Why Did The Galactic Empire Tolerate The Criminal Underworld? | Star Wars
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- Опубликовано: 12 янв 2022
- The Galactic Empire had a well earned reputation as a brutal police state, but there also existed a thriving criminal underworld. Can these two narratives be reconciled?
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Развлечения
"You can't go around arresting the Thieves' Guild. I mean, we'd be at it all day!”
I mean c’mon!
The GE was an authoritarian police state but, like police states irl, they were still rife with corruption, ruthlessness, betrayal and backstabbing. Besides the Star Wars galaxy is absolutely massive and only the Core worlds were completely under the control of the Empire. The Outer Rim remained mostly lawless, with small imperial colonies and outposts. Most of the influence the Empire had on the Outer Rim was through military power projection, economics, propaganda, and bargains with neighboring crime syndicates rather than direct political authority.
"And then who's going after the suspected Rebels? Right?"
@@chriscortez2036 military power projection ahhh nothing like good old Gun Boat diplomacy.
Well at least the Ankmorpork thieves guild gives you receipts and will only commit a limited number of criminal acts against an individual in a month... as long as you keep your receipts.
Every criminal organization is about top-down power. Because of this, the most efficient way to exert political control over criminals is to allow them to operate while having absolute control of the leadership.
In the USA, this happened in WW2 to great effect. The USA directly confronted mob bosses in secret and told them "we'll let you take your cut by controlling the ports, but in exchange you'll turn in any Axis sympathizers or spies you find. If we're attacked via your areas of control we'll treat you as being part of the enemy war effort."
Despite dozens of shipping ports and dry docks around the country, the USA had a remarkable track record for finding German and Italian spies and sympathizers for the remainder of the war. It also lead to many organized crime families openly supporting the war effort in public. This is also why so many noir films made around that time focus on ports and shipping docks - the near immunity of organized crime in those areas was well understood by most citizens.
Huh... You learn something new everyday thanks.
Interesting 🤔
I also think lots of Italian-American mobsters were recruited into the army because they could speak the lingo during the invasion of Sicily
The story I heard was the five families in NYC were robbing the government blind until a general stepped in and told them to keep it under 10%, and no stealing weapons or medical supplies.
And we still do that all the time I mean we payed the taliban for a decade to fight the Soviets
I think something to keep in mind is that Palpatine simply wasn't a good administrator.
A charismatic politician, a cunning manipulator, an incredibly dangerous Sith. But he wasn't that interested in sitting down and doing the paperwork. He was more a guy of the broader strokes. Killing the Jedi, abolishing the Senate, creating the image of the Empire, getting Death Stars built. And the rest of the time he spent most of it doing Sith magic and following his interests in that regard. He even used a lot to create fallback plans.
But the normal nitty gritty paperwork of running his Empire? He let his bureucrats and regional gouvernors an almost completely free hand. People like Sate Pestage or Tarkin had a lot of power because Palpatine just simply didn't care. He only cared if something went completely wrong and he had to deal with it. And if he had to, he often send Vader, who had to literally slaughter his way through endless amounts of incompetent nepotists until he found a few somewhat capable officers.
The Empire projected the image of ruthless competence, but it's structure was often pretty thoroughly rotten and more resembled a feudal state full of warlords than the unitary Empire it wanted to be.
Honestly, given the number of insanely expensive boondoggles and failsafe plans, maybe if Palpatine WASN'T such a paranoid megalomaniac crushing his people to invest in all those projects, he wouldn't have had a rebellion that needed all those plans.
@@rubaiyat300 or have a Moff with the bloodthirsty nature of Vader and the desire to publicly broadcast his atrocities as a ",Act rebellious and you get this guy crushing you and he will hang your rotting corpse in his Moffrence chamber while the screams of your surviving buddies serve as ambience"
That's... actually a real point. It would also explain why the empire fractured so badly after Endor.
once he got what he wanted, he stopped being as effective or as cunning (or stopped applying it to much of the governance problem, at any rate); rather a neat (if incidental) demonstration of how Sith work
@@Edge-wx7hv There wasn't exactly a plan for what to do after taking control of the galaxy with the Rule of Two, and every other Sith Empire fell to infighting until the Jedi had regrouped and kicked them off their already crumbling thrones. Palpatine was so busy watching the engineered power plays of his subordinates that he got completely blindsided by the Skywalkers.
It was probably just too expensive to deal with and just shooting all the criminals has not been historically viable
But it has been tons of fun and good combat practice. Just ask the Adeptus 'Police with a military budget/arsenal' Arbites
@@essex3777 Just ask the gangs of Necromunda
War on drugs
"There will be less crime if there are less people to commit crimes!"
@@ronaldlennier86 Judge Death mentality. I'm am here for it.
Any empire's goal is to maintain its interests, whether legitimate or criminal. It doesn't matter principles it's built on so long as the emperor's happy. As such, if the Hutt Cartel wants to do whatever with Tattooine, they can, so long as they leave the Imperial academy and garrison intact. When it's just one empire, it can work with less responsibilities, but you need to be careful with others.
And with the Hutt Cartel, the Hutts are well aware that empires rise and fall, and the easiest way to come out on top against the Empire is simply to outlive it, since Hutts measure their lifespans in centuries.
If I may offer my own insight, I talked a lot with one of my old coworkers who grew up in Mexico, and when she described the cartels, she made it clear that cartels were involved in every aspect of daily life. You grow limes? You pay protection fees to your local guy, and when you sell it to the international market, you _only_ sell to one guy in particular who sends it wherever the cartel needs to send it. These cartels are basically operating like corporations, just using significantly more illegal means, and it's often unclear what part of a business is part of the cartel ring and what parts aren't. Hell, a great deal of the fruit you get from the grocery store came from Latin America; therefore, it passed through cartel hands at some point of its lifespan. Interstellar cartels would be a lot like this but even more widespread. As the Empire rose, they struck deals with interstellar corporations for war manufacturing and general resource extraction, so why not strike up a deal with these cartels?
That, and cartels can serve as de facto spies and auxiliaries against rebel movements.
Damn that's interesting
Keeping organized crime factions around long enough to be a threat did a good Job justifying military occupation. Allowing issues to get bad enough only to sends some storm troopers every now and then to look like heroes.
It's a common tool of such regimes too, as seen in 1984: Keep people afraid, keep them dependent, keep them from questioning their shitty lives. Let crime rampage enough that people feel scared, but not so much that there's chaos in the streets. After all too much chaos can be bad for business.
But such systems are always inherently self-destructive, as the longer it goes on, the more and more you have to oppress people, and eventually they will hit that breaking point, and won't care about 'law and order' or 'crime' or anything else, they'll just be sick of it and want to stop it. Which is what does indeed happen against the Empire.
In order for the empire to sustain itself, it had to constantly keep the threat of enemies on the horizons. Even foment some of its own to justify its existence.
@@TheNN The terrifying thing about 1984 the novel is that it makes you feel like this is a system that gets stronger the longer it exists, rather than weakening. It is said that the one source of hope that Oceania as a state failed in the end is the fact that the Newspeak dictionary/guide thing Orwell wrote was written in the past tense
This is just discourse I've heard online though, idk much about the topic
You said it in the beginning, in the end it all comes down to this: cost vs reward. A campaign against the criminal organizations would have been way too costly. Although nowhere near as powerful as the empire, they have whole planets and systems under their thumb, including legions of mercenaries and pirate fleets. Also think about how many politicians, corporations, officials, bureaucrats and other powerful figures they have in their pockets. Last but not least, they know everyone's dirty little secrets, they know where the bodies are buried because they buried themselves. Now imagine them all united against a common enemy. The most pragmatic choice, the only choice, was to tolerate them while the emperor consolidated power.
Hard to do that with a Khan type figure who made bloody examples, some by himself to deter crime.
In ANH, Jabba kept his head well down when Vader put stormtrooper boots onto Tatooine for the simple reason that Vader also parked three star destroyers in orbit. While Tatooine would normally be considered lawless, ruled primarily by Jabba, the Empire *could* make a temporary show of force just to address a concern that affected them (finding the Death Star plans). This is pretty much their attitude towards crime in general. The Emperor was pouring resources into other projects, and had never honestly meant to keep his promise about creating a secure society.
The empire's overwhelming presence on many planets was them showing there was no escape from imperial rule, not an attempt at policing the planet. They didn't investigate criminal or rebel activity unless it became a problem, then the empire would make an example of them and go back to acting like they were in complete control.
In reality dictatorships aren't actually that good at fighting against criminality, because of the high degree of corruption that almost always manifest in such systems
@@user-xe1ss3sh7q Violent crimes, like Templin mentioned, were rarer than in the US, but they had a thriving black market due to a lack of a free market
@@user-xe1ss3sh7q It's called the Vory, basically formed from the Gulag prison gangs that got a lot of combat experience during the cold war that translated to smuggling rings withing the union for whatever contraband they can find.
@@user-xe1ss3sh7q The criminals had an easier time working for the government then against it.
Like instead of forming a mob they formed a little in-group in the governmental agency or whatever they worked for.
Every system of governance has corruption in it; a dictatorship is no more susceptible to it than a republic would be. In fact, depending on its level of centralization/decentralization, policies and enforcement, and the level of oversight and legal/political/societal accountability, a democratic system might well be _more_ corrupt than an authoritarian one.
Not all dictatorships are created equal, nor are all republics. The incentive element of corruption will always be there, but its magnitude is likewise always contingent on how the government manages and scrutinizes itself, not on whether it happens to be democratic or authoritarian.
@@steve8610 The problem is that without checks and balances, the government won't scrutinize itself, which is why the more democratic a country is, the less corrupt it tends to be. Also democratic does not necessarily mean republic. Plenty of kingdoms are democracies
The problem is in some extend adressed both in legends and new canon. In legends we see that even a high ranking imperial agent like Mara Jade was send against crime syndicats which get to bold, and in the Corellia-trilogy (if I remember right) there is a discussion in which a person said that the end of the Empire emboldened criminals since there was no longer a real threat to them which could strike fear into their hearts.
In new canon we see in the Thrawn books (mainly the first) that dealing with criminal acitivies and civil unrest even below a open rebellion against the Empire is among the things the imperial fleet has to handle, although its ressources and manpower is obviously spread thin and the controll is by far not really tight.
I would stress that even the Empire was weak on its borders towards the outer rim, there was maybe at least more controll than during the Republic. I mean Tatoine had during Republic time more or less zero official authority, while during the Empire there were at least very, very weak elements - a small amout of troops which sometimes clashed with local raiders like the Tusken etc.
Thanks
I'd like to add something here from the political theory I've read.
You find that in most autocratic regimes, corruption isn't necessarily a flaw in the system to be battled and corrected, but rather corruption is often simply another part of the system that the regime uses to exert control. The whole apparatus of state is structured such that, for many people including it's own enforcers, corruption is the only way to effectively get anything done. For example, the governor of a planet that needs certain resources to keep it's industrial output going to meet Imperial mandated quotas that can't get those resources due to Imperial restrictions on distribution finds themselves in a bind: either they fail to meet quotas to the Empire and get removed from office (and that removal can be... harsh) or they go outside Imperial law to source what they need. Odds are they'll go with the illegal option and keep their head for now, and the Empire still gets what it wants out of the planet. But either way, the Empire has an excuse to remove them that they can spin to the public as justified... and the governors know it. The Tarkin Doctrine of "Rule through fear of force rather than force itself," isn't just about threatening planets with annihilation via super-weapon (though it is that too) it's also about keeping individual rulers loyal by keeping them in a constant state of anxiety about the precarity of their own position, and necessary corruption enforces that.
Which brings us to the criminal cartels. For the same reason above, it benefits the Galactic Empire to allow them to exist. They provide services and outlets that the Empire itself doesn't want to be seen dirtying its hands with. The crime lords keep their position because the Empire allows them to, and they know that. If a crime lord becomes too much of a problem for the Empire, they'll easily remove them and replace them with someone more compliant to their will. In this way, they can also serve as a kind of "controlled opposition". The Empire just has to look the other way so long as they remain discrete enough to not embarrass the Empire, and the Empire can easily spin its own failings as the fault of them.
It's like the offer, "Silver or lead," except instead of the crime lord asking that of the new marshal, it's the Empire asking that of the crime lords.
Yeah, I think the notion that authoritarian regimes are better at dealing with crime because they lack rule of law isn't accurate of reality. I can think of only modern day China fitting that mold. Most authoritarian regimes are insanely corrupt and unstable. The secret to fighting crime is probably more cultural than legal, and treating all your citizens as probable criminals doesn't foster a culture of cooperation and trust, and makes the organized crime syndicates comparitively more tolerable.
@@TombaFanatic I’m also thinking about stuff like post-Soviet Russia. How did Putin deal with corruption and organized crime? By simply co-opting the structure of it for the state. The problem is “solved”, as far as the handful of people calling the shots are concerned. If you point out that the state has effectively institutionalized that kind of crime? Well, turns out have a loose grasp on rule of law allows you to “deal with” opposition like that and it’s *much* easier to do that and maintain your own power than to operate a less-corrupt system…
It also works on the individual, as in regular people. By keeping enough 'chaos' in society without it getting out of hand, it keeps people afraid and dependent on the system, the regime. It keeps them from questioning how badly ran things really are.
Also also, corrupt systems themselves attract the corruptible. Which is to say, people who see the flaws in the system and only want to exploit those flaws for their own (usually financial) gain. These people in turn get pulled into the system and made it's biggest defenders, by those above them in said system, because they know that as long as the exploitation they can use remains, they will vehemently defend that system. They're often times the loudest and most vocal defenders of the system. Think about any time in real life a politician screeches about how "patriotic" they are, and 9/10 times behind the scenes they are making out like BANDITS by exploiting their position and power for monetary gain.
@@TheNN You're reminding me, are you familiar with the "selectorate theory" of political power?
The basic bit of it goes, every would-be ruler needs a coalition of willing supporters, otherwise they rule over nothing. Even the most singular autocrat requires a cabinet to administer the apparatus of state on their behalf and generals willing to enforce state power over their polity. Remaining in power means keep their key supporters' loyal, which is usually done by using the power that position grants them to dole out rewards. An autocratic leader can usually replace key supporters if they become disloyal, but that risks the other key supporters conspiring to rid themselves of the autocrat, so it's not something to do too cavalierly. But the funny thing about this kind of structure is that, while competence is good, loyalty becomes more heavily rewarded than competence since someone suspected of disloyalty will be replaced, and so you end up with upper echelons who are extremely loyal but who's competence may be in doubt.
It's one of the reasons why power structures that concentrate power so narrowly in so few hands have a habit of eventually falling apart. They'll usually be great (for the people in charge) for the short term, but sooner or later something is going to give, and when the autocrat in charge passes out of power (as all mortals inevitably do) it usually throws the whole of it into a crisis. It's something I think people sometimes don't keep in mind when they say that the Empire could have done something great if it only was able to last. It never would have survived Palpatine's passing, it couldn't, but that didn't bother Palpatine since he expected to live as long as possible and if he died it wouldn't be his problem anymore.
(Of course, the The Rise of Skywalker might have thrown a wrench into that, but honestly it would be the *least* implausible thing about that film.)
@@FearlessSon I have not heard of that I admit. However it does seem rather apt, both to real life situations and to the Empire.
I also have a bit of a hypothesis myself, not sure if there's any sort of term for it.
Essentially in autocratic regimes, the State, and more importantly, the Leader, are all knowing, all wise, and all powerful. But they are never shown *being* that way. A perfect example of this is in the book 1984.
The reason why is that the autocracy never had any intention of actually accomplishing to fix the things they took power for. It was a desire born of self-interest, and to deny the ability for those the autocrat/State do not like, from having power, which is why so often in autocrat states, you see massive oppression of minorities, be they religious, ethnic, or political, or a mix of all three.
The oppression is also justified to make the State/ruler look like they are 'doing something' by scapegoating the minorities being oppressed as the ones who had been causing the 'problems' in the first place, whether true or not (and rarely it is true at all. In fact the reality is that usually the now-oppressors were the cause of the issues to begin with, or at the very least are doing nothing of substance to fix them, as their main desire was to exploit the problems for gain in the first place).
Such systems, regardless of short term gains, cannot last, simply because no one in said system is actually working to improve the State they're in, but only working for themselves (loyalty to the Leader and all that, as you mentioned too). Eventually the corrupt State will get so overbloated on it's own corruption and excess that it falls apart, then those at the top either flee, or get offed and hopefully replaced with someone less shit.
Another aspect of this policy is the Empire's focus on the Death Star, the so called 'Tarkin Doctrine' and essentially Palpatine's endgame for the administration of the Empire. Palpatine was hoping that once the Death Star was out he and Vadar could basically retire from political and military life and focus entirely on discovering the mysteries of the Force while Tarkin took care of the day to day. So basically the Emperor and his right hand were only ever doing the bare minimum to maintain control until the Death Star would hypothetically solve all their problems, and with a couple Jedi Masters still at large crime bosses just weren't a priority. Palpatine didn't seem to have a concrete plan for what came after since he was going to pass all the boring stuff to Tarkin at that point, so it makes sense the Empire just sorta fell into whatever was convenient as its main leaders didn't have a specific objective in that field.
I'm guessing the plan for organized crime was temporarily give them free reign, then once the Death Star has completely pacified the Core and eliminated all threat of an organized rebellion Tarkin might have plans for the crime bosses. Either send out the now freed up Imperial Fleet to patrol the Outer Rim or just have the Death Star blow up Nal Hutta and tell the rest to submit. But ultimately at that point it would be entirely up to Tarkin's preference as the Emperor would no longer care about the actual administration of the Empire.
Honestly, this is why the Empire fails to convince me of its benefits. In the setting itself, the Empire's biggest selling point was to bring law & order and come down harder on corruption and organized crime. Not a bad sales pitch, if you ask me. But considering those two bad things managed to thrive instead because of how badly the Empire was designed (probably deliberatly by Sidious) I just cannot find any legitimate reason why the Empire deserved to exist.
Is there any legitimate reason for any totalitarian police state to exist?
@@baneofbanes Good point.
The Empire and criminal underworld groups go together like peanut butter and jelly!
This admittedly ignores the fact that the Empire does have mechanisms for the observation of its government officials, two of them to be exact The Imperial Security Bureau known as the ISB and Imperial Intelligence which handled these matters. And whilst it was an issue, corruption only really became a major issue in the imperial fragmentation.
I interpret that the Empire is quite incompetent even defunct in terms of monitoring and or carefully guiding their citizenry and cant bothered to bring actual order to their outer colonies
If the Empire allowed competent leadership to run its military and administer the galaxy they'd become a threat to the Emperor. That's why someone like Grand Admiral Thrawn was sent to the Unknown Regions. If the Empire allowed more people like him (or trained by him) to run things they'd quickly realize that the crazy space wizard running things is running things badly and needed to go so they could run things right.
Reminds me of all the points that were raised in Advanced Sci-fi Civilizations too Stupid to Even Exist ep 3.
I mean, if you look at certain modern _’near-peer contemporaries,’_ it doesn’t mean shit how good they are at policing their citizens when the government officials are the ones taking bribes.
As a temporary measure I can see it working...but crime also covers up rebel activity. so while it made for cheap effective symbolic control of the outer rim it also gave the rebellion safe ground to grow. If there had been no organised rebellion it would likely have worked out till the fleets arrived.
Get the crooks on the Imperial’s side, they’d do all the work finding Rebel cells and turning them in.
Yeah the empire was pretty corrupt and the underworld was simply to big to be destroyed without taking away resources from the huge military complex which was the empires life blood so an alliance with Jabba and Prince Xizor the two largest syndicate leaders was the best solution until the empire crushed the rebellion
I think it was more that it was simply better to come to an arrangement with them. It's easier to deal with the Hutts than to deal with the chaos that their absence would bring. The benefit of organised crime is that it's organised
I love the look of the Underworld, They nailed the artstyle
I mean it would be impossible and very costly to even began fighting the underworld that has been around for thousands of citizens. Great video
6:15 this is born out in the cloud city portion of Empire; Vader makes a deal, *immediately* welching on it when he sees a chance to get something else he wants, then "I have altered the deal. Pray I do not alter it further."
not to mention the fate Palpatine inflicted on the Separatist leadership once he got what he wanted.
usually 'altering the deal' is more like boiling the frog slowly (separatists after the Imperial coup)
rather than immediately (Vader dealing with Lando) for obvious reasons, as Lando grows a spine when he realizes this crap will keep happening and moves to deny Vader his prize.
Sith only bother with the long term when they gotta, so a Sith in power is a marginally less dangerous enemy, paradoxically, than one *seeking* power.
And thus, we get the eternal cycle of Sith coming into, then falling out of power over and over.
The question is why wouldn't they? The Empire valued order and the these organisations provided that. If you think of the Empire as simply the biggest gang on the block (one that all the other gangs pay tribute to), then it makes sense.
At the end of the day destroying criminal groups would create a power vacuum and this would create chaos. At least organised crime is well....organised.
From what I remember of Legends, it's because they made themselves useful for the Empire. Also, some of them could, if not hurt the Empire, inconvenience it substantially, and well... "for want of a nail" and whatnot. If a criminal empire decided to openly go against the empire though? That's when the hammer dropped. Not to mention that unorthodox business groups had the ethical adaptability and practical experience to assist in the Chancellor's bold watershed policies. Oh, and a well loved copy of the euphemism thesaurus.
The answer to the first question, the question of the seeming contradiction, is simple: the citizenry were a threat to imperial overlordship, the criminals weren't. The empire left the criminals alone and the criminals left the empire alone. The empire served itself and therefore only concerned itself with threats, not justice.
because they gave them an offer they can't refuse
The cost of maintaining direct control of territories that far from the Empire's center of power necessitates the use of intermediaries on the frontier
The cost of forcibly removing a major criminal organization along with accompanying risks would mean that a major presence in the frontier would be impossible to justify and could lead to major crisis that would eventually lead to a collapse of the central authority and the rise of multiple warlords that'd have varying degrees of success
Empire: “I like you Criminal Syndicates, don’t come to the Rebel Base tomorrow”
During the height of the Roman Empire, they not only tolerated but traded with pirates and slavers. This was because Rome bought the people to use as their own slaves.
I'm not a Star Wars fan, but my 2 cents are that if the Empire had lasted for centuries, instead of 20 years or so, the criminal elements would of been wiped out.
Had the empire lasted centuries we would not be able to tell them apart.
Or more realistically, they would have joined the imperial administration officially instead of being in a semi-feudal relationship with it.
Topics like this are only one of the things that make the Institute great.
Palpating had plans for an eternal Dutch empire (legends here). Once he has his fleet of world devastators and eclipse super star destroyers I doubt Jabba won’t cooperate.
I think Qui-Gon said it best: "greed can be a powerful ally." If the empire handsomely rewarded criminal organizations for turning in jedi survivors and rebel groups and sympathizers, then the criminal groups are going to be less likely to engage in crime that hurts the empire. It's like how boba fett chose to work for Vader; the empire simply pays better.
Imperial criminal connections would be on a need to know basis for even imperial operatives. This is an effective control of information to keep the naive and idealistic that wouldn’t tolerate it happy and loyal, unaware of the detrimental nature of imperial rule for the things they actually care about and giving the empire a nice face. It wins fans over, easily enough.
Great video as always, really makes us want to rethink in deeper and more "realistic" terms the fictious universes we are used to
Aside from the finer details of your questions (towards the end of this video), I’d like to highlight the deal(s) that were struck by the United States of America’s Military/Government in concerns towards the invasion of Italy in WW2; involving the various Italian crime families in the United States of America & such…
You ask me, the Empire was willing to tolerate the underworld as long as they can still be useful in providing them resources or assistance in dealing with the Rebellion. The only time they would take action against the crime syndicates is when they start abusing the Empire's goodwill.
I'd imagine part of it also comes down to a concept known as "Security Theater", creating the illusion of safety and stability even if things are anything but.
As an imperial governor i can assure you that i have in no way shape or form accepted any form of bribe. my 18th yacht? a generous gift from my dear friend zeeba the hutt.
short version the empire didn't have the resources to drive into hutt cartel turf and kick them out and the other syndicates either cut deals or were so small it wasn't worth the hunt
Awesome!!!
Tyranny and authoritarianism does not beget honest. The centralization of power is in reality the centralization of decision making powers, while this makes in easier to achieve higher level goals and functions by eliminating the middle layers, this same process destroys accountability on the local and small levels. When the centralized decision makers are too busy worrying about system or sector wide policy, and slow and pervasive spread of crime and corruption becomes corrosive to all levels and aspects of society. While multiple levels of government may often seem like inefficient and needless bureaucracy, it is in fact a system of multiple layers of accountability.
Well going with the idea that before he suffered a case of extreme physical trauma and probably "medically died" several times while is Imperial guard and Sith Cultist advisors got him to Exagol, Sheev Palpatine was really good at the long game, pitting factions against each other, and creating problems to solve. It even fits in his sith philosophy of infighting makes a people stronger while keeping them from focusing on you.
So early on hot heads like Saw Gurera made it easy for state controlled media to call rebels terrorists. Then there was the Lothal broadcast and Mon Mothma left Coruscant and did not return to Chandrila where she could be easily arrested. The Alliance to Restore the Republic (ARR) becomes a thing and a lot of their leaders sound like reasonable people. However, the Mandalorian Sector Uprising was a gift to Empire propaganda machine. Since the Mandalorians did not join the Alliance, because they want independence not to be part of a new Republic, and almost every race in the known galaxy has a negative historical reference to Mandalorians the propaganda machine can focus on them and ARR activity down played. The Imperial war machine and their fight to protect the citizens of the Galactic Empire from the horrible Mandalorians returning to their old ways becomes justifiable if not popular. This is why after the destruction of the first Death Star and the failure of the mid rim campaign, the only Imperial military force actively hunting the Rebel Alliance is Death Squadron and the Emperor and Vader were more concerned about catching Luke Skywalker than destroying the Rebellion. Meanwhile at least a full Navy fleet and Army group are fighting the Mandalorians and will eventually commit the Purge.
What does this have to do with criminal organizations in the Rim? The next war of course. All the largest criminal factions are run by non-humans. Once the ARR and Mandalorian insurrections are dealt with the Empire can begin a campaign to "destroy corruption and crime in the Rim and save the humans and other peaceful citizens from the nonhuman criminal syndicates". Imperial Propaganda will make it a righteous war against alien slavers and drug dealers corrupting good Imperial citizens no more.
Palpatine's plan seemed to maintain a sense of threat to the populace to justify the actions and behavior of the Empire.
If I were put in charge of some backwater world ridden with criminal activity, I'd be really worried that I was being set up for failure so the Empire would have a plausible reason to get rid of me. Either I'd get assassinated by criminal cartels for not going along with their activities, or some Imperial inspector will show up one day and have me tried and executed for collaborating with criminals. I wouldn't be surprised if most Imperial governors in the Outer Rim were either supreme opportunists or paranoid wrecks because of this.
Thank you the English subtitle.
One should also keep in mind that *imperial rule* didn't exactly meant *governance,* when it came to less important worlds.
When imperial star destroyers appeared in orbit over a world, they usually didn't came to enforce the rule of law. They came to take whatever they wanted, like slaves or resources, and to crush any opposition.
I would assume that this made it even easier for the crime syndicates to take roots, as worlds under such rule would have been severely weakened by their resources and/or population being transferred offworld.
You should do a video about the Assassin Brotherhood.
Considering that there are Thousands upon thousands of systems (to an unrealistic degree albeit) in the Star Wars Galaxy, it made sense for the Empire to operate in this manner.
I believe it was a expedient method, which given that the Empire was beset by wide-scale rebellions and uprisings from the start, it was always meant to be a temporary solution to a long-standing problem.
Integration of criminals has always been part of how authoritarian regimes work. Of course eventually they become disposable, unless you are best friends with the leader (or rather part of that group who is in actual control). That isn't to say also those who run the biggest corporations wouldn't have a hand in organized crime. In Star Wars terms, if Kuat Drive Yards were able to keep spinning off "independent" subsidiaries endlessly, what is to stop them from having off-the-book organizations.
I believe this led to the Empire rotting from within.
That's brilliant really, the Republic couldn't stretch that far and while the empire would have more reach it wouldn't be that much greater especially with their humans first politics restricting resources. So they use the military might to make criminal organizations Kowtow to the empire in return for increased stability and better access to markets as long as they do so under the flag of the empire. Making the outer regions effectively a kleptocracy with fascist trappings.
Controlled burn.
You can't stop fires in some areas. But if you preburn these areas then you can keep the menace minimal.
Allow select criminal organizations to operate that favor you and keep the uncontrollable ones from setting up shop.
There's a book about the criminal underworld that goes into a bit more detail on this topic, though I can't remember the name right now.
It seems that the Galactic Empire's system of governance in the Outer Rim basically worked like a *feudal system.*
"Criminal" organizations like the Hutt Cartel were more like *imperial provinces* in that regard. They acted as the local government, provided infrastructure and upheld the rules of their respective societies. The Boonta Cup wasn't a criminal enterprise, and cities like Mos Espa weren't just there for spice smuggling, either. These were *nations.*
It's just that without proper checks and balances in place, and without rule of law being an imperial interest, these nations often ended up being tyrannical and turned on their own populus to enrich their respective elite. Which is exactly the same as what the Galactic Empire did. In that regard, there isn't really a difference between Emperor Palpetine, Jabba the Hutt, or the imperial governor of Aldhani.
It only becomes somewhat murky, as nefarious practices like slavery - outlawed in the imperial core worlds - were still an accepted part of the culture of planets like Ryloth or Tattooine whos populations were less accustomed to concepts like natural rights or personal liberty.
Either way, the Galactic Empire didn't exactly seem interested in the Outer Rim. They just let the local thugs in power as long as their worlds were neither a threat, nor of benefit to the imperial interests. All that syndicates like the Hutt Cartel had to do then was to keep things this way, and to comply when the odd star destroyer came by on a priority mission.
All this is basically like real historical empires have worked, in which a prince was beholdend to a king, just as a king was to an emperor. So it really *was* a *Galactic* Empire, even when sometimes the local secrutity forces consisted of Gamorreans instead of Stormtroopers.
The only real difference to historic empires is that people didn't had *any* rights in this one.
Fascist "order" based police states also did a shit job at dealing with organized crime. It's because they're either corrupt or incapable. "Why did the galactic empire tolerate the rebel alliance before it became a large military threat"? is a similar question with a similar answer.
I think you're overlooking the fact that the Empire didn't actually care about providing "law and order" throughout the galaxy despite making that claim. It was more about power, and on worlds that had resources or skilled labor that would add to that power, the Empire would do whatever it took to control them. Worlds that didn't have any sort of exploitable rescores or where it could be considered too much trouble, they just left alone.
When it comes to the corruption, the galactic republic and the Galactic Empire weren’t that different towards the underworld.
can you make a similar video for infantry as you did with tanks ? WHat guns used for what purpose and similar things
Alternative, the Empire purges the underworld of Coruscant and the Rest of the Galaxy. The Empire is now taking very tough action against criminal organizations, syndicates, the slave kingdom and others. The militarization and imperialization proceeds to the outer rim, now the Empire rules with an iron fist.
For a war time soloution Against Overstretching its a good way to keep Control
The Emperor in Legends used his Hand Mara Jade to root out corruption as an assassin. She was hood, but only one person.
"We are lord's, Crime lord's." -- Darth Maul
interesting parallel is that china has many large organised crime groups that mostly get left alone assuming they don't get in the way of the party.
Galaxies are big,too big for any single government to control. This channel is a great companion for SPACEDOCK. The institute staff should look into this,.
My guess is that it was a stopgap effort to allow the Empire to build a loyal core and expand outwards that they didn’t have time to enact. Why risk spreading themselves too thin when they can concentrate on firming key worlds with strong institutions, and then spread the bubble of their influence. The Empire was always going to need local collaborators in many areas (such as non-human planets with distrust of the republic, like Ryloth), and essentially the only tool left was to essentially section up the galaxy into fiefdoms for the time being.
Whether they could overcome the systemic corruption engendered by such an autocracy and such alliances, or the strategic failures of Palpatine mentioned by others is anyone’s guess, but cooperating with crime groups was the safer choice compared to any public loyalty from destroying crime rings.
There is no honor among thieves. Whether it's the outer rim criminal organizations or even the Empire.
Its also good for the Empire to allow a certain amount of crime to drive planets to them so they can "Impose Order"
Will the Dominion Video ever be Re-Uploaded?
You'd have to ask Spacedock. We were not involved in his decision to delete it.
If we cover the Dominion in the futute, we're more likely to redo the episode from scratch.
It's a function of geography and practicality. As Empires expand their territory, they develop a diminished capacity to control that territory. It's like trying to exert your full body strength through your pinky finger when your arms are outstretched. Imperial forces are consolidated and are at maximum strength in the core systems where there is a more concentrated support system. But the Outer Rim territories overextend that support system. Supply lines are longer. Garrisons are isolated from reinforcements.
It's pretty simple.
And then, you have to figure the worth of Outer Rim worlds to the Empire; to trade routes. What does a planet like Tatooine have to offer to the Empire? Does it have any strategic importance? Is it booming with resources? Is it a viable potential population center? You can destroy these worlds to curb their behavior or you can occupy them to curb their behavior. Which is a greater expenditure of resources? Does the reward justify the cost?
Again, pretty simple.
Plus, the Hutts have been in business for thousands of years. The Empire has been around maybe three decades? Imagine all the entrenched power systems and traditions the Hutt Syndicates have established, tying directly into the life blood of society. It would be like trying to carve off one piece of mold from a slab of meat that's been rotting in the sun for two weeks. It goes deeper than the ickiness on the surface.
The Empire is a military junta. It has removed any civilian support structures. It doesn't have police forces that aren't military. It doesn't have city commission boards or transportation committees. It doesn't have health administrations or public utility commissions. It has guys with guns who will shoot you if you don't do what the Emperor wants.
Historically, criminals do not tend to find the threat of death to be a prohibitive factor when considering the commission of crime. Otherwise, the death penalty would have worked a long time ago. But groups like the Hutt Syndicates, with their extensive history and traditions, have crafted a social order. A system that maintains and polices itself, so to speak.
The Empire can combat these criminal social structures in the core systems with relative ease. But in the outer systems where their military power is overextended, they can only do so with increasing difficulty and expenditure.
It's not a function of tolerating the criminal underworld. It's a function of not having a choice. The galaxy is too flarkin' big.
day 1 of asking you to do a video on Vitiate’s Sith Empire and possibly a video on fixing it
Corruption is the corner-stone of any illegitimate ruler. It's the best way to ensure that other "normal" citizens never get enough power to be a threat.
Love you videos jazion cherry 🍒
3:55 I can't be the only one who heard that, right? 🤣
A thriving Criminal Underworld justifies a strong Police force.
Local Cops will 'prioritize' enforcement based cooperation from crime Bosses.
No violent or property crime within certain neighborhoods, for example.
There would be designated drug-seeker hot-spots, brothels and what-nots...all officially forbidden, of course.
With enough credits in the right hands, you can get anything you want.
The Local Cops get their percentage, and they kick it up the ladder.
The Empire has no interest in upsetting a system that already works.
Is it weird to be attracted to a ship design 🤔 im always very pleased to see Star Destroyers. This is what Sith Lords ponder in the afterlife😆
Authoritarian regimes are great at fighting VIOLENT crimes - but not ORGANISED crimes.
Not surprising, even if you look at US war in Afghanistan, as much as the US military can do their job, they still relied heavily on paying off local leaders, some warlords to maintain control and a very tenuous control at best
Bribes... no.
Favours... yes.
While the bureaucracy of the Empire is flawless, and I am not just saying that as a governor of a backwater world but as a loyal citizen, sometimes it is good to have secondary avenues to complete a goal. One can always save the Empire time or resources by working on your own initiative, so those networks of connections are very useful things to have. After all... who wants to remain as nothing more then a governor on some backwater world?
...the Republic should have its largest presence in the Outer Rim...
You might also consider that the only way for imperial officers to ever get ahead in their career or be posted in a better area bribery might also be the only option, which would be as true to the higher echelons and to the lower echelons to high commanders and imperial officials. There is also with the absence of ant representation to legitimize their office, the importance of keeping a good public face is rendered much less meaningful and the desire to looking after the public wellbeing takes a back seat for officials who put more importance on enrichening themselves through corruption as much as possible, otherwise any even less unscrupulous underlings who managed to gain more, or enough, to wrestle out all his sources of financing, that he can bribe his way into his position but his own superior, which he will quickly find himself out maneuvered and be replace to worst get an 'accident' just before the underling takes his place, and then the cycle repeats itself until the system completely become unworkable.
The second book in the Han Solo Trilogy; the empire attempted to assert itself in Hutt Space.
Yes I'd take a bribe but I'd also have steps to remove the criminal element if they don't play ball
@ 0:54 "Can these two perspectives be reconciled?" Yeah, look at NYC or San Francisco.
Meanwhile Mon Cala keeps building ships that revival star destroyers
I understand why many governments use this backdoor method when supplying itself and its own self interest, isnt it hypocritical of fascist governments, especially, to tolerate organized crime?
Well the US worked with the Mafia in the US to keep contact with Mafia in Italy during WW2. Then went after them after WW2.
It's the world we want to be and there the world that IS....
Generally, authoritarian regimes and various gangsters are actually drawn from the same people.
Its not like there hasn't been any comparison in the real world, look at the involvement of the Yakuza in aria occupied by the Japanese Empire during World War II or even the help proffered by the Mafia during the Invasion of Italy.
As powerful as the Empire was... Not even they can control thousands of worlds perfectly... Just contain and intimidate.
I want to marry that bunny from sw visions she cute
The simple answer is that when a government has absolute authority, they get to choose how laws are enforced, and on whom. So of course the people making the decisions in that government are going to use that for their own interests first, there are plenty of real world examples of this.
I miss Legends. It makes so much more sense than the mess that is DisCan.
omfg this channel is sick
*Currency.*
If you think of everything done under Imperial Rule to be to increase the Emperors power you would be right. Dark side is fueled by fear, hate, chaos, and despair. Core worlds got it one way, the Outer Rims another but both fueled the Emperor himself.
You forgot one major part of this the Hutts were a legitimate government with their own state and everything and could have easily declared war on the empire and may have won given how they were the only state to beat back the Yu Zang Zong (90% sure I spelled it right if not leave a comment on how it is supposed to be spelled) without losing much ground to begin with
are you talking about the Yuuzhan Vong that the new republic in legends failed to fight and only did succeeded with the help of the imperial remnant ? am making a guess that you are :)
@@sserobinsse yes but I can never remember how to spell their freaking name and I’m too lazy to look it up every time I put them in a comment
LEO can keep control alone, they need the collaboration of the people: If every potential witness start saying they have seeing nothing, you are stuck.
A public torture rack will make them confess hard
@@MrAsaqe "potential witness", one cannot tell something they don't know. If the LEO start torturing everyone unable or unwilling to answer, people will start telling whatever they believe the LEO want to hear.
If having no intel is bad, having unreliable intel is way worst.
@@ludovicm5585 Empathy makes for a brilliant decipher of bad Intel. Ever saw an abusive parent or sibling hold something dear to a someone else and threatening to destroy or hell destroy a couple of their treasured things and watch as they break down and tell you the truth?
Treat the torture victim as the treasured item , don't prod them for info. Emotional blackmail is the best way to get information out of someone
Once again, it can eventually work only if you are sure that the person being tortured know whatever you want to know and if you have a way to check if the answer is truth or bullshit.
Even if a skilled torturer with good enough preparation could break everyone, it could not be apply for law enforcement.
Something happen, maybe a murder, maybe a kid tag an insult to glorious leader. all people in a 1km radius will be interrogated. Most will answer they have seen and heard nothing. With your logic, all will need to be tortured by a skilled and well-briefed torture officer. Most will know nothing, so the psychological torture bluff must reach its ends with the destruction of the treasured item.
And for every crime you end up with thousands of person that discover that someone they know have been killed by the authority not because they were guilty but because they knew someone that maybe could have know something.
Certain dead if we submit or potential death if we resist? the choice will be quick.