Analysis of Star Wars: The Empire

The Empire is probably very similar to the ancient Roman Empire, so I would expect many parallels here. There is an Emperor, but also a Senate: a parallel. The ancient Roman Empire went through periods of upheaval as the balance of power shifted from the Republic to the Emperor, which is in keeping with what we see in the Star Wars universe. The Emperor represents a sort of military hierarchy seeking to replace the existing organic monarchies of the various planets in the Republic. I am reminded that Lea's last name is Organa, suggesting that her authority is organically derived from family, kinship, and traditional monarchy. The Empire, though, is cold, efficient, calculated, and has no room for spirituality. The Roman Empire was successful because it was so ruthlessly efficient. It made a science of military conquest. After the Romans conquered a territory, though, they built roads, infrastructure, and burdened the people with taxes, but to some extent, allowed the people some measure of autonomy. They were allowed to worship in their own temples, pray to their own gods, etc. With some exceptions, Roman rule was not so draconian, but in other cases, it could become extremely tyrannical, especially when corrupt officials would abuse their power.

The Galactic Empire, though seems to be a different animal because it stamps out spirituality. There is no room for spirituality in the Empire that we can see. Power derives entirely from military force, rather than a higher authority. We are therefore seeing something that is more akin to Communism than the traditional Roman Empire, which still paid tribute to a sort of Divine law. The Romans were not atheists, but they did seem to have a kind of snarky disrespect for Divine order, setting up dead emperors as gods. One gets the impression that the Romans viewed their gods in much the same way that we view Mickey Mouse or the Power Rangers - not real in a mystical sense, but a sort of brand that embodies a certain way of thinking and acting. The Romans might have used divine imagery in the same way that the Nazis did: to control the minds of the masses. The Galactic Empire, though, departs from the Romans in that it seems to be coldly anti-religion altogether. Rather than using mythical imagery to control the masses, it uses efficiency and fear. To me, that makes the Empire much more similar to a Communist regime than anything else, and it makes sense also if one considers the Jedi order a religious one, and belief in Force as a religion. The Empire is in the business of eradicating spirituality, just as Communists were eradicating religion from their sphere of influence.

Perhaps Lucas, after realizing this, tried to backpedal in some way. Being in Hollywood meant being a communist, or at least a communist sympathizer, and after realizing that communism was against the deeper principles of the soul had a sort of crisis of conscience, or minor spell of cognitive dissonance. Being forced to acknowledge the evil in communism would have compelled him to try to justify the evil of the Empire that was in all other respects analogous to his precious communism. He couldn't do it, though, because his theories were self-contradictory. After Star Wars, his vision became irrational and disintegrated. That's why the Emperor makes no sense. In Episodes V and VI, the Emperor is a dark, brooding figure who sits in the shadows, at the center of a web of intrigue, and is a strong Force user. That is not an Emperor, though. That is a dark wizard, or a witch. Traditionally, this archetype never directly holds the reigns of power, but operates from the shadows, through an intermediary. This is someone who controls the Emperor, maybe, but is not the Emperor himself. The Emperor would be a hard military man, a strategist. The Empire's ascendance, was a "dark time," though, suggesting that the Empire was led by an evil Emperor. Here is an effective, efficient empire led by an effective ruler. Who else would be a likely historical parallel but Julius Caeser?  Lucas's Emperor Palpatine makes no sense. However, the Emperor did not appear in Episode IV, so we can only speculate what that Emperor would be like, and he's looking a lot like Julius Caeser, who, by ushering the miliary into Rome became Emperor and eradicated the authority of the Senate.
With the Emperor envisioned as Julius Caeser, many other historical events would fall into place. The Clone Wars would be similar to the Gallic Wars, in which Caesar rose to prominance. The Clone Wars might also have been the civil wars that resulted after Caeser crossed the Rubicon. In any case, this would have provided some historical parallels with the Star Wars universe. I would go with the civil wars. The Jedi would have fight on the side of the Senate to prevent the rise of the Empire, giving good reason for the Empire to try to eradicate the Jedi order as it was doing with the Senate. The Clone Wars might have alluded to the use of Clones, and one can imagine that the Emperor might have used Clones as a way to quickly build a military to extend the reach of the Republic, and then turn around and use those same Clones against the Republic itself, as did eventually happen in Episode II. The clones would not have been a big secret, though: they would have been the normal cannon fodder of the Republic. For the most part, they would have been warriors, born and bred for the purpose of fighting the Republic's many wars to enrich itself and conquer new territory. When the Emperor brought the Clones to Corruscant, this would have been the crossing of the Rubicon and the establishment of the new Galactic Empire.