Shantarak Republic

The Shantarak Republic, officially the United Republic of Shantar, and known colloquially as the Republic, was a political entity which governed the Shantarak people from around the year 2000 until it was overthrown in a coup by the Supremacy Movement in 2299, when it was replaced by the Coalition of Shantar.

For much of its history as an interstellar entity, the Republic was in conflict with the Volkar Stellar Imperium. The various Houses of the Imperium would frequently wage war against the Republic in attempts to expand their territories. The efforts were typically met with limited success until the invasion by House Siplim in 2254, which initiated a mostly unbroken reduction in the Republic's territory, until its most populous core worlds were lost to the Imperium at the end of the Third Shantarak War in 2298.

For much of its history, the Republic was the galaxy's largest sponsor of democratic and egalitarian political movements. Many smaller democratic states survived through support from the Republic. The defeat of the Republic in the Third Shantarak War, and the subsequent fascist coup that overthrew the Republic's remnant to found the Coalition were seen by many as the death of democracy in the galaxy. They inspired a cultural backlash in the democratic states of the galaxy, typically referred to as retrogression.