Order 66 and the destruction of the Jedi Order that took place as a result occurred around
the 3rd year of the Clone Wars.
So why did Palpatine wait so long before issuing Order 66?
Why didn’t he use it within the first few weeks or even days of the Clone Wars, when
a majority of the Jedi were already deployed to go fight in the galaxy spanning war?
Well, while destroying the Jedi Order was surely at the top of Palpatine’s secret
agenda, it wasn’t the only thing he desired as his ultimate goal was to rule the entire
known galaxy with absolute power.
And to achieve that, he needed to do much more than to just destroy the Jedi.
On top of destroying the ancient Light Side Order, Palpatine had to eliminate the other
galactic powers that would have threatened his rise to emperorship; including the mega
corporations that held near, untouchable power that stemmed from their incredible wealth
and immense influence within the central and planetary governments that they were imbedded
with.
Palpatine also had to have an entire galactic population that was willing to give up some
of their freedoms in exchange for security in order for his authoritarian Empire to be
accepted by the majority of the citizens when it replaced the Republic.
Additionally, Palpatine had to cement his place within the various institutions of the
Republic to make his declaration as Emperor legitimate by law without appearing as a power
hungry tyrant to the public.
Finally, the Jedi Order’s image had to be twisted to appear as an enemy of the Republic
in the eyes of the public before their destruction would have been beneficial to Palpatine politically
and not have it backfire on him.
And most of these goals were actually only possible through the Clone Wars as a whole
and the necessity of it lasting for a couple of years.
For one, the major galactic corporations, like the Trade Federation and Techno Union,
slowly crumbled throughout the war as they overexpanded their droid armies and brought
themselves into bankruptcy by taking out massive, unpayable loans to continue producing their
military assets.
The leaders of these corporations, which made up the Separatist council, believed they were
going to be personally given a large chunk of power of whatever New Order rose from the
ashes of the war due to their allegiance to the Sith.
But they were of course simply slaughtered in the end as Palpatine had no intention of
ever sharing his future power with them.
A majority of the corporations were later nationalized by the Empire, which was only
possible by reducing their overall influence in the galaxy and creating a negative public
view on them due to their involvement in the war.
The war also allowed Palpatine to gain direct control of the banks by orchestrating events
to undermine their neutrality and confidence within the galaxy, allowing him to nationalize
the Banking Clan and have his office take full control over their assets.
The Supreme Court of the Republic also fell into Palpatine’s hands as his extended Chancellorship
allowed him to fill the seats with justices that were solely loyal to him.
This gave Palpatine not only the ability to have the Republic Constitution be amended
to give him otherwise unconstitutional powers throughout the war, but also the power to
have direct influence over major court cases and trails.
On top of knocking out major galactic players and taking over their assets, the Sith also
used the war to purposely cause as much destruction and death toward the citizens of the galaxy,
even against those who lived on neutral worlds.
This was done so that by the end of the war, the majority of the population of the galaxy
would be willing to give up anything for peace, even their own freedoms if it ensured that
a galactic wide war like the clone wars would never happen again.
And lastly, the slow degradation of the Jedi Order was necessary if a successful purge
of their kind was to be realized.
The public needed to have lost its confidence with the Jedi for them to ever buy the fact
that they could have ever turned traitors against the Republic.
This was done as Republic propaganda and news outlets helped undermine the Jedi’s involvement
in the war by spreading messages that their failure to maintain peace allowed for the
war to happen, and that Dooku the leader of the Separatist movement was once a Jedi.
Over the years, these types of messages caused the public’s view on the Jedi to turn sour
as they slowly began to blame the hardships of the war on the ancient Order.
Which is why when Palpatine stated the the Jedi tried to assassinate him and take over
the Republic, much of the public was able to accept his accusation as they themselves
were already skeptical of the Jedi themselves.
And within just 3 years of the Clone Wars, Palpatine was able to eliminate all the major
corporations of the galaxy from standing in his way, take over the instrumental institutions
of both the Republic and galactic economy, forge a galaxy that was willing to give up
anything for peace, and ultimately destroy the Jedi Order by blaming everything on them
and having their clones turn against them through the issuance of Order 66.
All of this allowed Palpatine to secure his ascension to Galactic Emperor and pave way
for his newly formed Galactic Empire to become the sole, ultimate authority in the entire
galaxy with him at its very center.