Galactic Republic

The Galactic Republic was the democratic government that united much of the galaxy under a single state for over a thousand generations. Formed in the distant past and governed from the ecumenopolis of Coruscant in the Core Worlds, it was led by an elected Supreme Chancellor and the Galactic Senate, and it relied on the Jedi Order as its peacekeepers. After the Clone Wars, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, reorganized the Republic into the Galactic Empire, ending the democracy he had spent decades subverting.

Foundation and the Old Republic#

The original Galactic Republic was formed in the distant past, with Coruscant established as its capital. The city-world would remain the seat of the Republic for thousands of years. Multiple versions of the Republic existed across its long history, and historians referred to the earliest period as the "Old Republic." Hyperspace travel proved the key to expansion beyond the Core Worlds, allowing the Republic to draw distant systems into a single galactic community.

The High Republic era#

During the High Republic Era, the Republic actively sought out new hyperspace lanes and member worlds in the Outer Rim. Under leaders such as Supreme Chancellor Lina Soh and her predecessors and successors, the government worked to expand communications, forge alliances, and shut down brewing conflicts at the galactic frontier. The Jedi supported these projects, establishing outposts on many Outer Rim worlds. This expansion brought the Republic into conflict with the marauders known as the Nihil, whom it eventually moved to destroy through coordinated campaigns. The era also drew the Jedi and the civilian government closer together, with the Chancellor and her aides inserting themselves into matters once left to the Jedi Council.

Twilight years and corruption#

By its final centuries the Republic had maintained peace for nearly a millennium, but it had also grown mired in bureaucracy, layered legal precedent, and corruption. The Invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation exposed the Senate's unwillingness and inability to resolve a crisis, ending only when the people of Naboo forced out the occupiers themselves. Outlying worlds were often forced into one-sided deals and refused military protection while the Republic honored older agreements. As corruption spread, the Republic's citizens turned increasingly to escapism, with podracing circuits and other entertainments diverting public attention from the decay of the Senate.

The Clone Wars and militarization#

The Separatist Crisis, engineered by Count Dooku at Sidious's direction, split thousands of systems away into the Confederacy of Independent Systems. When the Clone Wars erupted, the Grand Army of the Republic, led by Jedi Generals and built from clone troopers bred on Kamino, became the backbone of the Republic Military. The war served Palpatine's designs at every turn. He used it to amass emergency powers, extending his term far beyond what was permitted and centralizing political and military authority in the Office of the Chancellor. He amended the Galactic Constitution repeatedly, securing near-total power over the military through the Reflex Amendment and authority over neighboring systems through the Sector Governance Decree. The Jedi continued to lead the Republic's forces despite growing public hostility and heavy casualties.

The Jedi and the Senate#

The Republic placed its full faith in the Jedi Order, whose allegiance was to the Senate. In the Republic's last decades the Jedi effectively supplanted the Judicial Forces as the Senate's arbiters, and when their ranks proved insufficient to defend the Republic in open war, they were compelled to lead the clone army. To the wider public, the Order remained mysterious, regarded by some as mystics and by others as warmongers, and as the Clone Wars dragged on, anti-war protests broke out on Coruscant decrying the leadership and the Jedi alike.

Reorganization into the Empire#

After nearly three years of warfare the conflict reached its climax at the Battle of Coruscant, where the Republic dealt the Confederacy a severe blow and Count Dooku was killed. As the Republic pressed the Outer Rim Sieges, the Jedi High Council grew increasingly wary of Palpatine, even contemplating his removal by force. At an emergency session of the Senate, Sidious publicly denounced the Jedi Order, accusing it of plotting to seize control of the Republic. With the Great Jedi Purge underway and the Separatists neutralized, he proclaimed himself Galactic Emperor. The Galactic Republic officially became the Galactic Empire, and the Galactic Senate became the Imperial Senate.

Memory and legacy#

In the decades after its dissolution, many citizens clung to the memory of the now Old Republic and its Jedi, while others came to accept the Imperial account of a weak and corrupt government rightly replaced. The Empire worked to erase visible reminders of the old order, renaming institutions and reshaping architecture into a severe Imperial aesthetic. After the Alliance's victory at Endor, the rebels declared themselves the New Republic in homage to the government they had fought to restore, dropping the title "Supreme" from the Chancellorship and rotating the capital among member worlds rather than fixing it on Coruscant.