Thus the Federation was forged during the first quarter of the 23rd century. Forged through conquest and the imposition of the will of Sol on the early human colonies.
Honestly the way this was presented, it throws a Shade of Grey on the Federation's reputation of being this warmongering conqueror. The way most of the lore is written out, it tries to paint the Federation in a very black light.
A few interesting things to note. Most of calls for preservation of the various native life were from Sol. The very same Sol that, as stated in the Birth of the Federation, suffered Nuclear World War Three. Destroying most of the planet as we currently know it leaving behind a very vivid and terrible picture of what humans will do if left unchecked. I wouldn't be surprised if to this day, the inhabitants of Sol still carry the very vivid scars of that war even if the planet recovered.
Following the discovery of life on Mars and the fascination humans have with otherly world life, these events together would make sense that there would be a desire to preserve what we found as we expanded to the stars.
Especially given the Federation is a tech heavy power. Many technological innovations come from observing life around you and using their natural gifts as inspiration to come up with a mechanical means for humans to achieve the same.
Of course, there are always those that have to let their greed rule their desire and ruin it for the rest of us. The "Land Rush" triggered by the hyperdrive caused everyone to gleefully rush out there and grab as much stellar real estate as they could and exploit it. Even at the cost of the native life.
"It wasn’t until some of the ecological excesses of these early colonists became apparent over a century later that Earth took its first steps, founding the Federation and becoming the colossal entity it is now, creating some order in what had become an unruly free-for-all. "
So with everybody running wild all over the place. Sol remembered WWIII and tried to start reigning in the nightmare it had more or less unleashed.
Of course, once you open Pandora's Box. You can't close it again. Cue Tau Ceti and that entire mess.
In my eyes, the Federation earned it's reputation as a bully in the early days out of
necessity. It was trying to limit how much damage humans were doing the very few habitable Earth-like Worlds.
Because lets face it. They're rare enough to begin with and as the flavor text on Alpha Centari points out, just because you breath on a planet without the need for a pressurized life support system doesn't mean it's a great place to live.
Quite possibly the early days of trying to reign everybody in and with them only responding to Force, the Presidents had to take a war standing to retain popularity. Eventually the Federation just became the bully FDev wanted them to be. To me however, there's something noble and proud under all that armor plating and twisted babbling of the whispers of the Corporation. An entity that's trying to take responsibility for what it's done and getting the message lost in all the corporate advertising and democratic bureaucracy.
To me, Marlin Duval saw that noble vision and was unhappy with how the Corporation was twisting things to it's advantage. She tried to take like minded individuals and create a "pure" version of the Federation free from it's trappings. Ultimately following her death, her vision was hijacked by her brother who immediately corrupted it into the early version of the Empire we have today. What could be seen as one woman's quest to show the Federation what it was supposed to be ended up the vision of one man's greed and lust for absolute power given physical form.
There's definitely elements of bias in the lore. The Federation some twisted corrupt warmonger while the Empire painted in a more shiny grey with a few elements to give them some moral question marks but there's a lot more positive lore about the Empire from what I can find while everything Federation is seen with a very negative look. Everybody else to include the Alliance is a giant question mark to me.
