Cold War

"This whole affair is endemic of the current crisis. The Sith are on the rise. We are on the wane. The Mandalorians and the Hutts stand between us, creating confusion and jostling for advantage. Our options are limited. If we do nothing, millions of people die. If we fight back, we engage with them at their level."

- Jedi Padawan Shigar Konshi

The Cold War was a very intense stand-off between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic after 3,653 BBY. The Treaty of Coruscant ended the Great Galactic War, sealing the Sith Empire's victory. Peace was gained, but tensions between the Sith and the Republic remained high. In the thirty years after the War, fear and uncertainty gripped the galaxy. Border skirmishes and proxy wars between the Sith and Republic erupted and the uneasy truce between the two foes appeared to be on the verge of collapse.

History
"Thus began the unprecedented stalemate. The Jedi reconnecting with their roots, the Republic nursing its wounds, the Sith consolidating their power in a galaxy divided between darkness and light."

- Jedi Master Gnost-Dural

The terms of the punitive Treaty of Coruscant called for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of all Republic and Jedi forces from battlefields across the galaxy. As the Treaty went into effect, worlds once allied with the Republic were left defenseless, and were quickly absorbed by the Empire. Coruscant was also placed under the rule of the Sith Empire for a short time.

As the Jedi returned to their ruined temple on Coruscant, they were met by anger on the part of the Senate, who placed blame for the war at the feet of the Order. The Jedi, unable to stay on Coruscant where public opinion had turned against them, relocated to the world of their origin, Tython. Although his Empire was stronger than ever, the Sith Emperor no longer seemed to desire total conquest. He handed over control of the Empire to the Dark Council, a body of twelve Sith Lords who would oversee the day-to-day affairs of state. The Dark Lord went on to pursue his own mysterious goals as the Sith consolidated their power.

Border skirmishes and proxy wars between the Sith and Republic erupted and the uneasy truce between the two foes appeared to be on the verge of collapse. The conflict included small battles in the Outer Rim and other conflicts fought by proxy. One such conflict was the Civil War on Ord Mantell between the corrupt planetary government that remained loyal to the Republic and a guerilla force of separatists wishing to secede.

Although the galactic situation could easily have erupted into another galactic conflict, neither side was ready to wage a full-scale war yet again. During the Cold War, Kel Dor Jedi Master Gnost-Dural made a record of the events surrounding the treaty at the behest of the Jedi Council on Tython.

Behind the scenes
The Cold War is named after, and based on, a real-world state of detente known as The Cold War. Starting in 1945 at the end of the Second World War and ending in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Cold War was a decades-long standoff between the Western powers, and the Soviet Union and its satellite states. The primary "belligerents" of the war more-or-less had the opposite goals: the West was trying to stop the expansion of communism, while the Soviet Union was trying to advance its communist ideology. Like the Star Wars Cold War, many proxy wars and conflicts were fought during the Cold War, yet never between the primary participants. One of the most well-known of these proxy wars was the Vietnam War.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance
 * Timeline 1: Treaty of Coruscant
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic