble wrote:What's the difference between a colony and a member world? Is it similar to the difference between a State and a Territory? Do colonies have any voting rights or representatives on the Federation Council, or are only member worlds represented?

I don't think it was ever stated in any official material.

Not as far as I know, no. There may be unofficial representatives, 'lobbyists' so to speak who may angle for influence with Council members, but that's purely speculation on my part. I suspect the case is mostly that colonies are pretty much on their own until they gain enough population or influence to be able to apply for membership in the Federation.

Lord Revan wrote:

Tribble wrote:What's the difference between a colony and a member world? Is it similar to the difference between a State and a Territory? Do colonies have any voting rights or representatives on the Federation Council, or are only member worlds represented?

I don't think it was ever stated in any official material.

No it hasn't, but I think it's clear it's meant to be:

Member World - Earth
Colony - Terra Nova, Lunar One colony, Mars Colony, Proxima Colony, Vega Colony etc


Member World - Vulcan
Colony: P'Jem, Paan Mokar, Vulcanis Lunar colony


Member World - Andor / Andoria
Colony: Weytahn


Member World - Rigel 4
Colony: Rigel 6


Member World - Bajor (well no, but examples people)
Colony: New Bajor






So there's 150 odd member worlds (150 species) but they could have anywhere from 0 to thousands of colonies. Presumably Earth / Humans are on the higher end of that scale, whilst someone like the Chell (those small freaks from ST:I) have no colonies.

Of course that said, what happens when a colony gets to a big size? The Federation has over a trillion people in it - What is a colony that has half a billion? Is that then a Member World due to its size?

Dunno. And totally debateable.

But I'd say there's probably 150 ish members of the Federation, with many hundreds more or thousands of colonies spread over Federation space. I believe that's the implication they meant to give in the show, tho am happy to be wrong.

Berengaria VII is an example of what happens when a colony gets big enough. In Enterprise, it's a planet the Vulcans have scouted, in The Original Series, its a colony planet that is famed for having dragons on it(Spock waxes poetically about it), and by Deep Space Nine, Kai Winn considers it as important as Andoria or Vulcan to the Federation(she asks if the Federation would protect Bajor just as much as they would these major planets.) Its speculation on my part, but it seems that if a planet gets populous or developed enough, it becomes a member state. Though this could involve a rather long process, just like alien worlds that want to be admitted into the Federation.

It's possible (as I stated before there's nothing specific about it in canon so this is just speculation) that member worlds have votes based (at least partly) on both their population and the population of dependent colonies and once a colony grows big enough it becomes a new member so that in theory no one member would too much votes in the Federation Council.