The New Republic lost its capital and most of its leadership during the Hosnian Cataclysm
and despite a few holdouts and scattered forces across the Outer Rim, it no longer appears
to be a major power in the galaxy.
So, what happened?
How was the triumph of the Rebel Alliance squandered to the point where the Republic
they fought to restore could disintegrate so quickly.
The Republic wasn’t defeated in the Hosnian System or in any singular battle, but instead
defeated in victory during the decades before.
A defeat exemplified in a series of critical mistakes.
The terms of the Galactic Concordance, which officially ended the Galactic Civil War, included
various provisions; banning the recruitment of stormtroopers, removing Imperial rule on
Coruscant, and most importantly, forcing the Imperial remnant, including its surviving
Navy, to remain within a series of fixed boundaries across the galaxy.
The surrender of military equipment and the internment of warships should have been a
key aspect of any peace treaty, but by allowing the Imperial Navy to remain in operation,
albeit within a rump state, the Republic squandered a massive opportunity to not only demilitarize
the Imperial remnant but to incorporate its own enormous institutional knowledge into
their own forces.
Had the New Republic instead demanded that the Imperial Starfleet be split across the
galaxy, manned by skeleton crews and then either scrapped or pressed into Republic service,
the flight of Imperial veterans into the Unknown Regions would have been considerably more
difficult and would set back any attempt at rearmament by decades.
A military industrial complex was one of the defining aspects of the Galactic Empire and
it is entirely reasonable to dismantle such an apparatus when transitioning to a democratic
government.
This however should have taken place over at least a few decades.
Instead the Military Disarmament Act was passed before even the final peace treaty had been
signed, before the galaxy had been stabilized and before the galactic economy could adjust.
Weakening the Republic’s bargaining position at a time when it needed it most.
This mistake is compounded by the fact that, creating to a new form of government and the
institutions to run it, doesn’t happen overnight, especially in a galaxy comprised of tens of
thousands of inhabited star systems and various political factions attempting to take advantage
of the situation not to mention a well developed underworld and substantial criminal element.
Occupying major worlds with Republic soldiers might not have been a popular choice, but
it would have proven to the galaxy that the Republic existed outside of the walls of the
Senate and is capable of projecting, and defending its sovereignty.
In the prelude to the Clone Wars, galactic corporations were afforded far too much power
and influence to the point where they could compete with the Galactic Republic and impose
their own dominion across multiple star systems.
While such conglomerates were largely abolished by the Galactic Empire, key industries were
subject to heavy government regulation and existed largely to serve the state and the
military.
Such industries were massively impacted by the fall of the Empire and the Republic’s
reluctance to engage in even the barest of military spending encouraged these massive
industries to begin supporting rival regimes rather than undertake the massive financial
investment of transitioning into the civilian sector.
Had the Republic nationalized such industries and forced Kuat-Entralla and others to build
tractors and refrigerators instead of somehow clandestinely building Star Destroyers, the
New Republic wouldn’t have lost its military superiority to the First Order so quickly.
All the various forms of the Republic that have existed across the ages share a generally
de-centralized nature.
Planets and systems are free to manage their own affairs as they see fit and the Republic
intervenes only sporadically.
While this approach might work during an era of extended peace, during times of chaos,
a planet or system’s allegiance to the Republic might vary wildly across the galaxy.
Sullest for example might see themselves as Sullestans first, and members of the Republic
second.
The Rebellion before it was built on hope, but with nothing to replace it once hope was
no longer needed, there seemed to be little left to bind its members together.
The Rebellion was united together because of an external enemy and in turn became too
dependent on that enemy to survive.
The Rebellion and later the New Republic detested Imperial rule to such an extent that when
building their new government, they essentially did the exact opposite of the Empire whenever
possible.
A centralized bureaucracy, powerful state offices, a well financed military, these are
not inherently bad and might even have been necessary for the Republic to survive.
Unfortunately, the overriding theme in the actions of the Republic is that they deemed
anything remotely associated with the Empire to be incompatible with the New Republic.
One of the primary characteristics of a state is the ability of the governing body to exercise
supreme authority over its own affairs without interference from outside sources.
Of all the major galactic powers in history only the Empire truly achieved this and the
Republic was too scared to try.
It failed the test of a true state and perhaps only ever existed in name only.