Battle of Geonosis

"The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun the Clone War has."

- Yoda

The Battle of Geonosis, also referred to as the First Battle of Geonosis, was the first conflict of the Clone Wars. The battle took place twenty-two years before the Battle of Yavin and was fought on the planet of Geonosis between the Grand Army of the Galactic Republic and the Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. It was the result of tension between the Republic and the Separatist Alliance, a group of planets that had seceded from the Republic, which had been building towards armed conflict for some time. The events leading up to the battle were manipulated by the two Sith Lords: Count Dooku, the political leader of the Separatists; and Sheev Palpatine, Supreme Chancellor of the Republic and secretly Darth Sidious.

The battle itself began as an attempted execution, after the Separatists arrested Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padawan Anakin Skywalker, and Senator Padmé Amidala under the charge of espionage. A team of two hundred Jedi, led by Jedi Master Mace Windu, arrived to rescue the prisoners, and were soon confronted with numerous battle droids. Many Jedi were killed before Jedi Grand Master Yoda arrived with clone troopers from Kamino, an army that had been secretly created for the Republic. The arrival of the clones sparked the full-scale battle on Geonosis. As the battle raged on, Kenobi and Skywalker engaged and were defeated by Dooku in a lightsaber duel, before being rescued by Yoda. Dooku escaped Geonosis and the Separatists retreated, but the goal of the Sith had been fulfilled: the beginning of the Clone Wars.

The war continued on for three years, and served as a pretext for Palpatine to amass greater executive control over the Galactic Senate. At the end of the war, he branded the Jedi as traitors and executed Order 66, a command to all clones to kill the Jedi. The Jedi Order was destroyed, and Palpatine transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire, with Palpatine as the ruler of the the galaxy for the next twenty-three years.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Galactic Defense
 * Star Wars Journeys: Beginnings
 * Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars film
 * Tarkin
 * Lost Stars
 * Star Wars: Darth Vader 4: Vader, Part IV
 * Tarkin
 * Lost Stars
 * Star Wars: Darth Vader 4: Vader, Part IV
 * Tarkin
 * Lost Stars
 * Star Wars: Darth Vader 4: Vader, Part IV
 * Star Wars: Darth Vader 4: Vader, Part IV