Rekali Wars

The Rekali Wars are a series of armed conflicts between the Federation and the Rekali Oligarchy in the early to mid 25th century. They are remembered amongst the last wars fought for the control of the Milky Way.

Reasons
After mastering the slipdrive and merging with the Klingon Empire and Romulan Empire, the Federation began its new age of expansion, making its way quickly through smaller nations and unclaimed space

Many foreign powers saw armed resistence as the only answer. The Rekali Oligarchy was an ancient, highly technological and rabidly conservative nation native of the border between the Beta and Gamma quadrants who, to quote them at the time Oligarch, "[would] not go down without a good fight".

Due to the different size of the Federal and Rekali armies these have never been total wars. The term Rekali Conflicts is therefore preferred by many historians.

First Federation-Rekali war (2429)
Started when the neighboring Fjek Dominion, historical enemy of the Rekali, joined the Federation in 2429; the Rekali Armada was mostly aiming at the Fjek core planets. Starfleet managed to repel the attack after three months with very few casualties.

Second Federation-Rekali war (2431-2433)
After two Rekali planets, Pasif and Ralamet, sought independence from their central government and asked to join the Federation, the Rekali Armada was called upon to calm the civil unrest. After the first reports of bloodshed on those planets the Federation declared war against the Rekali Oligarchy, claiming that the request of the planetary governments to join the Federation was legitimate and granting - retroactively - protectorate status to those two planets. The war continued for two years because of guerrilla tactics used by the Rekali and ended with a treaty that granted freedom to Pasif and enforced relocation of all pro-federation Rekali on that planet.

Third Federation-Rekali war (2436-2441)
The only total war in this series of conflicts. The Rekali declared war and in the first wake of the assault managed to lay siege to a dozen of Federal colonies, mostly neighboring its territory. This war saw total mobilitation of the Rekali population and the use of tactics that had been forbidden, even inside the Oligarchy, for centuries. For example extensive use was done of isolytic weapons and invasive interrogation techniques. The war ended after the Fifth Fleet defeated the Armada at the Battle of Cardassia and ecosystemic pestilence destroyed two core Rekali planets. The Federation declined responsability for the ecological destruction on those two planets. The Oligarchy ceased to exist and its territory was annexed to the Federation.

Aftermath
Some Rekali, after the defeat in 2441, decided not to accept the verdict and relocated. They have colonized some planets in the Greater Magellanic Cloud.

The Rekali wars are considered a minor conflict in Federation history, especially since in the same period Starfleet was fighting a much more important conflict against the Borg.