The history of the large-scale international Umbrella Corporation began in 1967 with the discovery of the Progenitor Virus. Aristocrat Ozwell E.Spencer, together with his fellow aristocrat Edward Ashford and their scholarly friend James Marcus, discovered of this new RNA virus. It would forever intertwine the lives of these three individuals. With intent to develop B.O.W. and monopolize the military market, Spencer brought his enterprise to his friend Marcus. With this, the three established Umbrella in 1968, under the facade of a pharmaceutical corporation. The corporation's motto was "Preserving the health of the people." With Europe as its base, the corporation's abominable history began.

The year Umbrella was established, Edward passed away, leaving the corporation to the remaining two. Spencer poured his lifeblood into the management of the company. In order to train sebsequent generations, he appointed Marcus as the director of Umbrella's Management Training Facility. Even after being appointed as the facility director, Marcus continued his viral research. However, Spencer's own influence continued to grow and become a source of dissatisfaction for Marcus.

In 1978, Marcus succeeded in developing the T-Virus. He was confident that with this, his place would be secured as head of the company. However, his ambitions were crushed by Spencer's plot. He had already taken over Marcus's research in the Arklay Research Facility, built in Raccoon Forest. Spencer was the type of person who would exploit friendship if it suited his personal gain. Spencer had Marcus's trusted friend, Albert Wesker, assassinate him. After Marcus's death, the Arklay Research Facility produced B.O.W. after B.O.W. under Spencer's direction. In a mere 10 years, the corporation's scale and network grew immensely. By 1998, Umbrella had research institutions in North America, Europe and the Antarctic. In North America there was the Chicago Research Facility, Raccoon City's Arklay Research Facility and the Underground Research Facility. In Europe there was the Paris Research Facility and the 6th Europe Research Facility. Finally, there was the Antarctic Research Facility. The Umbrella Management Training Facility was closed down around the time of Marcus's death 10 years earlier, but Spencer sent in an investigation team to try to restore the facility.

The most remarkable engineering achievement was the 6th European Facility. It was there that the B.O.W. Tyrant was perfected after it's failure in the Arklay Research Facility. It was developed as the foundation for a new breed of B.O.W. This led to the Nemesis Plan and the new Nemesis T-type. This humanoid weapon was sent into the devastated Raccoon City and it began to seek out and destroy the remaining S.T.A.R.S. who were in search of the research facility's secrets. In the process, battle data would be gathered on Nemesis.

Umbrella's continuing inhumane research aside, there was another important reason for splitting Umbrella between its guise as a pharmaceutical company and its hidden role as a weapons supplier. Umbrella's most valuable customer of viral weapons and B.O.W. was none other than the United States government. Consequently, it was common knowledge within the government that Umbrella was producing these terrible biological weapons. In fact, even with all its secrets, Umbrella's methods were approved of. Since the corporation had such deep ties to the government, it was inconceivable that Umbrella would be fingered for its crimes. After the T-Virus spread throughout Raccoon City, it was through Spencer's manipulation that the U.S. government gave the order to isolate the people of Raccoon City and launch a new type of warhead at them. It was not only Umbrella, but also the government that opted to destroy the incriminating evidence.