It is prominently featured in the prequel trilogy of Star Wars films, offering a glimpse into its history and functioning.

Regardless of its origin, there is a consensus that hyperspace travel predated the Republic and played a crucial role in enabling the formation of a "galactic civilization."

It allowed for interstellar travel and facilitated the establishment of central governments spanning multiple planetary systems, ultimately leading to the rise of the Galactic Republic.

[4][5] According to the large body of films and other fiction that belong to the Star Wars franchise, the Old Republic was formed 25,000 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)[6][7] when the first "Galactic Constitution" was signed on Coruscant,[citation needed] after hyperdrive connected many worlds in the Core and enabled the establishment of an interstellar central government.

[citation needed] The Core Worlds, such as Coruscant and Alderaan, were notable for their prosperity, which was later matched by the Colonies, while the Inner Rim and Expansion Region were a bit less secure and wealthy; the Mid Rim was an unsafe region that saw much of the fighting Galactic Civil War on planets such as Naboo and Kashyyyk, as it was far from the Republic's military concentrated in the Core.

[citation needed] The Sith (which formed in the Republic's early years) return to their original strength and invaded Malachor.

[citation needed] The multimedia project Star Wars: The High Republic depicts the galaxy 200 years before The Phantom Menace.

After Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum came to power, a standoff between the Trade Federation and the Republic led to the Invasion of Naboo (32 BBY), depicted in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

[13] Dissatisfied with several problems in the Republic, such as ineffectual government, heavy taxes, and perceived favoritism of the Core Worlds over the Outer Rim planets, the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS) was formed in 24 BBY: several systems seceded from the Republic and formed a new state, thus triggering the Separatist Crisis.

[15] The Separatists became a huge threat to the Republic after some of the galaxy's mega-corporations allied with the CIS, as they possessed vast resources and private armies of battle droids.

[citation needed] Despite the high quality of its armaments and cloned troops, the Republic's war effort was initially hindered because most of the major industrial companies in the galaxy had, under the aegis of the Techno Union, sided with the Confederacy.

[citation needed] During the Clone Wars, the Senate increasingly granted enormous amounts of power to Palpatine, who was the Commander-in-Chief.

In time, the Jedi believed that Palpatine would not surrender his emergency powers, nor his position (which had long gone over-term) by the end of the war.

This suspicion was also shared by some senators, including Padmé Amidala of Naboo, Bail Organa of Alderaan, and Mon Mothma of Chandrila.

[citation needed] A small group of experienced Jedi led by Mace Windu attempted to arrest Palpatine for treason.

[clarification needed] The Jedi Padawans remaining on Coruscant were eliminated by Darth Vader, formerly known as Anakin Skywalker, and his personal legion.

Deluded by Palpatine's charisma and skill (and perhaps also by his considerable dark side power), the majority of the Senate cheered him on loudly in approval.

After the fall of the Emperor, remnants of the Empire were ordered to initiate "Operation: Cinder", a contingency plan created by Palpatine to annihilate both its organization, its followers and its enemies as an act of punishment for failing to prevent his demise, including the planets they have controlled.

The New Republic is first portrayed onscreen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), where it is depicted as the ruling government of the galaxy and primary target of the First Order, a neo-Imperialist military junta that sought to reclaim the Empire's legacy.

[18] In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), after the Battle of Exegol, Rey, a reformed Ben Solo and the Resistance have successfully put an end to the First Order, the Sith Eternal, and the resurrected Palpatine, making way for the Republic to be reborn anew.

The successor government to the Empire was explored as early as Marvel Comics' self-titled Star Wars series, which ran until 1986.

The New Republic per se debuted in the 1991 Star Wars Legends novel, Heir to the Empire, by author Timothy Zahn.

Member worlds and systems maintain their governments and societies as long as it does not defy any central and core Republican laws.

[citation needed] The Senate serves as the unicameral main body of the legislative branch, but has immense power over the entire Galactic Republic.

Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum was forced out of office by the Senate in a motion of no confidence, introduced by Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo, for example.

[citation needed] The main functions of the Senate are to mediate disputes between members, provide for the common defense, create and pass laws into effect that would benefit most of the Republic, and regulate inter-system trade.

Following a series of weak and ineffectual Chancellors, there is a crisis involving the invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation over a tariff passed by the Senate.

[3] They argued that Lucas offered a solution to the Fermi paradox: indeed, most of the Star Wars galaxy was conquered/colonized and submitted to the central government of the Republic rather quickly by the expansionist humans from the Core Worlds soon after they acquired the necessary rocket technology for interstellar travel, but there are still large uncharted Unknown Regions which are simply too far from the fashionable Core Worlds to have been fully explored (as exploration of the Unknown Regions is lethally dangerous[23]), let alone colonized.

[3]: 90–94  Thus, it's possible that the Solar System is also situated "in the Milky Way's version of the Unknown Regions", and that even if there are other species in the Milky Way, which may even have established a Star Wars-like Galactic Republic or Empire, the Earth and its human civilization have so far been in uncharted and dangerous hyperspace-travel territory (from that galactic civilization's point of view), and humans themselves are still too technologically limited to make contact with it.

"[25] George Lucas even confirmed that Padmé Amidala's line "So this is how liberty dies... to thunderous applause" invokes the Bush administration's passing of the Patriot Act and Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without public scrutiny.