Star Wars

"(...)The rise of the Evil Galactic Empire begins with a blockade by Lucas' version of the British East India Company, the Galactic Troup Federation. Acting on an official "franchise" from the central government, the viceroy of the Trade Federation is frustrated in his attempts to collect taxes from the planet of Naboo. At the instruction of a cloaked Sith lord named Darth Sidious – who turns out to be Augustus Palpatine, Naboo's representative to the Galactic Senate – the Trade Federation invades and occupies the planet.

Using the crisis he created as an excuse, Palpatine then tricks the trusting young queen of Naboo into calling for a vote of no-confidence in the current supreme chancellor of the Galactic Republic. Explaining to her that the Senate has become corrupt and that the current chancellor has been weakened by accusations of corruption, he tells her that their best option is to push for his replacement by a strong chief executive who can "get things done." Palpatine, of course, framed up the old supreme chancellor, and is elected the new one. "I feel confident that our situation will create a strong sympathy vote for us," he cheerfully reports to the queen before the vote.

One of the movie's main points seems lost on many reviewers. The story is not only about each man's ability to choose good or evil, or how wars destroy limited republics and empires alike; it is also about how the subtle manipulation of power behind the scenes helps make it all possible. By fooling all of the various characters into thinking they are doing the right thing, or at least acting in their own interests, Darth Sidious (AKA Palpatine) implements the final phase of the Sith Lords' long-term plan to take revenge on the Jedi and total power for themselves.

Between the events of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, a decade goes by in which Palpatine recruits as his apprentice a former Jedi master named Count Dooku – taken from doku, a Buddhist term meaning to govern or poison – to prepare the galaxy for a civil war.

Dooku first hires the bounty hunter Jango Fett to be the genetic basis for the clone army of the Republic. In the time it takes them to reach fighting age (10 years, as they are engineered to age twice as fast as regular folks), he goes off and creates a separatist movement of the planets allied with mercantilist groups who have fallen into disfavor with the central government, the Confederacy of Independent Systems. He also creates an army of droids for them.

Though some have criticized Lucas for being anticapitalist in his portrayal of the commercial interests in Attack of the Clones, the names of these organizations – Trade Federation, Commerce Guild, Corporate Alliance and Banking Clan – suggest that they are greedy and corrupt crony capitalists, not free marketeers.

Because antiwar factions in the Senate refuse to allow the creation of a standing army unless they are attacked, Darth Sidious arranges events so that the separatists are seen as the aggressors, and manipulates the dumbest character of the new movies, Jar Jar Binks, into proposing to the Senate that he be granted emergency powers over the galaxy.

He then announces the creation of a "Grand Army of the Republic" to "counter the increasing threats of the separatists." The Jedi then lead the massive clone army into battle across the galaxy to "save" the Republic. These clones, of course, become the Imperial Storm troopers of the later chapters.(...)

By the time of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, a tremendous amount of power has been concentrated in the hands of the supreme chancellor, and the Jedi Knights have used up the good will of the people of the galaxy with all the destruction caused by the Clone Wars, making it simple to set them up as responsible for all the galaxy's problems. In a final act of treachery, Palpatine, in a magnificent, simultaneous, galaxy-wide Night of the Long Knives, issues Order 66 to the clone armies, ordering them to slay their Jedi generals. (...)

Once safe in office, Darth Sidious declares himself emperor for life and introduces his "New Order" to roaring ovations in the Senate.

Lucas says this scene of the final surrender of liberty to power was inspired by the dictatorships of Augustus Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Adolph Hitler: "It's not the first time a politician has created a war to try to stay in office." by Scott Horton