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For thousands of years before the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Republic was one of the de facto major powers in the sociopolitical form of Star Warsgalaxy. But while some focal points have been explored – especially closer to the time of the fall of the Republic in the prequel trilogy – for the most part current. Star Wars continuity kept the past of the Republic within the confines of legend. But as the franchise becomes more and more disdain to dive into its distant past, from James Mangold’s old Jedi film to also The skeleton crewthe exploration of of the Old Republic, how much do we really know what was the Republic as an even longer so long ago?
The Age of the Galactic Republic
The realm of the Galactic Republic can be broadly divided into four distinct periods– each shorter than the last, and the two final ones being essentially subdivisions of the second period. The largest are the two fundamental broad epochs of galactic history: one that begins with the formal establishment of the Republic some 25,000 years before the events of the primary. Star Wars film saga, and the creation of the “modern” Republic – the galactic entity as we know it broadly throughout. Star Wars‘prequel material – about a thousand years before those films. These last two subdivisions are eras with which we are particularly familiar with the main material: the period of the High Republic, which takes place for about 400 years during the last era of the post-reformation Republic, and its twilight as seen in The acolyte and the Star Wars prequel trilogy with its eventual dismantling in the Galactic Empire.
The first of these periods remains the least explored at present Star Wars continuity, but is significantly more fleshed out in the The old “Expanded Universe” of the franchise. While many of these stories remain explicitly outside of current continuity, contemporary canon has made vague aspersions some of these EU stories remain canonically true in some form – but only in the broadest sense, with little official material that establish knowledge of what the Republic was like. ruled and existed in its most ancient periods.
The current “Old” Republic
Now, 24,000 years is a a lot of history, and for the most part, our current understanding of what is more commonly called the “Old Republic” by title (it was, throughout its history, always the Galactic Republic) is deliberately vague. While the Expanded Universe thrived on exploring this period through things like the Tales of the Jedi comics, and the most famous BioWare and Obsidian’s worldbuilding in the Knights of the Ancient Republic seriescontemporary Star Wars canon has treated this era as little more than myth, beyond hints at elements of stories and characters from this period in the EU that still have some canonical influence. That, of course, may change as we approach projects like Mangold’s film “Dawn of the Jedi,” which will be set at a time similar to the formation of the Republic in about 25,000 BBY.
What we know about the Ancient Republic still bears some similarities with the more contemporary Republic in the Star Wars films. Coruscant has always been its seat of power, with the galactic core forming some of the Republic’s oldest member worlds and seats of power. The Jedi Order, also established around a similar time, has long had a relationship with the Republic in the spiritual and military sense as well. The advent of more widespread hyperspace travelas well as financial support from other ruling planetary powers, allowed the nascent Republic to expand its borders over thousands of years, taking in more member worlds, and inevitably also facing conflict as other galactic powers crossed the paths The conflict defines much of what we know about this period of galactic history: we know at some point that the Republic clashed with the Zygerrian Empire and rebelled against their sanction of slavery, leading to a war between the Republic and the Jedi forces that ultimately dismantled much of the Zygerrian power. base We also know that the Mandalorians also enacted several crusades against the Old Republic and the Jedi in this era, leading to all-out wars multiple times.
The rise of the faction of Jedi that would eventually become the Sith—some 20,000 years after the founding of the Order—also created another major warfront for the Jedi and the Republic. Throughout their existence, the Sith waged multiple wars against the Jedi, bringing the Order itself closer to aligning with the Republic after the establishment of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. First conflict between the Jedi and Sith post-schism saw the last faction exiled out of Republic space, before the Sith became resurgent with their own galactic power, the Sith Empire, resurrected from the planet Moraband. Collectively known as the Sith Wars, these engagements pushed the Republic into alliances with the Jedi and the Chiss Ascendancy, bringing the last millennia of the Old Republic’s rule largely into the chaos of perpetual war, on many fronts against Sith and Mandalorian hostility.
The last Jedi-Sith War of this period saw a dominant Sith Empire effectively overrun many of the Republic’s holdings throughout the galaxy. Coruscant itself was sacked and occupied, and although it was eventually liberated by the Jedi, much of what the Republic was was still ravaged by interstellar conflict. A resurgent Jedi Order, alongside the remnants of the Republic army, went on an offensive that paved the way for the large-scale reform of the galactic institution.
Reform, Rise, and Fall
The liberation of Coruscant marked a significant turning point for the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic. The emboldened Jedi attacked the Mandalorians, leaving their own the homeworld of Mandalore in a state of ecological devastation as the Mandalorian Clans humiliated to end their crusades against the Republic. This rebirth also heralded the beginning of the perceived end of the Sith Empire as a galactic power, as Jedi and Republic forces clashed with Imperial and Sith holdouts on the planet Ruusan around 1,032 BBY. The near-total eradication of the Sith forced a handful of survivors to leave Moraband and go into hiding, leading to the creation of Darth Bane’s “Rule of Two” leading the Sith in the shadows for centuries. But the victory also allowed the Republic to breathe to look after millennia of forever wars had almost destroyed it in turn.
The end of the Jedi-Sith War led to the formal reform of the Republic, including the first establishment of a democratic union with the creation of the Galactic Senate. Part of the process of ushering in a new era of peace also saw the Republic undergo a widespread demilitarization process –what a little conflict that came into this era was largely handled by the Jedi Order, assisting the Republic’s enforcement branch, the peacekeepers of the Judiciary Forces with disputes and internal affairs. This peace eventually ushered in a period seen as the pinnacle of the Galactic Republic’s reach and power in the wider galaxy known as the era of the High Republic. Beginning in about 500 BBY, the High Republic was a defining period from expansionist policies throughout the Galactic Republic, from stronger efforts to map safe hyperspace travel routes into the Core Worlds and the Mid Rim leading to a push of Republic influence even further into the Outer Rim territories. This effort was also supported by the pioneering forces of the Republic, who worked with the Jedi Order to establish it linked communication network through the Republic’s advance into the Outer Rim, giving birth to the Holonet as one of the de facto communication and media networks in most of the Republic’s space.
But while the High Republic was seen as the height of its influence and reach, much like the expansionist policies of the Old Republic before it, it was a period that saw the Republic and the Jedi Order reunite involved in wider conflicts, particularly against the pirate forces of the Nihil encountered in the fringes of Republica space during this period. The light of the Alta Republic would fade around 100 BBY, as the galactic entity’s rapid expansion brought a growing sense of stagnation. As the Republic spreads further into the Outer Rim, absorbing worlds along the way, trade and commerce find themselves increasingly drawn from the lucrative fringes of Republic space and directly back to the cosmopolitan power center of the Core Worlds. Corruption spread, as an increasingly cumbersome senatorial body consolidated power toward the center of the Republic, and the limited reach of the Judiciary and Jedi Peacekeepers left crime and piracy rampant in most of the most extensive regions of the Republic. Corporate power in these regions has become increasingly common, leading to the growing influence of financial blocs and institutions such as the Trade Federation or the Banking Clans.
It is in the rise of these economic powers – given the political power and influence in the Senate, through backroom agreements and its own delegated representation in the government of the Republic – that the Republic established and bases for their own destruction. The Naboo World Trade Federation’s invasion, backed by the shadowy machinations of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, led to a power struggle in the Senate and the removal of Chancellor Finis Valorum , the last branch of a family that The dominant power in the Republic had united over generations after generations. From there, Sidious, acting under the influence of Naboo senator Sheev Palpatine, rose to power as the last Supreme Chancellor, also manipulating the growing discontent of worlds outside the galactic core, alongside his last apprentice – former Jedi Master and Count of Serreno. , Dooku-organize a formal secessionist movement within the Confederation of Independent Systems.
The Separatist Crisis, and the galactic conflict that arose from it in the Clone Wars – bringing with it the establishment of the first standing army the Galactic Republic had seen in thousands of years – was the culminating act of Palpatine’s manipulation of galactic events to align itself. as a usurper of political power in the Republic (emboldened by a series of dictatorial powers granted through emergency acts to support the war effort) and the architect of the Sith’s revenge on the Jedi Order . Nearly 25,000 years after its founding, the struggle that had once defined and then reformed the Republic shattered it entirely with the climax of the Clone Wars, the destruction of the Jedi Order in response to a alleged coup that gives Palpatine the opportunity. to dissolve the Republic and reborn as the first Galactic Empire. His reign may have been short, and replaced by a New Republic that still carries a lot charges and mistakes of his more recent past, but Palpatine achieved the unthinkable in the end of tens and thousands of years of spiritual and political influences with the end of the Jedi Order and the Republic.
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