The Resident Evil universe is rich with content, characters, unique viruses and, of course, mysterious organizations competing within a complex web of bio-weapon warfare and profiteering. This history of this universe can be traversed through a timeline of its unique entities, including the history of its viral experiments, and of course, its likable character stars.
Each type of timeline uniquely captures a different angle of Resident Evil's overall universe. By looking at the different organizations in Resident Evil's lore, we can piece together its history by understanding the company's roles and contributions within the larger context of its lively and sometimes chaotic world.
Travis Enterprises (the origins of Resident Evil, and later renamed Tricell)
The origins of Resident Evil's history of bio-weapons, including Umbrella's infamous T-Virus, would not have been made possible without the small contribution of Travis Enterprises. It was a European trading company founded in the 18th century, focused on trade with the eastern hemisphere of the world. Later on, in the 19th century, Henry Travis, one of the inheritors of the company and descendant of its original founder, wrote the encyclopedia Natural History Conspectus.
The encyclopedia noted all of Henry's discoveries during his 35-years exploring Africa, including various plants, animals and cultures he encountered. The book was discredited by scientists and was never taken seriously, partly because Henry's brother did not want other companies taking advantage of the information for their own financial gains. During the 1960s, the company renamed itself Tricell.
Umbrella Corporation (Resident Evil 0-3 and Code Veronica)
In 1966, Oswell E. Spencer, Dr. Edward Ashford and Dr. James Marcus, all university classmates studying virology, decided that Henry's encyclopedia may be worth giving some serious thought to, contrary to scientific consensus. So they ventured into West Africa to look for the mysterious flower mentioned in Henry's work, known as the Stairway of the Sun, believing it may hold special mutagenic properties. Surely enough, it turned out to be true, and seeing the potential in it its various uses, they founded Umbrella Corporation in 1967.
Originally, they believed its properties could be used for eugenics, but in order to gain money for such endeavors, they would first have to focus on a Bio-Weaponry program to bankroll it. After all, war makes money. After much research utilizing the African flower, they created the Progenitor Virus from it, also known as the mother virus. From that virus, they created the T-Virus and its various strains. Umbrella grew, and opened up facilities all over the world, and the rest is history.
After a number of occurrences, including the T-Virus outbreak in its Raccoon City laboratory which unleashed a zombie infestation on the city in 1998, Umbrella never recovered from the public outrage and clampdown by the government. Ultimately, it was shutdown in 2003, but its research and viral samples lived on.
S.T.A.R.S.
The Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) was an elite division of the Raccoon City Police Department. Its members include famous Resident Evil protagonists such as Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, Barry Burton and Rebecca Chambers. After strange reports of murders in the Arklay Mountains forests outside of Raccoon City began to surface, S.T.A.R.S. members were deployed into the woods to investigate.
Of course, it turned out to be the cause of a T-Virus outbreak from Umbrella's secret underground laboratory in those woods, below Spencer's mansion, where the first Resident Evil game takes place. Also, the S.T.A.R.S.' leader, the infamous Albert Wesker, turned out to be a double agent working for Umbrella, and attempted to compromise the mission.
After Raccoon City was wiped off the face of the planet by a nuclear bomb sent to clean up the mess at the end of Resident Evil 3, S.T.A.R.S. and the Raccoon City Police Department ceased to exist, and its members went on to join various other organizations to help fight against bio-terrorism around the globe.
Los Iluminados (Resident Evil 4)
Los Iluminados was a zealous religious cult in a mountainous region in Spain. As a result of the Spanish Inquisition, they were wiped out long ago. Jump ahead to the year 2004, and a mysterious man, Osmund Saddler, with his connections to the Bio-Weapons research industry, decided to show up to the region and form an alliance with Salazar, the man responsible for guarding the region. Salazar was a descendant of the original Castellan sent to rule over the area by the Spanish Inquisition.
Saddler convinced Salazar to revive the Los Iluminados cult in present day form, and make use of infectious parasites which only lived in cave habitats below Salazar's castle, which he guarded carefully, and which the original Los Iluminados cult utilized to gain special combat abilities through its mutations back in the day.
With the cult back in full swing, and villagers infected with the Las Plagas viruses and fully under the command of Saddler and Salazar, they made plans for global domination by having members of the U.S. government infected with these parasites so they could become secret moles and servants to Los Iluminados. It started with the kidnapping of the U.S. President's daughter in Resident Evil 4, with plans to infect her, by which she could thereby compromise the U.S. President in the process.
In the end, Leon Kennedy destroyed the cult once and for all (for the most part), but samples of the Las Plagas parasites were obtained by both Albert Wesker and Ada Wong, and passed on to their secret employers.
Tricell (Resident Evil 5)
Travis Enterprises eventually became Tricell in the 1960s, and whileity missed out on all the glory and money to be made from the Stairway of the Sun flowers in West Africa, it decided it was a good time to start making a profit in the Bio-Weapons market, now that Umbrella was shutdown and out of the picture. Albert Wesker was working for them soon after, and thanks to his work, Tricell had their hands on all sorts of viral samples from Umbrella's old days, as well as a samples of the Las Plagas virus from the Los Iluminados cult in Spain.
Tricell's reputation was on the line, given that its had sold chemicals to Umbrella in its heyday. To compensate and restore it image, it helped the FPC form the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) to protect the world from further events of bio-outbreaks and provide assurances to the public, while it went forward with its own hypocritical Bio-Weaponry initiatives.
Using a Plagas sample, it created the more powerful Type 2 and Type 3 Plagas in Resident Evil 5, which resulted in a Plagas outbreak in West Africa right around the area where Umbrella's original facility was constructed in the caves where the Stairway of the Sun Flowers grew, which Tricell now owned. Using original strains of the Progenitor virus at this revived facility, Tricell's CEO and Albert Wesker agreed to create the all-powerful Uroboros virus.
When all of this devilish work came to surface, including Tricell's attempts to exterminate the BSAA agents deployed there to investigate, it resulted in public outcry. Tricell met the same fate as Umbrella and was shutdown.
BSAA (Resident Evil 5 and onward)
The Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) was established by FPC to revive public assurance in member-companies after the incidents with Umbrella. It is a private paramilitary agency, but it is funded and sanctioned by the United Nations as a necessary entity which the world needed. It started as an 11 member team, with Chris Redfield one of its active members.
After a series of conspiracies and terrorist moles undermined the integrity of the BSAA, the organization was consolidated by the United Nations in 2005. This also allowed the organization to take a stronger role against terrorist-organizations without necessarily needing the permission of host-countries where these terror groups existed, which was the previous case when the BSAA was a private-entity and only had observer-status. UN member states were obligated to allow intervention by the BSAA if needed.
"The Organization" (Resident Evil 2 and 4)
Not much is known about the entity simply known as "The Organization", which Ada Wong refers to occasionally as the employer to which she works for and obtains viral samples for. It existed before and after Umbrella and was considered a secret competitor. Albert Wesker also worked for this organization, before eventually taking over the organization and essentially making it his own. He then turned his loyalties to Tricell.
Other than that, not much is known about "The Organization", and what it was, and whether it ceased to exist after Wesker's death. Perhaps Capcom will shed further light on this mysterious entity in future games.
The Family (Resident Evil 6)
The Family was a fraternity, supposedly dating back to America's Enlightenment Period in the 17th and 18th centuries, which led to the American Revolution. The Family is essentially a secret order, with members embedded deep within the fabric of the United States' political system and government. It is comprised of lodges and carrying huge financial influence, with an ideological fixation on global security and American dominance in the world.
After the Raccoon City incident, and America's fear of bio-weapon research which transpired, The Family believed America backtracked on the issue and took a weaker stance on such research, which would make the country vulnerable in face of other global powers that may capitalize on furthering their bio-weaponry powers. In order to compensate, The Family took matters into their own hand, beginning their own funding and initiatives in the realm of bio-weapons research.
In 2013, when it was revealed that the U.S. President was going to reveal to the public the entirety of the Raccoon City incident in full truth, The Family feared that it would result in public outcry and America taking an even weaker stance on Bio-Weapons research. As a result, The Family assassinated the President by releasing the newly created C-Virus (a fusion of the G Virus and T-Veronica virus) in the area of his vicinity using a mist-form that would poison the air. This resulted in a zombie outbreak which Leon Kennedy had to resolve in Resident Evil 6, including killing a zombified version of the U.S. President.
Neo-Umbrella (Resident Evil 6)
Neo-Umbrella was a faction which split from The Family, after its lead researcher, Dr. Carla Radames, split due to ideological differences and some personal anger after she discovered that she was secretly experimented on. Derek Simmons, the leader of The Family, essentially felt rejected that Ada Wong had dumped him years prior, and he could not get over it; thus, he attempted to secretly use cloning strains within the C-Virus research to turn Dr. Carla Radames into a clone of Ada Wong, which he could live happily ever after with.
Dr. Radames, leading The Family's East Asian division, then broke off from The Family out of sheer frustration when she discovered Simmons' plans, thereby turning this division into Neo-Umbrella. Instead of a focus on US military dominance in the world consistent with The Family's ideology, Dr. Radames figured she might as well just take the whole cake for herself and and try to take over the world, first by unleashing C-Virus-injected paramilitary foot soldiers on Chinese cities as a worthy start to her campaign.
The Connections (Resident Evil 7)
The Connections was responsible for the fungus infection comprising the enemies in Resident Evil 7, which was made with the help of Albert Wesker's now-defunct paramilitary force. It is unclear how close the connection and assistance was to Albert Wesker himself, or if any connections to previous viral strains in the Resident Evil universe exist.
Regardless, The Connections is a crime syndicate, and unlike other organizations focused on Bio-Weaponry research, this one was focused on Bio-Chemical research. The aim of the fungus was to create a weapon focused on subversive mind control techniques in order to compromise and infiltrate enemy territory under the nose of local governments, which was the purpose of Eveline in Resident Evil 7.
The overall leadership, origins and general composition of The Connections remains very ambiguous, and hopefully future Resident Evil games will provide more light on this entity.
"Blue Umbrella" (Resident Evil 7)
Even more ambiguous was the end of Resident Evil 7, when Chris Redfield shows up in a helicopter sporting a blue version of the Umbrella logo, saving the day and destroying The Connections' fungal experiment, Eveline. At this point, we will just have to wait until Resident Evil 8 for more answers, as Umbrella's potential rebirth has stirred up much curiosity among fans of Resident Evil's lore.
There are other organizations in the Resident Evil universe as well, including some that only appear in its CGI films. These include the Federal Bioterrorism Commission in Revelations, which competed with the BSAA and was ultimately shutdown due to infiltration by the II Veltro terrorist group. However, in the larger picture, these are not necessarily key to the main Resident Evil story's timeline. In moving forward with future Resident Evil games, it is more likely that the one's focused on in the main games will be the relevant organizational players fore future plots.