The galaxy

"Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff [&hellip;]"

- Han Solo

The galaxy, as it was commonly referred to, was one of the many galaxies in the universe. Composed of a collection of stars, planets, and other astronomical objects, it was originally formed by a super-massive black hole in its center. The galactic disk would eventually span over 100,000 light-years in diameter, and become home to countless sentient species and star systems. The galaxy would serve as the setting for trade, politics, and war throughout galactic history. In historical memory, the galaxy would see the successive eras of the Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire, New Republic, First Order, and others, and was home to the Force-using orders of the Jedi and Sith.

Astrography
Divided into regions, the Deep Core served as the innermost and most brightly lit region of space, while it was followed by the populous Core Worlds where the human species would begin. It would be followed by the Colonies, Inner Rim, Expansion Region, Mid Rim and Outer Rim Territories. Areas of the galactic disk could be referred to as the galactic north, south, east and west, in which the Western Reaches existed in the galactic south. The Unknown Regions existed to the galactic west, and remained largely unexplored throughout galactic history owing to many trade routes heading outwards towards the galactic east, while Wild Space referred to regions inhabited by sentient species but never fully charted, explored, and civilized.

Due to the unimaginably large distances between systems, spacecraft utilized a propulsion system known as a hyperdrive to travel through hyperspace, an alternate dimension where a starship could take advantage of the wrinkles in the fabric of realspace to reduce journey time significantly, effectively "jumping" from point to point without having to travel directly between them. Some time after the Battle of Endor, the First Order discovered sub-hyperspace, which was utilized by their superweapon, Starkiller Base. When it was fired, the weapon managed to destroy the Hosnian system within minutes, despite it being tens of thousands of light-years away.

The galaxy had at least two companion galaxies, one of which was known as the Rishi Maze. Notable points of interests were the 50 wonders of the Core, 30 wonders of the Mid Rim and the 25 wonders of the Outer Rim.

Early history
About ten millennia before the Battle of Yavin, one or more ancestor species discovered the hyperdrive, which opened the galaxy up for exploration and travel. Some like Hera Syndulla believed that the space-faring purrgils inspired sentient beings to develop the hyperdrive and travel the stars.

At some unknown point, Force-sensitive beings gathered from all over the galaxy to form the Jedi Order, which was dedicated to peace and justice. According to Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi Order became the guardians of peace and justice for over a thousand generations in the Old Republic. Later, a group of Force-users split from the Jedi to form the Sith during the Hundred-Year Darkness. In one of their wars, Malachor was devastated during the Great Scourge of Malachor, which left the battlefield littered with the petrified corpses of the death Sith and Jedi combatants.

The Sith eventually built a galactic-wide empire through the use of slave labor. . During their period of galactic dominance, the Sith built a Sith shrine on Coruscant. After the Sith were driven away, the Jedi built a Jedi Temple over the shrine's foundations. By 3966 BBY, galactic travelers were navigating hyperspace using hyperspace sextants.

Roughly a millennium before the Battle of Yavin, the Sith were defeated by the Jedi and driven into hiding. However, one Sith named Darth Bane survived and instituted the Rule of Two; passing the Sith legacy down to his apprentice. While the Old Republic collapsed, members of House Vizsla recovered the Darksaber from the Jedi Temple and used it to rally and unify the Mandalorians. The Jedi also defeated the Zygerrian Slave Empire.

Galactic Republic
A thousand years before the outbreak of the Clone Wars, several star systems united to form the Galactic Republic, which was based on the planet Coruscant. As the home of the Galactic Senate, Coruscant would become the political capital of the galaxy. The Republic would become the dominant galactic government until the Separatist Crisis With the establishment of the Republic, the Core Worlds underwent a wave of expansion by settling new worlds and establishing trading colonies. In the process, they also cut deals with native populations or simply overran them. In 1019 BBY, the Yavin Code was established during the Yavin Convention to govern the treatment of prisoners.

Appearances
The galaxy appears in literally every single piece of Star Wars media. This list only includes specific mentions, descriptions, and hologram appearances of the galaxy.