Oh but it did.
There has been a thousand generations of Jedi enforced peace, no need for machines of war there.
That's why the cities of the PT are so beautiful and artistic.
As war looms on the horizon we see the production lines of both The Republic and The Confederates.
In AOTC the droids should be new the armour should be new the ships and tanks should be new (or at least look new because they have never been used in conflict and are mechanically maintained and belong to a moneyed elite).
It never made sense to me that in AOTC we see scratched and dented droids and Clone armour and yet we have earlier seen the production lines for both and heard that nobody has actually fought yet.
By ROTS money is running out on both sides.
Older ships and new ships rub shoulders with each other with patched up battle scars.
This is what I mean by visual story telling.
Looking at the Y-Wings in ANH you can tell they had a history.
That they were once beautiful and sleek but have been pulled to pieces because the rebellion is underfunded and has no time to beat out the dings in removable cladding.
We get this at a glance without any need for exposition.
The same should be true with the PT.
Coruscant should look shiny and beautiful before the war, draped in flags and propaganda on the eve of war and broken and ruined at the end of the war.
Ashes from which the Empire rises.
If Palpatine is giving his speech from a Senate damaged by war (not a Sith/Jedi juggling contest) it's more understandable why people will just give away their freedoms.
Germany was one of the most liberal open minded and tolerant countries between the wars and we know what happened next and what it looked like.
