Republic Era

History

Origins

The Jedi and Sith engaged in war approximately a thousand years before the Invasion of Naboo. The Sith were eventually defeated due to their own greed for power, which led them to turn against each other. This infighting allowed the Jedi to overcome the weakened Sith, nearly wiping them out. However, one Sith Lord, Darth Bane, survived. Realizing that the Sith's downfall was caused by their greed, Bane determined that the Sith needed to operate covertly to seek revenge, prioritizing cunning and conspiracy over direct conflict. Consequently, he established the Rule of Two, which stipulated that only two Sith Lords could exist at any given time: a master representing the power of the dark side of the Force, and an apprentice to train under the master and eventually take their place. Darth Bane chose Darth Zannah as his apprentice, who was rumored to have killed Bane in a lightsaber duel on Ambria; nevertheless, Bane's apprentice carried on his legacy and continued with the Grand Plan.

The Great Peace

During this period, the Galactic Republic was re-established, and the Jedi Order experienced political prominence, reconstructing the Jedi Temple on the capital world of Coruscant to train Jedi younglings in the ways of the Force. The High Republic Era was a specific time during the Republic's rule when the government was at its most powerful.

The Republic Era, also referred to as the "era of the Republic," the "Age of Republic," or the "Great Peace," was noted for the absence of wars spanning the entire galaxy, although the Republic and the Jedi were occupied by smaller conflicts within sector and system, such as the Stark Hyperspace War or the Mandalorian Civil War. However, Janyor and other historians from the New Republic period remembered it as the final era of peace in galactic history.

Fall of the Republic

The final years of the Republic Era were known as the "Twilight of the Republic," or the "Twilight of the Old Republic." Long after Bane's rule was implemented, the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Plagueis took Senator Sheev Palpatine of Naboo, who secretly operated as Darth Sidious, as his apprentice. When Sidious no longer needed his master, he killed him in his sleep.

During this time, Padmé Amidala was elected as Queen of Naboo.

The "fall of the Republic" began as Sidious initiated several conflicts across the galaxy to gain power, starting with the Invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation. He used this event to manipulate Queen Amidala into calling for a vote of no confidence against then Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum due to her anger over the Galactic Senate's inaction regarding the invasion, which resulted in Valorum being replaced by Senator Palpatine himself. Further governmental inaction and corruption ultimately led to the Separatist Crisis, where thousands of worlds seceded from the Republic to form the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a separate government. Sidious and his Sith apprentice, Darth Tyranus, who publicly led the Separatists as Count Dooku, fostered tensions between the two factions, which eventually led to the outbreak of the Clone Wars in 22 BBY, a conflict that spanned the entire galaxy.

The First Battle of Geonosis signified the end of the Great Peace and the beginning of the Clone Wars. The Republic, having mobilized a clone army to serve as its new military, engaged in war against the Separatists, who were led by Count Dooku, a former Jedi who had become a Sith Lord. The Sith had secretly plotted for centuries to overthrow the Jedi and the Republic, having not been completely died out at the end of their war with the Jedi.

The Clone Wars continued for three years, during which the Republic became increasingly militarized in the name of maintaining order and security against the Separatist threat. Chancellor Palpatine, whose term had already been extended due to the Separatist Crisis, remained in office throughout the conflict, consolidating political and military power within the Office of the Chancellor through the various wartime emergency powers granted to him by the Galactic Senate. After he and Dooku manipulated Rush Clovis and orchestrated the Separatist takeover of Scipio, Chancellor Palpatine was also given control of the InterGalactic Banking Clan.

As the Clone Wars drew to a close in 19 BBY, the Separatists suffered several major setbacks, including the deaths of Dooku and General Grievous at the hands of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, respectively. Meanwhile, the Jedi High Council, growing increasingly suspicious of Palpatine due to his unprecedented wartime powers, uncovered his identity as the elusive Sith Lord Darth Sidious. The Jedi's attempt to arrest him ultimately failed, leading to Skywalker's fall to the dark side and his renaming as Darth Vader, Sidious' new apprentice. Vader was then tasked with leading Operation: Knightfall. Simultaneously, Palpatine issued Order 66 to the Republic Army, initiating the first phase of the systematic destruction of the Jedi Order, as clone troopers executed their Jedi Generals across the galaxy.

With the Jedi Order decimated, Palpatine addressed an emergency session of the Galactic Senate with the proclamation of the New Order, denouncing the Jedi as enemies of the state and transforming the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire, with himself as the Galactic Emperor. Simultaneously, Vader destroyed the Separatist Council and deactivated the Droid Army, effectively ending the Clone Wars and solidifying the return of Sith rule to the galaxy.

The following years were known as the Age of the Empire.