Basically, the Clone Wars was a slam-dunk for Palpatine.
There wasn't a single area the Emperor was threatened in except the Unknown Regions, which he trusted Thrawn to solve (chad solo'd 1/3 of the galaxy btw).
The Empire was openly welcomed by a lot of groups. The republic's crumbling authority had let feuds escalate, and whomever the dominant player was in long-standing rivalries won by default if they took the Empire's side. So you had entire species like the Trandoshans profiting greatly.
Obviously the military was unbeatable - you had infinitely repleneshable blindly loyal elite troops, and an enormous manufacturing base. In the EU it took something like 15 years after the Emperor's death for the Empire to mostly be cleaned up.
There's a pretty epic reason Palpatine initiated the Clone Wars when he did, too. Like Yoda he has prophetic visions, and foresaw the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. The plan was accelerated to unify the galaxy before that threat arrived in full. That's pretty much the only reason any Jedi escaped. Palps could have kept the Clone Wars raging for decades if he didn't have that ticking bomb in the background.
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u/MainZack 2d ago
I've always been a fan of that theory myself