1535-1555 King Felipe I
In August of 1535, our nation unveils its new King, Felipe I
von Habsburg.... wait, what!?! Von Habsburg? Eh? What happened to the de Avis line?
So, it would seem that when one of our royal ladies married
into the Austrian monarchy, they produced a child reared in Portugal, who had
the highest claim after our last boy King died heirless. Well, whatever, Portugal carries onwards and upwards,
whoever is at the helm!
The action is hotting up in the Caribbean, with Castile
sending a colonist to the Turks & Caicos Islands (1 province), while we
have completed the colonisation of modern day Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Castile have also colonised Dominica in the Eastern
Caribbean, but most interestingly, the French have taken Martinique, and the
English have taken two islands (St Kitts and St Martin).
As usually happens in these situations, our young King wants
to flex his muscles. The Aztecs have been rumoured to have lots of gold, so we
decide to attack them to check.
We also take our second Expansion group Idea, giving us an
extra merchant. In the background you can see our new colony, Guantanamo, on
the island of Cuba. Our aim is to have a core set of provinces in Cuba and
Haiti, enabling our future colonial nation in the Caribbean to have interior
lines of communication, whilst the other colonial nations occupy multiple
islands round the periphery.
Unfortunately for our sortie into Aztec land (which happens
so easily I don’t even bother with screenshots), Castilian Brazil declares war
on Portuguese Brazil in June 1537, although the colonial overlords, us and
Castile, are not involved as yet. The kids can't play nicely, sigh!
The following month, Castile declares a ‘holy war’ on
Algiers in Northern Africa. Probably not the best of timing on Castile's part, with a colonial war taking place, which will inevitably drag the overlords in...note in the background we've successfully occupied one of the Aztec provinces...
In September, with our war score against the Aztecs at 19%
and rising, St Helena becomes self sufficient, and our King has a daughter,
Maria, and the inheritance is safe.
At this point, there was a break in the newsfeed from several
hundred years ago, and we were unable to decode the footage.... meaning I
didn’t take any screenshots for 4 years... not sure if F-lock was turned off or
what, but anyway....sorry about that
Resuming in June 1541, our colony of Mauritius becomes self
sustaining, and we have a lodgement in the Indian Ocean!
Oh, and, ahem, we were drawn into the colonial war between
Castilian and Portuguese Brazil in 1538. After some frantic redeployment of
troops and a white peace with the Aztecs, we took the fight to Castile on the
mainland. Now, here’s the thing, England broke their alliance with us, and
refused to help out. This worried me, particularly as Aragon had an army of
over 20,000 troops. But then the Aragonese didn’t move to help the Castilians.
“Hang on”, thought I, “don’t they have a Personal Union?” So I checked the
diplomacy screen, and lo, sometime in the last decade Aragon broke free, and is
an independent nation! Yippee! Anything that fractures Iberia is good for me!
So, Portuguese Brazil proceeded to stomp all over Castilian
Brazil, and I stomped all over Castile, and with the warscore at 77% in my
favour, in September 1541 I accepted a peace treaty.
We got: Galicia and Cadiz, 147 ducats, the Castilians
renounced their treaties with France, and their claims on the 3 provinces I
took from them in the previous war. Oh, and the province of Diamentina was
transferred from Castilian Brazil to Portuguese Brazil. Huzzah!
We then did the usual and cored Cadiz and Galicia, and
changed their cultures too.
Guantanamo became self-sustaining in November 1541
And Sierra Leone followed in 1545... yes, that’s correct,
nothing of any interest happened between 1541 and 1545... on my part because
all I was doing was spending power on coring, and Castile had to recover from two pretty damaging wars against us and Algiers.
In March 1546, our former allies of England made the change
into Great Britain
And celebrated by colonising the Virgin Islands. Note that
Castile has taken Antigua, St Barthelemy (Anguilla) and a province in Colonial
Guyana on the mainland. France, meanwhile, has secured St Lucia and Guadeloupe.
We, meanwhile, have taken over the entirety of Cuba.
In April 1547, we have enough colonies in Argentina to form
another colonial nation, Rio de Prata. The good thing about colonial nations is
that they police themselves, with, for example, Portuguese Brazil having its
own army of 17,000 troops and 11 ships. I also get 50% of their trade power in
their home trade node, which is cool. This isn’t all, though, as the colonial
overlord still gets the army/navy force limits as if the colonial provinces
were still under my control. This means that I don’t have to station any troops
in South America, and can concentrate my forces on Europe and my African colonies.
The downside is that they can get themselves into wars,
which might drag me in, and I don’t generate as much direct money! The money
thing isn’t a problem for me though, as the colonial nation will build buildings
in its own provinces, as well as giving me tariffs, so its essentially the
same as having all of the direct income and spending the money myself.
In February 1548, we form our third colonial nation, Cuba,
and take the next Expansion Idea, giving us a boost to settlers. We are
currently building colonies in Jamaica and Diego Garcia, with Havana almost
ready to finish and be added to the colonial nation of Cuba.
Jumping forward to the end of 1552, and we have prosecuted a
war against the Aztecs again, but this time without interruption. The outcome
is that we force them to release the Mayans, and give us half their trade power
for 5 years. The rumoured outpourings of gold never actually happened...
Technology-wise, we’ve steadily improved ourselves, without
anything too exciting to report. However, in August 1553 we take military tech
12. This finally gives us infantry with guns! We are currently admin tech 11
and diplo tech 9. Our rivals in Europe will be taking tech level 13 soon,
showing just how far behind we are beginning to get with our diplomatic tech
level. Its all in a good cause though, as we are nearly halfway through our
third Idea group!
In August 1554 we take admin tech 12. This will allow us to
change to an administrative monarchy... we may do this but at the moment I’m
not 100% sure.
In September 1555, we get yet another Expansion Idea, and
this also unlocks our next national idea, giving us a global settler increase.
Finally, in March of 1556, as a little teaser, Castilian
Brazil has declared war.... again! This time, no prisoners.... Castile is gonna
get it! Both of our allies, Austria and Granada, refuse to join us...
And this takes us back up to the present day. In the next
update, we will pause to examine the world state of affairs in 1555, 20 years
after the start of the Portuguese von Habsburg rule, and 111 years after the
start of the game.
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