Galactic Republic

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Homeworld:
  Coruscant

• 

From the Movies

The Old Republic was the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time. Before a cruel and ruthless Empire supplanted it, the Old Republic was the democratic union that governed a galaxy for thousands of years. Those who lived in it knew it as the Galactic Republic, or more simply, the Republic.

Ruling the Republic was the Galactic Senate, a governing body comprising elected or appointed representatives from across the galaxy. From within that Senate, a Supreme Chancellor was elected. Justice and peace in the Republic was protected by the Jedi Knights, a noble order of Force-sensitives.

As the Republic grew more and more powerful, many of the bureaucrats and Senators that ran the government grew increasingly corrupt or complacent. The bureaucracy that had grown and festered over millennia choked any attempt at proactive government. Furthermore, partisan politics and personal agendas also hampered effective governing.

Into this mire stepped the ambitious Senator Palpatine from Naboo. His homeworld was under siege by the greedy Neimoidian Trade Federation, as protest to increased tariffs and taxation to outlying trade routes. Despite the full-scale invasion of the planet, the call to react was tied up in procedure. When Queen Amidala -- the elected leader of the sovereign system of Naboo -- spoke before the Senate, calling for action, she also called for a Vote of No Confidence in the leadership of the Republic.

The well-meaning but politically clumsy Chancellor Valorum was voted out of office. In his place, Palpatine was elected Supreme Chancellor. Despite promises of bringing order and compassion back to the Republic, the first decade of his term was blighted by great political upheaval. A separatist movement, led by the charismatic Count Dooku, began splitting the Republic, and it was all the Jedi could do to maintain order.

This chaotic political climate precipitated the dark times that overcame the galaxy. The Republic crumbled and was rebuilt in the guise of the New Order.

From the Expanded Universe

With the signing of the Galactic Constitution on Coruscant more than 25,000 years ago, the Republic was born. Though history often recalls the Republic as an idyllic utopia, a less biased examination reveals numerous galactic conflicts -- such as the Hundred-Year Darkness, the Great Droid Rebellion and the Vultar Cataclysm -- throughout its reign.

Time and again, it fell to the Jedi Knights and the ancient armies and navies of the Republic to defend against violence. Twenty millennia after its founding, the Republic saw one of its most destructive conflicts in the Great Hyperspace War. A forgotten menace, the long-banished Sith Empire, launched a full-scale incursion into Republic space. Many worlds were forever scarred in that battle, but the Jedi were able to repulse the invaders.

A thousand years later, Sith acolytes sparked what would become known as the Great Sith War. Again, the Jedi and Republic banded together to stop the insatiable Sith lust for conquest. The last great conflict of its kind occurred three millennia later, at the Battle of Ruusan. The Jedi Army of Light and the Sith Brotherhood of Darkness clashed on the planet Ruusan. That conflict saw the extermination of the Sith order. Many in the galaxy saw this battle as the last of the great wars, and the start of a new era of peace and stability in the Republic.

With peace and prosperity came a dangerous complacency. While corruption began to rot the Republic government, the vast armies and navies were downscaled, and the Republic came to rely on the Jedi more and more for the maintenance of civility. Despite a few isolated flashpoints -- like the Stark Hyperspace Wars and the Battle of Naboo -- full-scale military conflict remained a distant memory.

This lull made the rise of the Clone Wars all the more tragic and deadly. That conflict precipitated the rise of the Emperor and the galaxy's dark times. The Emperor revised the Galactic Constitution, and replaced the Old Republic with his New Order. Those in the Core saw this as welcome change -- finally, someone not afraid to do something about the state of the Republic. During these dark times the Jedi Knights were eradicated. The Emperor had the vast HoloNet array dismantled, allowing him to control the flow of information across the galaxy. Worlds that rebelled were crushed under the new regime, while those in the insulated Core Worlds never saw the worst of the atrocities. Coruscant and Galactic City were renamed Imperial Center and Imperial City. The Imperial Navy grew far beyond the limits of the Republic military of old.

Responding to these outrages came the Alliance to Restore the Republic, otherwise known as the Rebel Alliance. A Galactic Civil War erupted between the Alliance and the Empire. Enacting emergency powers, the Emperor suspended the Senate, sweeping the last fragments of the Republic away. Three years later, the Alliance was victorious over the Battle of Endor. With the Empire defeated, the Alliance declared a New Republic in the New Order's place.

Behind the Scenes

Early draft scripts of Star Wars refer to the system of government that preceded the Empire as the "Republica Galactica." Obi-Wan speaks wistfully of the Old Republic in A New Hope, though the government remained unseen until The Phantom Menace. The expanded universe establishes that the term "Old" Republic would not come into vogue until after the government fell -- thus the more correct term, Galactic Republic.