Confederacy of Independent Systems

The Confederacy of Independent Systems, also known as the Separatist Alliance and simply as the Separatists, was a galactic government and separatist movement that stood opposed to the Galactic Republic. Refusing to comply with its excessive taxation and corruption in the Senate in the wake of the Naboo Crisis various planetary and sectorial governments, as well as some mega-corporations, declared intentions to leave the Republic during the during the the Secessionist Movement to form a Confederacy.

Secessionist Movement
There was rising tensions between the Core and Outer Rim systems as a result of the Invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation which gradually increased to the point where many believed that a galactic war was imminent.

Rebellious activities began in outlying Republic star systems that no longer supported the Republic during the Secessionist Movement. These sentiments which were seized by the Sith Lord Count Dooku. The Separatists were also secretly led by Sheev Palpatine, the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic and the Dark Lord of the Sith, allowing Palpatine to manipulate the major events of the Clone Wars. The war itself was the end result of tension between the Separatists and the Republic.

Aftermath
By the war's end, the Separatist Alliance had been defeated by the Republic, just as Palpatine had intended; the war with the Separatists was a pretext to amassing complete central authority over the Republic, so it could be transformed into the Galactic Empire. The Separatist leadership was killed by Darth Vader, officially ending the Separatist cause. As the Empire expanded, it used the memory of the Separatist Alliance to maintain order, telling the galaxy that it was the rebellious Confederacy that caused the destructive Clone Wars.

In the time of the Galactic Empire, some used the term "Separatist" to refer generally to those still involved in fomenting rebellion. Separatists military equipment and technology that survived the Clone Wars continued to be in use by varying resistances and pirates that managed to obtain them for their own purpose.