Klingon

:This page is about the race. For the language, see Klingon language.

History of the Klingon Empire

Prehistory

Little is known of the Klingons prior to the establishment of the Empire. Klingons being a prideful race with a closed society, they are averse to sharing their secrets. Being violent, belligerent, and anti-intellectual, it is hard to imagine that the Klingons developed their high level of technology and science (including warp drive) by themselves. Klingon religion also states that the first Klingons destroyed the gods who created them. Klingon physiology with its redundancies and great strength is also ideal for military operations. In the episode 'The Chase' (ST:TNG, Season 6), it was revealed that a race of prehistoric aliens had spread humanoid DNA all across the galaxy (and mixed it with local DNA) and so ensured the development of the major Star Trek races. In other words, Klingons developed partly from the indigenous prehistoric life on Qo'noS and partly from humanoid DNA.

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1st Millennium

The Imperial Klingon Empire was founded around 900 AD on the Klingon homeworld of Qo'noS by Kahless the Unforgettable.

Related Topics:
Qo'noS - Kahless the Unforgettable

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The Empire went through several dynasties of rulers, experiencing a period between the 2nd and 3rd known as the "Dark Time", a 10-year experiment in democracy.

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Around the 14th century, Qo'noS was invaded by the Hur'q, who pillaged many treasures, including the sword of Kahless.

Related Topics:
Qo'noS - Hur'q - Kahless

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The Klingons eventually expelled the Hur'q, which is the Klingon word for "outsider", from their homeworld. It is likely the Klingons stole the invaders' technology, including their warp drive and weapons systems, and used them to expand their empire into space. If Klingon designs were in fact stolen, and not developed on their own, this might explain why Klingon technology seems to advance so little during the ensuing centuries compared to other planets, such as Earth. It also explains how such a warlike and anti-intellectual civilization was able to develop warp drive, in that they reverse engineered it from the technology of an invading race.

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By 2069 the High Council was formed, eliminating the position of Emperor until 2369.

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22nd century

Around the early part of the 22nd century, the warrior class begins exerting a greater influence throughout Klingon society, corrupting, notably, the justice system.

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In 2151, a faction in the Temporal Cold War from the 28th century attempted to alter the timeline by using the Suliban Cabal to incite unrest within the Klingon Empire. This resulted in the first contact between Klingons and Humans and sparked the first voyage of the Warp 5 vessel, Enterprise. Concurrent with this mission, Enterprise communications officer Hoshi Sato became the first known human to learn the Klingon language. Although initially positive, the relationship between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire remained on shaky ground during the first few years of contact, with Enterprise being fired upon by a Klingon battle cruiser only a few weeks after the vessel's trip to the Klingon homeworld (as seen in "Unexpected"). By 2152-53, Captain Jonathan Archer had become a fugitive from Klingon justice, and at one point Enterprise destroyed a Klingon vessel carrying the then-head of the House of Duras who was pursuing the fugitive. The long-term fallout from this has yet to be revealed in canon, although the crew of Enterprise redeemed themselves somewhat in 2154 by helping the Empire stop the Augment Virus from becoming fatal.

Related Topics:
Temporal Cold War - 28th century - Suliban - Cabal - Enterprise - Hoshi Sato - Unexpected - Jonathan Archer

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23rd century

Around 2218, relations between the Empire and the Federation degenerated substantially, with intense hostility lasting until 2293.

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In 2266, war between the Federation and Klingon Empire is stopped before it can begin by the interference of the Organians. The Organian Peace Treaty forced on both sides holds each to a non-aggression pact and an establishment of a neutral zone in which each side must nonviolently compete for trade agreements with any planets. The Organian influence, frequently mentioned during the original series, completely disappears in the movies, for reasons that have yet to be explained.

Related Topics:
Organian Peace Treaty - Neutral zone

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In 2267 the Klingons and the Romulans forged a military alliance and the Klingons traded several D7 battlecruisers in exchange for cloaking technology. The basis for this alliance, revealed in the episode "The Enterprise Incident", was grounded in real-world economics; the script called for a Romulan ship to appear, but the original Romulan ship model was not available so rather than go to the expense of building a new one the Klingon D7 model was substituted.

Related Topics:
The Enterprise Incident - Economics

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In 2293 the atmosphere of Qo'noS was contaminated when Praxis, one of its moons, and its primary mining facility, exploded. This event was a turning point in relations between the Klingons and the United Federation of Planets, as the Klingon Empire couldn't afford to maintain their excessive military activities and deal with this new problem (parallels with the breakdown of the Cold War, the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl, and the relationship between the United States and the cash-strapped former Soviet Union were obvious). Thus the two entered into an alliance which was maintained for many years until it was suspended for a couple of years after 2372 due to the issue of the Cardassian invasion. The resolution to the Qo'noS atmosphere issue is yet to be explained. Though a planet Qo'noS is shown to still be inhabited and still the Empire's seat of power well into the 24th Century, differences between both appearance and distance from Earth in various incarnations of Star Trek taking place both before and after this event may indicate the capital was moved to a new planet, maintaining the old name. It is, however, unclear whether this was in fact the intended implication, or merely the result of continuity errors.

Related Topics:
Praxis - United Federation of Planets - Cold War - Nuclear - Chernobyl - United States - Cardassian

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24th century

In 2342 the Klingons and Romulans began a violent war after the Romulans attacked the Klingon outpost Narendra III. The Enterprise-C cemented friendly relations between the Klingon Empire and the Federation by sacrificing itself to protect the outpost from the Romulans.

Related Topics:
Narendra III - Enterprise-C

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In 2357, Worf (played by Michael Dorn), Son of Mogh, a survivor of the Khitomer massacre, became the first Klingon to enter Starfleet Academy and in 2364 he was assigned to the Enterprise-D as relief conn and tactical officer. (Rank: Lieutenant j.g)

Related Topics:
Worf - Michael Dorn - Mogh - Khitomer - Starfleet Academy - Enterprise-D

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In 2367 the Klingon Civil War began after Chancellor K'mpec was murdered. Prior to his murder, K'mpec had named Captain Jean-Luc Picard his Arbiter of Succession. Gowron was selected, but the House of Duras opposed this decision and the war began. It was later revealed that the Romulans were backing Duras and Duras quickly lost all support, ending the war and leaving Gowron as undisputed leader of the empire.

Related Topics:
Klingon Civil War - Jean-Luc Picard - Gowron - Duras

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In 2369, the position of Emperor was reinstated, when the clone of Kahless inherited the throne with the blessing of the Chancellor and High Council. Titled Kahless II, the emperor became titular ruler of the empire at a time when the empire needed a figurehead. The bulk of power, however, remained in the hands of the High Council.

Related Topics:
Emperor - Clone - Kahless II

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In 2372, relations between the Klingons and the Federation soured over the issue of the Klingon invasion of Cardassia. When the Federation refused to support the Klingon invasion, Chancellor Gowron withdrew from the Khitomer Accords. For the next year, relations between the two powers were hostile. In 2373 fighting broke out between the two powers. However when the Federation and Klingons discovered that they were being manipulated by the Dominion, an uneasy cease-fire was declared. In mid-2373, the Cardassians formally announced they had joined the Dominion, and the Jem 'Hadar rapidly forced the Klingons to retreat from Cardassian space, inflicting heavy damage on them.Captain Sisko was able to convince Gowron to reinstate the Alliance.

Related Topics:
Dominion - Sisko

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Again allies, the Klingons and Federation turned their attention to the Dominion and the Cardassians as war against them became inevitable.

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When the war began, both the Federation and Klingons fought side-by-side against the Dominion, even though the odds were against them. However, once the Romulans joined them the tide eventually turned against the Dominion. In 2375 the Federation-Romulan-Klingon fleet defeated the Dominion with the assistance of the Cardassian fleet during a final assault on Cardassia Prime. Despite the refusal of Sisko and Ross to drink bloodwine with Martok in the Cardassian Central Command, the two powers remained strong allies after the war.

Related Topics:
Cardassian - Cardassia Prime

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Shortly before the end of the Dominion War, in 2375, Gowron took direct control of the Klingon fleet (a position held up until that point by the successful General Martok) because he was concerned that Martok was becoming too popular among both the troops and the civilian population from his wartime success. Since new Chancellors can ascend to that position by killing the former Chancellor, Gowron feared that Martok would challenge him for his position. Since Gowron was much more of a politician than a general, the Klingon fleet began to take unnecessary losses that Gowron manipulated to appear to be the fault of Martok. Commander Worf, disgusted with Gowron for using bad tactics in the war simply to hurt Martok's political position, challenged the Chancellor in a meeting to ritual combat and defeated him (killing Gowron in the process). By the traditions of the Empire, Worf had the right to become the next Chancellor if he wished, but instead granted the role to Martok, having no desire for a political position himself, although Martok would shortly thereafter have Worf become the UFP's ambassador to the Klingon Empire. Ironically, Martok never had any designs on Gowron or his position, even accepting the unpopular position in which Gowron had placed him without questioning his orders.

Related Topics:
Dominion War - General Martok - Ambassador

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Possible Future

The Klingons do not recover from the losses they suffered during the Dominion War until 2385, according to a 2375 estimate by Section 31.

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In Daniels' timeline, the Klingons join the Federation by about 2554.

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One point of curiosity is the fate of the Emperor, or rather the position itself. There had not been an Emperor for centuries until the Kahless clone assumed that role. What will occur after his death is unclear. As the position has no real political power per se, and no series has ever mentioned a Klingon aspiring to that position, it is unclear who would become the next emperor, or if the position would simply cease to exist as it did prior to the events of Rightful Heir.

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Alternate Timelines

A few episodes featuring alternate timelines have shown a variety of developments in Klingon history and politics.

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• In the future timeline of "All Good Things", relations between the Federation and the Empire have degraded, as Geordi states that current relations are "not too cozy." In this timeline, the Klingons have also taken control of the Romulan empire.
• The Deep Space Nine episode The Visitor gives an alternate history for the events after the beginning of season 4 of that series, where the Klingons occupied Deep Space Nine, and the Federation-Dominion conflict never occured. The episode takes places over a number of decades, and the political climate of the Empire seems to change several times.
• While not an alternate timeline exactly, the Deep Space Nine episode Trials and Tribbleations features the disgraced Klingon outcast Darvin attempting to change history, and make himself a Klingon hero. His attempts are thwarted, and it seems that almost no changes were made to the timeline as a result of his actions.