maquis

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The Maquis were a group in the fictional Star Trek universe who were introduced in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. They would go on to serve as recurring adversaries in that series, as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. The group was made up of humans and members of extraterrestrial races, such as Bajorans, that refused to vacate the colony planets on which they lived after those planets were ceded to the Cardassians as part of the treaty that ended the war between the United Federation of Planets and the Cardassian Union, as well as others who joined out of sympathy to their cause. This included a number of Starfleet officers who resigned their posts to join, out of dislike for the Cardassian government, or simply out of a liking for conflict. As Commander Chakotay noted in the episode Meld, "We didn't ask for references."

The Maquis saw themselves as a resistance movement, but were viewed by the Federation and the Cardassians as terrorists, having committed numerous transgressions against the Cardassians and Starfleet, such as theft, sabotage, and attacks upon their ships, though they usually avoided attacking Federation ships directly, preferring to warn them to get out of the way. The Maquis were eventually wiped out almost entirely by the Dominion. Exceptions were the Maquis who had joined the crew of the USS Voyager (comprising roughly a quarter of her crew), and a few captured members of the movement in Federation prisons. Deep Space Nine commander Captain Benjamin Sisko believed there may have been a few other survivors who were biding their time, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Politics

In the Federation's view, the Maquis, who, as depicted in the Next Generation episode Journey's End, had voluntarily relinquished Federation citizenship by refusing offers of relocation and remaining on planets ceded to the Cardassians, were endangering the uneasy peace between the Federation and the Cardassians, and thereby the lives of billions. The Maquis, on the other hand, felt that the Federation had abandoned them to the mercy of a militaristic government bent on their destruction. Refusing to abandon the homes and lives they had built and resettle, and faced with escalating harassment from neighboring Cardassian settlers armed by the Cardassian central command (in violation of the very treaty that signed away their homes), they decided that an armed resistance was necessary. Even Benjamin Sisko, an opponent of the Maquis, opined in the episode "The Maquis Part II":

After the Cardassian Union joined the Dominion in the fifth season of DS9, it was revealed that the Maquis and their colony planets were all but eliminated by Dominion forces, as evidenced in the following statement by the Cardassian Gul Dukat:

Parallels

Although the licensed novels are not part of official Star Trek canon, a Star Trek: Voyager novel featured the revelation by Seska that the name Maquis was chosen due to the (real world) WWII Maquis, the French resistance.^{[citation needed]} In the fourth season episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine titled "For the Cause", Starfleet security officer Lt. Cmdr. Michael Eddington, who reveals himself as a Maquis operative, states:

Deep Space Nine writer Ronald D. Moore has interpreted Eddington’s statement as having a “kernel of truth” to it, and there is a feeling of betrayal associated with the Maquis in the minds of the people of the Federation.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Maquis at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)