Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/October 9, 2010

The Great Manifest Period of the Galactic Republic was a span of time that lasted from 20,000 BBY to 17,000 BBY. It was characterized by increased movement into the Slice and the establishment of the Expansion Region in its Rimward territories. Even as the Republic expanded astrographically, the government expanded its bureaucracy. The limit of fifty systems per sector that had been set by the early Republic continued to be ignored, causing already burgeoning sectors in the newly colonized areas of galactic space to be virtually ungovernable. Additionally, the era featured the creation of the Metellos Trade Route, which connected Coruscant to Metellos and other points west of the galactic center. The new hyperspace route increased trade among the newly connected systems. Around 2,000 years thereafter, the bureaucracy expanded with the establishment of the Bureau of Ships and Services to regulate and manage transportation across the galactic community.

Culturally, the Republic was undergoing change, as well. Vianism, a religion that had developed among the Core Worlds, became non-extant on its generative planets; however, it spread into the expanding regions of the galaxy and took hold within the Kanz sector. Additionally, the famed Shawken Spire saw its destruction during the Great Manifest Period, an event that was remembered over 800 years later. All the while, outside of Republic space, the two planets Neona and Kamino underwent dramatic climate changes. These events, which began during the Great Manifest Period, caused extinction for the Neonan species and forced adaption of the Kaminoan species. Nevertheless, the era and its corresponding boom were brought to an abrupt end by internal strife in the form of the First Alsakan Conflict.