Universal Century Timeline
A chronology of the mainstream Gundam world.

After Colony Timeline
The history of Gundam W's alternate universe.

Space Colonization
The Earth sphere and the space colonies.

The Earth Federation
The Gundam world's government and its feuding subdivisions.

Minovski Physics
Minovski particles and I-fields, the Gundam world's technological building blocks.

Beam Weapons
The Gundam arsenal, from mega particle guns to beam sabers.

The One Year War
An account of the Gundam world's most epic conflict.

Mobile Suit Classics
Meet the vintage mobile suits of the One Year War.

All the Gundam Worlds

The original 1979 Gundam television series laid the groundwork for twenty years' worth of sequels by establishing a detailed, fully visualized science fiction world. Borrowing heavily from the work of space colonization advocate Gerard O'Neill, Gundam's creators depicted a near-future scenario where the bulk of the human race lives in artificial space colonies in Earth orbit. Over the years, the Gundam universe has been broadened and deepened into one of science fiction's most elaborate imaginary worlds.

As if this one world weren't big enough, recent sequels have introduced entirely new alternate universes with their own history, culture and technology. The following discussion applies only to the classic Gundam world, not to the alternate universes.

When and Where

The Gundam saga takes place a century or more in the future, after humanity has begun migrating into artificial space colonies in Earth orbit. As the colonization began, the Universal Century calendar was adopted, and all subsequent dates are given according to this UC calendar.

A massive program of space colonization begins in response to looming problems of pollution and overpopulation. When the program is launched in the year UC 0001, Earth is home to 9 billion people; by the year UC 0050, the human population has swelled to 11 billion, of whom 9 billion are housed in the space colonies. These colonies are twenty-mile-long cyclindrical space stations, clustered into groups called "Sides" at gravitationally stable points in Earth orbit.

These Sides follow roughly the same orbit as the moon, and the radius within which they orbit is referred to as the Earth sphere. Though the action sometimes ranges out as far as Mars, the asteroid belt, or even Jupiter, for the most part the story of Gundam takes place within the Earth sphere.

The Earth sphere is governed by the Earth Federation, the unified world government that conceived and carried out the space colonization program. Corrupt, bureaucratic, oligarchic, consumed by petty politics and insensitive to the wants and needs of the colony-dwelling majority, the Federation is nonetheless one of the few enduring constants of the Gundam world.

The Rise of Zeon

When the mass exodus to the space colonies is halted in UC 0050, not everyone has left Earth. The colony-dwelling "spacenoids," who make up 80% of the population, find themselves ruled over by planet-dwelling "earthnoids" who have excused themselves from emigration. While the spacenoids recognize that Earth had been brought to edge of catastrophe, and accept their exile as a necessary sacrifice to save the birthplace of humanity, they soon come to resent being ruled by the earthnoids and begin agitating for independence from the Earth Federation.

The spacenoid liberation movement is strongest in the colonies of Side 3. Here, Zeon Daikun formulates the theory that migration into space is not just humanity's punishment for despoiling Earth, but a key step in human evolution. By leaving their terrestrial cradle and seeking their destiny in space, humans might reach the next evolutionary stage and become what he calls newtypes. In UC 0058, Daikun declares Side 3 an independent republic; the Federation responds with sanctions, and both parties begin organizing military space fleets.

In UC 0068, Zeon Daikun suddenly dies. His aide Degin Zabi claims that Daikun has named him as his successor, while loyalists speculate that Zabi has assassinated the revered leader in order to seize power. The following year Degin Zabi establishes the Zeon Dukedom, turning Side 3 into a monarchy with Zabi himself as Archduke. Daikun's followers are purged, and his children are smuggled out of the Dukedom for their safety.

Weapons of War

While Zeon Daikun leads Side 3 to independence, its scientific community is making breakthroughs of a different sort, thanks to the famous Dr. Minovski. The Minovski-Ionesco reactor makes nuclear fusion a practical reality, and in UC 0065, Minovski and his colleagues observe an inexplicable effect inside their reactor. They soon realize they've discovered a new elementary particle, whose myriad applications open up the field of Minovski physics. Using the Minovski particle's unique properties, they can design super-compact fusion reactors, jam radar and electronic communications, and build devastating beam weapons.

The Zeon Dukedom's military leaders waste no time in seizing on the military applications of Minovski's work. They realize that Minovski jamming will radically change the nature of war, nullifying radar and reducing combat to visual ranges. In UC 0071, the Dukedom begins developing powerful, highly mobile space weapons for Minovski-era warfare. In UC 0074, its researchers complete the first combat-worthy mobile suit, a humanoid space fighter powered by a compact fusion reactor. Armed with these mobile suits and an arsenal of high-tech weaponry made possible by Minovski physics, the Dukedom now has a technological edge to counter the Earth Federation's numerical superiority.

In UC 0079, the Zeon Dukedom begins the One Year War with a devastating strike against the Earth Federation and the space colonies under its sway. In the carnage of the first month, half the human race is killed by nuclear and chemical weapons, while the Dukedom ravages Earth by forcing a space colony out of orbit and dropping it onto the planet's surface. To halt the devastation, the warring parties sign the Antarctic Treaty, which bans such tactics of mass destruction. Changing its strategy, the Dukedom launches a massive Earth invasion and overruns half the planet's surface. Then come months of stalemate, during which both sides rebuild their forces and the Federation begins a crash program to match the Dukedom's mobile suit technology.

The war's conclusion is detailed in the original Gundam series, and also serves as a backdrop for the 08th MS Team and Gundam 0080 video series.

The War's Aftermath

With the war's end, the Zabi dynasty is overthrown and Side 3 once again becomes an independent republic. However, many of the Dukedom's defeated forces either continue fighting as guerillas, or go into hiding to plot their revenge. One faction flees to the asteroid belt to the asteroid base Axis, while another hides itself amid the debris of a ruined Side. This latter group, the Delaz Fleet, emerges in UC 0083 to carry out a massive strike against the Federation and demonstrate that the spirit of resistance has not died with the Dukedom.

The Delaz Fleet's Operation Stardust is chronicled in the Gundam 0083 video series.

In response to the Delaz Fleet's challenge, the Federation organizes an elite military force called the Titans to hunt down Dukedom loyalists and other troublemakers. The Titans stop at nothing to stifle spacenoid dissent, and in UC 0085 they use chemical weapons to wipe out the entire population of a rebellious space colony. The excesses of the Titans are in turn countered by the formation of the AEUG, led by outraged Federation officers, and in UC 0087 the political struggle breaks out into a civil war of sorts. The struggle between the Titans and the AEUG is complicated by the return of the Axis renegades, intent on restoring the vanquished Dukedom.

These events are shown in the television series Z Gundam and Gundam ZZ, and spin off into the side story Gundam Sentinel.

In the waning years of the first Universal Century, one last Zeon movement challenges the Federation's hegemony. This Neo Zeon movement is led by the mysterious and charismatic son of Zeon Daikun, a man who has fought for the Dukedom under the name Char Aznable and battled for the AEUG under the alias Quattro Bajina. In a bold plan to complete humanity's emigration into space, Char attempts to drop an asteroid onto Earth, bringing about a new ice age and forcing the earthnoids to leave the planet.

The last hurrah of Zeon is shown in the movie Char's Counterattack, and the Hathaway's Flash novel serves as an unofficial sequel.

The Second Universal Century

Char's defeat is followed by decades of relative peace. Rescinding Side 3's independence, the Earth Federation regains control of the entire human population. Earth's population is reduced to only the most elite Federation personnel, with the dreaded Manhunter division seeking out illegal residents and forcing them to leave the planet. Meanwhile, the Federation begins construction of a new Frontier Side in place of one of the colony clusters destroyed in the One Year War.

The complacent Federation is ill-equipped to deal with a genuine threat like that of the Crossbone Vanguard. This elite fighting force, a private army led by the aristocratic Ronah family, seizes control of the newly constructed Frontier Side in UC 0123 and renames it "Cosmo Babylonia."

This tale is told in the movie Gundam F91, while the Crossbone Gundam comic shows what became of the Crossbone Vanguard.

However, the Crossbone Vanguard are nothing compared to the menace of the Zanscare Empire. This fanatical organization seizes control of Side 2 in the middle of the second Universal Century, and in UC 0153 it launches a full-scale invasion of Earth. While the Federation stands by, confused and helpless, it is left to a civilian resistance group called the League Militaire to take on the invaders.

This conflict is the subject of the television series V Gundam, which, with the possible exception of the Gaia Gear novel, presently marks the end of the UC saga.

By this point, the Earth Federation appears to be weak and declining, politically paralyzed and ill-equipped to counter a new wave of rebellion. But as long as a handful of elites remain on Earth, and the spacenoid population is under the Federation's control, the destiny that Zeon Daikun predicted for humanity remains unfulfilled. Will we perish in a never-ending cycle of war and vengeance, or will we survive and become newtypes?

Mobile Suit Gundam, Z Gundam, Gundam ZZ, Char's Counterattack, Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, Gundam F91, Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Gundam 0083: Last Blitz of Zeon, Gundam: The 08th MS Team, and Gundam W: Endless Waltz are copyright Sotsu Agency and Sunrise. V Gundam, G Gundam, Gundam W, and Gundam X are copyright Sotsu Agency, Sunrise and TV Asahi.