9 Geno.cides Empire Has Committed in Star Wars Cannon

Growing up watching Star Wars, I thought the Empire was just the bad guys with cool ships and scary music. Then I got older, and started reading more, watching the shows, digging through the side stories – and yeah, it hit different. There’s a pattern to how the Empire handled anyone they couldn’t control.

Let me walk you through some of the worst genocides the Empire has committed.

1. Alderaan – The Empire’s Most Public Genocide

Alderaan was peaceful. No army, no threat, nothing like that. Just a planet full of scientists, artists, and politicians who believed in democracy. Bail Organa was from there – Leia’s dad – and one of the last voices still speaking out.

Then the Empire blew it up. Just… gone. Tarkin said it was because Leia wouldn’t give up the Rebel base, but come on. They were always going to do it. Alderaan stood for everything they hated – unity, hope, resistance. Two billion people wiped out to send a message.

Some Imperials couldn’t handle what they saw. A few jumped ship. The Death Star was designed so responsibility was shared – multiple gunners pushing buttons together. No one had to feel like the one who did it alone.

But Alderaan changed things. It made it clear the Empire didn’t want peace or control. They wanted fear.

2. Geonosis: A Genocide Hidden by Silence

While Alderaan’s genocide was public, Geonosis was the opposite – a cold extermination buried in secrecy. Geonosis, birthplace of the Clone Wars and the Death Star, once served the Empire faithfully. But once its people outlived their usefulness, Grand Moff Tarkin made sure they vanished.

Around 9 BBY, the Empire “sterilized” the planet – code for genocide. A biological agent was released, killing nearly 100 billion Geonosians. Their crime? Knowing too much about the Death Star’s construction. Their reward? Oblivion.

This wasn’t war. There were no battles, no resistance. It was extermination for the sake of convenience. The Empire didn’t want loose ends. So instead of diplomacy or exile, it chose annihilation.

Klik-Klak, the sole known survivor, protected a queen egg in a desperate effort to preserve his people’s legacy. But the galaxy barely noticed. The Empire erased records. Survivors were ignored. Rebels like Saw Gerrera had to fight just to prove the genocide occurred.

Empire didn’t care that the Geonosians were loyal. They just didn’t want loose ends. And once you were seen as one, that was it.

3. Order 66 – The Religious Cleansing of the Jedi

The Jedi were generals in the Clone Wars. They led troops, fought on the front lines, died alongside their soldiers. Then came Order 66, and suddenly the clones turned on them.

Clones didn’t decide that on their own. They had control chips in their heads. Palpatine made sure of it.

The Jedi were attacked everywhere – temples, battlefields, even in their sleep. A few survived: Ahsoka, Kanan, Cal Kestis. But they had to hide, run, live like criminals.

The Empire didn’t just kill Jedi. They burned their temples, stole or destroyed ancient texts, hunted down kids with Force abilities. The Sith stepped in, took control, and never looked back.

4. Operation: Cinder – Genocide as Revenge

After Palpatine died, everyone expected chaos. What they didn’t expect was Operation: Cinder.

It wasn’t about strategy or battle. The Empire used satellites to burn planets alive. Vardos was super loyal to the Empire, but that didn’t matter. Firestorms killed everyone. Even kids.

Garrick Versio, a hardcore Imperial, watched his home get destroyed. His daughter Iden, one of the best soldiers in the Empire, left right then and there. Couldn’t do it anymore.

Planets like Naboo were next. Leia helped save it at the last second. Others like Burnin Konn weren’t so lucky. The Empire detonated entire cities from underground.

Palpatine didn’t want anyone winning if he couldn’t. Even if that meant destroying his own supporters.

Operation: Cinder wasn’t war. It was vengeance. The message was clear: if the Emperor couldn’t rule, no one deserved peace. Entire populations became collateral for a dead man’s anger.

5. Lasan – Erasing a Culture with Experimental Weapons

The Lasat people, proud warriors with a rich cultural history, refused to submit to the Empire. In response, the Empire unleashed something unprecedented: T-7 ion disruptor rifles. These weren’t ordinary weapons. They didn’t just kill – they disintegrated.

Agent Alexsandr Kallus led the operation. Though he later expressed regret, at the time he authorized the use of these banned weapons. Cities were vaporized. Entire families blinked out of existence. Even Lasan’s royal guard – the Honor Guard – fell.

Among the few survivors was Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios, who would later join the Ghost crew and fight for the Rebellion. Zeb carried the trauma of that genocide with him, even when he found refuge on Lira San – the true homeworld of the Lasat. It became a sanctuary for the few who escaped.

In a twist of fate, Kallus and Zeb would later find mutual respect and understanding, with Kallus defecting. But that reconciliation doesn’t undo the fact that Lasan was a genocide born of arrogance and cruelty.

6. Jedha – A Holy City Reduced to Rubble

Before Alderaan, there was Jedha. A sacred moon and pilgrimage site for Force believers, Jedha City held immense spiritual significance. It was also rich in kyber crystals – the lifeblood of the Death Star’s weapon.

When the Empire drained enough kyber, they chose Jedha as the target for a “test” of the Death Star’s superlaser. Grand Moff Tarkin ordered a single-reactor blast. The result? The entire city and its surrounding regions were vaporized. Hundreds of thousands died instantly.

The blast was meant to send a message. As Tarkin said, “The Holy City will be enough for today.” It was genocide, framed as a demonstration – meant to intimidate and erase hope.

The Empire blamed the destruction on a mining accident. But survivors, like Saw Gerrera and the Partisans, spread the truth. Later, even Luke Skywalker would stand on Jedha’s ruins and call it “the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”

Jedha’s destruction proved that the Empire would even target religion and culture if it meant silencing resistance. The Death Star wasn’t just a weapon – it was a tool of terror.

7. Kijimi – Annihilation by the Final Order

In the galaxy’s final chapter of Sith tyranny, the genocide of Kijimi proved history was repeating. Kijimi wasn’t a rebel world. It barely mattered strategically. But when a few of its people aided Rey and the Resistance, that was enough for the Final Order to act.

From orbit, Captain Chesille Sabrond gave the order. A single Sith Star Destroyer, equipped with planet-killer tech, fired its superlaser. Kijimi shattered. The planet cracked, split, and disappeared – no warning, no justification.

There was no Senate to lie to. No excuse offered. This wasn’t about war – it was a show of power. Darth Sidious wanted the galaxy to know the Sith had returned, and they could destroy anyone at any time.

What makes this genocide especially disturbing is how routine it felt. The officers didn’t hesitate. They followed orders, emotionless.

8. The Ghorman Massacre – Peaceful Protest, Met with Fire

Ghorman wasn’t a battlefield. It was a stage for nonviolent protest – a peaceful planet where citizens dared to speak out against Imperial tyranny. But the Empire didn’t care about peace. It needed an excuse. And it got one.

Back in 19 BBY, Moff Tarkin had already landed a cruiser on unarmed protestors – killing 500 and earning the name “The Tarkin Massacre.” Years later, in 2 BBY, Ghorman’s citizens gathered again, mourning their past and resisting quietly. But this time, the Empire had planned for it.

Imperial Intelligence armed local dissidents behind the scenes, planting evidence of insurgency. When protestors filled Palmo Plaza, an ISB sniper killed an Imperial cadet, making it look like the crowd had fired first. That’s all the excuse they needed.

Stormtroopers, KX droids, and even TIEs descended on the crowd. Orders were clear: no mercy. Over 80,000 civilians died as the square was turned into a war zone. Ghorman burned not because it rebelled, but because it stood in the way of a mining operation the Empire wanted.

Dreena’s live broadcast from the massacre still echoes: “We’re being slaughtered.” The world heard it, and the Rebellion listened. After Ghorman, Mon Mothma publicly denounced the Emperor. The event pushed the Rebellion from the shadows into a formal alliance.

Ghorman was proof that under the Empire, even peace could be punishable by death.

9. Kamino – The Empire’s Silent, Surgical Erasure

Kamino built the Republic’s clone army. Its cloning facilities were once the most secure in the galaxy. But to the Empire, they were a loose end – a reminder of the past and a threat to future control.

In 19 BBY, the Empire moved quickly and quietly. No war was declared. No warning given. They extracted useful assets like clone cadets and scientific data. Then they arrested Prime Minister Lama Su and removed the Kaminoan leadership.

What followed was cold, surgical genocide. Imperial Star Destroyers opened fire from orbit, reducing Tipoca City to rubble. Other cities followed. The ocean swallowed what remained. The Kaminoan people – scientists, engineers, civilians – were killed en masse. Their legacy buried beneath the waves.

There was no press release. No celebration. The attack was blamed on a “rogue officer,” Vice Admiral Rampart, but everyone involved knew the truth: this was a deliberate erasure.

Kamino wasn’t rebelling. It didn’t resist. It simply no longer served a purpose. The Empire saw no reason to preserve it – or its people. By wiping out Kamino, the Empire ensured no one else could replicate what they had built. The clones became obsolete, and their creators, extinct.

It was quiet. It was efficient. It was genocide.