The story begins with the birth of the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). Developed by Dr. Radia Perlman in the late 1980s, STP was created to solve the problem of bridging loops in Ethernet networks. These loops caused broadcast storms and network outages, rendering networks unreliable and inefficient. The primary purpose of STP was to ensure loop-free topology in Ethernet LANs, making networks more stable and predictable.