Grand Army of the Republic

"As my first act with this new authority, I will create a Grand Army of the Republic to counter the increasing threats of the Separatists."

- Supreme Chancellor Palpatine

The Grand Army of the Republic is a fictional military organization featured in the Star Wars mythos. It was introduced in the second installment of the prequel series, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and was also featured in the third installment, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith as well as the various "Clone Wars" spin-off projects.

Origins
The origins of the Grand Army of the Republic hail back to the Separatist Crisis in which several business-trade guilds banded together under the leadership of a charismatic former Jedi named Dooku and instituted a secessionist movement from the Galactic Republic. As Dooku's new Confederacy of Independent Systems began to grow in strength and influence, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine vied to consolidate the power of the Republic even as war fever tensions continued to rise. A bill known as the Military Creation Act was brought before the Senate, but this too yielded no small measure of controversy. Many of the Republic's representatives believed that such a law would place too much power in the hands of the Chancellor. No one realized that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was in reality a Sith Lord known as Darth Sidious. He had orchestrated the entire Separatist Crisis as part of a long-term plan to gain complete control over the republic and dominance over the bureaucracy. To this end, he had Count Dooku (secretly a pawn of Darth Sidious) negotiate a contract with the cloners of the planet Kamino to create an army of battle-ready clone soldiers for the coming war. The clones were based on the genetic template of a bounty hunter named Jango Fett.

In 22 BBY, Senator Padm Amidala and two Jedi Knights, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi had been captured by the CIS and held captive on the planet Geonosis where they were scheduled to be executed. When news of this incident reached the Republic center on Coruscant, the Jedi Council sent a contingent of more than two-hundred Jedi to rescue them. Chancellor Palpatine regarded this as an act of war and used it to manipulate the Senate into granting him Executive Emergency Powers. With this new authority, Palpatine ratified the Military Creation Act and pressed his clone army into service. He dubbed them the Grand Army of the Republic.

Several squadrons of armored clone troopers, led by Jedi Master Yoda went to Geonosis to provide aerial support to the Jedi already on the ground. This skirmish became known as the First Battle of Geonosis and signaled the onset of a much larger series of campaigns that came to be known as the Clone Wars.

The Clone Wars
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Legacy
At the close of the Clone Wars, Chancellor Palpatine declared himself Emperor and re-organized the Republic under the banner of the First Galactic Empire. The Grand Army of the Republic was folded over into the new Imperial military and divided into the Imperial Army and the Imperial Navy. The clone troopers became members of the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps. The largest contingent of soldiers held over from the Clone Wars was the 501st Legion which fell directly under the supervision of Sith Lord Darth Vader.

Notes & Trivia

 * Named for the Grand Army of the Republic, fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army who served in the American Civil War.


 * Not to be confused with the Gungan Grand Army as seen in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace''.