The Cold War of the New Republic era is one of the most forgotten conflicts in the Star Wars Timeline, but also one of the most interesting and unique. Shortly after the Battle of Endur, the New Republic was formed, providing the basis for a new Galactic government after the eventual defeat of the Galactic Empire. Then, after the turbulent year of Operation Cinder and a galaxy-wide campaign against the Empire, the New Republic finally won at the Battle of Jakku.
After this, an era of uneasy peace began, with the New Republic ruling a reshaped and rebuilding galaxy, while the remnants of the Empire secretly reorganized into the First Order. All of this led to the sequel trilogy, with 29 years between the Battle of Jakku and the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In the 6 years before the sequels, all these elements are brought together during the Cold War, Star Wars Most forgotten canon conflict.
The Galactic Cold War began with the rise of the First Order
28 Abbey
The New Republic began its life with a push for demilitarization coming from Chancellor Mothma, with the signing of the Galactic Concordance. She saw how rapid militarization led to the rise of the Empire at the end of the Clone Wars and wanted to prevent that from ever happening again. so, The New Republic is generally decentralized, with more of a focus on individual planets’ security forces rather than a central, powerful fleet. This caused many, dubbed “centrists”, to become disaffected and nostalgic for the military days of the Galactic Republic – and even the Empire.
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Due to this dissatisfaction, and the remnants of the Empire both physically and ideologically lasting in the galaxy – especially in some areas of the Core and New Territories regions – the First Order was born. Remnants of the Empire that reorganized in the Unknown Regions with the help of Snoke slowly emerged in the galaxy, forming a power base that became very real when the centrists died. This formed the First Order, and began the Cold War.
Key Moments in the Galactic Cold War
28-34 Abbey
After the separation of the First Order, and the group became a real state of its own, the dominoes continued to fall for the New Republic. Shortly before the events of the Cold War, two incredibly important events took place, which made the conflict that it would later become. As with many of these Star Wars Timeline, both of these events have to do with the Organa-Solo family.
Leia is revealed as the daughter of Vader and the resistance is formed
During the later days of Leia Organa’s career as a senator in the New Republic, she began to feel that the government was stagnating. Wanting to make a real change, she began an investigation into a paramilitary group known as the Amaxine Warriors, which eventually led her to discover that their funding came from a shadowy network that was later discovered to be the First Order. Because of the investigation, she was targeted by another senator, Karise Sindian, who received the secret information that Leia’s father is Darth Vader.
Sindian orchestrated the public revelation of this knowledge, destroying Leia’s political career, and signaling her end as part of the New Republic. Unwilling to let evil persist and grow, Leia tried her best to continue fighting the rise of the First Order. to do this, She started her own military organization, the Resistance, with a membership made up of New Republic personnel who were tired of the government’s lack of action. Against a credible and growing threat.
Ben Solo falls to the dark side and joins Snoke
Ben Solo, learning of his true parentage through the public revelation of Leia’s father in the New Republic Senate, was distraught and struggling in his Jedi training with Luke Skywalker on Ossus. One fateful night at 28 Abbey, Luke decided to look into Ben’s mind to see just how disturbed the young man was – and Luke saw it was much worse than he could have imagined. It was too late, as Luke’s reaction to the painful images was to ignite his lightsaber, causing Ben to wake up and strike back.
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Skywalker was knocked unconscious, and Salvation unceremoniously destroyed the entire Jedi Temple, falling further to the dark side.. After meeting with Supreme Leader Snoke, with whom he had a mental connection for years, Ben joined the Knights of Ren. The knights pushed him even further, encouraging him to kill his fellow students and leading Ben to fall completely to the dark side. He bled his Kyber crystal, and it fell, leading to the iconic lightsaber of Kylo Ren – who joined the First Order soon after and led his forces.
First order sessions of the New Republic
Around the same time as the last two events, the First Order separated from the New Republic. Beyond member worlds, the political bloc of the First Order is mostly located in the galactic north, around the planets Mygeeto, Dantooine, Yaga Minor, and Bastion. Between First Order and New Republic space was an area known as the Trans-Hydian Borderlands, where many of the standoffs of the Cold War took place Over the next 5-6 years.
The Cold War mostly consisted of the First Order’s secret yet definitive build-up of the military, preparing an invasion force. The New Republic, led by Chancellor Lanever Wilchem ​​during this period, was unwilling to acknowledge the build-up, simply considering it a choice the First Order systems had made that was well within their rights under the Galactic Concordance. Far from this rapidity, the resistance of Argon kept a strict watch on the first order, which led to several plot points in The Cold War.
The Suraj engagement: Poe joins the resistance
After somewhat unstable teenage years, Poe Dameron decided to join the New Republic Defense Force, using the piloting skills his mother, an A-wing pilot, taught him. Poe was an ace pilot in the New Republic, but became uneasy about the Defense Fleet and the Senate’s lack of action against the growing First Order.. Above the planet Suraz 4, the First Order has illegally entered New Republic space to hijack a freighter called the Direct grandfather. Dameron’s Rapier Squadron fought back, but New Republic Command refused to investigate further, not wanting to risk war with the First Order.
Dameron took matters into his own hands, however, as he lost a pilot during the engagement. He went off on his own to track them down Direct grandfatherFound his place, and still get into trouble with the New Republic. After they caught wind of his actions, he was visited by General Leia Organa, who applauded his actions and recruited Poe into the Resistance, along with the rest of the Rapier Squadron.
The First Order secretly funds pirate groups
Much of the First Order’s support came from people longing for safety and protection from a criminal element of the galaxy. Many citizens knew that the empire was evil, but appreciated the strength and security that came with its military – a very common aspect of the rise of fascism in our real world. Play right into it, The First Order began funding pirate and criminal groups to raid settlements, later presenting itself as the security solution for the attack.
The First Order claimed that the New Republic did not care about the attacks that they themselves were causing, leading to many citizens supporting the First Order as their influence grew. The events of Star Wars Resistance Picture this tactic as it happened across the galaxy. The same tactic was also laid out in the Kasander sector, and the resistance there was immediately fought with their bombing fleet.
Agent Terex and the First Order Security Bureau
During the Cold War, former Imperial stormtrooper and crime lord Tereks joined the First Order, to the dismay of many in the organization. Captain Phasma in particular dislikes Terex because of his criminal background. Terex became an agent of the First Order Security Bureau, a wing of the Order focused on espionage and subterfuge, disrupting the New Republic status quo and resistance efforts..
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This brought Terex and his forces into direct conflict with Poe Dameron and his Resistance Squadron. The groups clashed several times as Terex tried to stop Dameron’s efforts to find Lor San Tekka.. Along the way, Terex eventually rebelled against the First Order himself, causing even more chaos for the Resistance as they tried to convince the galaxy of the First Order’s atrocities, as depicted in the Poe Dameron Comic series by Charles Sole.
The dog for Lor San Tekka & Luke Skywalker
As the leader of Black Squadron, Poe Dameron was personally commissioned by General Organa to search for her brother, Luke Skywalker. It began with the hunt for Lor San Tekka, an old friend of Luke’s who had clues to his whereabouts after the collapse of his Jedi Temple. The hunt, as before, has brought ladies and black squadrons in many places in conflict with the First Order.
The desperate search led Dameron to the planet Ovanis, the prison world of Megalox Beta, and even the former separatist world of Cato Neimoidia. Fighting clandestinely and small skirmishes across the galaxy, all to gather evidence and lead on the potential location of Lor San Tekka, eventually led Poe to Jakku. This is the opening scene of The Force AwakensThe film that includes the firing of Starkiller Base – the end of the Cold War.
The end of the Galactic Cold War and the fall of the New Republic
34 Abby – The Starkiller Incident
As seen in The Force AwakensThe hunt for Lor San Tekka ended on Jakku with the recovery of the map to Luke Skywalker, and San Tekka’s death. At the same time, the Starkiller Base was completed and fired on the Hasnian system, the site of the New Republic’s Senate at the time. This destroyed the New Republic and most of its defense fleetLeaving the Resistance as the only organized group opposing the First Order, and bringing the Cold War to a destructive end.
For such a turbulent time in the galaxy’s history, it’s shocking to see how few Star Wars Stories took place during the Cold War era. The era of enterprise and espionage seems to lend itself to this andor –Like spy-thriller perfectly, or a more action-packed pirate story with the first order involved secretly. It’s a fascinating blank canvas for storytelling that could and should be the setting for more Star Wars Stories go forward.