At what point did people start calling it "The General

[Rich Stokes]

I figure it was just referred to as "the invasion". I get the impression that it was fairly obvious that the Andros weren't "from around here", and there were already Tholians around who were known to also be from another galaxy.

[mjwest]

Heh. I wonder if the Tholians had to convince others that the Andromedans were not just someone else they managed to genocidally piss off, too ...

[leathernsteel]

Also think of the perspective of the other Empires on The General War. They may have never even called it that. For instance, the Rumulans might have called the war, "The War of Federation Aggression".

[mjwest]

Also think of the perspective of the other Empires on The General War. They may have never even called it that. For instance, the Rumulans might have called the war, "The War of Federation Aggression".

Well, considering it is the Romulans who invaded the Federation, I tend to doubt that. Even the Romulans are not that arrogant. If anything, they probably called it the "Pay Up! War" since their entry into the war was payment for all of the technological advances the Klingons handed to them.

[Nerroth]

The blurb in War and Peace says the Alpha powers got their first clue as to the M31 connection after the attempt on the WYN Cluster; one of the ships was captured partially intact (I'd guess it was the Dominator that the WYNs later used as a giant trophy) and presumably offered up enough clues to point things in that direction.


The LMC empires seem to have cottoned on to the extra-galactic aspect of the invasion pretty early on, though whether or not they independently came up with the Andromeda strain... of reasoning is not clarified.


It's not said whether or not the Iridani, or the empires in the Omega Octant proper, thought of them as "Andromedans" prior to the arrival of the USS Sakharov; they don't seem to have uncovered the routes from Omega back to the LMC by themselves, though.

I would not have been surprised if the Iridani, with their own experience as an extra-galactic power, might have been looking for some sort of link; but they were as unaware as the others as to why the Andromedans suddenly dropped off their onslaught after 2602.

Although, given how badly mauled the Omega empires had been by the invasions (to include the damage done by the Souldra), the high cost of finishing off the Andromedans in Operation Concerted Strike in 2604, and the need to look out for old (and new) would-be neighbours in the Seventh Cycle, there likely wasn't the kind of co-ordinated search for the nodes to the LMC that the Alpha powers were able to take on.

That said, the Chlorophon historians of the Omega Octant did have a name for that critical era; the Sixth Cycle of 2592-2604.

[leathernsteel]

Well, considering it is the Romulans who invaded the Federation, I tend to doubt that. Even the Romulans are not that arrogant. If anything, they probably called it the "Pay Up! War" since their entry into the war was payment for all of the technological advances the Klingons handed to them.

I'm not trying to say that's what they actually called it, it was a hypothetical example. The reason I chose the Romulan Star Empire and that example, is that they have a tyrannical government that has no problem lying to their people. Read 1984 to get an idea of what I'm talking about. I don't think the Romulans in the SFU are too far off from that. The Federation on the other hand is what I imagine to be a truly free society with a free press. The Federation's government would not be able to get away with such a dishonest term as where a Romulan dictator with the power to have anyone executed on a whim would.

[leathernsteel]

Nerroth, I know very little of the LMC and the Omega Octant empires. Thank you for your input on that matter. That stuff is simply fascinating! I look forward to exploring those areas of the SFU!!

[terryoc]

Prime Directive: Romulans is full of interesting and important information on the Romulan Star Empire's government!

-- Jean's Marketing Hat

Yes, Jean's marketing hat, like the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, has achieved independent sentience...

Seriously, the data in PD seems to imply a much more fractured gov't than the monolithic Communist monstrosity featured in 1984. No doubt they use propaganda, but there's so much infighting that there's lots of different propaganda being thrown around and the average citizen is too jaded by all the lies to believe much of it. Now the Klingons, that's a different story...

[leathernsteel]

I for one, would not like to live under the reign of either of those two empires!