The Universal Century (U.C) timeline is the main storyline of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise. It consists of a vast number of anime series and movies detailing different parts of the war between the Earth Federation against the Principality of Zeon. The most influential events within the U.C. timeline is the One-Year war. It is a bloody war that happened right after the foundation of the Principality of Zeon.
The story of the one-year war is told mainly in the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam, but you can also see various events of the war in the Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in The Pocket, Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO, the later-half of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, and the first-half of Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt.
What Caused The One-Year War?
In the world of Gundam, there are numerous space colonies with thousands of people living inside each of them that are still within the jurisdiction of the Earth Federation. However, the Earth Federation begins to systematically turn their back on the people of the colonies and treat them like second-class citizens.
One colony, in particular, the Side 3, decided that they have enough. They demand independence from the Federation, and they rally behind a man named Zeon Zum Deikun. Unfortunately, not long after Side 3 declared their independence, Deikun fell ill and died.
That is when the Zabi family took over and named their newly created country “The Principality of Zeon”, and appointed the leader of the Zabi family, Degwin Zabi, as the leader of the Zeon.
The Zabi family concluded that if they truly want to be free from the Federation influence, which still refuses to accept Zeon’s independence by the way, then the only course of action is to attack. So on January 3rd, UC 0079, the Principality of Zeon declared war against the Earth Federation.
What Happened During The One-Year War?
There are lots of crazy things happening during the one-year war. After all, this is the war that changed the course of history forever. However, some events are much more memorable than others. Here are some of the most important things that happened during the one-year war:
- The deadly gas attack. Just mere 3 seconds after declaring war on the Earth Federation, The Zeon forces immediately commence large-scale attack on other colonies that are occupied by the Federation, particularly Side 1, Side 2, and Side 4. They initially used Mobile Suit forces, but soon resorted to the poisonous G3 gas on some colonies and killed enemies and civilians alike.
- The colony drops. One of the cruelest and most devastating attacks by the Zeon forces is something called Operation British. In order to take out the Earth Federation Forces’ headquarter, the Jaburo base, the Zeon decided to drop the depopulated cylinder of the Side 2 colony on Jaburo. Thankfully, when the cylinder entered the atmosphere, it started to break apart and missed Jaburo. But the debris still managed to destroy other parts of the earth, with the biggest one ending up leveling the city of Sydney, Australia.
- Numerous catastrophic conflicts. During the course of the one-year war, the Zeon and the Federation were involved in numerous devastating battles. The battle of Loum that led to the destruction of the Side 5 colony, multiple armed conflicts during Zeon’s earth invasion, the battle of Jaburo where Char Aznable tried to destroy the base from within, the battle of Baldur Bay that takes place in the neutral Side 6, the battle of A Baoa Qu where the Federation finally defeats the main power of the Zeon, and many others.
What Happened After The One-Year War
This war may only last for one year, but the number of damages suffered by both sides is simply unimaginable. It is estimated that both the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon lost about half of their population. The impact of this terrible war is also reaching far into the future of the U.C. timeline. One of the reasons is simply because there are still several smaller Zeon forces that harbor deep hatred towards the Earth Federation and are willing to engage in a deathly battle with them.
On the Federation side itself, the rift between the earthnoids and the spacenoids grows even bigger due to the devastating colony drop of Operation British. Other than that, humanity also witnessed the might of the Mobile Suits during the one-year war, and it fueled the research to create even more powerful Mobile Suits and other similar weapons on both sides of the conflict.
Although the Earth Federation ended up as the winner of the one-year war, the chain of loss, hatred, and revenge will be the flame that ignites future conflicts.