Rebel Alliance

The Alliance to Restore the Republic, commonly called the Rebel Alliance or the Rebellion, was the resistance movement that opposed the tyranny of the Galactic Empire and its New Order. Its roots predated the Empire itself, reaching back to the final years of the Galactic Republic. Forged from scattered rebel cells by Senator Mon Mothma of Chandrila, Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan, and the militant Saw Gerrera, the Alliance fought the Galactic Civil War and was eventually reorganized into the New Republic.

Origins in the dying Republic#

The Alliance's roots lay in the Clone Wars, when the Jedi Order helped create resistance units on Separatist-held worlds, such as the Onderon rebels, under a plan proposed by Anakin Skywalker. At the same time, members of Chancellor Palpatine's own Loyalist Committee, including Bail Organa, Padmé Amidala, and Mon Mothma, began to object to his accumulation of emergency powers. When Palpatine abolished the Republic and crowned himself Emperor, those objections hardened into quiet opposition.

In the early years of the Empire, Mon Mothma and Bail Organa worked from within the Senate while reaching an unofficial understanding with the Partisan leader Saw Gerrera: Gerrera would supply the basis of a rebel army, Organa would serve as the ideological heart of their cause, and Mothma would build the political coalitions to oppose the Emperor. These three would prove the principal architects of the Rebellion.

The early cells#

By 5 BBY a number of rebel cells were operating across the galaxy. Organa and the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano ran a clandestine network whose members were deliberately kept ignorant of one another so that capture could not compromise the wider movement; intelligence reached them through Tano under the codename Fulcrum. Among these cells were the crew of the Ghost, the Spectres, and the Phoenix Cell. When the Spectres broadcast a rebel transmission across Lothal and Kanan Jarrus was captured, Tano led Phoenix Squadron to rescue him, and the protocol of total secrecy was relaxed.

The Rebellion steadily grew, recruiting the retired clone Captain Rex, acquiring B-wing and Mon Calamari warships, and establishing Chopper Base on Atollon. Against them the Empire deployed Grand Admiral Thrawn, who studied his enemies' philosophy and history to defeat them and who turned the rebel sympathies of Agent Kallus, the spy known as Fulcrum, to his own ends.

Official formation#

With full-scale rebellion on the horizon, Mon Mothma publicly condemned the Emperor after the Ghorman Massacre and, in the Declaration of the Rebel Alliance, resigned from the Senate to fight openly, calling the scattered cells to stand together as allies. Though the Alliance had already begun establishing a base in the Great Temple of Yavin 4, it was not yet ready, and Dantooine served as an early headquarters. The attempt to attack Lothal ended in defeat at the ambush on Atollon, where Thrawn's fleet crippled the Phoenix forces, but the wider Alliance survived.

Victory at Scarif and Yavin#

Alliance Intelligence confirmed that Galen Erso was building an Imperial superweapon capable of destroying entire planets. Leadership sent his daughter, Sergeant Jyn Erso, and Captain Cassian Andor to investigate, and their mission uncovered both the existence of the Death Star and a fatal flaw Galen had hidden in its design. At the Battle of Scarif the Alliance stole the station's blueprints, which were carried to Princess Leia Organa aboard the Tantive IV. The plans, ultimately delivered by the astromech R2-D2, enabled the Rebellion's decisive victory at the Battle of Yavin, where the first Death Star was destroyed. Footage of the triumph spread across the galaxy and proved that the Empire could be beaten, drawing thousands of worlds toward the cause.

Hoth, Endor, and the New Republic#

The Empire's relentless pursuit eventually drove the Alliance from Echo Base on Hoth. Rebounding through Operation Starlight and later operations, the Rebellion revealed its survival with a public strike on the Imperial Unity Day parade. When the Bothan Spynet uncovered the location of a second Death Star at Endor, Emperor Palpatine set a trap. A strike team led by Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, and Chewbacca landed to disable the station's shield while the Alliance Fleet, under Admiral Ackbar and Chancellor Mon Mothma's direction, engaged the Imperial armada in orbit. The Empire suffered a decisive defeat, and both the Emperor and Darth Vader died.

In the aftermath the Rebel Alliance was reorganized into the New Republic, though it still had to contend with Imperial holdouts and the chaos unleashed by Operation: Cinder. The Alliance's symbol was carried into the insignia of the New Republic, an emblem of the sacrifices that had restored freedom to the galaxy.