The Umbrella Corporation was a multinational conglomerate with subsidiaries active in a variety of industries from the 1980s to the early 2000s. Umbrella had influence in the production and sale of cosmetics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, industrial machine production, consumer products, health foods, the transportation industry and tourism. Umbrella's large array of subsidiaries was typical for large-scale corporations, though it was purposely built to cover up illegal activities.
Soon after the opening of its pharmaceutical subsidiary, Umbrella Pharmaceuticals, Umbrella began developing biological weaponry for militaries across the world as part of a worldwide conspiracy to accumulate deadly viruses directly prohibited by the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. Umbrella Pharmaceuticals was able to cover their true intentions by researching vaccines for the same viruses as a front.
Umbrella had a number of other subsidiaries that included Umbrella Medical Equipment, as well as Umbrella Industries which was responsible for the development of anti-B.O.W. weaponry. Their tourism firm, the Paraguas Line Company, earned revenue from transporting passengers across the Atlantic as a front for the transporting viral weapon samples from West Africa.
Umbrella's true goal was not, in fact, a capitalistic urge for monopolization of a lucrative industry. It was eugenics. This fact was only known to corporate executives who shared the belief that their principal objective was the funding of the Wesker Project. This project was to birth a new race of virally-enhanced and well-educated superhumans who would advance human civilization for generations to come with Umbrella's founders ruling through them as gods.[1] This project was not realized,[2][3] with the loss of all but two candidates by 1998 and their later deaths.
The Umbrella Corporation collapsed in 2003 following Umbrella USA's loss at the Raccoon Trials, which found the corporation liable for compensation in the 1998 Raccoon City Destruction Incident. The verdict bankrupted Umbrella, causing them and their subsidiaries to close down over the next year with a large enough stigma present that some were not purchased by rivals.
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