Bajoran history
Stretching back hundreds of thousands of years, Bajoran history is the story of a spiritual people shepherded by supernatural beings. Their mettle was tested as outsiders took an interest in their resources and strategic location.

Early history 

Bajoran civilization began to flourish more than five hundred thousand years ago. The ancient Bajorans were renowned for their accomplishments in science, mathematics, philosophy, and the arts long before Humans learned to speak or make tools. ()

 

By thirty thousand years ago, non-corporeal lifeforms known as the "Prophets" began influencing Bajoran society. They described themselves as "of Bajor", and were worshiped as gods by the Bajorans. The Prophets had enmity for a group of fellow non-corporeals called the "Pah-wraiths". One of each were sealed together in a stone tablet in a city that was abandoned five thousand years later. Here, the beings were imprisoned for tens of thousands of years, awaiting an important religious figure described as the . 

In time, the Bajorans constructed magnificent cities centered around bantaca spires, obelisks that indicated a city's location in the cosmos. Among them was the sacred city of B'hala, which was built on the ruins of the abandoned city of the stone tablet. B'hala itself became a legend, however, as its location was lost to history around twenty thousand years ago. Around the same time, the Peldor Festival was introduced, a tradition which was continued into the 24th century. ()

Approximately ten thousand yeas ago, the first of the Tears of the Prophets was discovered above Bajor. Over the years, eight more of these orb-like artifacts appeared and ushered in a new era of spiritual connection between the Bajorans and the Prophets. Around the same time, Bajoran archaeologists began their search for the famed city of B'hala, which was not, however, rediscovered until the 24th century. Bajoran religious development also included "prophecies" issued by spiritual writers such as Shabren, Talnot, Trakor, and Zocal. Trakor lived approximately 630 BC and was inspired by encounters with the third orb to be discovered. By the 6th century, Bajorans also manufactured mandalas as religious tokens. ()

By the 16th century, Bajorans had developed sublight space travel employing solar-sail spacecraft called "lightships". Exploring their star system, Bajoran space travelers stumbled upon tachyon eddies, which accelerated their lightships beyond the speed of light and enabled them to reach the Cardassian system five light years away. Although this was evidenced by an ancient crash site of a Bajoran lightship uncovered on Cardassia Prime, their discovery was not disclosed by the Cardassian government until 2371, when a faithful reenactment proved the feasibility of such a journey. ()

Sometime in the mid- to late-17th century was the last time until 2375 that the Book of the Kosst Amojan, an ancient tome considered highly dangerous, was removed from the Bajoran Central Archives. As it contained detailed instructions on how to release the Pah-wraiths in the Fire Caves, access to the book was restricted to the Kai alone. ()

During the 22nd century, Bajorans traveling through their star system unknowingly made the first observations of the home of the Prophets, called "Celestial Temple", a stable wormhole located in the Denorios Belt, an area between the ninth and tenth planets of the Bajoran system. Kai Taluno reported a sighting of what was later known as the wormhole when his ship was "almost swallowed by the heavens" near the Denorios Belt. In the Bajoran year 9174 (late 22nd century), Akorem Laan, regarded as one of the planet's greatest poets at the time for works such as Gaudaal's Lament, departed Bajor in a lightship. His vessel was damaged in an ion storm and drifted into the Denorios Belt, where he opened and entered the yet unknown wormhole and stayed with the Prophets until 2372. ()

By the beginning of the 24th century, Bajorans had established off-world colonies such as Golana. By the 2370s, Bajoran colonies included outlying planets such as Dreon VII, as well as worlds within the Bajor system, like Jeraddo and Bajor VIII. ()

Despite its high state of development, the Bajoran civilization continued to separate itself into nation-like factions as evidenced by the Paqu-Navot Treaty of 2279, which defined the border between two of them. Until the Occupation by Cardassia, Bajoran society also followed a strict system of castes known as D'jarras. It created a clearly stratified social hierarchy by pre-determining each Bajoran's occupation based on his or her family. Gul Dukat even remarked that, until the Cardassians arrived, the Bajorans were "a weak, contemplative race, choking on [their] isolation." ()

The Occupation 
Main article: Occupation of Bajor

Around 2319, Bajor's neighbor, the imperialistic Cardassian Union, established a military presence on the planet as it considered the Bajoran homeworld to be underdeveloped but rich in natural resources. In 2328, this Occupation of Bajor (or simply called "the Occupation") also led to the formal annexation of Bajor by the Cardassians, who claimed to "help and develop" their neighbor. Despite their high state of cultural development, Cardassian technology was approximately a hundred years ahead of Bajor, explaining why the planet's population inistially surrendered without any serious resistance. (; )

During the Occupation, the Cardassians installed the Bajoran Occupational Government, a puppet of the Cardassian Central Command intended to lend legitimacy. Some Bajorans came to terms with the situation and even collaborated with the occupiers, and public life continued in some fashion including the opening of new businesses and the existence of cultural infrastructure such as the Bajoran Springball Association. The harsh reality, however, was that the Cardassians perpetrated a coordinated scheme of strip-mining, forced labor, and genocide across the planet, with the Gallitep labor camp under Gul Darhe'el being one of the most infamous examples. Less obvious misdeeds included stealing all but one of the Tears of the Prophets, the suppression of Bajoran religion by outlawing religious teaching, medical experiments on Bajoran subjects, like those conducted by Dr. Crell Moset, as well as Bajoran comfort women for Cardassian officers, who essentially represented a form of sexual slavery. (, , ; )

In order to keep the Bajorans in line, Central Command installed a prefect to oversee the planet. The last person to hold this post was the now-infamous Gul Dukat, who assumed office in 2346. He euphemistically considered the Bajorans his "children" and initially attempted a gentle approach by cutting labor camp output quotas and other benevolent measures. As it became clear that the oppressed Bajorans were not interested in his "charity", Dukat oversaw the occupation with an iron fist and, in 2360, assumed command of Terok Nor, an orbital uridium-ore processing station, which had been constructed by Bajoran slave labor between 2346 and 2351. ()

Over time, the Occupation gave rise to the fierce Bajoran Resistance, which was organized into small cells operating mostly independently from each other, both on and off Bajor. The Resistance used guerrilla as well as terror tactics and also included radical sects like the Kohn-Ma, the members of which would not even shy away from devising and deploying lethal biological weapons. While several noteworthy Resistance fighters like Kira Nerys, Lenaris Holem, Li Nalas, Shakaar Edon, or Surmak Ren became high-ranking officials in the post-occupation Bajoran society, some, like Orta or Tahna Los, continued to operate out of the legal system. (, , )

Formed less than two years after the end of the Occupation, many Bajorans willing to continue the fight against Cardassia also joined the Maquis, a rogue organization operating mostly along the Federation-Cardassian border and determined to resist the stipulations of the Federation-Cardassian Treaty. Some Bajorans also managed to flee their homeworld to join the Federation's Starfleet, which was eager to incorporate Bajorans as a political statement towards Cardassia. It was even said that some instructors overlooked the applicants' shortfalls, and gave them the benefit of the doubt during exams. (; ) A great number of Bajorans who fled the occupation, though, settled on planets all over the known galaxy, but almost everywhere they remained separated from other peoples, living under the poorest circumstances in refugee camps like those on Valo II. (; )

Independent Bajor

Orientation and recovery 

After fifty years of occupation and over ten million Bajoran casualties, the Cardassians finally withdrew from Bajor in 2369, no longer willing to fight the relentless terrorism of the Bajoran Resistance. The withdrawal was strongly opposed by Gul Dukat, the last prefect of Bajor. In their retreat, the Cardassians devastated Bajoran infrastructure and poisoned vast tracts of farmland, threatening a humanitarian catastrophe. The Bajoran Provisional Government was formed in the wake of the Occupation, but few had confidence that it would survive. Internecine conflicts suppressed during the Occupation – such as between the Paqu and Navot nations – soon began to flare again, but Kai Opaka, Bajor's religious leader, was instrumental in preventing civil war and keeping Bajoran society from falling apart. ()

Aside from reconstruction-related issues, such as enforcing new building codes and discussing the irrigation of the Trilar Peninsula, the new Provisional Government made some decisive early decisions. It issued the Ilvian Proclamation, which had two objectives: exile all Occupation-era collaborators (such as Kubus Oak) from Bajor, and also set free Bajorans who had been imprisoned during the Occupation for committing a murder against a Cardassian. Anti-Cardassian sentiment was also rampant among the general population as evidenced by the racist murder of Aamin Marritza, who assumed the identity of the infamous Gul Darhe'el and deliberately brought about his detention by the Bajorans in order to give them a sense of satisfying justice – an offer initially welcomed by Minister of State Kaval. Although Marritza's true identity was revealed, he was stabbed to death by a Bajoran. In contrast to these events, Bajorans attended to or even adopted Cardassian war orphans, who were deliberately left behind when the Occupation ended. ()

Most importantly, though, the Provisional Government requested the United Federation of Planets both as a protector power and to assist in the rebuilding of Bajor. The two governments established joint control of Terok Nor, a former Cardassian space station orbiting Bajor, which they renamed Deep Space 9. While the station officially became a Bajoran installation, it was commanded by Starfleet aside a Bajoran liaison officer, a post first filled by former Resistance fighter Major Kira Nerys. After Commander Benjamin Sisko was assigned to DS9 – both to command the station and to prepare Bajor for eventual Federation membership – Kai Opaka declared Sisko to be the long-awaited Emissary of the Prophets. Ushering in a new era of trade but also strategic importance and danger for the Bajor system, Sisko fulfilled one of the prophecies as Emissary shortly after by (re-)discovering the "Celestial Temple", a nearby wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant and home of the Prophets, to whose mouth Deep Space 9 was subsequently moved. With the Federation supporting and enforcing Bajor's claim to the wormhole, it gained incalculable economic importance; anyone who wanted to travel to the Gamma Quadrant had to negotiate for permission, and Bajor became a major hub of commerce. Over the following two years, Federation assistance to Bajor included the reconstruction of its aqueduct system, tapping into the molten core of the Bajoran moon Jeraddo as a new major energy source, and offering some three million Skrreea refugees from the Gamma Quadrant, who initially sought asylum on Bajor, a new planet to colonize. (; )

Despite its benefits for Bajor, the alliance with the Federation remained uneasy at first, as many Bajorans, including former resistance groups such as the radical Kohn-Ma, thought that the interests of the two powers should be kept separate. Certain religious representatives such as Vedek Winn Adami were also skeptical of Commander Sisko, a "non-believer", to be declared the Emissary of the Prophets. She also publicly denounced Federation-inspired school curricula identifying the Prophets as mere "wormhole aliens" and instructed the Vedek Assembly to refuse Sisko's request to discuss the matter. The anti-Federation sentiment grew, even causing a bomb attack on Deep Space 9's school in late 2369, and was exploited by the Bajoran anti-alien Alliance for Global Unity in early 2370. This Alliance, also known as the "Circle", denounced the Federation presence aboard Deep Space 9 as another form of occupation and was secretly led by high-ranking Minister Jaro Essa, who sought to dismantle the Provisional Government and install himself as the new leader of Bajor. 

After sidelining his biggest competitor Li Nalas, who was recently freed from a Cardassian labor camp, Jaro garnered the support of other officials to attempt a full-scale coup d'etat: Vedek Winn, who he promised the position of Kai, as well as General . With Krim's help, the Circle managed to instigate anti-alien/anti-Federation riots on Bajor and to order Starfleet to withdraw from Deep Space 9. However, after it was discovered that the Circle was secretly supplied with weapons by the Kressari, who turned out to be middlemen for a Cardassian attempt to regain influence over Bajor by ousting the Federation, the coup quickly lost support from Vedek Winn and General Krim, and was quickly put down. ()

Political stabilization 

After this incident, the Bajoran political situation stabilized despite some internal power struggles due to Winn Adami's ongoing pursuit of more power. After Kai Opaka went missing in the Gamma Quadrant in mid-2369, Winn became the new Kai in 2370 by denigrating and ousting her favored rival candidate Vedek Bareil Antos. This was possible due to Bareil protecting Kai Opaka's legacy by falsely claiming that it had been his and not Opaka's radical and questionable decision to sacrifice forty-three Bajoran Resistance fighters in order to save the lives of thousands during the Occupation. Exploiting Bareil's unbroken loyalty and devotion to the position of the Kai, Winn also tried to take false credit for negotiating the Bajoran-Cardassian Treaty the following year. ()

Although a certain sense of pragmatism had already motivated some limited cooperation several months earlier, when the Bajoran Chamber of Ministers agreed to hand over three Cardassian dissidents – Natima Lang, Rekelen, and Hogue – to the Cardassian Union in exchange for the release of a half-dozen Bajoran prisoners, the Bajoran-Cardassian relationship was still characterized by distrust as of 2371. This became evident when the Bajoran government expressed concern toward Commander Sisko about Elim Garak, a Cardassian citizen in exile, who still resided on Deep Space 9. Some ministers in the government called for Garak's removal from the station but relented after Sisko demonstrated Garak's strategic value when he sent him to rescue Major Kira from the Obsidian Order on Cardassia Prime. 

Soon after, the conclusion of talks in mid-2371 for the Bajoran-Cardassian Treaty finally marked an important step towards normalizing the relationship. Despite Kai Winn's claims, it was accomplished by Vedek Bareil over the course of five months and even cost his life as he refused necessary medical treatment in order to finish the negotiations in time. 

The first joint Federation-Bajoran-Cardassian effort under the new peace treaty, called the Wormhole Comm Relay Project, was to create a Gamma Quadrant relay station to aid communications through the Bajoran wormhole aka the Celestial Temple. Although Kai Winn and the Vedek Assembly approved the project, Vedek Yarka quoted Trakor's Third Prophecy when accusing the participating Cardassian scientists, Ulani Belor, Gilora Rejal, and Dejar, to be "three vipers that would destroy the Celestial Temple". Although Dejar was indeed exposed by Ulani Belor as an Obsidian Order operative, who, as it turned out, was not only tasked with surveillance but to undermine Bajoran-Cardassian relations by sabotaging the entire project, the Wormhole Comm Relay was successfully completed. ()

In late 2371, Kai Winn's ambitions for more power reached a preliminary climax when she was appointed as interim head of government after the incumbent First Minister of Bajor, Kalem Apren, died of heart failure. Without any serious rival candidate, Winn hoped to permanently unite Bajor's two most important positions as kai and first minister in her person and immediately sought to increase her popular approval by initiating a program to grow cash crops in Rakantha Province. However, the required soil reclamators were still in use by a group of farmers around former resistance fighter Shakaar Edon, whose refusal to prematurely return the equipment escalated into an armed guerrilla conflict. After the pursuing militia, commanded by fellow ex-resistance fighter Lenaris Holem, joined the rebels, Shakaar's defiance toward Winn gained him immense popularity, eventually forcing Winn to grudgingly support his bid to become new first minister, which Shakaar subsequently did.

First Minister Shakaar then visited Deep Space 9 in mid-2372 to negotiate Bajor's admittance into the Federation. Although he criticized the Federation's inherent self-righteousness, Shakaar pushed to cut in half the time Bajor would have to wait to become a member – a longing he believed to be an effect of fifty years of Cardassian occupation. Despite slow negotiations and two attempts on Shakaar's life by the True Way, a Cardassian terrorist movement opposing its government's rapprochement towards Bajor and the Federation, the talks were successfully concluded. This Bajoran-Cardassian rapprochement had become evident with the Klingon-Cardassian War, a conflict that started earlier that year and was instigated by a hegemonic power from the Gamma Quadrant, called the Dominion. 

The war not only caused a cessation of the Federation-Klingon alliance but also urged the Cardassian Union, which suddenly found itself the victim of aggression and in a dire strategic position, to pursue any available outside support. Shakaar managed to convince Major Kira to attend the Korma Conference, where Bajor was to share intelligence on the Klingons with Cardassian representatives despite some concerns of the Federation, which were expressed by instructing Kira not to share any sensitive information Starfleet had previously given to the Bajorans. Any compunctions Starfleet and Major Kira had were premature, however, as a Klingon ship had already destroyed the venue upon Kira's arrival, killing all attendees, including fifteen Bajorans. ()

Delay of Federation membership and Dominion War 

Bajor's petition for Federation membership was eventually accepted in 2373. However, on the eve of the signing ceremony on Deep Space 9, Captain Sisko, the Emissary of the Prophets, received a series of pagh'tem'far predicting disaster for Bajor unless "it stood alone". As a result, the Chamber of Ministers voted to delay the acceptance of Federation membership. Sisko was later confronted by Admiral Charlie Whatley, who asked Sisko to contact the Chamber of Ministers and convince them that he was mistaken, but Sisko refused. ()

Another minor Bajoran-Federation estrangement occurred later that year, when the Bajoran government declined to intervene when arms dealer Hagath and his associates sold weapons within the Bajoran system. Hagath had previously supplied the Bajoran Resistance, and it was felt that Bajor, at least partially, owed its freedom to Hagath and people like him. ()

After the Cardassian Union joined the Dominion in mid-2373, quickly driving out the Klingons as well as the Maquis, a major war with the Dominion was on the horizon. Now, the Emissary's earlier intervention allowed a neutral stance for Bajor, which, following Sisko's endorsement, even signed a nonaggression pact with the Dominion. This saved Bajor from coming under foreign occupation when war broke out and Deep Space 9 was quickly captured by Dominion-Cardassian forces, who were officially, though compulsorily, "welcomed" into Bajoran space by Major Kira on behalf of the Bajoran government. ()

In early 2374, during the first months of the Dominion War, Bajor was cut off from all interstellar trade, leading to economic hardship and supply shortfalls. With no one else to turn to, the Bajoran government allowed the Dominion to send four hundred Vorta facilitators to Bajor to provide technical assistance. Soon after, the Cardassians gifted fifteen industrial replicators to Bajor as a gesture of friendship. The Bajorans also gained a voice on Deep Space 9 through Odo, formally a member of the Bajoran militia, who became part of the station ruling council, along with Gul Dukat and Weyoun.

These events were controversial among the Bajorans, many of whom feared that they legitimized the Dominion presence in the system and would lead to the erosion of Bajoran sovereignty. Protesters such as Vedek Yassim openly denounced cooperation with the Dominion, and eventually a resistance movement arose on Deep Space 9, including Major Kira, Sisko's son Jake, and a Ferengi member of the Bajoran station crew, Rom. When the latter was exposed, Major Kira went to the Council of Ministers, asking them to lodge a formal protest against the planned execution of Rom. As Weyoun previously pointed out that such a protest would fall on deaf ears, Rom was freed by force and subsequently became crucial in enabling the Federation-Klingon alliance to recapture Deep Space 9 during Operation Return by sabotaging the station's weapons. This, in turn, prevented  from being destroyed before it could enter the wormhole, where he pleaded with the Prophets to save Bajor, who then simply made 2,800 Dominion ships coming in from the Gamma Quadrant as reinforcements disappear. ()

Despite the limited Bajoran military capabilities, Deep Space 9, with its location by the wormhole, became the strategically most important installation for the Federation Alliance. Both the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire, which joined the Alliance in late 2374, established contact offices on the station and First Minister Shakaar received briefings on the war. In early 2375, the Bajoran Government granted the Romulans permission to build a military hospital on the uninhabited Bajoran moon Derna. However, an attempt by the Romulans to arm the hospital with plasma torpedoes precipitated a crisis among the allies. The Bajorans blockaded Derna and demanded that the Romulans remove the weapons, nearly leading to hostilities until Senator Cretak relented under Federation pressure. ()

The war was finally brought to an end in late 2375, when the Federation Alliance successfully attacked Cardassia Prime and took the Dominion representative for all forces in the Alpha Quadrant into custody. Soon after, the Bajoran Republic was one of the signatories of the Treaty of Bajor on Deep Space 9, which formally concluded the conflict. ()

Meanwhile, Kai Winn still sought ways to expand her power and allied herself with Dukat, who was posing as a Bajoran farmer and had started to become obsessed with the Pah-wraiths the previous year, even declaring himself their "Emissary". In late 2374, he had already become possessed by the Wraiths, causing the temporary sealing of the Celestial Temple among others. Many Bajorans interpreted this as a sign, which resulted in a short-lived spread of the Cult of the Pah-wraiths until Sisko was able to re-open the wormhole with the help of the newly-discovered Orb of the Emissary in early 2375. Later that year, feeling betrayed by the Prophets, Winn joined Dukat in his quest to unleash the Wraiths by learning the secrets from the Book of the Kosst Amojan.

During their failed attempt to apply those secrets in the Fire Caves on Bajor, Dukat killed Winn, who rediscovered her faith for the Prophets – and their Emissary – during her last moments. After the Emissary of the Prophets, Sisko, arrived at the scene, he engaged Dukat, dragging him and the Book of the Kosst Amojan along when plunging into the fires. While the book incinerated and Dukat joined the Pah-wraiths in their now unbreakable imprisonment, Sisko joined the Prophets in the Celestial Temple but promised his wife to return "in a year, or maybe... yesterday." Although Vedek Ungtae was quickly rumored to be a likely candidate to replace the deceased Kai Winn, the absence of the Emissary and the defeats of the Pah-wraiths, the Cardassians, and the Dominion, left Bajor's future path in interstellar history open. (, , )

Alternate timelines 
In a quantum reality visited by Worf in 2370, the Bajorans had eventually overtaken the Cardassian Empire and become increasingly hostile towards the Federation, with a Bajoran ship opening fire on the  without apparent provocation. ()

In an alternate timeline created by the disappearance of Benjamin Sisko in 2372, the Bajorans took this disappearance as a sign from the Prophets that the Federation could not protect them and eventually signed a mutual defense pact with the Cardassians to defend against the Klingon Empire. ()

Mirror universe 
In the mirror universe, the Bajorans had been subjugated by the Terran Empire for decades. When the Empire was ultimately defeated by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, the freed Bajorans petitioned for membership in the Alliance, which was accepted. According to , Bajor had become an influential member by 2370, with herself being the intendant for the Bajor sector, though ultimate power still resided with the Klingons and Cardassians. ()

Timeline 
Numbers of years are referenced to the late 24th century.
500,000 years ago: Ancient Bajoran civilization flourishes and is renowned for its accomplishments in science, mathematics, philosophy, and the arts.
30,000 years ago: A "Pah-wraith" and a "Prophet", antagonistic non-corporeal beings, are imprisoned in a stone tablet in an ancient city on Bajor. 
25,000 years ago: The stone tablet city is abandoned, and the holy city of B'hala is eventually built on its ruins.
20,000 years ago: B'hala is lost to history and the Peldor Festival is introduced.
10,000 years ago: The first of the orb-like Tears of the Prophets is discovered above Bajor and Bajoran archaeologists begin their search for the famed city of B'hala.
7th century BC: Being inspired by encounters with the Orb of Prophecy and Change, Bajoran spiritual writer Trakor issues a set of prophecies. 
6th century AD: Bajorans manufacture mandalas as religious tokens.
16th century: Using lightships, Bajoran explorers stumble upon tachyon eddies in the Bajoran system, which propel them all the way to the 5 light years distant Cardassia Prime.
17th century: The Book of the Kosst Amojan is removed from the Bajoran Central Archives for the last time until 2375.
22nd century: Both Kai Taluno and poet Akorem Laan encounter the Celestial Temple, i.e., the Bajoran wormhole and home of the Prophets. While the former just passes by, the latter is swallowed and would remain with the Prophets until 2372.
2279: The Paqu-Navot Treaty defines the border between two nation-like Bajoran factions.
Early 24th century: By this time, Bajorans had established a colony on Golana.
2319: The Cardassian Union establishes a military presence on Bajor around this year, basically beginning the Occupation of Bajor. Bajoran society was structured according to the caste-like D'jarra system up until this point.
2328: Bajor is formally annexed by the Cardassian Union.
2346: Gul Dukat becomes Prefect of Bajor and the 5 years-long construction of Terok Nor, an ore-processing and command station, begins in orbit of Bajor using Bajoran slave-labor.
2360: Dukat assumes command of Terok Nor.
2369: The Cardassian Union withdraws from Bajor, ending the Occupation. A Provisional Government is established, which seeks out Federation assistance and protection. Terok Nor is renamed Deep Space 9, moved to the mouth of the newly (re-)discovered Bajoran wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant and put under the command of Starfleet Cmdr. Benjamin Sisko. Kai Opaka declares Sisko to be the Emissary of the Prophets and goes missing in the Gamma Quadrant a few months later.
2370: Secretly led by Minister Jaro Essa and supported by Vedek Winn Adami, the anti-alien/anti-Federation Alliance for Global Unity, called "The Circle", fails at an attempted coup d'état on Bajor. At the end of the year, Winn is elected new Kai.
2371: Kai Winn and Vedek Bareil Antos negotiate the Bajoran-Cardassian Treaty, initiating the normalization of relations between both governments. At the end of the year, Kai Winn becomes interim First Minister but subsequently loses the popular vote to Shakaar Edon.
2372: First Minister Shakaar concludes the negotiations for Bajor's admission to the Federation. 
2373: Bajor's formal admission to the Federation is delayed due to the intervention of the Emissary of the Prophets. At the end of the year, this allows Bajor to remain neutral when the Federation-Klingon alliance is attacked, and Deep Space 9 is occupied, by the Dominion, a hegemonic power from the Gamma Quadrant that the Cardassian Union, under Dukat's leadership, recently joined.
2374: The forced isolation of the Bajor system ends when Deep Space 9 is liberated by the Federation Alliance, which is later joined by the Romulan Star Empire. Dukat escapes his Starfleet captivity and allies himself with the Pah-Wraiths, who close the wormhole, i.e., Celestial Temple. Severing the Bajorans' spiritual connection to the Prophets, this causes a temporary rise of the Cult of the Pah-wraiths on and around Bajor.
2375: The wormhole is reopened by the Emissary using the Orb of the Emissary. Bajor permits the Romulans to establish a field hospital on its fourth moon, whose attempted armament leads to a short-lived diplomatic crisis however. At the end of the year, the Federation Alliance wins the Battle of Cardassia and subsequently ends the Dominion War with the Treaty of Bajor. Meanwhile, Kai Winn secretly joined Dukat in his efforts to release the Pah-wraiths as described in the Book of the Kosst Amojan. After Dukat kills Winn, the Emissary thwarts his plans by permanently imprisoning Dukat with the Pah-wraiths as well as destroying the book in the process. The Emissary subsequently joins the Prophets in the Celestial Temple.
3189: Following the events of "The Burn", the Bajoran Exchange had become a trading location by this year.

Appendices

Apocrypha
Allegiance in Exile shows James T. Kirk and the  making first contact with the Bajorans in 2270.

The Pocket DS9 novel  depicts Bajor joining the Federation in 2376, despite an attempt by parasitic beings to prevent this by assassinating First Minister Shakaar.

In the video game Star Trek Online Bajor's renewed application to join the Federation was accepted in 2384. In 2392, a Bajoran candidate was considered an outside choice in the Federation presidential race. Bajor attained full membership in 2393 and by 2409, Kira had become kai.

See also
 Interstellar history
 Cardassian history
 Federation history
 Dominion history

de:Bajoranische Geschichte
Bajor
History