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The Galactic Civil War, also known as the Imperial–Alliance War, the Republic–Empire War, and later the First Galactic Civil War by the year 1244 ABY (2659 NE), was a major galactic conflict fought primarily between the Galactic Empire and the New Galactic Republic.
The Galactic Civil War, also known as the Imperial–Alliance War, the Republic–Empire War by the year 1095 ABY, and later the First Galactic Civil War, was a major galactic conflict fought primarily between the Galactic Empire and the New Galactic Republic in the Viau Skyriver Galaxy. The Alliance started out as a rebel faction dedicated to the restoration of the Galactic Republic, the government that the Empire had supplanted at the culmination of the Clone Wars in 19 BBY (1396 NE).
The origins of the conflict could be traced to the Galactic Senate during the final days of the Old Republic, sometime after the Clone Wars, where dissenting and prominent Senators, such as Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, secretly opposed the powers and authority that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine continued to accumulate under the guise of security and wartime measures since 22 BBY and officially began at the formal establishment of the Rebel Alliance in 2 BBY (1413 NE) with Mothma's Declaration of the Rebel Alliance.
The war did not begin in its real sense, that of an Alliance against the Empire with its goals and ideals laid out for the Skyriver galaxy, until nearly two decades after the rise of the Empire, when various Rebel leaders signed the Corellian Treaty and issued the Declaration of Rebellion. Likewise, several Imperial citizens, despite the Empire's atrocities, ended up siding with the Empire, as they were reluctant to join a group similar to the Separatists from the Clone Wars. Initially, the Empire, especially Palpatine, did not consider the Alliance a significant threat, but rather a political tool to further consolidate power that would eventually lead to the dissolution of the Imperial Senate and a massive, unprecedented military build-up. In 1 BBY (1414 NE), the Rebel Alliance scored its first major victory against the Empire by stealing the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's planet-destroying battle station, in the Battle of Scarif. The plans were brought to the Rebel Alliance by Princess Leia Organa, with the help of companions, such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca in 0 BBY (1415 NE).
Resistance was galvanized after the Empire obliterated the planet Alderaan for Rebel sympathies, and after Skywalker destroyed the first Death Star at the fateful Battle of Yavin. Thereafter, the threat posed by the Alliance became real to the Empire, and more serious measures were drafted to restore Imperial control over the galaxy. Due to the arrival of the Empire of the Combine Race and their alliance with the Empire with trade of technologies and joining the Axis of Empires, while the Rebel Alliance also received support by joining the Alliance of Nations and officially becoming a governing stellar power as the New Republic. The civil war was extended for several centuries and expanded beyond their galaxy.
The decisive moment came at the Great Battle of Endor, when the New Republic and the Alliance, against overwhelming odds, defeated the Imperial Military and destroyed the second Death Star, killing Emperor Palpatine, Supreme Commander Darth Vader along with some of the best minds in the Imperial High Command and major leaders of the Axis. From there, the Empire gradually decayed and fragmented, and despite resurgences under Ysanne Isard, Grand Admiral Thrawn, the clone of Emperor Palpatine, and Admiral Daala, over a period of fifteen years it was reduced to a mere remnant of its former self, while the New Republic expanded their control over the galaxy to restore peace after centuries of warfare.
Meanwhile, select Imperial officers, nobles, technocrats, warlords, and other loyalists discreetly regrouped beyond the known galaxy where they established the isolationist First Order as the faction to a greater force such as the Dark Empire, designed by the late Emperor Palpatine upon his resurrection until his defeat and death the second time by Skywalker and his granddaughter, Rey Palpatine.
In 951 ABY(2366 NE), the Empire fought in a final stand over the desert world of Jakku led by Counselor Gallius Rax, only to be defeated. Facing severe internal unrest, the titular sovereign of the Empire, surrendered to the Alliance. On Chandrila, Amedda signed the Galactic Concordance with the Republic, officially ending the conflict and the Empire itself, however the remnants of it continued fighting well into the centuries.
Peace between the two warring factions wasn't fully realized in 1211 ABY (2626 NE) with the signing of the Bastion Accords between Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon and Chief of State Ponc Gavrisom, ending over a millennium of constant struggle.