Clone Wars (Star Wars) - Pre-Clone Wars: Origins (Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menance - Separatist Crisis)

Separatist Crisis)

The beginnings of the war are first portrayed in the 1999 film The Phantom Menace as the Trade Federation invades the planet of Naboo, causing Naboo's Senator Palpatine to win the sympathy vote to become Supreme Chancellor. However, the real tension begins with the Separatist Crisis, a series of debates in the Galactic Republic that are referred to in Attack of the Clones, and began about two years prior to the start of that film. By the beginning of Attack of the Clones, many star systems have seceded and left the Republic. The tension caused by this secession eventually leads to the outbreak of war. The war has different causes: the Republic's Chancellor Palpatine tells his people that the war began because of several different reasons such as the years of separation by the outer rim territories, as well as the separatists' capture of the Jedi and financing of rebellions by radical states within the Republic. While these are all true, Palpatine had covertly influenced and created these events with assistance from his secret apprentices..