Cold War

The Cold War (29 ABY–34 ABY) was a period of intense galactic geopolitical tensions between the New Republic and the First Order and their respective allies. It was based around the ideological and political struggle in the decades following the Galactic Civil War, that saw the surrender and disbandment of the Galactic Empire, which was followed by an era of peace. However, a lack of vigilance ultimately led to the rise of the First Order, a fascist military junta that emerged as a hermit state after some systems left the New Republic to join them, precipitating the return of the Empire that had once existed.

However, the First Order wasn't considered a major threat to the galaxy by the New Republic's leadership and as a result, there wasn't any direct large-scale fighting between the two sides with only occasional minor skirmishes occurring. Due to the rising tensions, however, a splinter paramilitary group simply known as the Resistance was formed, founded by Senator Leia Organa and members of the New Republic Defense Force to oppose the First Order, believing that it posed a serious threat to democracy, and acted as an "observer", which monitored its actions with skirmishes being more frequent between the Resistance and the First Order, instead of the main powers.

As peace between the First Order and New Republic collapsed, the First Order launched an pre-emptive attack on the New Republic using the superweapon Starkiller Base built on Ilum to destroy the New Republic capital planet Hosnian Prime, sparking an invasion of the galaxy that left the Resistance to directly face the First Order alone. Despite this, the Resistance inspired rebellion across the galaxy, and when Darth Sidious revealed his return, along with the hidden Sith Eternal cult and its armada, the Final Order, on Exegol, a Citizens' Fleet was assembled to aid the Resistance at his last redoubt, causing an uprising against the First Order.

Text and facts from the “Cold War” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.