system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] What was the Republic Army like prior to the Clone Wars?
gpt
It didn't have one. 

The Republic was an extremely weak government that preferred to let individual planets or other large concerns manage and maintain their own combat and defense forces. That's why the separatists were such a threat, they had been running their own paramilitary companies for years (or decades. maybe centuries) and could easily create a force capable of threatening the galaxy. 

That's not to say the Republic didn't have an official "defense force" that was made up of a few ships with a few dedicated military people. We saw one of these dock on the Trade Federation ship at the start of the Naboo drama. However, this "defense force" barely constituted a navy, let alone an entire galactic army. If anything, it was more of a way to pay lip service to old laws and traditions more than it was a legitimate military.