The Empire attempted to mitigate this by building a Second Death Star, but their defeat at the Battle of Endor, a mere three years after Yavin, saw the fragmentation of the Empire and the rise of the New Republic.įor most of its history, the Galactic Empire maintained the illusion of a legislative body through the Imperial Senate. The use of the Death Star to destroy Alderaan and the battle station’s subsequent destruction ultimately strengthened the Rebel Alliance. This attempt to increase their power over an already-oppressed galaxy backfired. The Empire functioned as a tyrannical autocracy for 19 years but restructured its governance upon the completion of the Death Star.
The beginning of the end for the Galactic Empire was the Battle of Yavin, the action-packed finale of Star Wars that saw the destruction of the planet-destroying Death Star.
