The Battle of Endor, seen in Return of the Jedi, marked the decisive turning point of the Galactic Civil War. Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader were defeated. The second Death Star was destroyed. In its wake the Empire was scattered. Riding the momentum of victory, the Rebel Alliance was re-organized into the New Republic, a brand new galactic government.
Yet for as monumental of a victory as it was, it actually did not mark the end of the war. Fighting would continue for another year, until the Imperial forces were finally defeated at the Battle of Jakku. After this fight, the Galactic Concordance was signed, marking an official end of the war.
How did it come about?
In the power vacuum following Palpatine’s death the Imperial remnants were led by the mysterious Gallius Rax, who worked mostly in the shadows while Grand Admiral Rae Sloane became a more prominent leader of the faction. All the while Imperial Grand Vizier Mas Amedda, one of Palpatine’s closest advisors, was known to the galaxy as the Emperor’s replacement and its highest-ranking surviving leader. But Amedda was left out to dry by Rax, who used him as nothing more than a public puppet to serve as the figurehead of his own rule. Amedda was kept under house arrest and stripped of any real power.
At one point, Sloane initiated peace talks with the New Republic and organized a meeting with New Republic Chancellor Mon Mothma on Chandrila. But the talks were all a ruse orchestrated by Rax and turned into an assassination attempt. Mothma was seriously injured, while several New Republic leaders – including General Madine – were killed in the attacks.
Rax’s grand plans were to lure the Republic to Jakku, where the Empire would make a final stand. Unbeknownst to others, however, he was under secret orders from the late Palpatine that, if the Emperor ever died, the Empire should die with him. Rax’s plan was to destroy the Republic and the Empire together, while re-birthing the Empire stronger than ever in the Unknown Regions. Yet thanks to Sloane betraying him Rax’s plans were thwarted, and New Republic Admiral Gial Ackbar led their forces to a complete victory at Jakku.
Amedda, who escaped his house arrest thanks to the help of some children, used this defeat to reach out to Mothma and initiate peace talks – which, this time, were genuine. One year after the Battle of Endor, the Galactic Concorance was signed by Mothma and Amedda on Chandrila, with New Republic heroes like Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Gial Ackbar all in attendance to witness the historic peace treaty.
The Galactic Concordance required the immediate disarmament of Imperial forces, forbid the training of any new recruits, and dissolved the Imperial academies throughout the galaxy. It ceded control of Coruscant back to the New Republic, and forbid any corporation from working with the Imperial remnants. But while it marked the official surrender of the Empire, the New Republic opted not to prosecute all Imperials as war criminals but, instead, to grant conditional pardons to most Imperials who agreed to the terms of the concordance. It allowed Amedda to retain some influence and leadership of the planetary government of Coruscant, and created confined regions of the galaxy where the Imperial remnants could still exist. Furthermore, as part of the agreement, the New Republic agreed to drastically reduce their military force as a sign to the galaxy that the fighting was done, through the Military Disarmament Act.
Its legacy, therefore, is a bit mixed given what would happen in the ensuing decades, but at the time it stood as a glorious moment worthy of full celebration, marking the ending of a long fight for freedom from tyranny. The New Republic had won, and the Galactic Concordance made it official. The Empire was dead. A galaxy long bound by darkness was now, finally, free.
Star Wars Thoughts 