Palpatine orchestrated the crisis that sparked the Clone Wars, creating chaos to justify emergency powers, which he used to sideline the Senate, control the military, and eliminate opposition. Claiming it was all "temporary," he declared himself Emperor, all under the guise of "peace and security."

Life imitating art... this is textbook Palpatine: Give me absolute power to solve this emergency, and I pinky promise I'll give up the power as soon as things are back to normal. Oh yeah... and execute Order 66