Theory : How the Empire got away with so much, so fast

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"Remember back to your early teachings. Anakin. 'All those who gain power are afraid to lose it.' Even the Jedi."

-- Chancellor Palpatine


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Had a little theory about the Empire that I was mulling over recently...

I started to think, Why would the Empire -- which didn't exist all that long considering that it was still a Republic ( albeit really the Empire in all but name ) 19 years before A New Hope -- suddenly change to policies and methods of ruling that were drastically different from the Old Republic?

I think the main thing is change. People were tired of the Republic and its complacent ways, and something new was needed. Palpatine was there to fire up the populace with a new cause and reason, and I think this especially worked on younger citizens; as we no doubt see by the rise of COMPNOR.

The other thing I thought of was, How could the Empire pretty much blatantly get away with outrageous forms of enslavement, mass destruction, and genocide? Especially considering that, at least in its early years ( 19 - 10 years BBY ) the officers commiting these acts were still recruits and commanders in the Republic, where this sort of thing never happened.

I realize that propogranda plays a large part in the Empire, but a lot of regular citizens are aware of certain atrocities, such as the Ghorman Massacre. How could Palpatine allow his Imperial commanders and Moffs to commit such obvious, heinous acts of injustice? How could the Empire enslave whole non-human species with no criticism? How did fascism take hold in the Empire so fast?

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So, I got this theory about the Empire, and the relationship between its politics and policies, and that of the Sith...

My thought is that Palpatine didn't realize just how well his Empire was going to work practically overnight. He thought that, aside from the loss of the Jedi Order, things would pretty much stay the same until he could get his own Sith Army and Dark Side Adepts ( see the Revenge of the Sith novelization and the Dark Empire Sourcebook ) -- in addition to the Death Star(s) -- to watch over the worlds directly, thereby "correctly" being able to rule the populace without fear of reprisal.

It all backfired because Palpatine didn't realize just how unstable, when compared to himself -- who had patiently made plans for decades, no doubt helped by Sith disciplines -- regular human beings were going to be, and, to put it mildly, "screw up".

You've got Imperial commanders, Moffs, Grand Moffs, governors -- all people who now suddenly have a tremendous increase in personal power, and are looking to exert that power as much as possible. It's human nature in any large society that is held together by a dictatorship/fascism, and it makes sense what with everyone feeling "repressed" under the Republic. Now you could do literally anything all in the name of the Emperor, and no one would be there to call you on it. Certainly not the Jedi who no longer exist.

Regarding the proposed Sith Army : In a way, this could also tie into the theory that Palpatine is subtly controlling his military via the Force when engaged in nearby battles ( see the Thrawn Trilogy. ) Obviously, if he had survived long enough, he would've lived long enough to train more Darksiders and Mages to be able to hone this skill and use it everywhere in the galaxy, whenever it was required to better battle the Rebels or other dissidents.

So anyway, in a nutshell, I think that Palpatine's Empire failed because he thought that Sith disciplines -- and the Sith way of ruling -- would naturally cross over to "regular people", at least for some time.

I wonder if this will be a theme explored in the stories set in "The Dark Times" between Episodes III and IV, when Vader and others tried to create an elite set of dark Force-users. Did

 

Wow, that's great. You should get a Golden Ewok for that. Though, I can see that there will be a huge debate on this in the very near future.

Nice work. I really wish everyone presented theories as well as you just did.

 

Thanks.

I gotta build my reputation back up 'round these parts.

 

Why? What'd you do...

 

Disappeared. RotS spoilers.

 

It doesn't have to be so complicated.

There are numerous sources, that make clear, that the majority of Imperial Atrocities took place in the outer rim, far away from the centres of population and attention.

Given the fact, that most worlds were such things happened hadn't been part of the Republic or that such atrocities (war, slavery, exploitation) had happened under the rule (and with permission) of the OR, too (Kalesh, Tatooine) can we really say, that "so much" that happened under the empire or was it just "business as usual" under a different administration?

 

My theory is that the Empire shoved a bunch of guns down the throat of anybody who wouldn't be their bitch.

 

Considering how many people there were in such a large galaxy, even things like the Ghorman Massacre were probably just part of the 24hr news cycle.

 

Since when was Tatooine part of the Old Republic? It was ruled by the Hutts. I quote Shmi Skywalker, TPM, in her home in respose to Padme.

"-The Republic's anti-slavery laws are-"

"The Republic doesn't exist out here. We must survive on our own."

 

I remember reading somewhere around the time AotC came out that one of the reasons that the Empire had such support for its anti-alien bias (and by extension support for it's anti-alien atrocities) was because the Seperatists were comprised almost entirely of aliens (it also helps that they were led by a former Jedi, but that's something for another time).

The seppies never even tried courting a human-controlled world. I wonder if that's by Sidious'/Tyranus' design, or if was the Seperatist councils own decision?

I think one of the reasons the Wookies were courted so strongly was simply so the Empire would be justified in enslaving them.

 

The point is, that slavery in the empire isn't a new thing, since it already existed during the time of the Old Republic.

And following the letter of the law, slavery didn't exist in the empire, too. Aside from the question, why a society as technologically advanced as the main civilisation of the GFFA has a need for slave-labour, enslaved species were either classified as "non-sentient" and claimed to be "domesticated" or we are talking about people sent to "labour-camps" for being unable of paying their taxes.

 

When did slavery occur during the Old Republic? IIRC, the Republic itself didn't have slaves at any point. My argument for slavery was that the Empire itself was using slaves.

Tatooine is not part of the Republic at 32 years BBY, but by the time of A New Hope it is an Imperial world.

 

It is? I never read that in the classic trilogy. I'm not saying it's impossible to believe, but it always seemed to me that the Imperial presence we saw on Tatooine was entirely comprised of the reconnaissance party sent by Vader to find the stolen Death Star plans. The OS' databank would seem to support this view, stating, "Tatooine rests in the distant Outer Rim, beyond the reaches of the Republic and Imperial law. Even the Trade Federation lacked a presence on the distant planet."

 

The empire has a garrison on Tatooine. And it is not one of the prefabricated ones.



The point about slavery is,

a) that Imperial Law doesn't allow slavery, so slavery in the empire is a crime and when it is commited by members/officials of the Imperial State they commit an illegal act. Of course those laws are circumvented either because the slaves in question are NOT considered sentient or because the person commiting the deed can't/isn't punished, because either he/she is to powerful, has the backing or patronage of somebody who is or is able to commits his crimes without his superiors knowing about it.

b) slavery existed during the OldRepublic. Perhaps outside the territory of the republic (the Dug might disagree) but it still existed. Like during the empire it was forbidden according to the letter of the law, but it was there. Perhaps (some members of) the senate was more eager to get rid of it, than the empire, but the problem was the same.

 

How does a galaxy transit from democratic Republic to imperialised Empire? Easier than you think.

Civilian nonchalance and citizen diffidance.

You go about your lives indifferent to who your planetary senator is, your sector capital, why Troikans have double heads. With 30m ships in the galactic registry as of Rogue Planet, and the Third General Survey only 2/3 complete before the Clone War began, you don't really care what's happening on Coruscant. You don't. It has no affect on you. War has ended---although I don't think the Clone War is really over---and unless you're one of those 30m stellar travellers TARDISing around, you can live your provincial life largely unaffected by political pangalactic events.

All the imperial doctrination, the everything is in accordance to the intent of the Will, the free comlink bills you don't pay, is focused only on specific locales. Pareto Rule's few ambitious seekers will not undergo persona change---they always were, just are now exercising more executive power with firm military backing.

The next generation grows up under a new society, a society they consider natural. To them, Jedi are magical wizards Excellence calls diligent wimps; and while they wonder what technological advancements Warthan's Wizards are producing next, parental andecdotes aren't necessarily liberal. For them, war was brief but vicious. Life was restrictive. The Brits were still on food rations in the mid-'50s. Reconstructions demands new adjustments and scapegoats.

It's easy for the pols to blame things on "the Republic"---particularly when you were that a few days ago. But for a Corellian AGR farmer or Kitonak pimp master, the wizard's first rule is that people are dums and will believe what you mint kiss them. The power players in planetry and interplanetary positions are few, but when you're the one calling the new procedures, people will follow because having suffered in the recent years, you have yet to show them you're going to be worser!

 

I think I"m going to have to ask for a PPOR on all this. What source tells you that the Empire has a garrison on Tatooine? What source tells you that Imperial Law doesn't allow slavery? And what proof do you have the slavery existed during the Old Republic? (Your claim here is especially confusing because it's internally contradictory. If something is "outside the territory of the Republic" it by definition doesn't exist within the territory of the Republic.)

 

I believe that the "Inside the Worlds of the OT" book said that there was an Imperial garrison in Mos Eisley.

The slavery during the Republic issue is something that can be explained, if we go with what was presented by FTeik and what Padme says in TPM. It was one of the main points in TPM that Padme was shocked that Anakin was a slave, because slavery had been outlawed in the Republic. Now, she easily could just have been a naive little girl and not experienced the worst of the galaxy at that time, but still. If the point that it existed "otuside the Republic" is true, then it fits perfectly with what she said. What I have a hard time believing is that the Empire outlawed it during the OT days, since it seems that their way was "Shove a blaster in their face and order." I can't imagine Palpatine caring about anyone he considered lower than himself in anywway.

 

As of ANH ( I mean, before even Vader's troops arrived ) there was a single squad of stormtroopers posted at the Police Station in Mos Eisley. That was it. ( Source: Galaxy Guide 7 : Mos Eisley. )

In the ANH radio drama, Luke mentions rarely seeing stormies on Tatooine, but he doesn't say "never."

 

Okay. But how does this make Tatooine an "Imperial World" as suggested earlier?

 

Any planet with a permanent stationed force would be Imperial, I think.

Likewise, Tatooine had an Imperial governor.

 

I think you're right about palpatine using the force to influence things. I kind of thought that the dark jedi army was just a bunch of BS he was feeding Dooku, or allowing dooku to feed himself. An army of force users, light or dark, would be a threat to him. Sure he has the emperial hands and the inquisetors, but all together there still weren't nearly as many of them as there were storm troopers. If those guys got out of hand, just do order 66 all over again, and if one or two start acting up, it's nothing that he or vader couldn't handle.

 

The "average Bail" Imperial citizen turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed by the Empire. Their lives were stable, it was happening to someone else, and the galaxy is a big place. I remember that this topic was broached in the X-Wing series during the taking of Coruscant. They had security, they had safety (as long as you toed the party line), and they didn't care how much evil occurred on backwater planets because the Empire was Getting Things Done.

The relatively quick implosion of the Empire's power after the Emperor and Vader's can probably be traced more to the fact that in the Emperor's plans, they were still in stage 1, or perhaps stage 2. The Imperial Senate had only been disbanded in ANH. Power had been consolidated, but it was not completely controlled at that point. I imagine Sidious expected and even welcomed the rebellion. It was inevitable. After it was crushed, it would likely be a long, long time before anybody had thoughts of trying to rise up against the Empire again. Crushing it would be the final necessary demonstration of the ultimate power of the Empire. The Rebels didn't scare him, just the one, wild Jedi that turned his apprentice against him...

 

Yes, there's an Imperial governor on Tatooine. Also, Luke could hardly hate the Empire if its' just a distant "foreign power." The Empire controlled EVERYTHING from Hutt Space to the Corporate Sector to the Unknown Regions.

It was an expanionistic military power that ruled everything from Hapes (which fell under overwhelming force until it was retaken)

Galaxy Guide: Mos Eisley more or less confirms that the Empire rules on Tatooine, Mos Eisley even has a direct military prefect's rule. There's certainly no 'garrison' on the planet though. One might have been added after ANH though when Rookie One blew up a Star destroyer over it.

Remember, sources CAN change.

I also disagree with the first poster. The Empire became a military dictatorship overnight because essentially Palpatine had already been ruling for 13 years and by the time of ANH and everyone was too busy waving flags or under military occupation to care. Think about the fact that Palpatine already dealt with internal dissent. The vast majority of worlds that truly objected to him and his policies probably joined the Separtaists. It's simplifying it that it was solely a alien movement (though certainly it was a major factor)

Palpatine got a chance to use military force to destroy the Separatists and thus the majority of people would look to any threat to his reign as him suppressing another potential clone war.

 

Star Wars Galaxies has Tatooine having a fairly good Imperial presence, especially in Bestine. Although Rebel strongholds exist far more numerously on the planet, and Criminal factions are the prominant factions overall.

 

Nice write-up, Sturm!