system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] Just prior to the Mandalorian Wars, how did Mandalorian population, industry, and territorial size compare against the Republic?

How could a relatively small power challenge the Republic?
gpt
I can try to illustrate this with made up, unit less, numbers. 

Imagine the size of the rebublic is 200

The size of the mandalorians empire is 10

The Republic military is huge but only a small portion of the things the Republic does. Let's say 1% of the Republic is military. That gives them a military of size 2

The mandalorians have a very different culture and attitude. Let's say 90% of their efforts are military in nature. That gives them a military of size 9

More than 4 times the size of the Republic military effort. 

Now, let's say they attack. Their size 9 military vs the Republic's size 2 military. 

They're gonna rampage for a while. Not only are they more powerful, they're more focused. They're not spread out defending a size 200 empire. 

But let's say the Republic reacts by increasing military spending, they up from 1% to 5%. Now, suddenly they have a size 10 military. They begin to focus it where it's needed. 

Longterm the mandalorians can not hope to win the war. The target is just too big, too much. 

A long time later, in a galaxy far far away, a country called Japan would run into the same issue fighting a country called the USA. Matching economic output is as important in war as competing on technology.