I've always wondered...since its the

[Morbo]

United Federation of Planets...........

....there are more planets/races than just Earth and Starfleet.

So, why is it than Starfleet is the only people to ever send ships to a battle?

THe war with the Dominion was against the Federation. Not Starfleet.
So, why didn't we ever see Vulcan ships on the front lines, or ships from any other of the hundreds of planets/races in the Federation???

The Klingons are their own empire, as are the Romulans, and stuff, but You know what i mean?

[Dahak]

Starfleet is the space military branch of the Federation.
Now as to why humans make up 90% (more or less) of Starfleet is a long running question.
First the UFP (Federation) is not as big as the writers sometimes make it out to be. Basicly the Fed is roughly 200 LY's across. Also there are "only" about 200 or so heavily populated planets with an unknown amount of secondary planets (mining, colony, farming, etc).
Now as to why humans are the main group in the military. Well, obviously it's because it's cheaper to have humans rather than "bumpy aliens". But from a tv POV it's never exactly said.
Part of it is that a lot of the other races aren't very warlike. Vulcans can fight but (logically) find it wasteful. Also humans seem to breed faster than a lot of the other species. Basicly the reason I think is that humans are willing to do most of the dying so why argue with it?

[Morbo]

Basicly the reason I think is that humans are willing to do most of the dying so why argue with it?

well i'm human! and i'm not willing to do most of the dying!

nuts to that!

lol.

[Anubis69]

I remembered reading about this at memory alpha...

Reason the Federation's mainly human is it's mainly made up of human colonies. (Stolen from memory alpha.)

Plus, i guess the reason there's no other ships in the Federation eg. Vulcan etc. is that they all pulled resources and information to construct the best ships possible. They probably fazed out Vulcan ships (despite being immensly macho!) as more typical Federation ships were contstructed, but i'm just guessing.

[Lord Shiva]

United Federation of Planets...........

....there are more planets/races than just Earth and Starfleet.

So, why is it than Starfleet is the only people to ever send ships to a battle?

THe war with the Dominion was against the Federation. Not Starfleet.
So, why didn't we ever see Vulcan ships on the front lines, or ships from any other of the hundreds of planets/races in the Federation???

The Klingons are their own empire, as are the Romulans, and stuff, but You know what i mean?

The Federation is like the United States of America. Sure, the "vision" of the Federation is a peaceful group of Communists, but in fact the Federation really is like the current US - just think about the current situation in Iraq. There are tons of countries there helping out, but the majority of troops helping and training the Iraqi military are from the United States.

The Federation is like that... imagine all the aliens as being from other countries, and that while they SERVE on Federation ships, they don't really run the roost.

[RuleBritannia]

The Federation is like the United States of America. Sure, the "vision" of the Federation is a peaceful group of Communists, but in fact the Federation really is like the current US - just think about the current situation in Iraq. There are tons of countries there helping out, but the majority of troops helping and training the Iraqi military are from the United States.

That's because the US wants all their oil.

[Anubis69]

The Federation is like the United States of America. Sure, the "vision" of the Federation is a peaceful group of Communists, but in fact the Federation really is like the current US - just think about the current situation in Iraq. There are tons of countries there helping out, but the majority of troops helping and training the Iraqi military are from the United States.

Umm... your analogy doesn't really fit.

The Federation is like that... imagine all the aliens as being from other countries, and that while they SERVE on Federation ships, they don't really run the roost

That implies that everyone from every other country over in Iraq is under American control. Plus, the Federation isn't run by humans. It may be based on Earth but the president is (probably) elected and last time i remember seeing the president, he was definately not human.

Correct me if i'm reading it wrong though.

[the Fifth Race]

Plus, i guess the reason there's no other ships in the Federation eg. Vulcan etc. is that they all pulled resources and information to construct the best ships possible. They probably fazed out Vulcan ships (despite being immensly macho!) as more typical Federation ships were contstructed, but i'm just guessing.

I also have read about this in a few TNG and DS9 novels where it was explained that by the 24th century Starfleet and the Federation had built up a vast fleet of ships big enough to protect most of the Federation. Sure the Vulcan's, Telerytes, Andorians and everyone else still had there own ships but they were mainly for travel, commerce and staying near there home world for protection. You also have to remember it wasn't only Humans designing Federation ships by the 24th century, by then all the different races and species were working with Starfleet and Federation to build Starfleet vessels.

I did a search because we has discussion about this exact thing awhile back but I couldn't find it. It's a very good question brother Morbo.