First Robotech War

In the fictional world of Robotech, the First Robotech War (2009-2014) was a conflict between the earth-based Robotech Defense Force and the alien Zentraedi.

Roots
The First Robotech War's roots were laid in 1999 when an alien spaceship (known then by the rather graceless monicker of ASS-1) crash landed on the fictional Macross Island (or South Ataria Island) in the South Pacific, ending a decade of global warfare. Given teeth by the secret discovery of alien people over two dozen feet tall, the United Earth Government acted quickly to unify the warring factions and rebuild the spacecraft. The rebuilt ship was christened Macross after the island on which it had landed and was given the designation SDF-1 (which during and after its operational life it was most frequently called).

Unknown to mankind at the time, the Zentraedi were hot on the ship's tail, and headed for its last known location: Earth. Fortunately, battles with the alien Invid delayed the Zentraedi for several years.

The War
The First Robotech War began when the Zentraedi attacked Earth to recover the missing starship SDF-1 in February, 2009, and ended with the death of Khyron and the destruction of the SDF-1, although major fighting had ended in 2011 with the defeat of the Zentraedi Grand Fleet in orbit above Earth. The First Robotech War, sometimes called the Zentraedi War, ended as a technical victory for the Robotech Defense Force, however, the Earth's population was decimated by Zentraedi orbital bombardment and would not recover until after the end of the Robotech Wars.

The Aftermath
The most notable effect on the Earth in the aftermath of the First Robotech War was the devastation of its surface and the decimation of its population. The sparsely populated interior regions of most continents were spared destruction, but the heavily populated coasts were strongly hit, and many historic cities including Washington DC, Boston, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Moscow, Calcutta, Beijing and Tokyo were either heavily damaged or lost altogether. The population of the Earth was reduced from six billion in 2009 to just over one billion in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Orbit in 2012.

Not all of the aftereffects of the war were bad, however. The sudden introduction of starships and super-advanced Robotechnology to Earth led to a renaissance of sorts, as humanity strove to build a space fleet to take the war to the alien enemy. Unfortunately, the determination that the next phase of the war would be fought away from the Earth left the home planet vulnerable when the Robotech Masters appeared in 2030 and began the Second Robotech War (2030-31). The devastation of the Army of the Southern Cross led to the Earth's fall to the Invid in 2033, and the planet would remain occupied through three disastrous liberation attempts until the REF forced the Invid to retreat in Third Robotech War (2040-42).