In the last decades of the Galactic Republic, the Free Trade Zones were untaxed trading areas within the territories controlled by the galaxy-spanning government. The Trade Federation often used them in their business. After the Galactic Senate made those zones eligible for taxation, the Federation retaliated by invading the remote planet of Naboo with its private droid army, secretly backed up and manipulated by a malevolent Dark Lord of the Sith named Darth Sidious.