The Klingons, more than any other alien beings on Star Trek—perhaps only really rivaled by the Vulcans—are one of the most enduring presences across almost 60 years of the franchise. In that time we’ve seen their culture and society explored, their history rewritten, and seen them be at odds with, work alongside, and reverse that relationship with our heroes more than a few times. That potential for conflict between the Klingons and Starfleet, no matter what the status quo of Star Trek‘s timeline says at some points, is as enduring as the Klingons themselves.
Yes, even long after the signing of the famous Khitomer Accords that heralded a new era of cooperation between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets, the two factions have found ways to return to open war, a status quo that defined humankind’s relationship with the Klingons basically from first contact. Here’s a brief rundown of the waxing and waning Earth-Qo’noS relationship over centuries of Star Trek lore.
2151: The Broken Bow Incident
Humanity’s first contact with the Klingon Empire would set the stage for centuries of unease between Earth and Qo’noS, even if it was partially down to shadowy controlling forces rather than necessarily ill relations between the two worlds. The fallout of temporal manipulation from a mysterious being leveraging the Suliban terrorist group known as the Cabal to manipulate the balance of power among the Great Houses: first contact between human and Klingon kind occurred in Broken Bow, Oklaholma, when a Klingon courier was shot down over Earth in an engagement with Cabal members.
Grievously wounded by a local farmer, the courier, Klaang, was recovered by Starfleet and Vulcan authorities—and although the latter negotiated the return of Klaang to Klingon space, the former insisted on being the ones to return him, unintentionally violating the Klingon’s long-established codes of honor around injured warriors and putting Earth and Qo’noS off on the wrong foot.
2220s: The Federation-Klingon Cold War
After the founding of the Federation a decade after first contact with the Klingons, the Empire and the new interstellar organization largely stayed at arm’s length for decades, only for the Federation and Klingons to slip into an intense period of cold war by the early 2220s, contesting various colonial expansions by the Federation into what the Empire believed was its own space. Although broadly considered an extended cold war rather than a series of smaller engagements, the Federation and Klingons did occasionally engage in hostility during the period: most notably at the Battle of Donatu V in 2245, which saw tensions briefly boil over in a highly contested sector of the Beta Quadrant.
Although the battle ended inconclusively, it did briefly pause tension between the Federation and the Empire, with neither side making notable contact with each other for the next decade.
2256-7: The First Federation-Klingon War
That changed in 2256 with the outbreak of total conflict between the two powers. The war was spurred by an encounter between Klingon forces rallied by the nationalist T’Kuvma and the Starfleet vessel Shenzhou in what would become the Battle of the Binary Stars—which lead to significant casualties to a combined Klingon fleet representing all 24 of the current Great Houses of the Empire’s political system, including T’Kuvma’s death at the hands of Shenzhou senior officer Michael Burnham, as well as the loss of Shenzhou‘s captain, Philippa Georgiou, and the deaths of thousands more Starfleet officers aboard a number of vessels that arrived to aid the Shenzhou.
Although brief, the war was catastrophic for a largely unprepared Federation, contesting with the might of a fully united Klingon Empire, which made deep inroads to Federation territory, including being in arm’s reach of Earth itself by the end of the year. In an act of desperation, the Federation Council planned to surreptitiously destroy Qo’noS with the deployment of a hydrogen bomb near the planet’s core, although the plan was ultimately foiled by the intervention of the USS Discovery, which helped shift the balance of power on the Klingon High Council and push the Empire towards an armistice.
Even though the conflict ended in an agreeable peace—with minor territorial changes at best for either side—the Federation had endured the bloodiest conflict in its century of history. One hundred million Federation civilians and Starfleet personnel were killed over the course of the war, and Starfleet itself was significantly diminished with the loss of approximately a third of its standing fleet.
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