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The Clone Wars, also known as the Separatist Crisis, is a fictional conflict in the Star Wars franchise by George Lucas. Though mentioned briefly in the first Star Wars film (A New Hope, 1977), the war itself was not depicted until Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). The Clone Wars are also the setting for three eponymous projects: a 2D animated series (2003–2005), a 3D film (2008), and a 3D animated series (2008–2014, 2020). They have featured in numerous Star Wars books and games.
Within the Star Wars narrative, the Clone Wars involve a three-year war fought to prevent thousands of planetary systems from seceding from the Galactic Republic and joining the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS), colloqially referred to as the Separatists or Separatist Alliance. The Republic uses an army of clone troopers led by the Jedi Order against the Separatist battle droid army. The conflict was a scheme by the Republic's Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, secretly the evil Sith Lord Darth Sidious, seeking to implement the Sith's long-term plans to wipe out all Jedi and take over the galaxy. Palpatine intended this by giving the clone troopers a secret executive command, "Order 66" (in the form of a control chip) embedded in their brains, instantly making clones perceive their Jedi officers as traitors and kill them. He succeeded in issuing the command in Revenge of the Sith promptly leading to the deaths of numerous Jedi around the galaxy, allowing Palpatine to gain total power and ultimately convert the democratic Galactic Republic into the fascist autocratic Galactic Empire, a reign controlled through a military–industrial complex and featured in the original trilogy.
Lucas used the Clone Wars narrative to answer questions about the original trilogy, such as how the Empire originated and how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. The political and military events of the Clone Wars draw inspiration from such real-world conflicts and historical events, as transition of the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire, the American Civil War, the First and Second World Wars, as well as contemporary events such as the War on Terror and the Bush administration during the early 21st century.