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Battle of Naboo

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although this struggle marked a high point in the history of Naboo, it marked the beginning of the end of the Old Republic. Forced by an illegal blockade of the planet by the Trade Federation, the Battle of Naboo was really a diversionary tactic. The Trade Federation, led by Nute Gunray but ultimatelt controlled by Darth Sidious, attempted to remove the taxation of trade routes by blockading Naboo. Sidious ordered a planetary invasion, and the Neimoidian members of the Federation sent thousands of droid soldiers and tanks to the surface of the planet. They were quickly able to subdue the native populace, as the humans of Naboo were quite peaceful and the Gungans hid rather than become involved. Once the planet was secured, the majority of the Federation's invasion fleet returned home, leaving a skeleton force to control the droid armies on the ground. Queen Amidala, just fourteen at the time of the invasion, fled to Coruscant to plea for aid in breaking the blockade, but received none from the stagnant Galactic Senate. All of this played into the schemes of Darth Sidious. However, he did not count on the appearance of Anakin Skywalker and the strength of Amidala's will. She devised a plan to capture Gunray and force him to call of the blockade, but it hinged on two factors of battle. The first involved the Gungans, whom she had persuaded to help in the fight. They called out the Federation's droid armies in an intense land battle that raged across the plains of Naboo. While this battle forced the droid armies into action, it left the city of Theed relatively undefended. Amidala, with Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, forced their way into the palace and overcame the Neimoidians. Meanwhile, in the space above Naboo, the Royal starfighter fleet had engaged the droid control ship. However, its shields were too powerful for the small N-1 fighters to penetrate. A lone fighter, marginally controlled by Anakin Skywalker, penetrated the ship's interior. During his attempts to flee the ship, Anakin unleashed a volley of energy torpedoes that ruptured the control ship's internal power sources. The huge ship began exploding from within, and ripped itself apart in a matter of minutes. Anakin and the fighters escaped, and the droid armies on the ground were left powerless. This came just as the droids had forced the Gungans to surrender. When they realized the droids were no longer able to function, the Gungans rounded them up and dismantled them. In the end, Naboo was freed from Federation control, and the humans and Gungans wlecomed a new era of cooperation between their peoples.