If you ever end up watching Andor, they explain more of how the empire mines entire planets to collapse acquiring minerals they need, destabilizes galactic views of planets to ensure resistance would be minimalized. It also goes into how the weakness in the DeathStar was created and how some engineers were essentially enslaved/forced into to building it. Believe they gun down most of the lead engineers in Rogue One.

Edit: light speed is really one of the only non-defined technologys I find. But they have tractors everywhere, so I assume the point is with mass amounts of energy… You can do near anything

(I meant reactors, but tractors are pretty funny so I’m leaving it)