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The Republic Military


RunningJaguar

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As I'm currently playing through SWTOR as a Vanguard and reading the Republic Commando books I've started to wonder why it is that the Republic thinks that the Sith are completely defeated, let their army deteriorate, and are shocked when the Sith return (again). This goes on for the 25,000 yrs of the Republic until it finally falls to Palpatine. In the case of the Clone Wars, the books explicitly state that the GAR is almost entirely clones, with very few volunteers.

 

How does no one in the Senate see the need for a strong standing army, particularly near the end of the Old Republic when Bethany Wessen finds out that the Clone Army came out of nowhere and previously the defense budget was negligible? The first few times are understandable, but this literally happens every few centuries for 25,000 yrs. How is this a surprise every time?

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As to your first question regarding the Sith: The Republic and the Jedi Order believed that Sith adherents were entirely wiped out in the Seventh Battle of Ruusan, which resulted in the destruction of the Brotherhood of Darkness. This battle occurred in 1000 BBY. With the believed total destruction of the Sith, the Republic underwent significant reforms called the Ruusan Reformation. Prior to the Reformation, the Jedi Order fielded its own Army of Light under the command of a Jedi serving in the Republic government as Minister of Defense. After the Reformation, the Jedi Order demilitarized and placed themselves under the authority of the Supreme Chancellor and the Republic's Judicial Department. See the link for additional details.

 

As we know, though the Brotherhood of Darkness was destroyed, the Sith lived on - Darth Bane was the sole survivor and reformed the Sith Order under his Rule of Two. Thus, the Republic would not know for quite a long time that Sith still existed (obviously they learn at some point prior to The Phantom Menace, since Mace Windu and Yoda discuss the Rule of Two).

 

The Galactic Senate did not see a need for a standing military after the destruction of the Sith because they believed that Sith adherents were the only true threat to the Republic. The next 1000 years would see very little need for a standing military, with the Jedi Order serving well in its capacity as peacekeepers, until the eruption of the Clone Wars.

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As to your first question regarding the Sith: The Republic and the Jedi Order believed that Sith adherents were entirely wiped out in the Seventh Battle of Ruusan, which resulted in the destruction of the Brotherhood of Darkness. This battle occurred in 1000 BBY. With the believed total destruction of the Sith, the Republic underwent significant reforms called the Ruusan Reformation. Prior to the Reformation, the Jedi Order fielded its own Army of Light under the command of a Jedi serving in the Republic government as Minister of Defense. After the Reformation, the Jedi Order demilitarized and placed themselves under the authority of the Supreme Chancellor and the Republic's Judicial Department. See the link for additional details.

 

As we know, though the Brotherhood of Darkness was destroyed, the Sith lived on - Darth Bane was the sole survivor and reformed the Sith Order under his Rule of Two. Thus, the Republic would not know for quite a long time that Sith still existed (obviously they learn at some point prior to The Phantom Menace, since Mace Windu and Yoda discuss the Rule of Two).

 

The Galactic Senate did not see a need for a standing military after the destruction of the Sith because they believed that Sith adherents were the only true threat to the Republic. The next 1000 years would see very little need for a standing military, with the Jedi Order serving well in its capacity as peacekeepers, until the eruption of the Clone Wars.

 

The Jedi Order knew that the capacity to fall to the dark side was always present, as well as the fact that historically, the Sith Empire always attacked without warning. So even when you dont need a large standing army and have Jedi serving as peacekeepers, events like the Mandalorian wars and the Jedi Civil War are always possible. So even though the Sith were assumed destroyed, they would obviously come back (as they did) but the Republic was so unprepared for this eventuality that they essentially had to use a slave army created overnight b/c there were no citizens serving as soldiers for the most part. This is what I find confusing; the sith were going to be back and rampage the galaxy, and the Masters had to know it, but they did nothing to prepare for it.

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The Jedi Order hardly did "nothing." They continued to teach the ways of the Force, to resist the temptations that could lead to the Dark Side, and to build up their Order. In addition, as part of the Ruusan Reformation, they gained the legal right to take children from their families and raise them inside the Order. Even those children who would not become full Knights would continue to serve the Republic, in capacities such as the Jedi Order Agricultural Corps.

 

We're talking about a period of one thousand years of relative peace. There were no conflicts large enough to convince a majority of individuals who would be involved in the decision that a standing military, other than the reformed Jedi Order, would be necessary for the Republic's protection. That's one hell of a long time to have peace, and so, yes, the Republic and the Jedi Order both fell into complacency. This is how Bane's Rule of Two was able to succeed - by vanishing into the dark, not striking the Republic periodically through organizations such as the Brotherhood of Darkness or building new empires, and allowing the Republic to fall based on its belief that it was safe.

 

You are correct that the Sith had previously disappeared only to reappear later (as this game itself shows, with this empire descended from the original Sith Empire), but I think it's fairly easy to see how the Republic chose to believe that peace would continue after such an unprecedented lengthy period of it.

 

Now, while I can see how the Republic and the Jedi fell into the trap of complacency over time, what has me perplexed is how anyone thought it was a good idea to disband not merely the Jedi Army of Light but the Republic military as well after only a short period of time following the Seventh Battle of Ruusan. Disbanding the Army of Light makes perfect sense; after all, you don't want to run the risk that a militarized Jedi Order might decide it would provide better political leadership than the elected Senate. Disbanding the Republic military at the same time was stupid, even though, as I said above, I can understand why it might be disbanded much farther down the road - after, say, a period of a hundred years of relative peace.

 

(The real-world reason for the Ruusan Reformation, of course, was the need to make the Republic as previously depicted in comics published prior to the release of The Phantom Menace consistent with the contents of that movie. The 25,000-year-old Republic, as depicted in the comics, was based on Obi-Wan's comments in A New Hope that Jedi had been guardians of peace and justice for "a thousand generations." In TPM, however, Sio Bibble cited the formation of the Republic as only having occurred one thousand years ago.)

Edited by psychogobstopper
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There was simply no grand Republic Army. There were however planetary defense forces, and individual fleets and militaries for individual sectors.

 

problem was, many of these forces were made up of dreadnaughts, old capital ships that required crews of thousands. When war broke out on a massive scale, there weren't enough resources to deploy these ships on a massive scale.

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