An important detail from the
Babylon 5 universe:
A cultural tradition of the
warrior caste of the
Minbari, they approached friends, allies, and new races with the gun ports on their ships open. It was a
symbolic gesture, approaching open handedly to show they meant no harm. However, when
Earth Alliance ships approached
Minbari space for the first time, they misunderstood the meaning, and thought it to be a threat. A nervous gunner fired on the (superior) Minbari ships, and the rest of the
Earth ships began firing with him. The
Minbari were in space for at least a
thousand years longer than humans (they fought against the
Shadows a thousand years before
Babylon 5 was built) and the
Earth Alliance ships only destroyed the
Minbari vessels because they took them by suprise. This incident led to the
Earth-Minbari War, a war in which humans were almost driven to extinction, until the
Minbari mysteriously surrendered at the
Battle of the Line.