History of the Twelve Colonies
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Pre-History
Circumstantial evidence appears to indicate that the humans of Kobol actually originated on Earth. Although for the most part, correspondences between the culture of the Twelve Colonies and modern-day Earth (three piece suits, hummers, military jargon, etc.) are dramatic conceits intended to help the audience identify with the characters of the show, there is evidence of a connection beyond these superficial similarities that is difficult to ignore.
When a ground team from the Fleet enters the Tomb of Athena, they find a map room in the form of a planetarium, depicting constellations in Earth's nighttime sky. Laura Roslin identifies the actual star patterns, not just their symbols, as the original flags of the Twelve Colonies. These patterns are only visible from Earth, which implies that the creators of the map had some prior knowledge of their destination before setting out. (Home, Part II)
This is also consistent with the Triple-Exodus interpretation of those portions of the Sacred Scrolls revealed to us thus far, and the veneration of the Lords of Kobol, whose resemblance to the Greek Gods cannot otherwise be easily accounted for. The colonial ecosystem is also identical to Earth's, with very few exceptions.
However, within the storyline, all characters (both Cylon and Human) refer to Kobol as the birthplace of humanity (although the Cylons probably only know what the Humans told them about Kobol), and have never even considered the possibility that these roles were reversed. If humans did originally come from Earth to Kobol, and then the 13th tribe actually returned to Earth, the Twelve Colonies have lost all knowledge of the event.
Kobol
3,600 years ago, the oracle Pythia recorded her prophecy of the exile and rebirth of the human race (The Hand of God).
After arriving on Kobol, the thirteen tribes apparently lived in an idyllic utopia with their Gods, but roughly 1,600 years later (2,000 years before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies), this coexistence was ended as Pythia's prophecy came to fruition (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I). The prophecy alludes to a "Blaze" which descended on the thirteen tribes and against which the Lords of Kobol were powerless to intervene (Home, Part I).
Exodus
In despair, Athena threw herself from the gates of Hera, to her death. The leaders of the tribes were interred with her, and their people taken in a "Galleon" to their places of refuge - twelve tribes to the Twelve Colonies, and the thirteenth to Earth. Zeus warned the survivors that any return to Kobol "would exact a price in blood".
Settlement
After settling on their new homes, another cataclysm befell the twelve tribes. This resulted in the destruction of much of their knowledge base, and sent the colonies into a dark age. (RDM, January 30, 2005) (On Earth, similar dark ages occurred after the falls of Rome and Mycenaean Greece, and lasted for centuries). It is possible that this technology was lost in the escape from Kobol.
After their return to space, the colonies established many observatories, listening posts, research stations and armories in their system. Inequity and war were common between the colonies for most of this time period - by the end of it, Sagittaron had been exploited for centuries (Bastille Day). Various alliance and attempts at unified government came out of these conflicts, which would later form the bedrock of the Articles of Colonization, but it would still be some time before a practical colonies-wide government was established (RDM, April 11, 2005).
The colonials also created a line of robots, called Cylons, to do work which they found unpleasant, including mining (Mini-series, early draft) and soldiering for them in their wars amongst themselves. (RDM, January 30, 2005)
The Cylon War
- Main article: Cylon War
- The Video Game, a product of dubious canonicity, also covers this time period.
Such was the extent to which the Colonies had invested their military power in the Cylons that when they chose to rebel against their masters, the Colonials found themselves well-matched. With their mastery of Colonial technology, the Cylons were able to infiltrate nearly all networked devices. The Colonials were forced to abandon networked computers and wireless devices in favor of more secure and durable technologies, able to withstand both Cylon infiltration and the powerful nuclear weapons used by the warring parties. (RDM, January 19, 2005) Twelve Battlestars built in the opening years of the war best exemplified these principles, including the Galactica.
At its darkest hour, the Cylon war came very close to wiping out the Colonies. (RDM, January 30, 2005)
Armistice
After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared, and the Cylons departed for a world of their own. The Colonials established a neutral meeting place, Armistice Station, and made diplomatic overtures, but these were continually ignored.
After the war, the military went through a Reduction in Force, resulting in the discharge of many of the war's veterans.
Federal Era
The war had a lasting effect on the Twelve Colonies. The now-united government continued to maintain a large standing military, which, forty years after the war, had grown to include 120 Battlestars. This buildup apparently began about twenty years after the war, around the time Saul Tigh and William Adama rejoined the military (Scattered, Scattered Podcast)
With their military assets now concentrated in a central government under the Articles of Colonization, the new Government of the Twelve Colonies was able to maintain peace among its members. Now free of the Cylon threat, technologies which could not be used during the war were redeployed throughout the fleet, increasing its effectiveness against more mundane opponents (Mini-Series).
This new era of federalism was not without considerable opposition. Dissidents on Sagittaron lead by Tom Zarek took arms against the government (Bastille Day), supplied by arms dealers like Leoben Conoy (RDM, January 30, 2005).
Fall of the Twelve Colonies
- Main article: Fall of the Twelve Colonies
The arrogance of the Colonials in re-equipping their military with technologies vulnerable to Cylon interference proved to be their undoing. Forty years after the first Cylon War, Cylon infiltrators subverted Dr. Gaius Baltar's Command Navigation Program, allowing them to destroy the Colonial fleet with impunity.
The attack resulted in the nuclear bombardment and occupation of all twelve colonies and enslavement of the survivors in a series of Farms. Altogether less than one hundred ships survived the attack, including only two battlestars - the nearly obsolete Galactica and the Mercury-class Pegasus. The survivors abandoned the Colonies and formed a convoy in search of the far-sundered thirteenth colony, Earth, where they hoped to find refuge.