The Separatist Crisis was a period of political turmoil at the end of the Republic Era in which thousands of star systems seceded from the Galactic Republic and pledged loyalty to Count Dooku and the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS). The period took place in the years following the Invasion of Naboo, and was manipulated by Dooku and his Sith master, the Sith Lord Darth Sidious—publicly known as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Republic. The goal of the Sith was to launch a galactic war that would allow them to amass total control over the Republic, transform it into the Galactic Empire, and destroy the Jedi Order. To help with that goal, the Sith secretly oversaw the creation of an army of clone troopers on the planet Kamino that would become an army for the Republic.