Republic Era

Approximately a thousand years prior to the Invasion of Naboo, the Jedi and the Sith were engaged in intense war with one another. The Sith were eventually defeated because their insatiable pursuit of power led them to infighting, making them vulnerable to the Jedi, who nearly eradicated them. However, one Sith Lord, Darth Bane, managed to survive. Recognizing that the Sith's downfall was a result of their greed, Bane concluded that they needed to operate covertly to exact their revenge, prioritizing cunning and secret plots over outright aggression. Consequently, he established the Rule of Two, which dictated that only two Sith Lords could exist at any given time: a master embodying the power of the dark side of the Force, and an apprentice to undergo training under the master, eventually assuming their role. Darth Bane took on his own apprentice, Darth Zannah, who was rumored to have killed Bane in a lightsaber duel on Ambria; nevertheless, Bane's apprentice continued his tradition and moved forward with the Grand Plan.

During this era, the Galactic Republic underwent a process of reformation, and the Jedi Order experienced a rise in political influence. They rebuilt the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the capital world, to train Jedi younglings in the ways of the Force. The High Republic Era was a notable period within the Republic's reign, characterized by the government's peak strength.

The Republic Era, also referred to as the "era of the Republic," the "Age of Republic," or the "Great Peace," was distinguished by the absence of wars that engulfed the entire galaxy. However, there were smaller conflicts within specific sector and system regions, such as the Stark Hyperspace War or the Mandalorian Civil War, which demanded the attention and resources of the Republic and the Jedi. Despite these localized conflicts, Janyor and other historians from the New Republic period remembered it as the last era of peace in galactic history.

The "Twilight of the Republic," also known as the "Twilight of the Old Republic," describes the final years of the Republic Era. Long after Bane's rule was established, the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Plagueis acquired an apprentice, Darth Sidious, who was the Sith identity of Senator Sheev Palpatine from Naboo. Sidious ultimately killed his master while he slept, once he no longer had any use for him.

One significant event during this period was the election of Padmé Amidala as the Queen of Naboo.

The "fall of the Republic" was initiated by Sidious, who orchestrated various conflicts throughout the galaxy to consolidate his power, starting with the Invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation. He exploited this event to force the then Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum to be voted out of office, manipulating Queen Amidala into calling for the vote because of her frustration with the Galactic Senate's lack of action regarding the invasion. Valorum was subsequently replaced by Senator Palpatine himself. Continued governmental inaction and corruption eventually led to the Separatist Crisis, during which thousands of worlds seceded from the Republic, forming the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a separate governing body. Sidious and his Sith apprentice, Darth Tyranus, who led the Separatists under his public persona as Count Dooku, fostered tensions between the two factions, ultimately leading to the outbreak of the pan-galactic Clone Wars in 22 BBY.

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 not been completely died out at the end of their war with the Jedi, and had been plotting for centuries to overthrow the Jedi and the Republic.

The Clone Wars persisted for three years, during which the Republic increasingly became a militarized state, citing the need for 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 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, another power given to Chancellor Palpatine was control of the InterGalactic Banking Clan.

In the closing days of the Clone Wars in 19 BBY, the Separatists experienced a series of significant defeats, including the deaths of Dooku and General Grievous at the hands of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, respectively. Simultaneously, 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 apprehend him ultimately failed and fostered Skywalker's fall to the dark side and rechristening as Sidious' new apprentice, Darth Vader. Vader was subsequently dispatched to lead Operation: Knightfall. Concurrently, 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 throughout the galaxy.

With the Jedi Order decimated, Palpatine delivered the proclamation of the New Order to an emergency session of the Galactic Senate, declaring the Jedi to be 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 over the galaxy.

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