After the Trade Federation invaded Naboo, Queen Amidala escaped the planet and reached Coruscant, where she told the Senate of the Trade Federation’s attack. Federation Senator Lott Dod protested that there was no proof of her accusations, and the weak Supreme Chancellor Valorum was forced to ask Amidala if she would agree to the appointment of a commission to investigate the charges.

For Amidala, this meager response was proof that the Senate had become too corrupt and bureaucratic to govern. She angrily denounced the body, then listened gravely as Naboo’s Senator Palpatine craftily proposed a new strategy: call for a no-confidence vote in Valorum.

Valorum had been one of Naboo’s allies, but a frustrated Amidala did as Palpatine suggested. The Senate backed her call for new elections – and the prized appointment went to Palpatine. His rise to power had begun.

A decade later, the Senate was in turmoil, roiled by fears that systems would leave the Republic to join Count Dooku’s Separatist movement. Amidala, now Naboo’s senator, returned to Coruscant to cast a key vote opposing the creation of a Republic army – and nearly died when an assassin blew up her ship. A grave Supreme Chancellor Palpatine told the Senate of her death – and was relieved to discover Amidala had survived.

When word reached the Senate that Dooku and his allies were preparing for war, Naboo Representative Jar Jar Binks spoke up and proposed giving Palpatine emergency powers during the crisis – including the right to create a Republic army. Palpatine vowed to set aside the enormous powers he’d been given as soon as he could, but he was lying – a secret Sith plot to take over the galaxy was advancing.

The Clone Wars engulfed the galaxy, but Coruscant and the Senate often seemed unaffected. That changed when the monstrous Zillo Beast broke free of captivity and rampaged across the cityscape, seeking out Palpatine in his Senate office. Republic gunships brought the mighty creature down outside the Senate Building.

The Senate was sharply divided by the war, with some senators offering full-throated support for Palpatine while others feared democracy was threatened and sought a peaceful solution. Padmé Amidala was in the latter camp, a position that sometimes left her at odds with her husband, the Jedi General Anakin Skywalker.

A major expansion of the war seemed at hand when Palpatine presented a hologram of Mandalore’s Deputy Minister Jerec apparently admitting that his planet needed the help of the Jedi and the Republic to counter Death Watch terrorists. The Senate voted to intervene and the Republic made invasion plans.

Mandalore’s Duchess Satine risked her life to reveal that Jerec’s message had been doctored as a pretext for an invasion. With the help of Senator Amidala and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the unaltered message was played for the Senate, and the invasion was called off.

When the Trade Federation threatened to invade Pantora, Senator Riyo Chuchi accused the Trade Federation of being in league with the Separatists despite the group’s official neutrality. The Pantoran crisis escalated when the Separatists hired thugs to abduct Chairman Papanoida’s daughters.

The war came to Coruscant when a team of bounty hunters led by Cad Bane invaded the Senate, overpowering Anakin Skywalker and taking several senators hostage. Bane threatened to kill the hostages unless Palpatine agreed to release Ziro the Hutt from a Republic prison.

Clone troopers secured Palpatine in his office, but only quick action by Anakin saved the senators from death. Bane completed his mission, escaping Coruscant with the freed Ziro the Hutt.

Padmé and Bail Organa were leaders of the opposition to a bill to deregulate the Banking Clan – a measure supported by representatives of the Trade Federation, Techno Union and Banking Clan, whose Separatist ties were open secrets on Coruscant.

With Padmé pushing for peace, the Separatist-leaning senators Lott Dod, Gume Saam and Nix Card made plans to scuttle her efforts with a Separatist attack on Coruscant itself.

Padmé secretly met an old friend, Separatist Senator Mina Bonteri. Their negotiations led to a Separatist peace proposal, and the Senate seemed poised to vote no on deregulating the Banking Clan. But then the planned Separatist attack plunged Coruscant into darkness.

Padmé urged her fellow senators not to abandon the peace process, but a message arrived from Count Dooku himself, declaring that Bonteri had been killed in a Republic attack. A seemingly furious Dooku withdrew the Separatist peace proposal.

With the peace proposal dead, Banking Clan representatives told Padmé and Rodia’s Senator Onaconda Farr that the organization was jacking up interest rates on its loan to the Republic, while lending the Separatists credits for an army of new battle droids.

After thugs wounded Bail Organa, Padmé had to step in and deliver a critical speech urging the Senate to reject the deregulation bill and stop the funding of more clone troops. Padmé warned that the war was eroding basic services relied on by regular citizens. To the consternation of Palpatine, the Senate voted against the bills, at least temporarily slowing the war.

Emboldened by her success, Padmé worked with Farr, Organa and Mon Mothma to cut military spending – which caused the Republic’s pro-military faction to smear her as unpatriotic. Events then took a dangerous turn when Farr was killed by poison.

Suspicions focused on Farr’s political enemies, such as the Kaminoan Senator Halle Burtoni. But the killer turned out to be Farr’s assistant, Representative Lolo Purs – who had killed her mentor for involving their homeworld in the Clone Wars and briefly siding with the Separatists.

Later in the war, evidence of corruption within the Banking Clan was revealed by former senator Rush Clovis, reviled for treasonous acts against the Republic. Clovis swore he had reformed and wanted to return the Clan to its roots as a fair system for commerce. After the Separatists agreed to back Clovis as the Banking Clan’s new head, the Republic Senate endorsed the move.

Clovis was sincere, but found himself enmeshed in a Separatist plot, with Dooku forcing him to raise interest rates on the Republic but not the Separatists. The Separatists then attacked the Republic delegation on the key Banking Clan world of Scipio, leading to an emergency Senate session and a Republic invasion.

The fighting ended with Clovis dead and Scipio in Republic hands. In the interests of stability, the Banking Clan’s Nix Card ceded control of the organization to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, now more powerful than ever.

The Republic pushed the Separatists into a few redoubts in the Outer Rim, but Palpatine showed no signs of giving up his wartime powers. Senators such as Bail Organa and Mon Mothma secretly laid the groundwork for an underground resistance movement – which would one day blossom into the Rebel Alliance.

The deaths of Dooku and General Grievous brought the Clone Wars to an end, but Palpatine did not relinquish power. Instead he declared himself the Emperor of the First Galactic Empire. To the disgust and horror of Padmé and Organa, the senators responded with thunderous applause.

As the Empire tightened its grip on the galaxy, the power of the Senate continued to ebb, with Palpatine’s handpicked regional governors gaining more and more control over the lives of galactic citizens. In secret, Organa and a few other brave senators worked to nurture an armed rebellion aimed at restoring the lost Republic.

Many Imperials saw the Senate as an annoying relic of the Republic but accepted it as necessary to keep control of the galaxy. But Palpatine disagreed, and disbanded the body. The regional governors now had direct control of their systems, and fear would keep those planets in line – fear of the Empire’s terrifying new Death Star battle station.