The One Year War (一年戦争 Ichinen Sensō) is a fictional conflict from the Universal Century timeline of the anime Mobile Suit Gundam metaseries. The One Year War is very similar to World War II, the major difference being that The One Year War is in a science fiction setting and some major battles occurred in space. The war was originally depicted in the first Gundam anime, Mobile Suit Gundam, and later series and OVAs within this same timeline depict this fictional conflict even further.
The fictional war is also seen as a fictional depiction of a battle of social classes.[1][2] Some view it as a war of wealthy versus poor.[3]
It is the largest military conflict depicted in the Universal Century series, involving tens of thousand of mobile weapons, thousands of war ships and millions of combatants. Its casualties, both military personnel and civilians were in the billions. Series with its plot coming after this war refers to it as The One Year War or simply The War.
The war is also known as the Zeon's War of Independence to the former soldiers of the Principality of Zeon, such as in a later anime series Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory and the manga Char's Deleted Affairs in which some Zeon remnants refused to admit defeat and claimed that the war was still ongoing. Some remnants continue to fight till UC0120 on Mars in the story of Mobile Suit Gundam F90, but the major conflict died out on UC0100 where the Republic of Zeon officially announce they gave up their independence.
Some speculated the war is not really a war of independence since Zeon claimed independence more than 20 years before the war began.[4] However, official material explained that the war was a front used to stop the Earth Federation's sanctions against the new independent state because Zeon would not have the military strength to fight for the removal of the sanctions if they continued to exist.[5]
In the current official story, the One Year War begins on January 3, UC 0079 (the Universal Century calendar begins some time after 2045 AD, according to the official timeline). A short period in the first week of the war is known as the "One Week Battle" or the "One Week War", in which most civilian casualties are accrued by the indiscriminate use of WMDs and surprise attacks.
The portion of the war depicted in the original anime, Mobile Suit Gundam depicts mainly the last few months of the "One Year War", where only the introductory narration mentioned the earlier events including destruction of multiple space colonies and the dropping of an Island 3 type colony from orbit, resulting in the destruction of half of the human population. The war ended on January 1, UC 0080, when the Republic of Zeon, reinstated after the fall of the Principality, signed a peace treaty with the Earth Federation.
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The One Year War closely resembles World War II and the conflict between the Axis Powers and the Allied Nations. The war was started by a dictator in a country with few resources and an inferior economy. Like WWII Germany, the Zeon had the advantage of technologically advanced units at the beginning of the war. The ensuing blitzkrieg shattered Federation defenses and allowed the Zeon to conquer a large swath of territory, totaling two-thirds of the Earth's land mass (including most of Asia, Europe, and North America). Unfortunately (for Zeon), they did not possess enough troops to maintain control over all of this territory and thus were forced to defend key manufacturing and material centers. Because of this, the Federation was able to catch up to Zeon in terms of technology.[3]
In the original Mobile Suit Gundam, towards the end, Degwin Zabi compared his son, Gihren Zabi, to Adolf Hitler, saying that he is like the remnants of the dictator of the old century.
In Mobile Suit Gundam, the story focuses on a small group of survivors and Federation soldiers aboard the new Federation space warship, White Base, where the war is shown from their view point starting in September U.C.0079. The One Year War is not completely told in this series and the earlier events of the War, such as the colony drop and use of WMDs in the One Week Battle, are only briefly told in the introduction of each episode.
After the Earth Federation forced the immigration of the majority of humanity to the space colonies, tensions between the space colonists and the Earth elites were common and ubiquitous. The Republic of Zeon at Side 3 began pushing for a peaceful independence under the leadership of Zeon Zum Deikun. The Earth Federation considered this a threat to the stability of the greater Earth Sphere, so they began applying economic pressure in an effort to force Zeon back into the Federation; an effort that ultimately failed. In U.C.0068, Zeon Deikun, a major politician within the colonies, unexpectedly died (though never confirmed, his death is strongly suspected of being an assassination by the Zabi family), and the independent Republic became the Principality of Zeon when Deikun's deputy, Degwin Sodo Zabi, seized control of the administration. On seizing control of the now-Principality, Degwin Zabi rapidly militarized the state by expanding the size of the Zeon National Guard, elevating it to the status of a full-fledged army. The mobile suits and the majority of the Zeon space force was formed during this time period, as was the Flanagan Institute.
Alarmed at the sudden build-up of arms at Side 3, the Earth Federation launched the 60's Armament Reinforcement Plan and the 70's Armament Reinforcement Plan, both aimed at building up the strength of the Earth Federation Space Force (EFSF). Federation engineers converted the mining asteroid Luna II into a major military base and rolled out the Salamis and Magellan-class warships during this time period.
Mobile Suit Gundam's plot started in the 9th month into the war, while the prologue tell of the events of what happened earlier. Later publications tell of the full story, about how Zeon dropped a Space colony (Gundam) onto Earth and during the process, killed half of the population of the whole Earth sphere, including the space colonies, which was retconned to be the One Week Battle and the civilian casualties estimated to be much higher(4.8~5 billion during the war and 3 billion after the war[6]) during the war due to the aftermath of the disastrous event, just like the atomic bombs[3] and communication interference by the introduction of Minovsky particle.[5] Some of that story was later adapted into MS Igloo and come manga. The war came to an end when the Earth Federation finally gathered enough strength for a full counter attack, in which the few decisive battles were told in Mobile Suit Gundam as well.
The prologue of Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 started from the end of the last battle in the One Year War, and explaint the situation in the same world 3 years after the War, with rogue forces of the remnants of Zeon still lurking around and the Earth Federation still wanted to eliminate them.
Many loyalists to the Zabi family, dedicated soldiers, war criminals, and others who could not integrate with the new government voluntarily, leave the Zeon homeland and go on an exodus to the asteroid Axis, which is a previously used waystation for the Jupiter Energy Fleet, which is nominally ruled by Dozle Zabi's infant daughter Mineva Lao Zabi, under the regency of Haman Karn. Others, such as Cima Garahau's Zeon Marines, become pirates while other Zeon soldiers continue fighting inside the Earth Sphere and on the Earth's surface in various guerilla and insurgency actions. Many of these Zeon insurgents become attracted to the various uprisings and movements in the following years, such as the Delaz Fleet's Operation Stardust, Haman Karn's Axis Zeon, Char Aznable's Neo-Zeon and Mars Zeon. Such insurgencies continues until the UC 0120s, but eventually dies out and is replaced by conflicts from new-generation space warlords, such as the Crossbone Vanguard, Jupiter Empire and the Zanscare Empire.