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It is an honor to stand before you, for you represent the freedom and the future of our galaxy. The once-great Republic and Jedi Order have become victims of their own ambitions, and the Supreme Chancellor is no more than a pawn of corporate monopolies. As a people you called out for change, you called out for leadership, and I humbly answered that call. Together we challenged the system. We asked for equality. And how were we met? With war! The Jedi secret army of clones was revealed, and their treachery was far greater than we could have imagined! Countless living beings—these clones the Jedi created—have been sent to their deaths, while we sacrifice mainly droids. Our soldiers of flesh and blood are willing participants! They are your fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, who fight not because they were grown and designed to do so, but because they know in their hearts that they are fighting for a just and noble cause!
The Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS for short), also known as the Separatist Alliance, the Separatist Movement, or the Separatist State, but most often as the Separatists, are major antagonists in the Star Wars franchise.
They are a government and separatist movement of numerous planets and corporations who are frustrated about how corrupt the Republic had become and failed to help them in problems and disasters. They are led by Count Dooku (and secretly controlled by Darth Sidious) who had motives to leave the Galactic Republic.
By the final days of the Clone Wars, the Confederacy eventually dissolved and fell by the design of their very own foremost benefactor Sidious alongside their enemies, the Jedi Order, during the conspiracy protocol Order 66, which would give way to his new regime, the Galactic Empire.
Decades prior to the Clone Wars, there were many people how had seen the Galactic Republic was plagued by corruption and mindless bureaucracy that stifled the voices of many constituents represented in the Galactic Senate.
During the period following the aftermath of the Invasion of Naboo, the commerce guilds and trading corporation had become disillusioned with the Republic after they had passed a law placing taxation on all trade routes throughout the entire galaxy.
Into this critical situation stepped in Count Dooku, a former Jedi Master who had also become disillusioned with the Republic and the Jedi Order as well. The charismatic leader had stirred up anti-Republic sentiment all across the Republic and this soon lead to a rebellion against the government.
As a result, a loose affiliation of separatists was formed with Count Dooku being appointed as their leader and began pushing for a new government to replace the stagnant Republic. The group soon grew and quickly established themselves as the Confederacy of Independent Systems, an organization that was formally opposed to the Galactic Republic. This movement is known as the Separatist Crisis.
Although the Republic had recognized that many of their worlds were in active rebellion, they refused to recognize the Confederacy as their government, deeming that the CIS would be legitimized if they did. Unknown to the Republic, Count Dooku was the Sith Lord, Darth Tyranus, and was the apprentice to Sidious, who sought to recreate the galaxy in their own image and Sidious had posed as supreme chancellor of the Republic.
Outbreak of the Clone Wars[]
The Confederacy had soon marshaled their armed forces to their cause and rallied many to serve them as their soldiers with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the Republic and to take their capital, Coruscant. The Trade Federation, commanded by the Republic to shrink their droid armies, had instead decided to expand their droid armies and have them to serve the Confederacy as their main army.
Adding millions of battle droids to the Separatist arsenal and steadily growing with input from other factions like the Techno Union. Foundries and factories on planets like Geonosis, Hypori, and other worlds had created billions of battle droids to help grow the Separatist army while Count Dooku recruited new start systems to join the Separatist cause.
However, the CIS would soon lose their advantage of the element of surprise when Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi had tracked down the bounty hunter Jango Fett and arrived at Geonosis where he secretly saw the gathering of the Separatist leaders and the formation of the Separatist Alliance in general. Obi-Wan alerted the Chancellor but was interrupted by a Droideka and was soon captured. Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala had soon arrived at Geonosis to rescue him but were captured to and were planned to be executed in a public stadium.
Thankfully for the Jedi, Mace Windu had arrived with a small army of Jedi and rescued them and soon, the newly formed Clone Army had arrived and a battle erupted on Geonosis which instigated the Clone Wars.
Fighting the Clone Wars[]
Over the next three years, the Confederacy and the Republic would engage each other in brutal conflict going across the entire galaxy. Countless soldiers and citizens on both sides would die and suffer brutal casualties and losses as both sides waged war across entire planets and star systems, unknown that the entire conflict was a secret plot instigated by the Sith as a means of regaining control over the galaxy. The Confederacy and Jedi were unknowingly being deceived by Sidious, who was controlling the war on both ends.
For the first part of the war, capturing whole planets despite losses on Muunilist and Dac. Despite many early victories, the Confederacy had begun to suffer defeats and get pushed back which lead to the instigation of the Outer Rim Sieges. During the war, the Confederacy had committed numerous atrocities during the war, especially by their military leader General Grievous. Many superweapons were also used by the Separatists such as the Dark Reaper and the Malevolence ion pulse cannons.
Ultimately the war climaxed in the Battle of Coruscant, a massive sneak attack against the Republic's capital world, organized by Sidious, who had Count Dooku and General Grievous capture his alter ego Chancellor Palpatine, in order to lure Anakin Skywalker to the dark side and have the young Jedi Knight kill Dooku and eventually replace him as Sidious's apprentice, though all but Sidious were unaware of the Dark Lord's intentions. The battle was a calculated gamble by the Confederacy but it ended in failure: not only was much of their fleet destroyed, but Count Dooku himself lost in a lightsaber duel aboard his ship with Anakin Skywalker, and was then betrayed by his master who had him executed by Skywalker.
Grievous and the Separatist Council retreated to Utapau but were followed by Kenobi leading another army group of Clone Troopers. There Grievous was himself killed in a duel with Kenobi, but just after he had already arranged to send the Separatist Council to a more secure location on the planet Mustafar, where they continued to direct droid armies across the galaxy. After Dooku's death, which unknown to the Confederacy, was orchestrated by Sidious, Grievous briefly became the Confederacy Head of State, but not long after, Grievous was eliminated by Kenobi during the battle of Utapau, granting the title of Confederacy leader to the Viceroy of the Trade Federation, Nute Gunray.
The entire rise of the Separatists and the outbreak of the Clone Wars had been nothing but a ploy by Sidious to deceive the Senate into giving him dictatorial powers and oppressive abilities. With Dooku and Grievous dead, the Separatists had outlived their usefulness to him. Moreover, immediately after Grievous' death, the Jedi Order became aware of his true Sith identity, leading Sidious to launch Order 66, a secret command programmed into every Clone Trooper via an organic chip in their brains to kill their own Jedi commanders across the entire galaxy.
Meanwhile, he also turned Anakin Skywalker to the dark side as his new apprentice Darth Vader. Sidious deceived Gunray and the Separatists Leaders into believing Vader would protect them. Unaware that Sidious had betrayed them, the Separatist Council welcomed his new apprentice Vader into the heart of their command center on Mustafar, where he promptly massacred all of the Separatist leaders single-handedly, then used the equipment in their command center to send a shut-down order to every droid army still fighting a losing war across the galaxy, bringing the conflict to an abrupt end.
Legacy[]
The Confederacy had a long-lasting impact following the end of the Clone Wars. After its dissolution, the corporations and other entities were imperialized and absorbed into the newly formed Galactic Empire. Many Separatist worlds were absorbed into the Empire as well with many races enslaved as well though Trandosians did align themselves with the Empire and thus avoided being enslaved. The droid armies were effectively shut down and many battle droids were also absorbed into the Imperial Military and Imperial Battle Droid were formed while some droids units fell in the hands of smugglers, pirates and other organizations, most notable the Rebel Alliance. The Death Star, a superweapon originally designed by the Separatists, was taken by the Empire and was constructed and eventually finished and would be used as a symbol of fear and might of the Galactic Empire.
The participation of CIS in the Clone Wars also bred animosity between humans and aliens since several alien species had fought on the side of the Separatists. While several aliens had fought on the side of the Republic, this sentiment gave rise to a xenophobic culture within the Empire that was primarily ruled by humans. Besides, the use of a droid army led to an increase in anti-droid propaganda across the galaxy, with people seeing droids with negative eyes.
Although the Confederacy was dissolved and its armies deactivated, many Separatist home planets had refused to surrender and continued to fight. After the Clone Wars, many Confederates would become part of the Rebel Alliance, another reform-minded organization with goals similar to those of the Confederacy, albeit sans the ulterior motive of a Sith puppeteer and ultimately driven by the desire to restore the Galactic Republic rather than leaving it.
Following the victory of the Rebel Alliance over the Empire, the Alliance was reorganized into the New Republic. The New Republic took steps to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Galactic Republic in its twilight & finally addressing the CIS's issues. Steps such as rotating the capital and keeping it off Coruscant convinced a number of former separatist worlds to join the New Republic. Despite some of them joining, the remaining separatists manage to form the New Separatist Union in rise to power and performed skirmishes at the border between themselves and the New Republic (possibly with the belief they could run the galaxy better).
Army[]
“
Our friends from the Trade Federation have pledged their support. And when their Battle Droids are combined with yours, we shall have an army greater than any in the galaxy. The Jedi will be overwhelmed. The Republic will agree to any demands we make.
The Confederate Army was mostly made up of Battle Droids that were commanded by a commander droid, who served under a living commander. Native armies from planets the Confederacy controlled were also happy to help the droids in certain battles, some of them were just as good as the Republic Clone Troopers.
Above the battalion level, vanguards sat between battalions and regiments in size and were designed to break through heavy defenses. They were composed of 1,232 battle droids and support droids and consisted of eleven MTT companies and a squadron of 18 repulsor tanks. Regiments consisted of 4,368 droids and support troops in 4 battalions and a single vanguard and were the total number of troops and vehicles carried aboard 1 C-9979 landing craft. Divisions consisted of 21,840 droids in 5 regiments, while corps consisted of 109,200 droids in 5 divisions. The largest tactical unit was the army, composed of 218,000 battle droids and support droids in 2 corps, and represented the total surface force carried aboard a Lucrehulk-class Battleship.
The generals of the Confederacy were proud of their robotic troops who won many battles during the war, although the incompetence of some of the droids also leads to defeats. The most brilliant commander was General Grievous who could wield four lightsabers at a time, slaying many Jedi during the war. Other notable military officers included Asajj Ventress, Admiral Trench, and General Kalani.
Politics[]
The Confederacy had a Head of State and civilian parliament called the Separatist Senate or Separatist Parliament. The Separatist Capital was on Raxus Secundus, a lush world where some of the Republic's enemies were, in fact, decent people with forthright political beliefs, but it was mostly ruled by corrupt businessmen, the Separatist Council, who ignored the Senate. As leader of the Separatist Senate, Dooku had a powerful and respected voice. He led Senate sessions via hologram since he was off-world most of the time. The worlds that have moved from the Republic have a Parliament on Raxus, where the senators discuss matters of the Clone Wars with Dooku, whose words are highly valued.
As a result of the Separatist Council/Sith influence, the Confederacy committed numerous war crimes such as environmental disasters and civilian casualties. The CIS also relied on slavery to fuel the economy. Most Confederate civilians were unaware of the war crimes committed by their government due to brilliant propaganda and the good welfare the CIS gave to its own people.
The CIS had a mostly alien population due to the belief that the Galactic Republic made aliens second-class citizens and gave more rights to humans. Ironically when the Galactic Empire rose to power, it enlisted in all of those xenophobic policies when Darth Vader executed the CIS leaders. When the Galactic Civil War began, many surviving generals and senators of the CIS joined the Rebel Alliance. As a result, much of the early Rebel fleet was made of CIS ships.
Navy[]
Separatist Navy
Although the Republic had recognized that many of their worlds were in active rebellion, they refused to recognize the Confederacy as their government, deeming that the CIS would be legitimized if they did. Unknown to the Republic, Count Dooku was the Sith Lord, Darth Tyranus and was the apprentice to Darth Sidious, who sought to recreate the galaxy in their own image and Sidious had posed as Chancellor Palpatine of the Republic.
The Confederate Navy was a force to be reckoned with and had many powerful ships. The Providence-class carrier/destroyer was perhaps the most well known capital ships in the CIS' arsenal. They were the command ships of the navy and the most notable one was the Invisible Hand, Grievous' personal flagship. Other large ships included the Munificent-class star frigate, the Lucrehulk-class battleship, the Recusant-class light destroyer, and the most notorious and largest: the Subjugator-class heavy cruiser.
Early on in the Clone Wars, General Grievous was the commander of the infamous starship, Malevolence, a Subjugator-class heavy cruiser that was capable of firing large ion bursts from both the port and starboard sides of the ship. In the Malevolence's days of glory, it had destroyed possibly hundreds of Republic warships and Republic fleets, including Plo Koon's fleet in the battle of Abregado. Its primary target was a Republic Haven-class medical station, the Kaliida Shoals Medical Center, where they attempted to destroy the station, along with the 60,000+ Clone Troopers that were being treated inside.
Three-quarters of the Confederacy Navy was destroyed in the battle of Coruscant, including the Invisible Hand, but they managed to destroy thousands of Republic warships in the process.
Executive Separatist Council[]
The Executive Separatist Council consisted of ten leaders with their own people who follow his/her decisions. The Council consisted of:
Executive Separatist Council
Darth Sidious - Secret Benefactor / De-Facto Leader of the Executive Separatist Council / Master of Count Dooku / Dark Lord of the Sith (deceased)
Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus - Founder / First Head of State / First Leader of the Executive Separatist Council / Count of Serenno / Master of General Grievous / Former Master of Asajj Ventress and Savage Opress / Apprentice of Darth Sidious / Sith Lord (deceased)
Grievous - General in the Separatist Droid Army / Supreme Martial Commander of the Separatist Droid Armies / Second Head of State / Second Leader of the Executive Separatist Council / Warlord / Apprentice of Count Dooku (deceased)
Nute Gunray - Viceroy of the Trade Federation / Third Head of State / Third Leader and Chairman of the Executive Separatist Council (deceased)
Poggle the Lesser - Archduke of Geonosis / Head of Geonosian Industries / Warlord (deceased)
Wat Tambor - Minister of Skako Minor / Skako Minor Representative in the Galactic Senate / Foreman of the Techno Union / Executive and Leader of the Baktoid Armor Workshop / Former Emir of Ryloth (deceased)
Some people believe that the Confederacy of Independent Systems are the main antagonists of the Star Wars prequel trilogy followed the Sith. This isn't true, however, because despite the fact that the Separatists posed a more direct threat towards the Jedi Order in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, the Sith were pulling the strings behind the scenes even back in The Phantom Menace, when the CIS wasn't founded yet, making the Sith the true main antagonists of the prequels.
The Principality of Zeon from Mobile Suit Gundam bears many similarities to the Confederacy of Independent Systems, as both were an aggressive Separatist faction that waged war on their respective governments for independence. Like the newly formed Galactic Empire did to the Galactic Republic following the dissolution of the CIS, the Titans task force corrupted the Earth Federation after the defeat of Zeon.
The CIS was inspired by the Confederate States of America (CSA), an American unrecognized breakaway republic that tried to secede from the United States to form their own country built on slavery.
