| The Cardassian Union |
The Cardassian people were once peaceful, but their homeworld, Cardassia, severely lacked resources. Food shortages were to blame for large drops in the population. Facing civil unrest, the military siezed control and instituted violence as a method for the Cardassian people to gain what they needed. Millions died in fighting but soon the Cardassians controlled a large area of space.
Deep Space Nine became the new name for Terok Nor when the Federation established it as a base to oversee the project to possibly accept Bajor into the Federation. It was at this time that the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant was discovered. In 2371, the Cardassian secret governmental police branch, known as the Obsidian Order, allied with the Romualn Tal Shiar to attack the Dominion Founders' homeworld in the Gamma Quadrant. The attack failed miserably, annihilating almost the entire Obsidian Order.
Characteristic of a military society, citizens underwent extreme discipline to ensure their loyalty to the empire. Methods of punishment were always brutal, and to encite fear were broadcast to the public. As a sign of their brutality, the Cardassians conquered the planet Bajor in 2328. The planet, being very Earth-like, was rich in resources. The Cardassians, needing them as always to fuel their society, tapped the planet. It was that in 2369 the Bajorans forced the Cardassians to hastily retreat from Bajoran space, reclaiming the planet. It was at about that same time that the Cardassians were engaged in a fairly long conflict with the Federation. It was in 2366 that an uneasy truce was negotiated, but distrust for the Federation was always strong. A similiar border to that which the Federation had formed with the Romulans was established.
Fearful, in 2373 Gul Dukat formed a desperate alliance with the Dominion itself. He became sole leader of the Cardassian people as they accepted the Dominion into their space. Within days, hundreds of Jem'Hadar vessels began pouring through the wormhole on their way to Cardassia Prime. Weekly convoys continued for months until the Federation/Klingon alliance declared war on the Dominion/Cardassian alliance.
The war cost Cardassia dearly with millions upon millions dying. It was in 2375, torwards the end of the war, that the Dominion alliance desperately formed another alliance with the Breen. With the Romulans now fighting against Cardassia, the Breen aided in the war effort. 
It was then that Legate Damar, the new leader of Cardassia after Dukat's capture by the Federation in 2373, led a revolt after realizing Cardassians were being treated like second-class citizens. In the turmoil that followed, many more millions of Cardassians were killed, but this time slaughtered, after the Dominion had difficulty locating the rebels. The entire Cardassian people revolted, truly in the very closing days of the war. Fleets of Cardassian ships battling against the Federation/Klingon/Romulan alliance suddenly turned against their allies, the Domion and Breen. It was then Cardassia was captured from the Dominion, and the war ended.
The Cardassian Empire is no longer in existence, or atleast no longer in the form it once was. Cardassia itself is ruins. Each and every city had been leveled by the Dominion when they realized they would loose. Over 800 million Cardassians are now dead. They face a tremendous task to rebuild their once proud empire.
