Vulcans once practiced a form of polytheism; this can be seen in gods of war, peace, and death depicted on the Stone of Gol, as well as the celebration of Rumarie. The DVD commentary for "Amok Time" says that TOS writer D. C. Fontana named the Vulcan god of death "Shariel", a bust of whom is seen in Spock's quarters.
In about the 4th century AD, Vulcans emerged from their violent tendencies and civil wars under a philosopher named Surak, who advocated the suppressing of emotion in favor of logic. This period was known as the "Great Awakening", and much of present-day Vulcan philosophy emerged from this period. According to the Star Trek: New Frontier book series (which, like all novels, are not considered canon), the Great Awakening caused many wars and conflicts to occur amongst various Vulcan tribes; those who supported Surak's cause would become separated from friends and even close family members who did not. For cases in which parents were separated by this, a ritual was created called the "ku'nit ka'fa'ar", a battle to determine which parent would maintain their child. Despite the acceptance of Surak's teachings, generations of imperfect copies of his writings, combined with changes in the Vulcan language over time, resulted in a diluted form of the culture he instituted.
Surak's views and lifestyle were not universally accepted by Vulcan society. One particular group of Vulcans who called themselves "those who march beneath the Raptor's wings" were so adamant in their opposition against Surak that it resulted in a nuclear war fought with neutron bombs, of which Surak himself became a victim. After a time the portion of Vulcan society who rejected Surak's teachings left the planet for the stars. These Vulcan separatists would eventually become known as the Romulans. Knowledge of the common ancestry of Romulans and Vulcans would obscure into myth over the millennia, and while some Vulcans had direct dealings with Romulans in the 22nd century, the common ancestry would not become widely known until the mid-23rd century.
A great deal of Star Trek spin-off fiction, in particular the novel The Romulan Way by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood, has stated that the leader of the Vulcan-Romulan migration was a close follower of Surak's named S'Task. S'Task would see the founding of the Romulan Empire, but was killed by political factions shortly thereafter.
Vulcans did recover from the effects of barbarism and turn much of their attention to space travel for 1,500 years. What would later become known as the Vulcan High Command was initially formed to orchestrate space exploration, but it ended up seizing control of the Vulcan government.
Spock was one of three Starfleet officers from the 23rd century who travel in time to 1930s New York City, in the TOS episode "The City on the Edge of Forever". He would also briefly travel to Earth in 1968 on a mission, in the episode "Assignment: Earth"; accidentally in 1969, in "Tomorrow Is Yesterday"; and again in 1986, in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. (Technically speaking, these three events occurred after the founding of the Federation, but are included here as they constitute pre-First Contact encounters with contemporary humans.)
In 1957, the launch of Sputnik I, Earth's first artificial satellite, was observed by a Vulcan vessel that subsequently crashed on the planet, marooning several crew members for a number of months in Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania; this constituted the first true contact between humans and Vulcans, but it was never recorded as such as the humans were unaware of the alien nature of their guests.
On April 5, 2063, Vulcans and humans made official first contact near the town of Bozeman, Montana, following the successful test of Earth scientist Zefram Cochrane's first warp-powered starship, as depicted in Star Trek: First Contact.
In 2097, the Vulcans annexed the Andorian planetoid Weytahn and renamed it Pan Mokar.
In 2105, the Vulcans and the Andorians agreed to a compromise over Weytahn/Pan Mokar. Still, tensions continued due to the threat of mutual annihilation.
By the 22nd century of Star Trek, the Vulcan High Command is apparently a form of military government that controls both the Vulcan space fleet and most of the planet itself. Most of the Vulcans, including T'Pol, from Star Trek: Enterprise served the High Command. It is dissolved in the early fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise.
In 2151, Sub-Commander T'Pol joined the crew of the Earth Starfleet vessel Enterprise (NX-01), within a couple of weeks setting a Vulcan endurance record for serving aboard a human vessel. In 2154, T'Pol became a commissioned officer with Starfleet.
Throughout the run of Star Trek: Enterprise, Captain Jonathan Archer frequently had run-ins with the High Command—even after Archer proved conclusively, several times, that he was able to travel through time, the High Command stubbornly refused to acknowledge the possibility that time travel could ever be possible (although T'Pol tried to keep an open mind). The High Command, on at least one occasion, sent Vulcan starships to actively spy on the Enterprise and report on the ship's activities (see episode "Breaking the Ice"), an act that infuriated Archer.
However, this was not the end of the High Command's questionable activities. They appeared to participate in open acts of persecution towards other Vulcans, such as isolating and quarantining victims of Pa'nar Syndrome rather than treating them; prejudicial acts against any Vulcan proven to have committed a mind meld; and hunting down and capturing, even often killing, members of the underground dissident group, the Syrranites.
In 2154, V'Las, the head of the High Command and undercover agent for the Romulans, bombed the United Earth embassy on Vulcan in an attempt to frame and eliminate all Syrranites while simultaneously attempting an invasion of Andoria. He was foiled by the crew of the Enterprise. During these events, the Kir'Shara, a device containing the original writings of Surak, was discovered by Jonathan Archer. This led to the prompt dissolution of the High Command and a reevaluation of traditional values. It also resulted in Vulcan agreeing to stop "looking over Earth's shoulder" in space exploration matters.
It was revealed to viewers that the High Command's illogical and often emotionally based actions were, in reality, the result of covert Romulan influence. The Romulans had secretly made contact with V'Las and attempted to reunify their long-lost peoples. After the invasion of Andoria was foiled, the High Command was disbanded and V'Las was dismissed from his post. Subsequently, the altered political climate on Vulcan caused the undercover Romulan operative Talok to leave Vulcan, apparently ending the infiltration.
After the dissolution of the High Command, the Vulcan space fleet experienced a serious shortage of personnel, many of whom were still sympathetic to the old guard. Minister T'Pau, who now oversaw Vulcan's fleet operations, attempted to rebuild the fleet with personnel who understood true logic.
On August 12, 2161, Vulcan became one of the founding members of the United Federation of Planets.
In the time of Star Trek: Enterprise, Vulcans are often seen to be rather arrogant and cold in their behavior towards humans. It is explained that after first contact, Vulcan shared technology with Earth, but many humans, such as Jonathan Archer, greatly resented the fact that Vulcans seemed to be holding back humanity's efforts at space travel. Soval, Vulcan's ambassador to Earth, appeared particularly distrustful of humans, and was often at odds with Archer and his crew. Soval later justified this behavior in the fourth season episode "The Forge":
Soval also explained that, since Earth recovered from World War III far more quickly than Vulcan did from its equivalent (in "The Forge" and its sequel episodes, it is said that Vulcans took almost a thousand years to fully rebuild their society after their last catastrophic war), it alarmed many Vulcans, who were confused as to how to deal with a rapidly growing and emotional society such as Earth's.
After the overthrow of the corrupt Vulcan High Command and the death of Admiral Maxwell Forrest, who sacrificed his life to save Soval from a terrorist attack, the attitudes of Soval, and Vulcan society in general, became more cordial and accepting towards humanity.
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