The Earth Federation (地球連邦), (Chikyuu Renpou), is a fictional organization in the Universal Century timeline of the Gundam anime series. The Earth Federation's heraldry is a golden or white northstar, similar to that of NATO, over a horizontaly lying crescent, forming an anchor-like symbol.
The Federation is loosely based on the United Nations, with a Security Council and General Assembly, but is not a successor to that organization. It is a global government that was formed by a 'rich mans' club' of wealthy nations. In Gundam, no individual nations are mentioned or continue to exist. Places are mentioned by what landmass or region they are in, such as New York City (or New Yark, according to on-screen text) and Odessa are mentioned to be located in North America and Central Asia, not the United States or Ukraine. While Japan, Australia, and Ireland are mentioned, these names refer to the landmasses and not the former countries. The only exception to this is the language and nationality of characters, which could be more based off their predecessors' former homeland before emigrating to the space colonies.
The Earth Federation was formed in the pre-Universal Century (i.e. the 20th Century), when overpopulation began causing famines, outbreaks of disease, and wars over living space, food, and resources.
In order to relieve the Earth of the burden and allow it to heal, the Earth Federation announces the Space Colonization Plan. The Earth Federation begins the construction of orbital habitats, based off the designs and research of Gerard K. O'Neill, and located in the Earth-Lunar Lagrangian Points. The colonies, called Bunches, possibly due to the ballistic pairing of the colony cylinders, were then organized into administrative sectors called Sides.
In order to maintain and satisfy energy concerns, the Earth Federation launches Solar Power Station Satellites, which will broadcast energy to power stations on the ground. In addition, the Federation also launches the Jupiter Energy Fleet, which will collect helium-3, hydrogen and methane from the upper atmosphere of the gas giant.
The Earth Federation also forms the Earth Federal Forces, or EFF, to enforce Federation edicts. The Earth Federal Forces are organized into two groups - an Earth-based military force, which handles all military matters on ground, sea, and in Earth atmosphere, and a space military branch. The space military forces are referred to the Earth Federation Space Forces or EFSF. However, in Gundam 0080 and Gundam 0083, this force was referred to as UNT Spacy, but EFSF is currently the official moniker.
Until UC0087, the military central command for the Earth Federal Forces was located at a base called Jaburo (or Jabrow), located on the Amazon river. During the One-Year War, the fortress was the target of many attacks by the Principality of Zeon, including the Operation British colony drop and a decisive battle at which the remaining bulk of Zeon's Earth Attack Force made their final attempt to destroy Jaburo. The Federation also maintains a military academy at Nijmegen.
The Earth Federation Assembly, as seen in Zeta Gundam, is located in Dakar. Until UC0093, the Earth Federation Captial is located in Lhasa.