Chapter 1: The Naboo Conference
The Battle of Endor
The Battle of Endor in 4 ABY marked a major turning point in the Galactic Civil War. The vast disparity in resources, manpower, and leadership between the Empire and Rebellion had always been a major handicap to the forces of democracy. However, with the disaster that befell Imperial leadership at Endor, the tide of war rapidly began to shift towards the Rebels.
The impact of the death of Emperor Palpatine cannot be overstated. Beginning as far back as the Clone Wars, power in the Old Republic, and eventually Empire, was concentrated centrally. The emergency powers granted to the Emperor marked a decisive shift from earlier eras. Past Chancellors were relatively weak politically, with the fracturious Senate often preventing consolidation of power. This would change with the election of Palpatine in 29 BBY.
Within his first decade of power, Palpatine implemented sweeping reforms in the crucible of the Clone Wars. The Office of the Chancellor, for example, grew from approximately 5,000 civil servants to almost 100,000 by the end of the war. A myriad of policies, from banking to pensions, was centralized in the Chancellery. The Senate granted the executive more power than any leader in history.
Of course, then-Chancellor Palpatine promptly used that power to overthrow the Senate and organize the Empire. From there, the flow of authority to the executive only accelerated. The Senate was reduced to a rubber stamp while the Imperial Civil Service took orders directly from the Emperor. Military governors appointed from Coruscant replaced local officials who traced their loyalties to their systems.
Thus, by the Battle of Endor, the Emperor was head of the administrative, military, judiciary, and legislative apparatus of the state. In perhaps his biggest error, Palpatine left no designated successor and his death at the hands of his deputy (and only potential successor) Darth Vader shattered the top leadership of the Empire.
The disarray in Imperial ranks was clear in the immediate aftermath of Endor. The death of dozens of senior officers on the Death Star II led to a power vacuum among a younger generation of officers. For example, Moff Kandor, a prominent military governor of the Mid Rim Kira system, attempted to seize power by rushing back to Coruscant, but left his post undefended. The Rebellion was quick to claim control of Kira. Needless to say, Kandor was thoroughly discredited.
The Naboo Conference Convenes
With Imperial leadership in chaos, the Rebellion was quick to take advantage of the power vacuum. Mon Mothma, leader of the Rebel Alliance, ordered a furious advance into the Mid Rim and Expansion Region. Rebel troops encountered little organized opposition, and were welcomed by many local systems as liberators. As Rebel forces advanced towards the Imperial Core, it became clear that Rebel leadership had not expected victory so quickly. There was little sign that the Rebellion had a clear plan for governance once the Empire was defeated.
Into this atmosphere stepped Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. Though Leia was previously recognized as a major leader in the Rebellion, it was only in the aftermath of Endor that she began to heavily assert her growing political influence. The Princess called for a "summit of equals" to discuss what the Galaxy would look like under the "New Republic," as it was beginning to be known as. Rebel leaders across the Galaxy accepted her proposal and began gathering at what is now known as the Naboo Conference.
The Naboo Conference was a turning point in the Rebellion. As the Empire crumbled before Rebel forces, the prospect of power was now impossible to ignore. In this atmosphere, the Naboo Conference began in earnest in 5 ABY.
Summit of Equals
The participants of the Conference can roughly be divided into four factions. First, there was establishment Rebel leadership, including Princess Leia, Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar, and Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Historians now know them as the Yavin Party for their shared experiences from the early Rebellion. The Yavin Party stood for the most basic principles of the Rebel Alliance, including a commitment to democratic governance and an end to centralized rule.
To the left of the Yavin Party was the Alliance for the Liberation of the Galaxy, also known as the Jedda Congress. The Jeddans represented a more extreme brand of rebellion than the Yavinites. Once led by Saw Gurerra, leadership had since been taken over by Kiss Munto, a hard-nosed partisan from Corellia. The Jedda Congress pushed for far more sweeping reforms than the Yavin Party. Their principal concern was ending human domination over the galaxy and purging the Imperial elite from the post-war system. Though smaller than the Yavin Party, Jeddans were far more organized as a political unit, with a clear hierarchy and set of ideals. The Jeddans drew much of their support from the working classes of the various systems, and they would push for social reforms to go alongside the political reforms of the Yavinnites.
The third and final faction at Naboo was the Unaligned Systems Movement (U.S.M.), or the Mandalore Party. Though many of the systems in the Galaxy detested the heavy hand of the Empire and were willing to fight alongside the Rebels, they wanted no part of the New Republic. They came to the conference determined to secure full independence for themselves.
The Mandalore Party was led by a long-time Mandalorian resistant fighter, Wren Kyrze. Kyrze was a distant relative of Duchess Satine Kyrze, a renowned pacifist that once led the system. Wren Kyrze, however, had no such qualms. Kyrze was also a staunch nationalist, and he wanted Mandalore to return to the hands of the Mandalorians and firmly outside any centralized political structure.
Thus, it was under these divisions that delegates to the Naboo Conference gathered on Theed. At this time, the Yavin Party was still easily the largest and it was with little resistance that Mon Mothma was elected chair and the conference began in earnest.
A Blueprint for a New Future
Now that it was increasingly clear that the Empire was on the verge of defeat, the Naboo Conference had to determine what the Galaxy would look like after it was gone. Everyone was in agreement on a few points: the government that replaced the Empire would be a democracy, civil rights would be restored, and power would be devolved from Coruscant to the individual systems. From this basic framework, delegates began hammering out more concrete ideas that would shape in the new Galactic order.
With heavy pressure from Kyrze and the U.S.M., delegates did agree to a groundbreaking proposal. Once the war was over, systems would be allowed to hold a plebiscite on the question of joining the New Republic. Systems that wished to leave would be allowed to. The battle-hardened armies of the Rebel Alliance would not be turned against independence minded planets.
This agreement effectively diffused what had been the long running issue in intra-galactic politics since long before the Clone Wars. The Clone Wars had been sparked by the desire for greater autonomy, and though Palpatine had exploited those goals to create the Empire, he was not behind the basic sentiment in Mid and Outer Rim systems that led to the creation of the Confederacy. The Old Republic was much more forceful in insisting that systems join. The Rebellion was in no place to make such demands now.
Democracy Enforced
It further decided that liberated Imperial systems (not currently represented at Naboo) would be transitioned to democratic systems of government, regardless of what form of government they had before the Empire. The Old Republic was hobbled by competing forms of government represented in the Senate. Democracies, autocracies, and monarchies vied with each other for influence, and created enormous gridlock.
This decision was pushed by the Yavin Party, and it was not particularly popular with the Jeddans or the Mandalorians. They both saw it as overreach by the Yavinnites, though for different reasons. The Jeddans would have preferred indefinite military occupations of conquered systems until local Imperial governments were purged of enemies, while the Mandalorians saw it as yet more meddling from Coruscant.
In the arc of the still-to-be-formed New Republic, this was perhaps the most important decision made at Naboo. By enforcing democracy throughout the future New Republic, Naboo unknowingly laid the foundation for a far more functional central government.
The Rhen Var Resolution
The Jedda Congress was not without victories at the Conference. Kiss Munto strategically forced through a resolution that committed the Rebel Alliance to the complete annihilation of the Empire. The resolution, now known as the Rhen Var Resolution, declared that all Imperial officers would forever be traitors to the Galaxy and that they would be imprisoned if they surrendered, or executed if they did not. Though the Yavinnites disliked its more extreme course of action, they were backed into supporting it, as they did not want to lose the support of the people of the Galaxy who seemed to overwhelmingly support it.
The Rhen Var Resolution was invoked hundreds of times over the next few years. Systems rising up to join the Rebellion would use it to justify the execution of Imperial garrisons that had tormented the local citizens. Through this thin veneer of legality, citizens of the Empire would justify terrible deeds against both Stormtroopers and officers.
The New Jedi Order
The final issue the Naboo Conference dealt with was the future of the Jedi Order. While the Jedi Order was deeply integrated with the Old Republic, it was clear to all that Luke Skywalker himself could not perform the same services. The Conference ultimately decided that Master Skywalker could rebuild the Order but the Jedi would play no part in politics going forward. The Order would be allowed to send one non-voting delegate to any future legislative body, but they would not lead armies or mediate conflicts as they had done in the old days.
The decision to separate the Jedi and Republic was a turning point in Galactic history. In the days of the Old Republic, the Jedi served several state functions, including mediators, diplomats, and generals. Many contemporary critics of the Order point to this relationship with the government as the prime reason the Order was targeted for extermination by Palpatine. The Jedi's own code was also increasingly twisted to fit their central role in politics. Recordings of the final showdown between then-Chancellor Palpatine and Jedi Master Mace Windu show that the Jedi were even willing to take extra-legal action to remove the Chancellor. It would take decades for the Order's reputation to recover.
The other consequence of the separation was the renewed need for a standing military. Without the Jedi to enforce the will of the New Republic, the incoming government would have to rely on force of arms. The Old Republic never had the political will or cohesion to support a standing military, but it would now be unthinkable to go without one. The New Republic would now take on the responsibility of maintaining a standing military, even during peacetime.
A strong Republic military was a cause for deep concern among the Mandolarians, who feared it could be used against the newly independent star systems. But in this instance, they were overruled, and the young Republic was born with a sword in its hand.
After a week of intense negotiations, the Naboo Conference concluded with little fanfare. Rebel Alliance leadership returned to their armies, ready to defeat the Empire once and for all. And the end of the Galactic Civil War was coming sooner than any of them suspected.