Galactic Republic/Legends


 * "The Old Republic was the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time. No need to note where it was or whence it came, only to know that... it was the Republic."
 * &mdash;Anonymous

The Galactic Republic was the name of the interplanetary government prior to the establishment of the Galactic Empire. In its latest years, it was said to be a benevolent, though ineffectual, democratic government tied up in layers of bureaucracy.

The Republic, as it was commonly known, had a highly democratic government that was able to sustain itself for over twenty-five thousand years. It is said that its complete history would "fill a thousand libraries."

Although it is commonly known as the Old Republic, this was not so until the establishment of the Empire; its name when it existed was the Galactic Republic or simply, the Republic.

Formation
The Republic was born with the signing of the Galactic Constitution c. 25,000 BBY, during the Unification Wars. Though history often recalls the Republic as an ideal utopia, a less biased examination reveals numerous galactic conflicts&mdash;such as the Hundred-Year Darkness, the Great Droid Revolution and the Vultar Cataclysm&mdash;throughout its reign.

Early years
For years the Jedi Knights and the ancient armies and navies of the Republic defended 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. Following that conflict were the conflicts of the Old Sith Wars of c.4,000 BBY which almost destroyed the Republic. But in the end, it emerged stronger than before.

New Sith Wars
In 2,000 BBY, the Republic once more faced a menace of the Sith, who had formed a New Sith Empire larger than its predecessors. This time the Jedi took the forefront of the war. The conflict fluctuated until the Battle of Mizra in 1,466 BBY, which saw one of the largest Sith victories in the war. The loss for the Republic was so great that a dark age began, with widespread social unrest and economic collapse.

The Republic itself shrunk to just a rump state surrounding the Core Worlds, the Sith Empire encompassing the rest of the Galaxy. The Jedi took over absolute authority, ruling the remainder of the Republic directly. The Senate was bypassed with sole governing power residing in the Jedi Supreme Chancellor, while the Republic's armed forces were absorbed into the Jedi Army of Light.

After nearly five hundred years of continued war, the Army of Light had beat back the Sith to the planet Ruusan. They were finally defeated in 1,000 BBY at the Seventh Battle of Ruusan, although the entire complement of the Army of Light at Ruusan also perished.

Following the battle, the Ruusan Reformation was enacted by Chancellor Tarsus Valorum. It returned power to the Senate, placed the Jedi under the authority of the Republic government, and disbanded the vast majority of its remaining military.

With peace and prosperity came a dangerous complacency. 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 flash points &mdash; like the Stark Hyperspace War and the Battle of Naboo &mdash; full-scale military conflict remained a distant memory.

The Decline of the Republic

 * "The Republic is not what it once was. The Senate is full of greedy, squabbling delegates. There is no interest in the common good." 
 * &mdash;Senator Palpatine

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, patron politics and personal agendas also hampered effective governing.

During this time the Senator of Naboo was Palpatine. His homeworld was under siege by the Trade Federation. Despite the full-scale invasion of the planet, the call to react was tied up in procedure. When Queen Amidala&mdash;the elected leader of the sovereign system of Naboo&mdash;spoke before the Senate, calling for action, she also called for a Vote of No Confidence in the leadership of the Republic under the persuasion of Palpatine and Chancellor Finis Valorum was voted out of office. This led to the then popular Palpatine into becoming the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.

Clone Wars

 * "There hasn't been a full scale war since the formation of the Republic." 
 * &mdash;Sio Bibble

(See Clone Wars)

Traditionally, the Chancellor could only serve two four-year terms, but Palpatine stayed in office much longer, due to the prolonged Separatist Crisis.

The crisis occurred when several of the Republic's member Star Systems and organizations united in order to separate from the Republic. This unified organization became known as the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Tensions between the Republic and the Separatists eventually escalated into all-out war, and the Clone Wars began.

The Senate granted Palpatine emergency powers to deal with the Separatist Confederacy in a motion introduced by Representative Jar Jar Binks. Palpatine's first move, widely supported at the time, was to create a vast army of clone warriors to serve as the Republic's fighting force against the Confederacy. The Republic had not previously needed an army, since until then any small conflicts with in the republic could be solved with the peacekeeping Jedi. However, the fact that the Confederacy had access to an enormous army of droid soldiers required the Republic to construct a more formal military to effectively fight.

In the ensuing years, the Senate increasingly ceded its power to Palpatine, who became the war's political Commander-in-Chief. Such actions were justified in the name of security, and eventually Palpatine did not need the approval of the Senate for many of his actions. Since the chancellor held a vast majority of supporters in Senate, this was considered a perfectly reasonable way to increase the wartime government's efficiency.

The End of Democracy
''"So this is how liberty dies&mdash;with thunderous applause." ''
 * &mdash;Senator Padmé Amidala

Tension between Palpatine and the Jedi began to grown as the war progressed. Many members of the Jedi council remained skeptical of Palpatine's growing powers, especially at the expense of the Senate the only body they were contractually obligated to serve. Eventually the Jedi, with the help of Anakin Skywalker, discover that Palpatine is actually the elusive Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith, and plot to assassinate him. Palpatine kills all four of his assassins, most notably Mace Windu. Chancellor Palpatine responded by issuing a decree which declares all Jedi to be enemies of the Republic after portraying them as anti-democratic. At the conclusion of the Clone Wars, Palpatine addressed the Senate and declared that the Galactic Republic would become a Galactic Empire so strong as to never be threatened by outside forces again. The Chancellor, who by this time had been grotesquely disfigured (he claimed by Jedi assassins), proclaimed himself to be the first Emperor of the galaxy. Deluded by Palpatine's charm and skill in conjunction with the effects of his Dark-Side powers of persuasion, the majority of the Senate cheered him on loudly in approval.

After twenty-five millennia, the Galactic Republic had ceased to exist. Only a shrunken, powerless Imperial Senate would continue to exist and decades later, shortly before the Battle of Yavin, Palpatine dispersed the Senate and the last remnants of the Republic were swept away.

After the fall of the Empire and Galactic Civil War, the Galactic Republic was re-established as the New Republic. Following the establishment of the New Republic, the Galactic Republic was often referred to as the Old Republic.

The Galactic Senate


The Republic began as a mutual protection and economic alliance among a number of planets in the galactic core. Each member state (system governments) returned a representative (a senator) to a central legislative body (the senate). Senators were the ambassadors of their home world, and member worlds were able to maintain their government and society in accordance with local beliefs, customs, and traditions. There was a wide variety of different local governments along the political spectrum: from monarchies to republics to hive-like communes. In some systems the senator was elected to that post, in others the world government appointed the senator. Naboo's monarch appointed their senator, while the Alderaan Council of Elders elected their senator out of their own ranks (usually the heir to the Royal House of Organa, as the heir was also the leader of the council).

When the Republic's power and influence expanded, many new areas of the galaxy were incorporated into the Republic. A reorganization of Senatorial representation occurred, 1,000 BBY during the Ruusan Reformation. The most common organization for these new territories was to group regions into Sectors of about 50 inhabited worlds. Each sector was represented by a Senatorial Delegation. When the number of sectors became too large, sectors were organized into roughly a thousand regions, each represented by one delegation to the Senate.

The Senate served as the governing body of the Galactic Republic, while the Jedi Order served as its defenders. Soon thereafter, the Senate, and therefore the seat of government, was established on the planet Coruscant, coordinates 0-0-0 in the standard galactic coordinate system, signifying its central location in the galaxy.



The Senate was an enormous building containing many floating platforms, each of which contained several senators. Each platform in the senate represents a "sector" of the galaxy, with one senator from each planet in that sector. Some platforms represented individual worlds, others the special interest guilds such as the Trade Federation. Along with the senators, the leaders of the individual member planets apparently also had the power to vote in the Senate and introduce legislation.

The members of the Senate would then elect a Supreme Chancellor from amongst their ranks who would serve as the Republic's head of government (and, by default, head of state) and chief diplomat. The Senate followed such parliamentary rules as a Motion of No Confidence, such as that introduced by Queen Amidala of Naboo which forced Chancellor Finis Valorum out of office in 32 BBY.

Senators received one vote in all matters, procedural and substantive. The Chancellor was elected from within the Senate. The assembly was in turn divided into individual committees, each specializing in specific fields of government administration, and which were responsible for creating legislation to be reviewed by the full assembly.

Although legislation passed by the Senate was binding to all member worlds, most of the everyday legislation followed by citizens of the Republic was created at the planetary, sector, or regional level. Therefore, the main functions of the Senate were to mediate disputes between members, provide for the common defense, and regulate inter-system trade. The Jedi, who answered to the Chancellor, became traveling representatives of the Senate responsible not only for protecting the Republic and its citizens, but also to serve as representatives of the Republic and as mediators for individual disputes.

The Republic's greatest failing was its lack of formal organization. Much of its operation was based on non-binding constitutional conventions, which were often ignored and undermined by corrupt and power-hungry politicians. Coalition governments were common with special interest defining the legislative agenda.



However, the waning years of the Republic were a time of corruption and great social injustice. The Senate became divided between those who genuinely wished to uphold the values and ideals of the Republic and those who wished to further their own goals. After a series of weak and ineffectual Chancellors and a crisis involving the invasion of the planet Naboo by the Trade Federation over a tariff passed in the Senate, the time had come for strong leadership to end the corruption.

The Republic military
The Republic's earliest days were not peaceful ones since as the Republic expanded across the galaxy, it encountered many warlike species. The Republic realized the need of an Army and Navy to keep the peace. The Republic's military forces would serve throughout many conflicts including the Great Hyperspace War, the various conflicts of the Old Sith Wars, and the New Sith Wars. After the Battle of Ruusan, the Republic decommissioned much of its military, retaining a small force only for security purposes. This force would later become known as the Judicial Department. This was to display the Republic's peaceful ideals, as the Republic used Jedi Knights as "keepers of the peace."

Several trade organizations, such as the Trade Federation, InterGalactic Banking Clan and the Commerce Guild, kept their own security forces in order to protect their profits, but they often abused this power, such as in the Battle of Naboo. Individual sectors also maintained their own security forces, such as Naboo's Royal Naboo Security Forces or CorSec from Corellia, and these were sometimes used to combat small threats. However there was no centralized command and the members of the Republic were loathe to make changes.

The Clone Wars changed all this. The Republic had no standing military to combat the Confederacy of Independent Systems and a Military Creation Act was proposed, which was strongly opposed by many of the Republic's pacifist leaders, such as Padmé Amidala of Naboo, who feared the possibility of going to war. Supporters of the Military Creation Act were Orn Free Taa of Ryloth and Ask Aak of Malastare.

However, a clone army had already been created in secret on the remote planet Kamino ten years earlier. When it became clear the Confederacy had no intention of negotiating with the Republic, the Republic adopted this army, along with AT-TE walkers, LAAT/i and LAAT/c gunships, A5 Juggernauts, Victory I-class Star Destroyers, Venator-class Star Destroyers, among numerous other crafts and vehicles, in a combined force known as the Grand Army of the Republic. The army was unleashed in 22 BBY on Geonosis against the Separatist droid forces. These loyal troops would serve on many battles throughout the conflict on worlds such as Muunilinst, Dac, Jabiim, Cato Neimoidia and even Coruscant.

In 19 BBY, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine transformed the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire. The loyal clone troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic would become the dreaded stormtroopers, while the regulars and starships were segmented into the Imperial Army and Imperial Starfleet, respectively.