So,
@Kylar, do you have anything to say about Trade Federation? What were they up to before Naboo?
Eh, why not. Get ready for more information from
The Essential Guide to Warfare!
(There seems to be a trend in this thread.)
The Trade Federation: Origins
The Trade Federation was founded 350 BBY, or about 320 years before the prequals. It initially was actually a lobby group for planets being exploited by ruthless traders- yes the fact they became what they fought was deliberate on Jason Fry's part. In time it moved into the trading business itself, and in those days it was actually a pretty legit good force in the galaxy- helping keep mega corp exploitation down, improving space lanes, helping the push against piracy, etc. They did a lot to help blaze trade routes into the Outer Rim- something that became something of a point of contention later. It also was not Nemodian dominated at that point- the Gran were huge players till they got distracted by one of their colonies committing atrocities and the nemodians used it to take more control, and remained major players all the way through the Clone Wars. There also was a surprising amount of humans as remembers, but more on that in a bit.
Course, they didn't stay that way, they kept growing and changing, and not for the better. Eventually they wound up what you see in the prequels- an exploitative megacorp in every sense of the term. Then about 150-67 BBY (I have conflicting dates), the Republic got hit by some sort of economic problem. Details are scarce, but trade to the Outer Rim was drying up. So they declared Free Trade Zones in an effort to jumpstart trading. As part of the horse trading involved, Corporations got allowed seats in the Senate (that is way more recent then I thought it was). Which worked- it boosted trade- but the Trade Federation and other later Separatist aligned groups wound up with virtual monopolies. They leveraged that into getting a lot of Outer Rim Worlds giving them their votes, and economic strangle-holding more. It also made them shit tons of money, that they used to buy more votes. Net effect, they were very quickly a major player in the Senate- as in getting near Kingmaker status around Naboo.
Fast forward a bit, and you get the Stark Hyperspace War, which I'll let
@The Englanderish cover- I haven't read the comics in question, though
The Essential Guide to Warfare devotes a solid chunk of a chapter to the conflict. Long story short, the Trade Federation, always somewhat militant (pirates are a problem in Star Wars) was getting a lot more so, especially given their, if you'll pardon the pun, imperial trading practices were gaining them outright terrorist groups attacking them. And so we lead up to Naboo.
A Prelude to Naboo
A lot of what follows comes from
Cloak of Deception, an early prequal era EU novel. Its a pretty decent read- not winning any awards, buts it solid and enjoyable, and it features what I think was nearly every named Jedi in the EU at that point- mostly in cameos, but still. But getting back to the Trade Federation, at this point it was run by a Directorate of seven beings: four humans, two from Kuat (yes, the ship builders who basically made the Clones vehicles entirely) one from Balmorra ('neutral' weapon makers who want to sell their guns and battle droids to everyone- they went Separatist in the Clone Wars, while still selling war droids to the Republic) and one from Filve (apparently they make droids? It's really unremarkable), one Gran, one Sullustan, and of course, a Nemodian who held the position of Viceroy and was the leader of the whole thing. He's a familiar face: Nute Gunray.
Without summarizing to much of the plot, Supreme Chancellor Valorum wanted to end the Free Trade Zones, because they weren't doing the intended thing anymore, and were making things worse in the Senate. He was aided heavily in the endevour by Senator Sheev Palpatine of Naboo, which really should tell you everything you need to know about how it ended. But the Trade Federation was rather against the whole idea of getting taxed again (and was using the risks they incurred blazing the hyperspace route the trade depended on as a reason why they shouldn't be: they took the risks, they should garner the rewards), so the Republic was going to loosen the restrictions on their armed forces so they could better deal with terrorists and pirates. Long story short, terrorists hit the conference to discuss the changes, and killed all the Directorate members but Nute Gunray, the taxes went through, Valorum got embroiled in scandal, and the Trade Federation blockades Naboo for its Senator's behind the scene role in them being taxed again. Oh, and Nute Gunray stuffed the Directorate full of Nemodian stooges.
Or to quoth Darth Sidious: "Everything is proceeding
exactly as I have foreseen it."
And then Naboo actually happened, and nothing did.
Overall, pre-Naboo Trade Federation was a classic megacorp- it wasn't good people by any stretch of imagination, but it also wasn't Corporate McStoogeville as it would be after Palps got his stooge in Chief in a position of absolute power. It also was more diverse, though a lot of those holdings followed it into Separatism.
Hm. Thinking on it, the Trade Federations defense of their blockade after the fact must have been something like 'we were using the only avenue we had left to protest these unjustifible taxes against us, and now the Republic seeks to punish us for it!' And then Dooku joins in with them. No wonder Padme doesn't like him in AotC- he basically would have been saying the the Trade Federation was right in that the Republic had no authority to hold it accountable for war crimes against her world.
