As a direct reactionary movement to the formation of the Empire, the Rebel insurgency conducted covert operations on Imperial garrison-worlds and utilized a stateless strategy in conjunction with wolfpack-guerrilla warfare against the Imperial Fleet throughout the galaxy. Capital ships had no place in the Rebellion as these are expensive to build, maintain, and to keep fully crewed. The Rebellion was far too limited in both manpower and resources to justify putting so much of both into a giant target. When the Galactic Empire is capable of always fielding greater numbers and greater firepower, being able to hit high-valued targets and get out is much more important. While the Empire considers all dissent and rebellion as acts of extremism and terrorism in Imperial propaganda, the Alliance is described and portrayed in various Star Wars media as a group of resilient freedom fighters, based on tolerance, self-empowerment, and hope for a better future using insurgency weapons and tactics.
The Rebel Alliance was first featured as the main protagonist faction in the films A New Hope (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). The faction's origins were alluded to in Revenge of the Sith (2005), and their early activities are featured in the Disney XD television series Rebels, the anthology film Rogue One (2016), and the Disney+ series Andor.
There is no consensus on when the Rebel Alliance was formed, be it de jure or de facto. The three most commonly mentioned dates are:

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