Star Trek fans have become very sensitive to introductions of new characters, aliens or historic events arguing that things that haven’t previously been mentioned ‘break canon’ or disrespect lore.
This piece by Inverse shows how profoundly TNG retconned Federation, Starfleet, and main characters’ history on the fly.
Worth thinking about.
I was alive during the '90s, I’m Italian, in Europe we had the Yugoslavian Wars, my country was involved in the Kosovo war… If you asked anyone on the street they would have told you we were living in the most peaceful time in recent history.
The Federation is huge, it’s plausible that an important conflict like the one with the Cardassians still ranked low compared to those with the Klingons or Romulans.