Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty / ZAFT

Origins
The organization which would one day become ZAFT was originally formed as the political alliance known as the Zodiac Alliance to peacefully fight for the rights and independence of Coordinators. It was created in CE 50 by Patrick Zala and Siegel Clyne but their organization was suppressed by the nations controlling PLANT at that time, forcing the group to go underground. Over the years, the ZA remained active and attracted more followers. In CE 65, the name of the organization was eventually changed into its final name “ZAFT”, with its members eventually becoming the dominant force in the PLANT Supreme Council. Three years later, following the Mandelbrot incident, ZAFT was reorganized under Zala’s leadership and became a military force using mobile suits. In the next year, the ZAFT forces prove their strength when they use their MS forces to drive the military of the sponsor nations out of the PLANT homeland.

Bloody Valentine War
When the first Bloody Valentine war (aka EA/Plant War) was started in February, CE 70, ZAFT was able to repel the first attack of the EA forces but one of the colonies, Junius Seven, was destroyed by a nuclear attack. Following this event, many young Coordinators joined ZAFT to fight against the EA and ZAFT was eventually able to start an invasion of Earth. Nevertheless, the war reached a stalement at the beginning of CE 71. At this time however, the Alliance rolled out its first own mobile suits, although most of them were stolen by ZAFT who quickly incorporated the new technology into their MS series. In the first half of CE 71, several major battles occurred which caused ZAFT to eventually withdraw from Earth. The greatest disaster for their forces were the huge losses in the Battle of JOSH-A, although ZAFT was able to destroy the Panama Spaceport, which forced the EA to first attack the neutral Orb Union and finally the Victoria Base to get their hands on a Mass Driver. During mid CE 71 Patrick Zala, who blamed all Naturals for the death of his wife in the Bloody Valentine Incident, became leader of not only ZAFT but also of PLANT and effectively removed the moderate faction of the PLANT Supreme Council. Zala planned to wipe out all human life on Earth, eliminating, he believed, Naturals who were the cause of all warfare and establish Coordinators as the master race, a “new humanity”. Following a huge space battle in the vicinity of the ZAFT asteroid fortress Jachin Due in September CE 71, the first war ended.

After the First War
Following the disastrous losses in the war, ZAFT began to create a new series of mobile suits and other technologies, to strengthen their weakened forces. Over the span of two years, ZAFT rolled out several new mobile suit series to replace their aging GINN suits, as well as new ships. Among the new MS series were the ZGMF-601R GuAIZ R and the more advanced ZAKU series. In terms of ships, the replacing of Laurasia-class vessels through Nazca-class ships was continued, while new ships like the Gondwana-class carrier and, more importantly, the Minerva were rolled out. On Earth, the more powerful Compton-class land battleship was rolled out.

Second Bloody Valentine War
Following the Junius Seven colony drop disaster, the Earth Alliance demanded that ZAFT demilitarize and its government disperse; the obvious refusal resulted in the second war between ZAFT and Earth in four years. However, since not all factions on Earth were interested in a war, ZAFT had some advantages this time. Earth support for ZAFT greatly increased after PLANT Chairman Gilbert Durandal’s famous anti-Logos/Blue Cosmos speech that was broadcast throughout the PLANTs and Earth.