World building
The clone wars start about ten years before the start of ep 1 however it has been mostly small skirmishes up until this point ie the phoney war in ww2
The war is a conflict between the old republic and their long time rivals the mandalorian clans
The mandalorians escalate the conflict by invading Utapau, a republic planet in the mid rim.
They also have been in the process of making clones and begin to use them during the invasion of utapau.( this is why it referred to as the clone wars ,the mandalorians refer this this conflict by a different name)
The jedi order as an institution is not involved with the clone wars however many jedi have johnied in to fight in the clone wars like obi wan kenobi
The age someone usually becomes a Jedi apprentice is in their late teenage years 15-17 ; it's the norm however there are many exceptions.
To train as a jedi you have to join them and be force sensitive your not taken from your family as a child
Obi wan fights in the clone wars due to belief in the democratic ideals of the republic
The republic has many flaws; it's very human centric; aliens are not fairly represented in the political process .This systemic oppression directly led into the empire's human supremacist ideals and practices.
(Allegory for white supremacy in the real world.)
The republic used to be have oligarchical structure with many important families composing a sort of aristocracy however reforms in about 1000 bby have made the republic a ( flawed) democracy
The republic has a military independent of civilian control. The military does not share the same democratic values as the republic and is very jingoistic,expansionist and imperialist .
Many of the formerly powerful aristocracy have enlisted into its ranks
The military plays a direct role in the fall of the republic and gets more fascistic throughout the prequel movies.
General Tarkin is higher up in the military helps palpatine in the fall of the republic
Palpatine is not responsible for the clone wars happening.
However he takes advantage of and manipulates things to help him gain power. ie something similar richard nixon prolonging the vietnam war to get elected, false flags things like that
Nether and republic nor the mandalorians control all of the galaxy there are independent plants ie: alderden an outer or mid rim planet(leia passing through Tatooine to get to alderaan makes no sense if alderaan is core planet) ] a pacifist planet (at least during this time period)
The corporations in the republic support the military overthrowing the republic.