Uhhhh. That's... more complicated. There were a lot of different things at play-- and you'll get different answers depending on who you ask, too.
The shortest version I can give you is... well. In the months leading up to it, the Separatists launched a bunch of terrorist attacks on the capital, in protest of our government. Then, things escalated. There was an assassination attempt on a Senator-- incidentally, a senator who was one of the foremost proponents of engaging in peace talks with the Separatists. Fortunately, she lived.
Assassination attempts are pretty serious business, though, so they assigned a Jedi to investigate what they could and track down the culprit. His findings eventually led him to Geonosis-- a Separatist planet-- where he discovered a massive droid army being manufactured in secret. Not only that, but he also uncovered that the Trade Federation was behind Senator Amidala's assassination attempt. Uh-- sorry, this is where it gets kind of complicated. So, the Trade Federation and the Banking Clans were all backing the Separatists, because. Well, one, war is good business for them financially, and two, the Separatists were offering them more trade freedom and better rates. Short version, people are motivated by money. No one is surprised.
Anyway. The Jedi Master who went to Geonosis to learn all of this happened to be Anakin's master-- when Anakin himself was still an apprentice. His name was Obi-Wan. At the time, Anakin's assignment was to guard the Senator who'd escaped assassination. Geonosis is fairly far away, so in order to get his report back to the Jedi Council, he had to relay his message through someone else on another planet. That someone else was Anakin. Obi-Wan was then captured by the Separatists, tried, and found guilty of espionage-- punishable by death.
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The shortest version I can give you is... well. In the months leading up to it, the Separatists launched a bunch of terrorist attacks on the capital, in protest of our government. Then, things escalated. There was an assassination attempt on a Senator-- incidentally, a senator who was one of the foremost proponents of engaging in peace talks with the Separatists. Fortunately, she lived.
Assassination attempts are pretty serious business, though, so they assigned a Jedi to investigate what they could and track down the culprit. His findings eventually led him to Geonosis-- a Separatist planet-- where he discovered a massive droid army being manufactured in secret. Not only that, but he also uncovered that the Trade Federation was behind Senator Amidala's assassination attempt. Uh-- sorry, this is where it gets kind of complicated. So, the Trade Federation and the Banking Clans were all backing the Separatists, because. Well, one, war is good business for them financially, and two, the Separatists were offering them more trade freedom and better rates. Short version, people are motivated by money. No one is surprised.
Anyway. The Jedi Master who went to Geonosis to learn all of this happened to be Anakin's master-- when Anakin himself was still an apprentice. His name was Obi-Wan. At the time, Anakin's assignment was to guard the Senator who'd escaped assassination. Geonosis is fairly far away, so in order to get his report back to the Jedi Council, he had to relay his message through someone else on another planet. That someone else was Anakin. Obi-Wan was then captured by the Separatists, tried, and found guilty of espionage-- punishable by death.
Anakin and the Senator both didn't want to leave Master Obi-Wan to die, so they decided to mount their own rescue-- but of course, they were also both captured, tried as spies and found guilty. At that point, it was going to be war either way, if the Council let the Separatists kill Senator Amidala. Either that, or the people would lose all faith in the Order to protect them and restore balance, and that probably would have sparked a civil war instead. So the Jedi Order eventually invaded Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padmé back before they were killed.
Aaaaaand that's what kicked off the Clone Wars! Aren't you glad you asked?