In the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated film Palpatine/Sidious orchestrated the kidnapping of Jabba The Hutt's son. I don't get why this happened, it would seem it had something to do with gaining control of the hyperspace lanes controlled by the Hutt's for who? The Republic or the Confederacy for Independent Systems? Its really hard to tell what Palpatine's end plan was with him playing both sides, but I'd personally think he'd have better things to do.
1 Answer
As with many of Sidious' plans, this is a Xanatos Gambit1, where every outcome benefits him. From the dialogue of the film, at least three possible outcomes are posited:
Sidious frames the Jedi for the kidnapping, bringing the Hutts into the war and causing the Jedi to fight on two fronts:
Dooku: I have brought Jabba's son to the abandoned monastery. He will be safe here.
Sidious: Good, good. Everything is going as planned.
Dooku: Yes, my lord.
Sidious: Soon the Jedi will not only be at war with you, Count, but the Hutt clan as well!
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
A situation is created where Jabba has a Jedi (wrongly) executed, which forces the Jedi Order to take him out, destabilising the Hutts (which is good for Sidious) and installing a controllable Hutt as the leader2 (also good for Sidious):
Dooku: I have convinced Jabba that the Jedi have murdered his son, and on their way to kill him.
Ziro: Jabba will slay the Jedi on sight!
Dooku: Then the mighty Jedi Order will be forced to bring Jabba to justice and you, my friend, will be left to take control of the Hutt clans
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
The Jedi foil the kidnapping/murder, fostering goodwill between the Hutts and the Republic and opening the door for a supply treaty. Bolstering the Republic's supply lines will just extend the war, which is giving Sidious huge amounts of power.
1 TVTropes link. All hope abandon etc.
2 It's perhaps arguable whether or not Ziro is controllable, but knowing of Ziro's involvement in the plot against Jabba gives Sidious quite a bit of leverage. It's clear from Ziro's overwhelming fear of Padme discovering the plot, and by his eventual fate, that what he's doing isn't considered acceptable by the rest of the Hutts
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+1 for the first sentence -- it's the answer to just about any question about why Sidious did something, and now I know the name of the trope. I managed to extricate myself from TVTropes in just a few minutes, too.– Null ♦Jul 10, 2016 at 4:34