The Earth Federation (地球連邦), (Chikyuu Renpou), is a fictional organization in the Universal Century timeline of the Gundam anime series. The Earth Federation's heraldry is a golden or white northstar, similar to that of NATO, over a horizontally lying crescent, forming an anchor-like symbol.
The Federation is loosely based on the United Nations, with a Security Council and General Assembly, but is not a successor to that organization. It is a global government that was formed by a 'rich mans' club' of wealthy nations. In Gundam, no individual nations are mentioned or continue to exist. Places are mentioned by what landmass or region they are in, such as New York City (or New Yark, according to on-screen text) and Odessa are mentioned to be located in North America and Central Asia, not the United States or Ukraine. While Japan, Australia, and Ireland are mentioned, these names refer to the landmasses and not the former countries. The only exception to this is the language and nationality of characters, which could be more based off their predecessors' former homeland before emigrating to the space colonies.
The Earth Federation was formed in the pre-Universal Century (i.e. the 20th Century), when overpopulation began causing famines, outbreaks of disease, and wars over living space, food, and resources.
In order to relieve the Earth of the burden and allow it to heal, the Earth Federation announces the Space Colonization Plan. The Earth Federation begins the construction of orbital habitats, based off the designs and research of Gerard K. O'Neill, and located in the Earth-Lunar Lagrangian Points. The colonies, called Bunches, possibly due to the ballistic pairing of the colony cylinders, were then organized into administrative sectors called Sides. While most of the human population is forced to relocate to the colonies as part of the Space Colonization Plan, the wealthy and influential members are able to remain on Earth. This gives rise to the popular image of the Earth Federation as "Earth-Born Elite", living comfortably on Earth while the ordinary populace, for the most part, has been forced to live in space.
In order to maintain and satisfy energy concerns, the Earth Federation launches Solar Power Station Satellites, which will broadcast energy to power stations on the ground. In addition, the Federation also launches the Jupiter Energy Fleet, which will collect helium-3, hydrogen and methane from the upper atmosphere of the gas giant.
The Earth Federation also forms the Earth Federal Forces, or EFF, to enforce Federation edicts. The Earth Federal Forces are organized into two groups - an Earth-based military force, which handles all military matters on ground, sea, and in Earth atmosphere, and a space military branch. The space military forces are referred to the Earth Federation Space Forces or EFSF. However, in Gundam 0080 and Gundam 0083, this force was referred to as UNT Spacy, but EFSF is currently the official moniker.
Until UC 0087, the military central command for the Earth Federal Forces was located at a base called Jaburo (or Jabrow), located on the Amazon river. During the One-Year War, the fortress was the target of many attacks by the Principality of Zeon, including the Operation British colony drop and a decisive battle at which the remaining bulk of Zeon's Earth Attack Force made their final attempt to destroy Jaburo. The Federation also maintains a military academy at Nijmegen.
The Earth Federation Assembly, as seen in Zeta Gundam, is located in Dakar.
Until UC 0093, the Earth Federation Captial is located in Lhasa.
The Earth Federation has backslid into complete irrelevance by UC0153 (Mobile Suit Victory Gundam), and it was dissolved and transformed into the Congress of Settlement Nations by UC 0223 (G-Saviour).
To many of the people living in space, the Earth Federation represents a corrupt system, whose sole purpose is to serve the wealthy and priveleged people who live on Earth. The Earth Federation's corruption and self-serving attitudes become most apparent under the leadership of Jamitov Heimann. In UC 0085, a peaceful demonstration on the 30 Bunch colony is met with a poison gas attack by the Earth Federation Forces. The resulting attack kills the entire population of the colony. The backlash to this incident culminates in a war known as the Gryps Conflict. By its end, three more colonies are destroyed by the Federal Forces, the Earth Federation Space Forces are largely decimated, and the Federation begins its decline into insignificance.