A (Very) Brief History of Earth To fully understand Earth today one must understand its past.

Cultural Diversity
The most important element guiding Earth history is the planets’ geography. Unlike many class M planets Earth has a large number of continents and islands resulting from its very active plate tectonics. This resulted in a large variety of cultures that developed in isolation. These cultures existed for tens of thousands of years without contact.

Compare this to Bajor, for example. With the exception of some racial characteristics due to planetary latitudes there are no real differences culturally among the Bajoran people. Yet Humans have over a hundred distinct cultures and several hundred subcultures.

War
When various cultures did come into contact with each other it nearly always resulted in violence and pestilence. After the initial contact between groups it didn’t necessarily mean peace resumed. Disease nearly always followed the arrival of one group and nearly wiped out the indigenous people of a region. And wars continued for eons between the various cultures. Humanity fought for many reasons in various eons. With the advent of the currency-based mode of production (“capitalism”) the motivation became so that the few that owned the means of production could increase their control over the resources of the planet and to widen their markets.

Ecological Devastation
During the 20th century and the first half of the 21st the primary mode of production was a currency-based form of worldwide capitalism. Because the nature of this mode placed the means of production in the control of a small minority there was little interest in the proper management of the environment. As a result Earth's ecology was devastated. Many of Earth's species were wiped out. The world’s lungs, the rainforests, were nearly destroyed. And the Earth's protective ozone layer developed large holes over the Polar Regions due to chlorofluorocarbons seeping into the upper atmosphere.

Brink of Destruction
The various wars increased in intensity exponentially during the 20th and 21st centuries. Each major war got larger in reach and devastation. World War 1 ("The Great War"), World War 2 (“The War Against Fascism”), Eugenics War ("The War to End Tyranny"), and then finally World War 3 ("The Nuclear Horror" or "Colonel Green's War").

It was World War 3 that nearly destroyed the Human race. In the initial nuclear exchange approximately 30 million people were killed. After the resulting disease and famine that resulted from the nuclear winter ultimately more than 600 million died.

First Contact
Everything changed when Zefram Cochran created and flew the first Human warp ship on April 4th, 2063 OEC (Old Earth Calendar). This flight led to contact the next evening with a Vulcan survey vessel and opened humanity to the galaxy.

After First Contact, when Humanity discovered it was not alone in the galaxy, it caused Humanity to become united as never before. Humanity abandoned currency-based economy for a worldwide democratic cooperative, with what the Humans refer to as a Philosophy of Self-Enhancement at its core. Rather than the acquisition of wealth being the driving force, Humans now work to better themselves and the rest of Humanity.  As a result war, crime, disease, injustice, and poverty were all wiped out within 50 years after Cochran’s legendary flight.

Over the next 300 years Humanity progressed by leaps and bounds. Early with the help of the Vulcans Humanity began it’s healing. Small communes initially cropped up across the globe as the producers organized themselves.  In these small communes the producers began to develop the beginnings of the Philosophy.  Over time Humans began to reclaim the cities and towns of Earth.

A Vulcan “Marshall Plan”
At the same time as First Contact with Earth the Vulcans had begun a period of reevaluation of themselves. Some Vulcans had already begun to revive the ancient practice of the Kolinahr (meant to purge the last remaining emotions) while a small minority instead began to reinterpret the teachings of Surak and embrace a fusion of Logic and emotions.

The Vulcan authorities also changed their policies concerning alien cultures. Throughout most of their years of deep space travel Vulcans had practiced a policy of noninterference in the affairs of other cultures. After First Contact with Earth the dominant view of Vulcan shifted to one of taking an active role in alien cultures. Vulcans concluded that, as the Human saying goes, by taking a species under their wing they could spread the rule of Logic through the galaxy. Such a spread they viewed as beneficial to both their interest and the other cultures.

Under this policy as soon as contact was first made with a warp capable race the Vulcans would send a “Cultural Exchange Team”.  Vulcan would then send large amounts of humanitarian aid to their new project world along with advisors to “educate” the race in the Vulcan view of Logic. In some rare cases this resulted in an acceptance of Logic by the student race.  Yet, in far too many cases it resulted in conflicts and even some damaged cultures.  A classic example of conflict was the long running Cold War that Vulcan had with the Andorians during the 22nd century.

In the case of Earth the Vulcan “Marshall Plan” (as Human historians call it) ended up being very beneficial, though in ways the Vulcans at the time didn’t expect. At the time of First Contact Earth was incapable of sustaining itself. The Vulcans knew that unless Humans were able to stand on their own that any chance of advancing their philosophy was low. So at first the Vulcans sent fleets of ships to Earth filled with food and medical supplies to care for the armies of starving. They also sent technical advisors to aid in the rebuilding of Earth’s infrastructure and food production.  In addition, to the technical advisors and supplies the Vulcan sent cultural liaisons with the expectations to educate Humans in the ways of Logic.  While Humans were fed and the world was healed as expected the resulting change Humanity would take was not what the Vulcans had planned.

Early on the Logic that the Vulcans brought resulted in what they viewed as positive steps towards their ultimate goal.  Humans learned that cooperation rather than competition was needed. The Vulcans helped Humans learn the logic of sharing the Earth’s resources and the illogic of waste.  Instead of a divided planet the Vulcans taught that Earth had to be united. Rather than allowing the illogic of profit and the domination of society by a few owners of production Humans had to share the ownership of the means of production.

What the Vulcans didn’t expect was that the Humans would, instead of accepting the philosophy of Logic, develop their own guiding philosophy. At first the Vulcans wrongly concluded that the Philosophy of Self-Enhancement was simply a stage that the Humans were passing through to accepting Logic as a lifestyle. Yet, after they realized it wasn’t a stage the Vulcans concluded, again wrongly, that Humans were not ready to progress into deep space and needed more time. Therefore, they refused to assist Humanity in progressing in warp technology with the Warp 5 Project.   Humans took this refusal as an attempt at holding them back. This resulted in a period of great tension during the middle to later part of the 22nd century. Over time though the Vulcans agreed that they had erred in their conclusions and the two species are today closest of allies.

The Great Awakening
The Philosophy of Self-Enhancement rests at the heart of what the Humans call The Great Awakening.  It guided the development of Earth society from the chaos of the Post Nuclear Horror to the paradise it is today.

One of the key lessons of the Philosophy of Self-Enhancement was that Labor no longer could be alienating but instead it had to become “free labor”. Labor time and leisure time had to become the same. Therefore, Humans organized Earth society to allow for the development of the person rather than for the profit of a minority of owners of production as in a capitalist system. Automation became a major element and was used to it’s maximum potential for production. In addition, automation became a means of reducing meaningless and demeaning toil.

Humans have traditionally used a calendar of repeating periods of 7-days called “weeks”. Early in Great Awakening the average work period on Earth was reduced to a four-day week, with six hours workdays. The first shift went the 2nd day (Monday) through the 5th (Thursday). The second shift goes was the 5th (Thursday) through the 1st (Sunday). Shops and restaurants usually kept a day and night shift though emergency facilities, such as hospitals, would operate with four shifts to provide 24-hour coverage.

Humanity had progressed even further by the middle of the 22nd century. By then Earth had become a united world after Australia had joined the planetary government. War and poverty had been wiped out for a hundred years. And Fort Knox (the gold depository of the nation-state United States of America) became a museum as Earth ended the use of money in favor of “labor time credits”.

Over time factories became more and more automated. By the later part of the 23rd century the Earth no longer had the need for labor-time credits (though the “credit” lives on as the name of the Federation’s monetary unit). Labor time had become fully free time. And the work period had been reduced to 4 hours a day, 3 days a week. Humanity had become aware that it was growing and saw the formation of the “New Human” movement.

The 24th century saw the arrival of the fully socialized Human. The planned allocation of labor power is virtually nonexistent, relegated to monitoring the machines. There is no ‘work week’ any longer on Earth. Humans have an almost purely supervisory role in the production process. Humans now work to better themselves and the rest of the species.

A Small Planet Gets Larger
The 21st through the 24th centuries saw Earth's role in the Alpha Quadrant grow exponentially. In 2151 humanity created a warp drive capable of warp 5 (using the first calibration), which opened up thousands of worlds to Humanity. Not long after the Romulan War the United Federation of Planets was founded and Earth was chosen to be the capital.  The importance of Earth and the role Humanity plays in the affairs of the Alpha Quadrant cannot be overstated. To paraphrase an ancient Human saying; “All roads lead to Earth”.