Confederacy of Independent Systems

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• 

From the Movies

Despite rosy recollections of a greater past, the Galactic Republic succumbed into undeniable decay. Its cumbersome bureaucracy slowed down any attempts at reform, and too many of its constituents had grown corrupt and complacent to enact any change. A feeling of disenfranchisement grew in the galaxy, particularly in outlying systems where heavy taxation was not balanced by improved services.

Into this disarray stepped a charismatic man named Count Dooku, a former Jedi, who sought to teach the Republic a lesson. The status quo could be upended and there was an opportunity for change -- radical change. Dooku led a popular Separatist movement that gained increasing momentum, and in two short years, he had a following of several thousand solar systems.

For the first time in a thousand years fear of open warfare crept into the Republic. The valiant Jedi Knights were too few to prevent the scattered flashpoints of violence sparked by the Separatists. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was confident in peaceful resolution through negotiation, but not everyone was so levelheaded.

Alarmist Senators called for the creation of an Army of the Republic. The Military Creation Act was to be put to a vote, and many believed that the establishment of a Republic military would merely be the catalyst for an all-out civil war. The vote was delayed following an assassination attempt on the opposition leader, Padmé Amidala.

What none in the Senate knew was that the Separatists were gearing up for war. Count Dooku courted the massive engines of commerce in the galaxy -- institutions such as the Corporate Alliance, the Trade Federation, the Techno Union, InterGalactic Banking Clan and Commerce Guild -- with promises of reform and unyielding devotion to capitalism. In exchange, these bodies would commit their immense armies to the Separatist cause. With their droid armies scattered throughout the galaxy, the Separatists would overwhelm the Republic. Dooku felt confident that ten thousand more systems would join the Separatists.

In a darkened conference room on the Techno Union foundry world of Geonosis, Count Dooku made his offer, and the Confederacy of Independent Systems was formally established. This meeting of the minds was overheard by Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, who warned the Republic of this alarming new development.

The Republic responded with a pre-emptive strike against the Separatists, attacking their world with a newly created clone army. In the explosive ground battle that ensued, the Clone Wars between the Separatists and Republic began.

For three long years the Clone Wars spread across the galaxy. While Count Dooku was the public and political face of the Confederacy, its military arm was led by the deadly General Grievous. In the last months of the conflict, the fighting was most intense in the Outer Rim Sieges. It was during this time that the leadership of the Confederacy, the Separatist Council, was always on the move.

After leaving their sanctuary on Utapau, the Council fled to Mustafar, a fiery world in the Outer Rim Territories. There, their secret benefactor Darth Sidious advised them that his new apprentice, Darth Vader, would take of them.

Despite their shrewd business sense, the Separatists did not see their betrayal coming. The war was a sham, engineered by Chancellor Palpatine who was in truth, Darth Sidious. Having achieved his objective of building a New Order in reaction to the threats posed by the Clone Wars, Sidious liquidated his allies. Darth Vader arrived on Mustafar and slaughtered the Separatist Council. He then ordered a command signal that shut down the battle droid military. The huge commerce entities that made up the Confederacy became the spoils of war, as the newfound Empire nationalized them and absorbed them into its growing war machine.

From the Expanded Universe

The Separatist movement began eight years after Supreme Chancellor Palpatine's election, though many of the roots of its origins date back much earlier than that. Palpatine's stint as Supreme Chancellor was so rocked by various crises that he was able to outlast term limitations while dealing with them.

When Dooku appeared on Raxus Prime with a fiery brand of political rhetoric demanding reform, many were prepared to listen. Dooku's words resonated with the galaxy's disaffected populace, and many picked up the banner of the Separatist cause even though they had no direct connection to Dooku. Opportunists used Dooku's name to further their own agendas under the guise of political protest, and this led to scattered violence across the Republic.

During the months prior to the formal formation of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, many violent confrontations were attributed to Separatist forces, though the Jedi Council discounted any attempts to blame Dooku for such activities. The Jedi had to weather an increasingly tarnished public image as their forces were spread too thin to protect against the acts of treason seemingly orchestrated by one of their own.

Supreme Chancellor Palpatine took to the HoloNet to ask Count Dooku to parlay, but he received no response. He formed a loyalist committee to better help him deal with the crisis, but had to endure further scandal when it was revealed that even that entity had been infiltrated by Separatist-sympathizers.

It was at the first engagement of the Clone Wars that the Confederacy of Independent Systems formally emerged, protected by the droid armies of various corporate entities. Though they were routed at the Battle of Geonosis, the Separatists eventually regrouped, and the Clone Wars spread to many battlefronts across the galaxy.

Behind the Scenes

Though commonly referred to as the Separatist movement, the formal name "Confederacy of Independent Systems" didn't come into play until the meeting of the corporate minds that Count Dooku holds in Episode II. In the early drafts of the Episode II script, the Separatists were said to encompass "hundreds" of systems, which was upped to thousands by the time of the film's release.