The Trade Federation was a megacorporation that worked as an interstellar shipping and trade conglomerate. It grew so powerful during the waning years of the Galactic Republic, that it had its own representatives in the Galactic Senate. Founded in 350 BBY during the High Republic Era, it rose to prosperity in the Outer Rim and maintained its own private military. Over time, it became locked into a power struggle with the Republic that raged on for decades as the Federation grew in size, prestige, and power under the Neimoidian species. The Trade Federation would often force planets into exclusive contracts which, in several circumstances, gave them the ability to blockade planets and control system politics. Following the Clone Wars, the Galactic Empire allowed the Federation to remain in existence in vestigial form until its disestablishment upon the dissolution of the Imperial Senate.
During the Eriadu Conference, its leadership was killed by the Nebula Front. As a result, one ambitious cabal of Neimoidians jumped into the power vacuum, anointing Senator Nute Gunray as the new Viceroy, who secretly conceded to a pact with the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. The alliance between the Trade Federation and the Sith led to the invasion of the peaceful planet of Naboo and caused a crisis in the Senate, although the occupation was thwarted by Queen Padmé Amidala and her forces, as well as the Gungan Grand Army.
Escaping imprisonment and being welcomed into Count Dooku's entourage, Viceroy Gunray pledged his droid armies to the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and the Federation's forces fought both the Republic's military and the Jedi Order throughout the Clone Wars. Despite this, Senator Lott Dod kept denying claims of the Federation backing Count Dooku's Separatists, always asserting its corporate neutrality. By the time of the war, the business enterprise held much authority in the Quellor sector, exercising its influence in the affairs of the government of Cato Neimoidia. Gunray and his fellow Separatist Council members were betrayed by Darth Sidious, who had them killed by his apprentice, Darth Vader, at the end of the Clone Wars, and the Trade Federation was nationalized by the newly-formed Galactic Empire at the start of its reign.
The Trade Federation was subsequently subsumed into the Empire where it became powerless and obsolete. During the Galactic Civil War, the Trade Federation was liquidated as the Imperial Senate was dissolved.
The Trade Federation was a powerful corporation during the era of the Galactic Republic.
The Trade Federation was established around 350 BBY, and could be traced back to the Galactic Republic's efforts to encourage economic development in its outlying star systems. By creating Free Trade Zones encompassing those systems, the government effectively helped increase the flow of travelers and merchandise. However, that newfound prosperity also attracted pirates and plunderers of all kinds who preyed on the vulnerable trade caravans beyond the protection of the Republic. At the time, the Outer Rim Territories of the galaxy were a mostly lawless frontier, outside of the general jurisdiction of the Republic. Consequently, a number of major commercial, financial, manufacturing, and shipping companies united to ensure their own protection. Together, they formed the Trade Federation, a new organization meant to combat pirates, arbitrate disputes between its internal factions, and present a united front to promote mercantile interests before the Republic's bureaucracy.
A key part of the Trade Federation's foundations were the Neimoidians, who were known for their business skills and cutthroat dealings. The Neimodians grew into one of the Federation's most powerful partners, and the Neimoidians greatly benefitted from the Trade Federation's galactic-renowned network of businessmen and merchants. The Federation grew into a very powerful cartel with the might of its own trade fleet of large battleships and privatized military force. Over time, the Neimodians began to exert more and more power over the organization.
The Trade Federation was given representation in the Galactic Senate.
Over time, the Trade Federation grew in size, prestige, and power, becoming a megacorporation. It even went on to earn representation in the Galactic Senate of the Republic, which used its influential seat to lobby for greater power.. Eventually, it came to a point where the Federation laid down its own law on and around the trade routes, exerting undue influence over neighboring systems and extorting enormous "protection" fees. In effect, the Free Trade Zones became free only for the mega-corporations affiliated with the Trade Federation, while independent traders were forced to pay heavy tolls and follow oppressive regulations. A power struggle between the Republic and the Federation raged on for decades.
By the time of the High Republic period, the Trade Federation had established a presence within the Corporate Sector, an independent region in the Outer Rim controlled by the Corporate Sector Authority that harbored a collective of commercial entities and conglomerates. While conducting their business in the region, the Federation hired mekneks, freelance maintenance workers assigned to dangerous jobs usually only deemed fit for astromech droids. One freighter that engaged in this practice was the Fallon, a WD-2550 Whydah-class yield conveyer under the command of the Neimoidian captain Blex. In 132 BBY, Jedi Knight Yord Fandar and his Padawan Tasi Lowa boarded the Fallon and arrested the meknek Osha Aniseya on suspicion of murder, though the Federation ship's operations went on fairly uninterrupted.
The Trade Federation achieved the pinnacle of its wealth under Neimoidian leadership.
As the powerful Neimoidians and their homeworlds, particularly Cato Neimoidia, prospered, it was all but inevitable that the Trade Federation would prosper as well. With the Neiomodian's considerable resources, including a far-reaching access of hyperspace networks and an established reputation in the arena of galactic trade, the Federation became one of the wealthiest corporate organizations in the galaxy and came to control a large portion of interstellar shipping passing through the Outer Rim Territories, which the Neimodians knew the Republic had little influence over. The Neimoidians finally found influence in politics through the Federation. The Federation maintained exploratory craft during the last decades of the Republic; Everi Chalis's mother attempted to sell her six-year-old daughter to the captain of one such craft, though the captain refused as Everi was too small, but gave her a packet of nectrose crystals instead. Baktoid Armor Workshop approached Poggle the Lesser of the Geonosians to design droid foundries on behalf of the Trade Federation. The company also maintained droid manufacturing facilities on worlds including Akiva.
By this time, the Federation sought to control the galaxy in economic terms. Its ultimate goal was to control all galactic trade routes, ports, and freighters, and was willing to do anything to increase profits and avoid Republic taxes. The Federation was keen to protect its profit margins; after the agricultural scientist Leo Leonis and his wife Tepha created genetically modified crops for the planet Chrona, the company let their inventions rot in warehouses for the benefit of its own profits. Within a year new crops were distributed, and the Republic settled the court case in the Federation's favor, despite testimony from Leonis himself.
As of 34 BBY, the Trade Federation was a monolithic organization expanding its reach into the Outer Rim by utilizing loopholes in the Republic's Free Trade Zone legislation, and continued to increase its sway in the Senate. Galactic industrial conglomerates such as the Federation were responsible for an economic upswing for senators, lobbyists, and entrepreneurs on Coruscant who placed themselves in the service of such groups. Determined to monopolize the Free Trade Zones, the Federation caught the attention of several lommite mining concerns in the Seswenna sector, and embroiled itself with the troubled king of Naboo.
In the year 33 BBY, it was decided to hold a summit on the Outer Rim planet Eriadu to try and put an end to the dispute. However, the Eriadu Conference, as it came to be known, turned into a fiasco when the radical political group known as the Nebula Front appeared. Although the Front failed to assassinate Finis Valorum, then Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, they did manage to kill the Trade Federation's directorate, including several key Kuati executives. As a result, one group of ambitious Neimoidians jumped into the power vacuum, anointing one of their own, Nute Gunray, the new Viceroy of the Trade Federation.
The leaders of the Trade Federation invaded Naboo under the influence of the Sith Order.
Prior to the Invasion of Naboo, the Federation came into contact with Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, who had a vested interest in the organization's projects and operations for his future plans. In fact, Gunray's rise to power had been engineered by Sidious. The Sith promised the Federation power and money in return for accepting his orders, so the corporation secretly allied with Sidious. Using its manufacturing might, the Federation began construction of its own droid army after enduring pirate attacks and being ordered by Sidious to make such a force. By manipulating the wording of the legislative response to those attacks, they created a massive army in secret.
After allying with Sidious, the Federation attempted to establish mining facilities in the Kellux system, beyond the sanctions of the Republic, but their droid defenses were waylaid by a pirate faction which utilized electrostatic field generators to render the droids inoperable. Sidious sent his Sith apprentice, Darth Maul, to assist the stranded Federation allies, and the Zabrak arrived in time to destroy a squadron of orb-wings and board the captured Federation battleship over Kellux. He fought and killed the pirates, and cut down the surviving Neimoidians to prevent word from returning to Sidious.
On the orders of the Sith, the Trade Federation launched the Invasion of Naboo.
In response to Prop 31-814D—a Senate law which enabled taxation of the Free Trade Zones—to help push through its own proposed legislation, the radicalized Federation blockaded Naboo with its fleet and invaded Naboo with its droid army. Unknown to all, however, they were also following the orders of the manipulative Sith Lord Darth Sidious, The invasion served as a pretext for Naboo's Senator, Sheev Palpatine—secretly the public guise of Sidious himself—to be elected Supreme Chancellor. During this period of time, the Trade Federation was headed by Gunray, who oversaw the invasion and installed himself in the Theed Royal Palace. He hoped to force Queen Padmé Amidala into signing a treaty that would effectively sign the planet over to the company. Allying with the Gungan Grand Army, Amidala and her forces eventually ended his occupation.
The Trade Federation was one of several conglomerates that secretly supported Count Dooku's Separatist movement.
Viceroy Gunray was arrested by Republic officials and sent to answer for his crimes, although he evaded imprisonment after multiple trials and retained his position as head of the Federation. Nevertheless, it was the Federation and political leadership of Valorum that took most of the blame for the so-called "debacle at Naboo." Some members of the Federation demanded the disbandment of its army of battle droids following the failed invasion, as an attempt to placate an angry Republic. This was decided against, however, and the Federation instead retreated away from Neimoidia and towards their Purse Worlds so they could continue their plans away from prying eyes.
Meanwhile, the Federation became involved in a dispute over sharing information on the hyperlane mapping of the Lesser Plooriod Cluster; although the route had mostly been mapped by the Ithorians of Ithor, the Federation partially charted some of the route, with the humans of the Urce sector also claiming ownership of the complete maps because of the portion of the route that travelled through their own territory. The matter was brought to the Galactic Senate by Ithor's representative on Amidala's first day in the Senate Rotunda, only for the delegates on behalf of the Federation and Urce sector to join to demand the maps not be shared. Amidala, after looking over the matter instead of voting based on her anti-Federation prejudice, decided to support the Ithorians due to it being their home space. However, the motion failed to secure the needed support.
Despite some of Palpatine's first moves as Chancellor being to limit the company's influence, the Federation ultimately remained very powerful, although its monopoly on Outer Rim shipping was broken due to the events of the Naboo invasion. As such, groups such as Eriadu Mining and Shipping prospered while the Separatist Crisis grew. Nonetheless, the only sanctions the Senate was able to force on the Federation were ineffective, and the Federation was able to regain its composure from those sanctions and the defeat on Naboo itself. As time passed, no concrete evidence of the Federation's crimes on Naboo was brought to the public. The factories on Geonosis designed on behalf of the Federation still secretly operated under the surface, mass-producing battle droids to increase the Federation's armed forces, after Sidious' new apprentice Count Dooku negotiated for the deal to continue.
The Trade Federation disavowed the actions of Viceroy Nute Gunray, claiming neutrality during the Clone Wars.
A decade after the war on Naboo, the Trade Federation pledged support to the Confederacy of Independent Systems, becoming a major military benefactor during the Clone Wars. However, the Federation publicly denied all links to the Confederacy aside from their business dealings and claimed itself to be neutral. As such, Lott Dod was able to maintain his seat in the Republic Senate, much like InterGalactic Banking Clan representative Nix Card and Techno Union Senator Gume Saam. Although the Federation displayed a bias towards the Separatists in business, the company used its neutrality to do business with both sides. Publicly, the Trade Federation also distanced itself from Viceroy Gunray, calling him "an extremist" and stating that his views did not represent the Federation's positions.
While Gunray was still the head of the Federation, the Federation claimed he only led an extremist splinter faction. As Gunray was a key Separatist leader, the Republic marked the Trade Federation Viceroy's stronghold in the western hemisphere of Cato Neimoidia as a prime target. However, a splinter group that wanted to take the Federation away from Gunray's control emerged under the Neimoidian Oje N'deeb, who wanted to repair the image of the Federation from what it had become in recent years. Learning of the traitor enraged Sidious, who initially considered destroying his splinter faction outright to keep his plans, including the legacy the Federation was to leave behind, stable. However, Sidious quickly realized he could turn N'deeb's actions to further his own designs: if the Outer Rim was strengthed and offered a new chance at life, then he could ensure that strength only prolonged the war, while the people of the Rim would grow angry with the Republic once their supposed new chance at life vanished.
The Trade Federation would sign over holdings, including Cato Neimoidia, to the Intergalactic Banking Clan in exchange for a loan to purchase equity in a new droid factory. Nevertheless, the Neimoidians would manage to stay in control, and the Trade Federation remained headquartered on the planet. Throughout the war, the Trade Federation was often used by the Separatists and the Sith as a puppet to drive more systems to their causes, though this was staunchly denied publicly. When the Battle of Ryloth occurred, the Republic dispatched Senator Bail Organa and Representative Jar Jar Binks to request use of the planet Toydaria as a staging ground. Upon intercepting the transmission Count Dooku contacted Senator Dod to join the negotiations. During the negotiations, Dod stressed that Toydarian involvement with Republic supplies would jeopardize their neutrality, allegedly putting the Trade Federation at risk of attack by Separatist warships.
While the Federation was neutral, Gunray's position on the Separatist Council gave the CIS access to use of Federation fleets. After Cad Bane had stolen a holocron on orders from Lord Sidious, Gunray loaned the Federation fleet to assist him in killing Bolla Ropal and escaping the Republic. In the end the Federation fleet was destroyed, to Gunray's dismay but Darth Sidious compensated him for the loss after Bane got the information the Sith Lord hired the Duros bounty hunter to collect.
The Trade Federation invested in the Separatist war machine, particularly the battle droid foundries on Geonosis.
The Federation was an investor in a developing Geonosian droid foundry, which would produce new battle droids for the Separatists. The Federation had equity in the factory, alongside the InterGalactic Banking Clan who helped finance the factory with collateral of Federation holdings (if not also to finance other war projects).
The Trade Federation blockaded the moon Pantora, claiming they were trying to suspend all trade after Pantora had not paid its debts. In actuality, the Federation was working alongside the Separatist Alliance to force the planet into the CIS. Federation officer, Sib Canay arranged for one of Chairman Papanoida's children to be held aboard his ship. Trade Federation involvement was uncovered by Ahsoka Tano and Senator Riyo Chuchi. Immediately following this, Dod issued a statement to the Senate that Canay had arranged the kidnapping in his own accord, due to the Separatist ideology of Viceroy Gunray—reaffirming the neutrality of the Federation and attempting to distance themselves from endorsement of CIS idealism and to maintain their good faith and friendship returned the Chairman's daughters to him and reopened trade with the Pantorans.
One member of the Mandalorian Ruling Council was somehow affiliated with the Trade Federation. During a planetary supply crisis, Prime Minister Almec strongly refuted not relying on mega corporations like the Federation or the Corporate Alliance.
The Galactic Empire seized the Trade Federation's assets after the death of Viceroy Gunray.
Lord Sidious betrayed the Federation leaders by having them killed by his newest apprentice Darth Vader at the end of the war on the volcanic world of Mustafar following the Outer Rim Sieges, and the corporation was nationalized by the newly formed Galactic Empire, while its accounts were plundered by Imperial financier and former Federation employee Arsin Crassus. As the Neimodians found themselves battling against the Empire, who were laying waste to their hatcheries, the Federation lost what had become the most important part of the organization. The Federation was subsequently subsumed and effectively became a puppet government for the Empire, which claimed Cato Neimoidia as a protectorate.
During the era of the Galactic Empire, the Trade Federation was vilified by many; Leo Leonis considered its epoch to be a bad dream, and instructors such as Tralls taught a version of the crisis on Chrona that suggested the Federation engineered a famine. Zare Leonis took issue with this version of events, although agreed that the Federation had ruined his family's work, and he was glad the company was no longer in business. Just before the Battle of Yavin, the Federation was entirely dissolved, just like the Imperial Senate.
The Viceroy was the official executive of the Trade Federation.
A wealthy megacorporation, the Trade Federation was led by a viceroy and board of directors. The Federation also maintained a seat in the Galactic Senate of the Republic, where it was represented by Senator Lott Dod. Other positions were that of financial officer and diplomat. The Trade Federation armaments committee was part of the Federation.
Aboard their starships, the Federation hired third-party engineers and freelance mekneks to handle jobs such as outer ship repairs. Although these tasks were commonly seen as too dangerous for organic beings, Federation officials comfortably considered such laborers to be expendable.
A large private army was used to protect and enforce Trade Federation interests.
The Trade Federation maintained a private military, that included a fleet of starships and an army of battle droids, and was used to back the economic might of the Federation, and gave them the ability to influence local politics, resulting in peaceful civilizations and worlds without military defenses becoming easy targets for invasions by the Trade Federation.
Few in the Galactic Senate had any real understanding of how powerful their battle droid army was, and those who did know were paid to look the other way, and kept valuable Federation cargo safe, despite the galaxy being ostensibly at peace.
The Star Wars Encyclopedia issue "Emperor Palpatine" claimed that the Senate was able to make the Federation completely powerless and remove the Neimoidians from power after the Invasion of Naboo, but the later reference book Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy established the Senate was ineffective in its response to the Federation's actions. Indeed, the novel Queen's Shadow and movie Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones showcased the Neimoidians were still in control of the company after the Naboo Crisis. Although the novel Tarkin did establish the Federation lost its monopoly over shipping, Queen's Shadow also showcases that the Federation remained very influential after the invasion. As such, this article assumes "Emperor Palpatine" is incorrect on this matter.
The Trade Federation was inspired by both the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie in Dutch) in the real world. The VOC in particular had a monopoly over the spice trade and one of the largest fleets in the world that was able to wage wars and maintain colonies outside Europe.