Question: Anakin's mom says the Republic doesn't exist on Tatooine. Why not?
kayelbe
6th Jun 2018
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Answer: In addition to the other answers: It's simply not worth it. There is nothing strategic about the system other than maybe as a waypoint. It is resource-poor, which added together means very little presence by any side.
Answer: There are places like Tatooine on Earth, like Afghanistan. Superpowers have attempted and failed to take over the indigenous population many times. Here, the Hutt organisation is too powerful and entrenched to defeat, and the Republic probably doesn't have unlimited resources to fight such a war.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: It's in the Outer Rim territories. It's far enough away from the central government that they can't really have an effective government. In addition, it's in Hutt-controlled space.
Greg Dwyer
Why not send people to take control of Tatooine, and the outer rim territories away from the hutts?
The Republic has the task of running an entire galaxy, which is billions and billions of planets and solar systems. Sending troops into the Outer Rim, against heavily armed gangsters and with little to no communication, enough resources or backup, would be a terrible plan. At least the Hutts keep things running smoothly and don't let the planets go into anarchy.