First let me applaud you doing all that work, I'd be interested in seeing your map if you'd be willing to post it. Such a thing would not only be interesting but highly useful as a reference for fanfic and such.
I like doing weird shit like that. Usually for inane reasons, like -- in this case -- gathering infor for an article I wanted to write about the topic. The map itself was just temporary (I'd assumed I wouldn't be allowed to post high-quality scans anyway, overlaids or not). But I must have the spreadsheet with the numbers somewhere. (Like I said: inane reasons -- I haven't actually gone though with writing the article. Maybe I should finish that, at long last!)
However I wanna point out, "Industrialized" doesn't necessarily mean to Star Wars what it does to us. They tend to have a remarkable number of key planets who are the only ones supplying a single critical good. Case in point, Kamino is literally the source of all clones, it's a plot point several times in the Clone Wars that taking out Kamino would eliminate any more clones. Thyferra is the only source for Bacta, you want medical treatment you need Thyferra-made supplies. The Empire got all it's capital ships from Kuat, that single planet made all the Star Destroyers, and Anaxes did the same for the Republic during the clone wars. This doesn't make much sense from any rational perspective but does allow for important keystone battles where all the Empire/Republic/New Republic resources are hinging on a single critical fight. But it also means absolute numbers aren't that important when there's only a couple of shipyards/cloning facilities/medical manufacturers in the galaxy anyway.
I agree that this plays into it (and that it's
bonkers). I still don't see a way for this to meaningfully affect the course of the war. Three points to support my own reading of things:
-- One: most of the really important planets (in this case, the key industrial worlds) are in or near to the Core, and held by the Republic. This actually makes a lot of sense, sine generally high population & urbanisation go hand-in-hand with industry, whereas the rural hinterland tends to be agricultural and under-industrialised. One would
expect the Core to be way more industrialised, and the Rim to be mainly an eploitation region for raw resources (to be processed in and around the Core). The large number of apparently high-population & high-industry worlds in the Core supports that. Granted, there are industrial regions far outside the Core,
mainly along the major hyperspace routes, but we certainly do get the impression that the industrial-capitalist heart of the galaxy is very much the Core.
-- Two: even if we assume that the Core merely has its much vaster population, and is
not comparatively more industrialised per capita, it still wins because it's so much more densely inhabited. If the galaxy is about evenly industrialised per capita (equality in relative terms), then the more densely inhabited regions will still have way more to bring to any fight in
absolute terms. For this to be circumvented, we'd have to assume that the Core is ludicrously under-industrialised, and the Rim ludicrously over-industrialised. That is: we'd have to assume that all those densely populated Core worlds are really mostly rural, and all those sparely populated Rim worlds are really industrial. That's theoretically a legitimate interpretation, but... it makes no sense
at all. Rural worlds can't support such vast numbers without
becoming urban-industrial by default, and urban-industrial societies only function on the basis of high-density populations.
-- Three: I'm not willing to accept the above assumption, because it's insane (and contradicts what we've seen of most Core worlds), but let's say for the sake of argument... Then the high population of the Republic is
still a huge factor all by itself. Way more of a broad basis for taxation; the scale advantage means that the Republic government can pay for a lot more than the CIS realistically can. Again, like the USA in 1861 (the army had been left to rot), 1917 (the army had been left to rot) and 1941 (the army had been le-- are you noticing a pattern here?), the Republic would be able to build up an immense war industry in a
staggeringly short time. The numbers themselves really do matter.
For these reasons, I remain quite convinced that even if all the weird peculiarities of the setting are in the way, the Republic is still going to win an all-out brawl with the CIS. It may not be willing to
start a war, and seceding without a fuss is actually rather likely to work. But providing a clear
casus belli? That's a big mistake. (It fits Palpatine's plan, of course.) Conclusion: it stands to reason that Palpatine was providing the CIS with key strategic information, and undermining the Republic's war effort, all to prop the CIS up as a viable enemy... right up until he didn't need them anymore. And then he dropped them like a hot potato, and they lost the war
immediately.
(This also makes infinitely more sense from Palpatine's perspective. Imagine it. Scenario one: Palpatine has two sides fight each other. He controls the weak side, manipulates the strong side to keep it from winning, and then somehow betrays the strong side so that the weak side wins. Now he rules the galaxy, by means of controlling the weak faction that would otherwise have lost. On this weak basis, he plans to establish his own empire. Scenario two: Palpatine has two sides fight each other. He controls the strong side, and keeps it from crushing the weak side, until the weak side has served its purpose. Then he allows the weak side to be crushed. Now he rules the galaxy, by means of controlling the strong faction that was militarily superior anyway. On that strong basis, he plans to establish his own empire. Now... which of these two is the obvious one that an aspiring tyrant would go with? And which is the really dumb one that needlessly weakens his own regime from the start?)
No, you're missing my point. The old maps are (ex)canon, but your analysis from those maps is fanon and rests on the unsupported premise that industrial and military might are strictly proportional to population. This does not override the canon quotes which @Bear Ribs cited, and further goes against the additional fact that we've *seen* that the Republic was highly non-homogenous in military industry, with critical facilities concentrated in single systems and not evenly repeated.
See points two and three, above.
