Games PC EUROPA UNIVERSALIS User Manual

F A I T H • P O W E R • W E A L T H

GLOBAL CONQUEST AND DIPLOMACY

FROM COLUMBUS TO NAPOLEON

1 4 9 2 - 1 7 9 2

Europa Universalis

Table of Contents:

Installation 2

Introduction

A Simulated Europe 3

What is Europa Universalis? 3

Why is the Clock Ticking? 3

What is the Goal of the Game? 4

The Game - An Overview 5

How do I Play? 5

How is the Map Designed? 6

Geography and Weather 7

Learning Scenario

General 8

The Top Line above the Map Window 8

The Top Line above the Info. Window 8

The Information Window - a Province 8

Army Units and Battles 9

Choosing Army Units 9

Movement of Troops 9

Discovered and Undiscovered Terrain 9

Occupied and Non-Occupied Terrain 9

Colonization and Economy 10

To Colonize a Province 10

From HMS Mayflower to Cities 10

The Financial Summary 11

The Budget Window 11

Trade and Merchants 12

Placing Merchants 12

The Economical Effects of Trade 12

Fleets and Sea Transport 12

Loading of Army Units 13

Unloading of Army Units from a Fleet 13

Trading Posts 13

How to Establish a Trading Post 14

Neighboring Countries 14

Diplomacy 15

War 15

To Prepare for War 15

To Declare a War 16

To Win a War 16

Offers of Peace 16

Activities

Countries 17

Provinces 17

Sea Zones 19

Cities and Capitals 20

Trading Posts and Colonies 20

Terra Incognita and

Permanent Terra Incognita 21

Stability and the Wrath of Your Subjects 22

What is Stability? 22

Things that Lower Stability 22

Things that Increase Stability 23

What is Affected by Stability? 24

Rebellions and the Risk of Rebellion 25

Liberation Movements 27

Religion and Tolerance 28

State Religion and Provincial Religion 29

Religious Tolerance 31

Four Important Events 31

The Foreign Policy Consequences

of Religion 32

The Effects of Religion on

Domestic Politics 33

Converting by Peaceful or

Violent Means 33

Politics and Diplomacy 34

Diplomacy as a Political Weapon 35
Diplomats and Relations 35
Royal Marriages 37
Alliances 38
Vassalage 39
Annexation 40
Refusal to Trade 40
War Affects Your Relations 41
Tolerance Affecting Your Relations 41
The Holy Roman Empire 42
War and Peace 42
Casus Belli and Declarations of War 42
Advantages and Disadvantages of War 43
Side Effects of War 44
Manpower and the Limitations
of Your Provinces 44
Pillaged Provinces 45
War Taxes 45
The Goal of War 45
Peace Treaties and War Damages 46
Movement and Battle 47
Army Units 48
Fleets 49
Commanders and Specialists 50
Movement Restrictions 50
Naval Supremacy and Interception 51
Naval Battles 52
Naval Blockades and Ports 53
Pitched Battles 54
Retreat 55
Fortifications, Sieges, and Assaults 55
Supply Lines 56
Attrition 57
Combat Morale 58
Economy and Infrastructure 59
Your Economy is Your Heart 59

Europa Universalis

Annual Income 59
Monthly Income 60
Other Income 60
Provinces and Population Growth 60
Level of Development Inhabitants 62
Production and Goods 63
External Factors 66
Loans 66
Inflation 68
Upgrading the Infrastructure 69
Managing Your Resources 69
Trade and Colonization 70
Supply, Demand and Market Prices 71
Centers of Trade, Merchants and
Trade Income 71
The Closing of Japan 74
Pirates 74
Trading Posts and Merchants 75
Colonization of the New World 76
The Treaty of Tordesillas 77
Explorers and Conquistadors 77
Colonial Growth and
Economic Consequences 78
Protecting Your Colonies 79
Technology and Development 79
To Develop Over Time 79
To Invest in Stability 80
Areas of Technology and Research 80
Cultural Technology Groups 81
Investing in Factories 81

Monarchs 83 - 94
The Archive 95 - 96
Historic Review 97 - 126
Technical Support 127
Credits 128

1

Europa Universalis

Installing and uninstalling the game.

The installation program of Europa Universalis
starts automatically when the CD is inserted in
your CD player. If your CD-ROM unit does
not have the auto run function activated, you
may start the installation by double clicking
setup.exe, which you will find in the root direc­tory of the CD.

As soon as the installation program has start­ed, you may install Europa Universalis and, if
n e c e s s a ry, DirectX 7.0, which is included on
the CD. When the actual installation has be­gun, just follow the instructions on the screen.

If Europa Universalis is already installed on
your computer just press Play in the installation
program to start. You may also start the pro­gram from a suitable button in the Pro g r a m
menu under the Start menu. You may uninstall
Europa Universalis at any time by using either
the Installation program or using the Add and
Remove program of the Control Panel.

System requirements:

Pentium 200Mhz (PII 300Mhz recommended)
Windows 95/98/NT/2000 (Service pack 4).
2Mb of Video RAM ( S u p p o rting 800x600),
64Mb RAM (128 Mb RAM re c o m m e n d e d )
180Mb free hard drive space, 2x CD-ROM
drive, Mouse or equivalent input device DirectX

7.0 or higher (Included with the game).

Requirements for network games:

Bandwidth of at least 512 kb/s
TCP/IP protocol installed

Commands for the user interface

• "Shift" + "F12" opens the chat function of

the network game.

• "F11" saves a screenshot as a bitmap picture

on your hard disk.

• "P a u s e / B reak" pauses the game/Restart s

the game in progress.

• "Ctrl" + "+" increases game speed (not avail-

able in network games).

• "Ctrl" + "–" decreases game speed (not

available in network games).

• "+" increases map size.

• "–" decreases map size.

• "ESC" and "ENTER" often functions as
Yes/No in dialogue windows.

• "F12" opens the console. Press "F12" again
to close.

• "Home" centers the map on your capital.

• "F1" lets you view missions or victory points.

• E/P/N are quick commands for easy

switching of map views.

• "F10" opens the start menu for saving and
loading games, including settings.

Commands for Armies and Navies

• "PageUp/PageDown" for fast jumps be­tween your various units.

• "Ctrl" + "[number]" associates the chosen
unit with that number.

• "[Number]" chooses the numbered unit,
p ress the number again, and the map will
center on the chosen unit.

• "s" divides the chosen unit into two equal
parts.

• "a" quick command during siege.

• "u" to unload armies from a chosen fleet, if
you have troops onboard.

• "g" forms selected units into a single unit.

How to join a pier-to-pier game

• Start Europa Universalis as normal

• Click the [multiplayer] button

• Enter your desired name and press [internet]

• Enter IP address of the host and press [join]

How to host a pier-to-pier game

• Inform players of game and your IP address

• Start Europa Universalis as normal

• Click the [multiplayer] button

• Press the [host] button to host your

own game

• Select the scenario you wish to play

• Specify Victory options by accessing the

Victory menu

• Specify Game options by accessing the

Option menu

• When all options are set press [Start]

2

Europa Universalis

A) Introduction

A Simulated Europe

This game tries to simulate the interaction be­tween the European countries during the peri­od between 1492 and 1792 as realistically as
possible. This means that Europe is divided in­to provinces, which in turn make up the vari­ous countries. The provinces have populations
that produce goods, pay taxes, engage in trade,
and are recruited as soldiers and sailors. Each
population has a religion that incorporates
their view of the world and moral position. If
the monarch and the government act counter
to morally acceptable behavior, there is a risk of
rebellion. The monarch and the govern m e n t
(actually the player) are responsible for the
country and represent the country to the rest
of the world. In this way all of the European
nations are part of the same quarreling family,
where some co-operate and others fight.

As time goes by the European nations
change, both in political, economic, and mili­t a r y strength. Depending on how well your
country is able to manage its resources, defend
its provinces, and invest in technology, nations
will rise or fall in power and status. Historically
the Ottoman Empire peaked during the 16th
c e n t u ry, after which its power slowly waned,
until it was finally regarded as the "Sick Man of
Europe" in 1792. Sweden began the period as
a backwards place on the outer fringes, and
then gained status as a great power during the
17th century, only to lose that status at the be­ginning of the 18th, to slowly sink into a sec­ond-rate power during the latter half of the
18th century.

What is Europa Universalis?

E u ropa Universalis is a game where you can
choose a European nation and play its ups and
downs over 300 years. The game provides what
you could philosophically call a "God perspec­tive;" that is, you lead the country through 300
years, having the opportunity to be at many

places at the same time in order to make deci­sions.

This is an extensive and advanced game, but
do take it easy. By playing the learning scenario
and reading all the tips included in the game,
and reading the "The Learning Scenario"
chapter in this manual, you will soon be able to
play the game. In order to master the more
subtle parts of the game, you need to play a lot
of games and read the rest of the manual.

The game does not pretend to be historically
accurate. This means that it does not follow the
historical textbooks, because if it had, you
would not be able to act differently from the
actual governments. Instead you should view
the game as an "alternate history," that is, the
historic individuals, the nations, and the re­sources are provided, but you have a chance to
act differently. In your game the Thirty Years
War perhaps will never break out, or maybe
France will conquer America, or Poland­Lithuania will never cease to exist as a nation.

You lead a country and have a great number
of choices re g a rding war and peace, politics,
economics, and religion, but at the same time
your resources are limited because of the size
and traditions of your nation. You are simply
"The Grey Eminence" behind all of the
monarchs of your country during the period of
the game.

The game contains a number of diff e re n t
scenarios, including the Grand Campaign. The
various scenarios usually cover shorter time pe­riods, while the Grand Campaign will let you
take your countr y from 1492 until 1792.
When choosing a scenario or the Grand Cam­paign, you always have the choice of when the
game should end.

Why is the Clock Ticking?

In a game like this, which is about historical
change, it is not possible to be in every place at
the same time. Time in the game is ru n n i n g
forward like a clock in reality, providing a real
sense of the flow of time, because an English
king, for example, did not know how the bat-

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Europa Universalis

tles against the French in North America
turned out until months later. Even war in gen­eral was an activity with uncertain results; since
you are the one who is moving and controlling
all of your troops, you are forced to give priori­ty to some while the clock is ticking away. It al­so simulates the difficulties of running a large
e m p i re in contrast to a small, land-locked
c o u n t ry. As a player of Spain, for example, it
could be difficult to wage a successful war in
Northern Italy, at the same time that you are
colonizing a new province in Mexico, and
making improvements to the infrastructure in
the Philippines.

What you should know and remember is that
you may pause the game at any time. The clock
stops and the game stands still. In this "pause
mode" you can order troops around (although
they will not start moving until the game re­sumes), build army units and fleets, deal with
diplomatic offers, make changes in your bud­get, etc. You may also change the speed of the
"clock" at any time, i.e. change the speed of
the game, as you perceive it. In the beginning it
is advisable that you keep game time at a rela­tively slow speed, when you are feeling your
way around the various parts of the game.

What Is the Goal of the Game?

The goal of the game may actually vary from
player to player. The basics for the game are to
receive as many victory points as possible. It is
meaningless, at this moment, to discuss in any
g reater detail exactly what provides victory
points throughout the game, as we have not
yet discussed that area of the game. Instead we
will direct you to the list of victory points at the
end of the manual. If you play using the "stan­d a rd" victory conditions, the player with the
highest total points becomes the winner, but
please note that at the end of the game you will
see how many victory points your country has
received, and its relative position. This means
that you can play a country you find difficult to
play just to try to get a better result from game
to game, which is also a way of "winning." An­other approach is to play Denmark, for exam­ple, and try to get more victory points than its
perennial enemy Sweden.

You can also choose a couple of other victory
conditions other than the "standard" ones.
The first choice is "Power Struggle," which
means that the country that is first to reach a
predetermined number of victory points is the
winner. Power Struggle is a good choice if you

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Europa Universalis

want to play a quick game. The second choice
is "Conquest," which means that the country
conquering a pre d e t e rmined number of
p rovinces is the winner. You set the number
when you determine victory conditions. Con­quest is the number one choice if you wish to
decide the outcome of the game on the battle­fields. The third choice is "Mission," which
means that each country will receive a specific
difficult mission, and the player that succeeds
first is the winner. Various missions may in­clude: Russia must conquer all ort h o d o x
provinces in the Balkans, or Spain must "con­quer England." Mission is the choice for play­ers who would like to try something random,
yet challenging.

E u ropa Universalis is about a number of
ways of changing history, and changing history
becomes a goal in itself in the game, besides
winning. How you do it is up to you.

The Game – An Overview

When you start playing you will have a map in
front of you. This is the "game board" of the
game; in the same way you have a game board
in front of you when you play Monopoly or
chess. You lead a country, or more exactly, you
are a country, and all of the provinces within

the borders of your country belong to you.
Provinces outside your country belong to oth­er countries. You also have access to army units
(symbolized by little soldiers) and fleets (sym­bolized by small warships), which you can
move around on the map (just like in chess and
Monopoly). By clicking a province you get ac­cess to information about it in the "informa­tion window" on the left side of the scre e n .
Here you are able to construct army units and
fleets, invest in infrastructure, and many other
things. Exactly what you are able to do and
how to do it will be discussed in greater detail
later on.

How Do I Play?

Naturally, leading a country during 300 years is
not an easy task. To win the game you need to
collect as many victory points as possible. Start­ing the game by waging as many wars as possi­ble may get your country a large number of vic­tory points, but may also lead to quick ruin. It
is usually better to collect victory points at a
relatively normal pace during all of your 300
years, rather than gaining points quickly during
just 100.

The primary problem facing your country is

pure survival. The Prussian diplomat who was

5

Europa Universalis

involved in the third partitioning of Poland supposedly
said: "A nation not able to defend itself has no right to ex­ist." In game terms your neighbors will try to take advan­tage of your weaknesses, but will also shy away from your
strength. In order to survive you must upgrade your de­fenses, and have enough army units and well-arm e d
fleets, but you must also pay attention to the develop­ment of your nation.

The secondary problem facing your country is devel­opment over time. If your country lags behind in eco­nomic or military development this will show up in losses
on the battlefields. When you consider economic devel­opment over time, it helps to think about this simple
metaphor. In very simple terms it is like putting money in
the bank. If you deposit 100 dollars at 10% interest, you
will have 110 dollars one year later, and 121 dollars two
years later. You should be aware of the dynamic nature of
economic development.

The third problem facing your country is discovering
the unknown world beyond the boundaries of Europe.
The discovery of new areas, and establishment of trading
posts or colonies, is quite costly at the beginning, but will
provide a lot of revenue later. The heart of the matter is
balancing your country’s priorities and making your re­sources meet your needs. A colonial empire also needs to
be defended, which means you should give the whole
idea some thought before you start putting things in mo­tion. You may have to consider matters for the next ten or
twenty years ahead if you do not want to lose all you
gained due to poor planning.

How Is the Map Designed?

The game is played on a world map. You can’t see every­thing on the map at the same time, but only the provinces
and sea zones familiar to you country. In order to find out
more you need to explore the unknown parts of the map,
which are called Terra Incognita. This map, which we will
call the normal map, shows each province with its name,
its type of terrain, whether it contains cities, colonies, or
trading posts. It will also show land boundaries between
countries. In the sea zones you will see what the weather
is like, and whether it is winter or summer in the
provinces. Note that a fog stopping you from discovering
any army units in the provinces, or fleets in the sea zones
covers parts of the map. Areas not covered by the fog in­clude your own country, the countries of your allies,
countries in which your monarch has entered royal mar-

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Europa Universalis

riages, and finally countries with which you are
currently at war. In these countries nothing is
hidden.
[screenshot of the "normal" map also showing
the fog of war]

You may also click on the button labeled the
"Political map" in order to view it. Here you
will find all of your foreign relations, and by
clicking a province in another country you are
shown the foreign relations of that country.
Note that this is the map you will be using
when you wish to perform diplomatic actions.
You may also click on the button labeled "Eco­nomic map," which shows the goods produced
in each province. There is also a "Trade map,"
showing the trade centers of the world, and
which provinces they control. The last map is
the "Colonial map," which you use when es-

tablishing trading posts or colonies. Note that
each map has a separate click able button,
which lets you view each one separately.

Geography and Weather

The game contains five different types of ter­rain: open terrain, forest, mountains, desert ,
and swamp. There is also one geographical ob­stacle: rivers. The terrain types affect the move­ment of army units, battles, and army unit attri­tion. Some provinces also suffer the effects of
winter, which in turn affect the various terrain
types.

Sea zones are also affected by the weather.
Certain sea zones may be ridden by storms, or
be covered by ice during parts of the year. Note
also that attrition is lower in sea zones next to
coastal provinces, compared with the open sea.

7

Europa Universalis

B) Learning Scenario

General

The screen you see is divided into two fields, or
"windows." The larger window to the right is
the world map, of which you only see a very in­significant part. You will see more and more of
it as you discover the unknown areas. The
white and unknown parts of the map are called
"Terra Incognita," which is simply "The Un­known World" in Latin—the language of
knowledge and science during this age.

You will also see one pro v i n c e — U l s t e r,
which happens to be your only province, con­taining your capital. If you left click on Ulster
on the map, you will open a picture of your
capital in the other window. For the sake of
simplicity we call that window the Information
window.

The Info window will be described in full a
little later. Below the Info window you will find
the picture of a historical map, or more correct­l y, an empty map. This is a world map in a
smaller format, which will aid you later in the
game when your knowledge of the world has
i n c reased. Note the appearance of "tips"
whenever a scenario is started. These tips pro­vide quick and abbreviated information about
the most important functions of the game. We
recommend that you read these. You may also
access the "tips" by clicking the menu button
at the bottom of the Information window, and
then choosing "Tips."

The Top Line above the Map Window

On the top line above the Map window, you
will find a border with three symbols and a
date—the game clock—followed by another
t h ree symbols. The first three show how many
M e rchants, Colonists, and Diplomats you have
available. If you place the pointer above any of
the symbols you get information about how of­ten you receive new ones, and what generates
them. The clock is shadowed whenever you
pause the game, and white when time is ru n­ning. If you think that the "pro g ress of time" is
too fast or too slow, you may change it by click-

8

ing the menu button at the lower left of the In­f o rmation window, choosing Alternative, and
then following the instructions. The three sym­bols to the right of the clock show the Stability
level of your country, the Manpower in thou­sands of soldiers, and the contents of your tre a­s u ry expressed in Ducats, which was one of the
most common currencies during the historical
epoch. You will receive more background infor­mation if you point at the symbols.

The Top Line above the Information

Window

The embellished line above the Inform a t i o n
window contains five coats of arms. If you left
click any of these, specialized information will
be shown in the Information window. The
shields will provide the following inform a t i o n
( f rom left to right): naval information, land
a rmy information, general information about
the country and its monarch, the state budget,
and the Financial Summary. The military infor­mation shows your level of technology, your
upkeep costs, and your chances of changing the
wages and costs of your soldiers and sailors. The
economic information will show the income
and expenditures of your country, including
how they are allocated. You may also choose
how to allocate your re s e a rch investments in or­der to develop your technology levels.

The Information Window—a Province

When you left click on your only province, you
will see the city of the province of Ulster in the
Information window. By clicking on buildings
and objects in the Information window, you
get additional information about the objects.
The buildings are the places where the various
o fficials of your province work. The off i c i a l s
may be appointed to more qualified tasks by
clicking the buildings, which will give you
m o re advantages in the game. You may also
build fleets and recruit army units.

The church is a very important building. It
will be upgraded automatically when the popu­lation of the province increases. If you left click
the church you will find general inform a t i o n

Europa Universalis

about the state of your province. If you click on
the text lines that appear when you click on the
c h u rch, you will get additional inform a t i o n .
You may also click on the symbols to get addi­tional information about the economy and re­ligion. In addition to the buildings of the
p rovince you also see another shield. The
shield shows the most important products of
the province, including provincial re v e n u e
from trade and taxes. When you appoint offi­cials, for example, you will find that these rev­enues increase.

Army Units and Battles

Your first task is to recruit an army and fight a
battle. Note that there is a "Read more"-but­ton in each "Mission window." We re c o m­mend strongly that you read this additional in­formation, as it provides both historical infor­mation and information about how the game
works. Please note also that by clicking any­thing under construction, you will find out
when the construction is due to be finished.

Choosing Army Units

Besides left clicking a unit, you may also keep
the left mouse button pressed and "circ l i n g "
the unit. You know that a unit is selected when
a green circle surrounds it, and you see an elon­gated rectangle at the base of the unit. The
morale of the unit is indicated by the colors
red, yellow, or green. A newly recruited unit al­ways starts at the lowest possible morale. It will
then increase month by month to the maxi­mum level allowed by your technology level.
The Information window provides additional
information about the chosen unit, such as unit
commander, strength, and attrition. You may
also split the unit into two parts, merge units
by first choosing all units in a province, and al­so reorganize – or customize – your units. Fi­nally, you may opt to disband the unit.

Movement of Troops

When you have clicked the area you want to
move your army unit into, the troops will start
marching. You also see a green arrow showing

the direction of the march. If you wish to do
something else for a moment, such as take care
of your province, you will see the green arrow if
you choose the unit again. As you may have no­ticed, it will take a relatively long time to move
your troops to the new area. The movement of
troops takes a varying amount of time depend­ing on the composition of the unit and the
state of the province to which you are moving
the unit. The province you moved your unit to
was undiscovered, giving you the maximum
t r a n s p o rtation time. In game time it takes at
least three months to move an army unit into
an undiscovered area. Note that you can reset
the speed of the game if you think the pace is
too slow at the beginning.

Discovered and Undiscovered Terrain

Discovered terrain is any terrain which is fully
disclosed on the map, while undiscovered ter­rain is only partly visible. The undiscovered ter­rain is partly covered by white, just like in old
maps, where any unknown terrain was repre­sented in this fashion. Ulster was the only dis­covered terrain when you started the scenario.
Now you have discovered some more. Yo u
must discover any terrain that is only partly vis­ible before you may conquer it. Normally you
need a Conquistador, or land military technol­ogy level of 11 in order to discover provinces.
Undiscovered sea zones usually require an Ex­plorer or Naval technology level of 21. We have
made an exception from this rule in the learn­ing scenario to let you discover provinces at an
earlier stage.

Occupied and Non-Occupied Terrain

"A nation always has an army, either its own or
somebody else’s," is a classical saying. This is
also correct in principle for this game. If you
see a province on the map containing a soldier,
it is an army unit occupying the province. If the
p rovince looks empty you may left click the
p rovince. If it belongs to somebody else you
will see the level of fortification. Fortifications
always have garrisons. Extremely few provinces
belonging to European nations completely

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lack fortifications, but there may be colonies
without them, or quite undeveloped provinces
at the very fringes of Europe. Fortifications are
not very common in the New World, but in­stead have loose confederations of tribes and
clans. This mean that somebody occupies al­most every territory.

Strictly speaking, sea zones are not occupied.
Instead the struggle concerns the shipping
lanes. Anyone who is able to stop others from
using the shipping lanes therefore exerts a cer­tain influence.

Colonization and Economy

The importance of a good economy cannot be
overrated. The economic wealth of your coun­t ry determines how much of your re s o u rc e s
you can invest into various activities, from re­search to war. What then, are the cornerstones
of your economy? Most of your income will
come from production and taxes, which are
generated by your population. The population

lives in the provinces, which provides two main
paths that enable you to broaden your eco­nomic base: war and colonization.

To Colonize a Province

When you click the colonization button (the
button that resembles a small, light blue ship),
the map changes to show which provinces you
can colonize (dark green) and which you can­not colonize (bone white). This is called the
Colonial map. When you choose a province to
colonize, information will appear in the Infor­mation window; that is where you choose
w h e re to send your colonists. Your colonists
may also be used as merchants, which will be
described later.

10

From HMS Mayflower to Cities

Colonies can be upgraded, and for each
colonist it is upgraded one level. A colony may
have up to six levels, where each level re p re­sents 100 inhabitants. When a colony reaches
700 inhabitants it is turned into a norm a l
province with a city. From then on you are able
to recruit troops and build fortifications in the
province.

Note that the economy of the province devel­ops over time as the population grows. From the
moment you have established your colony, it ex-

periences a monthly increase in population. It is
positive if the country has a high level of stabili­t y, and negative if stability is low. This means that
a first level colony may develop into a pro v i n c e
with a city without you having to send more
colonists. Population growth will not be very
high, which means that such a development will
take a long time. A first level colony rarely pro­duces any revenue, while a sixth level colony is
m o re or less a small province. Each colonist
brings along 100 people.

The colonist, the leader of the expedition
consisting of 100 people, always starts out
from your capital, and is portrayed as a horse
and carriage and as a small sailing ship. The fur­ther away from your capital, the longer it takes
to complete the actual colonization. When you
establish a colony it may happen that the
colony receives the state religion of your coun­try, and that may be interpreted as the presence
of a number of priests among the colonists. It is
an advantage if the religion of the province is
the same as the state religion, as diff e re n c e s
may result in rebellions during times of unrest.

Europa Universalis

The Financial Summary

H e re you get an overview of the economic
state of your countr y. Remember that the en­tire economy is affected by the stability of your
c o u n t ry; low stability results in low re v e n u e s
and technology levels, while a high stability rat­ing will optimize both revenues and develop­ment. You will also find that income will in­crease when you upgrade buildings and receive
higher technology levels in the areas of infras­tructure and trade.

Be careful with inflation. Inflation increases
proportionally with the amount of money you
choose to receive each month (by minting
coins), and by taking loans from the citizens of
your country or from other countries. The
normal state, where inflation does not increase,
is when you do not take out a monthly income;
that is, by increasing the amount of coins in
your country. At that point you only have your
annual income available. Note also that gold
mines will increase inflation. If you have gold

mines you can never completely avoid infla­tion.

Your best cure against inflation is the Gover­n o r. By appointing mayors to governors you
lower the rate of inflation. Remember that in­flation is relative—as long as the increases in
prices are lower than the increases in revenue, it
is not a bad thing, at least not in the short run.

The Budget Window

The state budget lets you decide on how to
manage your re s o u rces for development, in­vestments in stability, and public consumption
in the form of appointments of officials, diplo­macy, and the armed forces. This may be classi­fied into three separate areas.

The first is research, which results in qualita­tive advantages. Military units get a higher
morale, better fire p o w e r, and greater impact.
M e rchants become more competitive and
make greater profits. Infrastructure provides a
higher degree of effectiveness in production.

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The second area is stability, which affects ev­e ry area of your country. Stability affects the
economy, troop morale, the risk of rebellion in
your provinces, and whether your vengeful
neighbors will think it wise to attack or not. If
anything is more important than other factors,
it must be stability. It also affects the total size
of your state budget, which means that total in­vestments in technology will be lower over
time if you go along with a lower stability,
rather than investing in maximum stability.

Your third concern is public consumption,
or actually the expenditure of liquid assets from
your tre a s u ry on a monthly basis. You spend
these ducats on more troops, more war ships,
more colonists, and more merchants.

Trade and Merchants

Historically you could say that the global econ­omy did not exist until the discovery of Ameri­ca. The easiest way of looking at the global
economy of that era is as a number of adjacent
local economies. These local economies were
connected to each other with sometimes weak,
and sometimes strong ties. The ties consisted
of course of the merchants, and the power con­necting them was external trade. The greater
the number of local economies connected, the
m o re trade increased. When trade incre a s e d ,
both demand and supply increased, giving rise
to global trade over time.

Each province in the game belongs to a cen­ter of trade. Goods are exchanged at the center
of trade, prices are fixed, and profits and losses
are divided through the care of invisible hands.
Trade during the 1492–1792 period had much
stronger ties to the state and the monarch than
t o d a y. The merchants you send off into the
world probably belong to some public or semi­public trading company.

Placing Merchants

You may only set out merchants at your centers
of trading. In order to get there you click either
on the Trade button, or on the small trading
company in the province on your map. In this
case it’s Ulster.

Deploying merchants costs money, includ­ing their upkeep. It is more expensive to set out
and keep merchants abroad than in your own
country, and even more expensive the further
away from your own country you get. Each
m e rchant you have set out in the center of
trade provides a yearly income, depending on
the total trade value of each center of trade.

A center of trade covering a low number of
p rovinces, with commonly available goods
(such as fish, grain, and wool), has a lower trade
value and will provide lower revenues, than a
center of trade covering several provinces, trad­ing with exotic goods such as ivory, slaves, and
spices. Your technological level will also aff e c t
the profitability and competitiveness of your
m e rchants. When many countries appoint mer­chants in the same center of trade a veritable
trade war may very well eru p t .

The Economical Effects of Trade

The economical effects of trade should not be
underestimated. A raised level in trading tech­nology with lots of provinces and trading
posts, the trade centers will turn into veritable
gold mines for anyone managing to maintain a
monopoly. Additionally the effects of being the
leading producer of certain goods will provide
unimaginable profit, when war, rebellion, and
c a t a s t rophes strike the European continent,
changing all prices. Note also the importance
of having a center of trade within your own
c o u n t ry. New colonies and trading posts will
almost exclusively end up under the authority
of your own center of trade. This will increase
both your immediate profits, and also the trade
value of your center of trade. It is also easier to
be competitive in your own center of trade, but
more about that later.

Fleets and Sea Transport

The fleet is a military unit consisting of a vary i n g
number of ships in the same way that an arm y
unit consists of a varying number of tro o p s .
T h e re are three types of ship in the game: Wa r­ships, Galleys, and Tr a n s p o rt Vessels. Wa r s h i p s
have a transport capacity of 1; galleys have a

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t r a n s p o rt capacity of 0.5, and transport vessels a
capacity of 2. What is transport capacity? Each
a rmy unit has a weight; the transport capacity of
your fleet indicates how many troops you are
able to transport. Cavalry and art i l l e ry have
g reater weight than infantry. The total weight of
each army unit and the transport capacity of the
fleet can be found in the Information window
whenever you have selected a unit. War ships are
m o re effective in battle, galleys are the least ex­pensive, and transport vessels have the larg e s t
t r a n s p o rt capacity. Galleys should be kept in the
Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Black
Sea, as this ship type is useless on the open sea.

All fleet units suffer "attrition" when at sea.
When you choose a fleet unit you will find the
current attrition speed in the Information win­d o w. This is shown in connection with the
small skull. There is no attrition when a fleet is
in port, which means that you need to send
your fleets into port at regular intervals in or­der to maintain the ships. If a fleet transporting
army units is sent to port the army units will be
unloaded automatically in that pro v i n c e .
Merging, splitting, reorganizing, and dissolv­ing fleets is done in exactly the same way as
army units are merged, etc.

Loading of Army Units

First you need to order your fleet into a sea
zone, and then order an army unit in an adja­cent province to load onto the fleet. You can­not load the fleet unless it is in port.

When the troops are loaded you will find a
new button in the information window when
you choose the fleet. Click this button when
you want to unload the army unit in another
adjacent province.

Unloading an Army Unit from a Fleet

Choose the fleet and click the unloading but­ton. You will now see the army unit on the
map. Now click the province where you wish to
unload your army unit. The troops will now
start marching to the province.

Trading posts

A colony is a province providing some produce
and a small amount of trade. Trading posts do
not provide any produce to speak of, but in­stead provide a better trade value affecting the
center of trade to which it belongs. By estab­lishing many trading posts, preferably in
p rovinces producing unusual goods, you
quickly increase the trading value of the center

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of trade they belong to, and if you have a
monopoly or a large number of merc h a n t s
t h e re, you will receive good revenues fro m
your invested funds. The trading posts may be
improved up to six levels. At the higher levels
the trading posts have a great trading value.

You build trading posts by sending out mer­chants. Click the colonization button. As we
mentioned previously, you have some colonists
available—the number is shown in the line
above the map. These can be used either as
colonists or merchants. Historically the first
colonizations happened when the Euro p e a n
countries first established trading posts in an
area, and later on colonized it. Trading posts
are cheaper than colonies and are usually easier
to establish than colonies. It is also easier to
maintain a colony in a province where you al­ready have a trading post, as compared with a
neutral and empty province.

How to Establish a Trading Post

Click the colonization button. Now you see
the map in its colonization view. Bone white
provinces are not available for colonization or
trading posts. They are either undiscovered, al-

ready fully developed provinces with more
than 5000 inhabitants, or belong to other
countries. Possible prospects are all of the
green colored provinces. If the province is dark
green, you already have a colony there, if the
color is medium green, you have a trading post,
and if the color is light green, you have neither.
Click the province where you wish to establish
a trading post, and then click the button "Send
merchant." You will now see a figure unpack­ing pots from a chest as a sign of work in
progress. When placing the pointer above the
merchant you will see how long it will take un­til the trading post is ready for business.

Neighboring Countries

Your neighbors are naturally of great interest to
you, whether they are your allies or your ene­mies. Normally you know about your Euro­pean neighbors and their provinces, but usual­ly you know nothing about the non-European
countries. You must discover them. You are al­so only able to send diplomats to a country if
you know about it, and diplomacy is one of
your most important tools for survival and ex­pansion.

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Diplomacy

Diplomacy can be used in many ways. The
diplomats you send out are your tools when
you want to achieve something. What is it you
want to achieve? You can offer royal marriages
or alliances, or take up such offers. You may de­c l a re war or offer peace. You may try to ex­change geographical knowledge, and you may
c reate better relations to other countries
through gifts and tokens of respect, or worsen
relations through insults and bans.

Royal marriages are a good thing. They im­p rove relations and make it difficult to carry
out declarations of war. The alliances you enter
are also important, as you will easily fall prey to
other alliances if you do not belong to any. It is
quite possible to defend yourself against anoth­er power, but if three, or even four, other coun­tries attack, you are in deep trouble.

In order to use diplomacy you click the
diplomacy button below the information win­d o w. This opens a diplomacy menu for your
country. You may look at another country on
the map at any time. By clicking the "coat of
a rms" of that country you may review the
diplomatic situation of that country. You have
a number of choices in your diplomacy menu.

By clicking an option, that diplomatic mission
will be performed and you will have one diplo­mat less. Note that if you make an offer of roy­al marriage or an alliance the monarch will not
automatically accept the off e r. The deciding
factor for such a decision is your previous rela­tions. If you have attacked and occupied a
number of small and innocent countries your
surroundings will naturally treat you like an in­ternational pariah.

War

War is one of the fastest and best ways of ex­panding politically and economically. War also
has its share of disadvantages. Your re s e a rc h
will often suffer, as you probably need to invest
heavily in stability after each war. Wars almost
always destabilize your country. War also af­fects the risk of rebellion in your provinces. A
land with multiple religions often risks a "great
mess" each time a war drags out in time.

To Prepare for War

B e f o re you declare war you need to pre p a re .
This usually means that you expand your
a rmies and fleets in order to obtain local
s u p re m a c y. You should also compare your

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strength to the strength of your potential ene­mies. If you are well pre p a red you suffer less
risk of having to finance your war with war tax­es and increased minting of coins. Note that at­trition is higher for army units that are moved
during the winter months. Plan your war ac­cordingly. It is also important to consider the
allies of your potential enemy, and trying to fig­ure out how your own stability will be affected.
On the one hand you check to see if you have
any Casus Belli (Latin for "cause of war"),
which will decrease your loss of stability be­cause of the declaration of war, and on the oth­er hand by declaring war and then "regretting
the act." When you declare war you are in­formed of the size of your loss of stability and
what caused it.

To Declare a War

War can be declared either from the diplomacy
menu, where you go to the country in question
and click the line "declare war," or by honoring
an alliance where one of your allies either has
declared war on another country, or has been
attacked.

To Win a War

In order to win a war you must be victorious in
battles and naval engagements and/or captur­ing the provinces of the enemy. You capture a
p rovince by moving an army unit into a
p rovince, defeating any enemy units in the
province, and performing a successful siege or
assault. When your flag is waving above the
town, colony, or trading post of the province,
you control it and this will be counted to your
advantage during peace negotiations. Note
that the opposite is true for your opponent,
which means that you should try to avoid loss­es in battle and try to hang on to your
provinces. Extended wars lead to exhaustion,
which often results in rebellion in your various
provinces.

Offers of Peace

In order to make an offer of peace you click a
p rovince belonging to (or that has belonged
to) the enemy. Then click the diplomacy menu.
H e re you click on the line saying "Offer of
Peace." Here you see the results of the war,
through the number of stars or tombstones in
the information window. If you see tomb­stones you should consider offering a tribute

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and/or provinces in order to gain peace. If you
find stars you may often demand a tribute
and/or provinces. Each star or tombstone rep­resents a province or 250 ducats, which you ei­ther may offer or demand. You may only offer
to give up provinces, which have belonged to
you, and are now controlled by the enemy, and
you may only demand provinces, which have
belonged to your enemy, and now are in your
c o n t rol. If you demand provinces that be­longed to your enemy at the start of the sce­nario, that is, his or her core provinces, the en­emy now has a Casus Belli (cause for going to
war) against your country.

C) Activities

Countries

Each player runs a country. Each country con­sists of one or several provinces and possessions
(the diff e rence will be explained later). Yo u r
country has a border marked on the map, and if
you wish to view the political map, the
provinces of each country are marked with the
same color. Each country has a monarch and a
state religion. Most of the countries are located
in Europe, but there are a few non-European

countries spread out in the world that may be
included in the game. Certain countries have a
special political status - these countries may be
played. Each scenario defines the countries you
a re allowed to play. The diff e r ence between
player countries and other countries is that a
player country may not be occupied as the re­sult of a peace treaty or through diplomatic
means (see Peace Treaties and War Damages).

Provinces

The province is the smallest geographical unit
of the game. There are two types of political
status for the provinces. They either belong to
a country, or they are independent. Your coun­try consists of provinces belonging to you. The
p rovinces are fully developed, as opposed to
possessions. This means they have cities, where
you may appoint officials, and where you may
build ships and raise army units. Possessions
are provinces that lack a city, but have either a
colony or a trading post. Any province that
does not belong to a country is an independent
province. These provinces only exist outside of
Europe, and are populated by natives, organiz­ing their societies through clan and tribal sys­tems. The independent provinces do not have

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Europa Universalis

standing army units; instead native war bands
will meet you if you move an army unit into the
province. You may colonize or construct trad­ing posts in independent provinces, there b y
gaining a certain level of control. Only coun­tries may have a colony or a trading post in an
independent province. When a colony or a
trading post is established, the province is no
longer considered independent. A basic differ­ence between a province with a city and a
p rovince with a colony is that you can build
ships and raise army units in the former, includ­ing appointing officials, and establishing facto­ries. You may not do any of this in a province
with a colony.

A coastal province is a province with a port.
Note that in order to have a port the province
must either have a city or a colony. A province
with just a trading post may never have a port.
Having coastal provinces also affects the num­ber of colonists and merchants your country
will receive each year. Also note that ships do
not suffer attrition when in port, because they
can be maintained. If you have a large country
with provinces on several continents, you will

18

do better if you have ports in as many places as
possible, in order to send your ships in to port
now and then, to avoid suffering attrition (See
Attrition). The provinces you start the game
with are your core provinces and your most im­p o rtant ones. Core provinces are marked on
the political map with small shields. The coun­try a province belongs to is noted by the flag
waving above the city, the colony, or the trad­ing post. During times of peace you may only
move your army units from and to provinces
belonging to your own country, or into inde­pendent provinces. During times of war you
may also move army units into provinces be­longing to allied countries and dependent
states, and into countries with which you are at
war. There is also one exception. The Emperor
of the Holy Roman Empire may freely move
his army units within the borders of the Empire
(see The Holy Roman Empire).

Note that a province may belong to one
c o u n t r y, but may be controlled by another.
This happens when two countries are at war
with each other, and one of the countries has
occupied a province belonging to the other

Europa Universalis

c o u n t r y. When peace has been declared, all
c o n t rolled provinces re t u rn to the original
o w n e r, unless they have been surre n d e red as
part of the peace treaty. There are two excep­tions. The first depends on whether you have
signed the Tordesilla Treaty or not (see The
Tordesilla Treaty), because you may then move
into and take control of the colonies or trading
posts of other countries, regardless of whether
you have been at war with these countries or
not. The other exception applies if rebels man­age to seize one of your provinces. The
p rovince still belongs to you, but the re b e l s
control it. If another country controls any of
your provinces, you will not receive any income
f rom these provinces. You will see that a
province is controlled by another country if the
flag of another country is flying above the city,
the colony or the trading posts. (Rebels fly a
red flag.) In order to take control of a province
you must capture the city, either by storm or
siege. Provinces with cities lacking fort i f i c a­tions, and provinces with colonies or trading
posts are automatically controlled when you
move an army unit into it. Also note that

provinces under your control will be counted
to your advantage during peace negotiations.

Sea Zones

The seas are vast open areas. During this period
the chances of controlling the seas was limited
by the quality of the ships and their crews, the
basic resources, and of course the weather. The
sea is therefore divided into sea zones. Each sea
zone is an area where fleets have a limited influ­ence. Each fleet actually consists of a main part
and several smaller patrols. When the patro l s
discovered enemy ships, the main part of the
fleet was assembled to deal with the enemy
fleet. This means that battles between fleets do
not occur automatically; this depends on the
quality of the fleets. The main problem was
finding the enemy and creating local superiori­ty. If you did not succeed the engagement was
called off. Your territorial waters are the sea
zones off the coast from your coastal provinces.
Here you have several advantages, as you know
the waters, the weather, and you are close to
your bases for maintenance.

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Cities and Capitals

Your capital is shown on the map. This is the
city belonging to the province where you find
your shield. The province with your capital
may not be surrendered during peace negotia­tions other than by occupation (see Peace
Treaties and War Damages). The city shows a
graphic representation of the level of develop­ment of your province. What you see in the in­f o rmation window is a picture of the city, as
you build ships, raise army units, upgrade
buildings, and build factories. The population
level of your city indicates the wealth of your
province. Normally the population of the city
will increase over time, but it may also drop be­cause of war, rebellions, random events, and if
the city is situated in an area of adverse geo­graphical conditions, for example in the
African tropics. When a colony has 700 inhabi­tants it develops into a city. The city is still colo­nial, and in order to become a real European
city with efficient production the pro v i n c e
must have at least 5000 inhabitants.

20

Trading posts and Colonies

When you have established a trading post or a
colony in a province you gain control of the
province. In other words, the province is now
yours. This means that no other country may
use the province for troop movements during
peace, and no other countr y may establish
trading posts or colonies in the province. You
may lose your province either through negative
population growth because of the geographic
conditions, which will make your population
drop to zero, or by ceding the province to an­other country as part of a peace treaty. You may
also lose a trading post either because an enemy
army unit burned it to the ground during war
(see Trading Posts and Merchants), or by ced­ing the province to another country as part of a
peace treaty.

Trading posts and colonies are called posses­sions, and are diff e rent from provinces with
cities, partly because of population levels, and
partly because of the development levels. The
difference between a trading post and a colony

Europa Universalis

is that the trading post provides a low produc­tion value and a high trading value, while the
colony provides a high production value and a
low trading value. In addition the colony has
population growth and may be developed into
a city, while a trading post does not have pop­ulation growth, nor may it be developed into a
province with a city. You may still develop your
trading posts into colonies by sending colonists
to your trading posts.

Terra Incognita and Permanent Terra

Incognita

Both "Terra Incognita" and "Permanent Terra
Incognita" are undiscovered areas. Te rr a
Incognita re p resents provinces and sea zones
not yet discovered by your countr y. When
these are discovered, either by moving arm y
units or ships through them, or by trading
maps with other countries, the areas cease to be

Terra Incognita and become part of the known
world, as your country knows it. Note that you
n o rmally need a Conquistador, or you must
have reached Land Military level 11 in order to
discover provinces. For undiscovered sea zones
you need an Explorer or you must have
reached Naval Technology level 21.

P e rmanent Te rra Incognita re p re s e n t s
undiscovered areas not consisting of provinces
or sea zones. Permanent Terra Incognita com­prises the areas that were not explored at all at
this time. Historically, there were several areas
that were not discovered until after 1792 (such
as some parts of Siberia and Australia), or
which had been discovered earlier, but where
all knowledge about it had faded into legends
(such as the interior of Africa), and finally areas
which could not be explored using the tech­nology of the times (such as certain Northern
sea routes).

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Europa Universalis

Stability and the Wrath of
Your Subjects

What is Stability?

The political culture of Europe during the peri­od was not an isolated phenomenon. How
each country should behave in regards to both
domestic and foreign policy had already been
f o rmulated during the height of the Roman
Empire, and had later been developed during
the Middle Ages. The ideological start i n g ­point at the end of the 15th century was Chris­tianity as a unit. Civilization was defined within
the framework of Christianity and consequent­ly, what constituted civilized behavior between
countries. A similar starting-point existed in
the Moslem countries, where "country" was
not a properly recognized concept. Instead
they re g a rded all Moslems as part of the
Moslem Haram. Internally the division of soci­ety was frozen, partly because of the division of
power between various groups during the late
Middle Ages, but also through domestic poli­cy, which could be described as a struggle or
game between various groups in society. The
monarch naturally played a large part.

You should also be aware of the advantages
associated with breaches against "the interna­tional rules." The princes of the Renaissance
were soon involved in a highly advanced game
of political struggle, where a European hege­mony was the goal. In this aspect you should
consider the abstract concept of stability. If the
monarch broke the formal and informal rules,
both his foreign and domestic reputation fell,
including the status of his country. The re­sponse to declarations of war was often your
own declarations of war, which caused a spiral
of injustice, war, and revenge that affected all
of Europe.

Stability is thus affected by both the interna­tional status of your country, and by the rela­tions between your monarch and his subjects.
The stability of your country may vary on a sev­en-point scale from –3 to +3.

Things that Lower Stability

There are several reasons why stability may de­teriorate, but the most important are definitely
declarations of war. Declarations of war were
not regarded lightly by anyone in Europe dur­ing the period, perhaps with the exception of
the issuer. In other countries the monarchs and
the governments viewed any declaration of war
with concern, because it might upset the bal­ance of power of the region. You could say that
society viewed the country as a person and the
declaration of war as a physical attack. Yo u
could make this attack if you had good and
proper reasons (see Casus Belli), but uncalled
for wars were punished by force. As a result of a
declaration of war, you could lose prestige and
international honor. Add to this the quite neg­ative reactions of the population, as war meant
levies, inflation, and raised taxes. A declaration
of war without Casus Belli lowers the stability
of your country by two steps (–2). A declara­tion of war with a proper Casus Belli does not
affect your stability at all. Religion was some­thing that united and divided countries during
the epoch. It was thought of as an un-Christian
and therefore it was immoral to declare war on
a country with the same religion, which meant
that the population and the priests re a c t e d
quite negatively if any monarch chose that
route. A declaration of war against a country of
the same religion lowers your stability an addi­tional step (–1). To declare war against an al­lied country was seen as truly degenerate be­havior, lowering your stability yet another step
(–1) if the country under attack has ties
through a royal marriage with yours. If you de­clare war against your own vassal your stability
will drop another three steps (–3), while end­ing your vassal ties without a declaration of war
lowers stability by three steps (–3). If you de­c l a re war against a country with which you
have a peace treaty, your stability will drop by
another five steps (–5); in effect, this means
that you will become an international pariah.
Peace treaties remain in effect for five years.

Some other important factors that lowered

stability during the period were various politi-

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cal acts of a dubious nature. Breaking your for­eign promises immediately lowered the reputa­tion of a country and its prestige. The principle
of "Pact Sund Servanda" (agreements are
binding) was a basic rule already in Roman law,
and had been incorporated in the diplomatic
life of the times. Annulling a royal marr i a g e
could be a good thing for your country in
many ways, but the stability of your country is
l o w e red by one step (–1). You are seen as
flighty and insecure in your foreign relations,
which is cause for strong irritation among any
groups of society with strong connections with
the country in question. If you decide to sack a
vassal your stability is lowered by three steps
(–3). Especially the nobility will question your
f o reign competence. A vassal has subjected
himself to your decisions, even though this is
mostly of a formal nature, which means that
dissolving the relationship is regarded as a sign
of your weakness. If you leave an alliance your
stability is lowered by one step (–1), which
means that many powerful men in the upper
levels of society probably have invested a lot of
prestige and friendship in the alliance that you
are leaving. The same thing occurs if you refuse
to honor an alliance; for example, if you do not
help a brother when a third country attacks
him. It will lower your stability by one step
(–1). Sharp foreign turns will create uncertain­ty about your future direction in the political
game. If you refuse a country the chance to
trade at your trade centers you also lower sta­bility by one step (–1). Your neighbors will feel
threatened, because what you did against one
country may be repeated against another.

Finally, there are five general causes for low­ered stability. The first occurs if your country
goes bankrupt. Bankruptcy occurs if you have
taken out five loans from the national treasury
(loans from other countries are not counted),
and you are unable to repay them when they
are due, or when you have taken out five loans,
and your monthly costs are higher than your
monthly income. With bankruptcy the stability
of your country is lowered by one step (–1).
The population has lost confidence in the abil-

ity of the monarch and the government when it
comes to handling your finances. The same
thing applies when you are unable to repay a
loan from another country, as your stability is
lowered by one step (–1). Stability is also low­ered if you decide to raise war taxes (see War
Taxes), which means that you further increase
the burdens of your country while lowering
stability by one step (–1). The fourth reason is
a change of state religion. Changing state reli­gion normally means a huge transformation of
society, affecting every level of society. Some of
your subjects will celebrate, while others will
stage a revolution. Changing the state religion
lowers your stability by five steps (–5), except if
you change from the Catholic Church to
Counter Reformed Catholicism. (For a longer
description, see Religion.) Finally some ran­dom events may lower the stability of your
country (see Random Events).

Please also note that all effects are cumula­tive; that is, if you have a stability of 0, and de­c l a re war against a country without a Casus
Belli, and in addition you have ties to that
c o u n t ry through royal marriage, and a peace
t re a t y, this will lower your stability by eight
steps (–2–1–5=–8). As mentioned earlier, you
may not have a stability of less than –3, but for
each additional step you will suffer an automat­ic rebellion in each of your provinces. In this
case your stability will drop from 0 to –3, and
then you will have 5 rebellions in each of your
provinces.

Things that Increase Stability

You may increase the stability of your coun­try by investing in stability in your state budget
(see Investing in Stability). This is handled as a
c e rtain sum set aside for this purpose each
month, which you may view in the information
window. Note that the cost of increasing stabil­ity is higher if you have a large country, as you
must appease more people. When the gre e n
line has reached its end the stability of your
country is increased by one step (+1), and the
green line starts anew at the beginning. This is
to be interpreted as the monarch and the gov-

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ernment making concessions to various groups
of society; for example, a temporary lowering
of taxes for the peasants, land grants for the no­b i l i t y, trading rights for the townsmen, or
greater freedom for the serfs. You may also see
the cost as part of certain actions, like replacing
b a i l i f fs, changing the laws, etc. Finally they
may cover the cost of raising the prestige of
your country; for example, by holding splendid
weddings, raising the magnificence of the
court, etc. You cannot raise stability above +3
by investments. The rate of increases will be
lower if you are at war, for each quarter you
have been at war, and for each province con­t rolled by the enemy (core provinces are
counted twice and the capital is counted as ten
normal provinces). All investments made when
your stability is at +3 will result in ducats for

24

your treasury. Note that certain random occur­rences may raise stability (see Random Events).
When you are victorious at war, and have man­aged to annex formerly independent countries
(see Annexation), your stability will increase by
one step (+1), as your victory will increase your
international prestige and make a big impres­sion on your subjects.

What Is Affected by Stability?

To begin with, all population levels of your
cities and your colonies and all your monthly
and annual income are affected. During bad
times with spreading unrest the population of­ten decreases. If your stability is low you are
p robably at war with another country. Yo u r
population is decreasing through levies, people
running off into the woods, and because of

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plagues that were often a result of the wars. In
game terms you will be able to view the per­centage of increase or decrease of your popula­tion by clicking the church of a province. If
conditions are really bad, cities and colonies
may have a negative growth, which means that
they are being depopulated. Population levels
d e t e rmine the production income of your
p rovinces, which means that stability will de­termine the long-term development of your in­come. The administrative system is also less ef­fective when there is unrest. Bailiffs were not
obeyed, roads and communications deteriorat­ed, and people evaded their taxes to a greater
extent, resulting in a higher cost of living with
l o w e red consumption and production. This
will mean that your tax income will incre a s e
and decrease in pro p o rtion to your stability.
You see this as changes in your annual income
and also by checking up on your Financial
Summary.
Trade is also affected by the same phenomena.
Declines in both domestic and foreign trade
were common during wars and during periods
of unrest in general. This is portrayed by a con­nection between your annual quota of mer­chants and your stability. If your stability is at
the lower end – that is, –3 or –2 – you will have
g reat difficulties getting the merchants to do
business; they will simply lack all incentive to
trade, which lowers your pool of merchants by
two (–2). If your stability is at –1, your pool is
lowered by only one merchant (–1). If stability
is at 0 or +1, you gain one (+1) or two (+2) ex­tra merchants. If the stability of your country is
excellent, +2 or +3, you gain three extra mer­chants. In addition, stability affects the ability
of the merchants to get into the trade centers,
as well as their ability to compete with mer­chants who are already present. Note also that
the annual interest of your loans varies along
with your stability.
Your diplomatic skills and the risk of rebellion
are also affected by the stability of your coun­t ry. When it comes down to your diplomatic
abilities, you may not declare wars if your sta­bility is at the very bottom (at –3). This is part-

ly due to social unrest and the fact that court
intrigue is at such a high level that the monarch
and the government are unable to deal with
anything other than trying to keep the country
united. To fight a war at such a time is impossi­ble. The risk of rebellion in your provinces is in
direct proportion to your stability. The lower
your stability is, the greater the risk of re b e l­lions, and vice versa. You can read more about
this later in the manual.

Rebellions and the Risk of Rebellion

Rebellions were fairly common during the pe­riod, primarily during the early part, the 16th
and 17th centuries, while decreasing in scope
and frequency during the later years. There are
several reasons for this. Normally re b e l l i o n s
w e re caused by social or religious injustices
against the broad base of society, known as
"peasant uprisings." A fortunate start of a re­bellion re q u i red leaders and even administra­tors in order to compete with the governmen­tal power, and this is where the nobility and
prominent townsmen entered the picture. Any
successful rebellion re q u i red that all levels of
society got involved if they wanted to change
social reality. A few such "successful" rebellions
are the war of liberation of Gustavus Vasa, and
the French Revolution, but even properly or­ganized and solid rebellions could fail in the
end. The fewer rebellions at the end of the pe­riod were usually due to the fact that few rebels
had access to the modern weapons technolo­gies available to the government, and the in­c reasing difficulties in uniting diff e rent social
classes. The arm of the government had be­come longer, and its grip was also much
stronger.

The risk of rebellion varied from province to
province. In order to review the risk of rebel­lion as a percentage value, click the church of
the province and point at "Risk of Rebellion."
You will then see what the risk is, and what is
causing it. You may also look at the map show­ing religions, where you see all provinces with
various levels of shading. The darker the shad
is, the greater the risk of rebellion. The two

25

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most important causes for rebellion are the lev­el of stability and the level of tolerance of the
monarch and the government toward the reli­gion of the provincial population (note that a
p rovince may have another religion than the
"state religion" – see "State Religion and
Provincial Religion). The risk of rebellion is in
direct proportion to the stability and the level
of tolerance; that is, the lower the values, the
g reater the risk of rebellion, and vice versa.
T h e re are also a few general factors aff e c t i n g
the risk of rebellion. The risk is always lower in
the province with your capital, because the
monarch and the government have much bet­ter political control, compared with the other
p rovinces. If you have built a factory in the
province the risk is lower as the population has
a higher production, which results in a higher
standard of living. On the other hand, the risk
will increase if you have appointed a bailiff as
tax collector, as more efficient taxation leads to
less income for the population. You may also
lower the risk of rebellion by appointing a
lawyer as high judge, as this improves the judi-

26

cial system and the police. The game incorpo­rates a special case, which may be good to
know about: the phenomenon is called "Dutch
nationalism" and will occur sometimes during
the second half of the 16th century. It will re­sult in a heavily increased risk of rebellion in the
Dutch core provinces, which originally (1492)
belonged to Spain. This "nationalism" was
controlled by religion. The risk is affected by
the religion of the provinces. If the country
they belong to has a different religion, the risk
of rebellion will be much higher.

What happens when there is a re b e l l i o n ?
Each month there will be an uprising in each
province, and the chance of success depends on
the risk for rebellion. When a province rebels, a
rebel army unit appears, carrying a red flag. It
immediately engages any regular army units in
the province and then starts a siege of the forti­fied city. If the rebel forces manage to take the
province, the red flag will fly above the city. If
the city garrison also rebels, then the rebels will
automatically control the city. This means that
the rebels will control the province, and also

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that the risk of rebellion will increase in each
adjacent province, and that the rebel forces will
move into the next province in order to con­quer it. A rebellion may spread like wildfire all
over your country if you are unable to stop it in
time.

The same things apply to provinces con­t rolled by enemies as to provinces contro l l e d
by rebels; you do not get any income from the
province until you have manage to retake it. If
the rebels manage to take control of enough
provinces (the number to be controlled varies
from country to country), two things may oc­cur. Either the rebels are allowed to take over
the sovereignty of certain provinces (more
about this in the next chapter), or the "govern­ment will fall." If the government falls, you re­turn to stability level +3 and regain all of your
p rovinces that used to be controlled by the
rebels, and all rebel army units disappear.
There is also a chance of your country switch­ing state religion. The rebels were simply able
to win, and you just lost a whole lot of victory
points.

How do you get rid of a rebellion? If low lev­els of tolerance caused the rebellion, these can
be changed. If the level of stability in your
country is low, you may try to change that, be­cause rebellions decrease if stability is high. But
if a rebellion has succeeded, and you now have
a rebel force in your country, your only way of
dealing with it is through the use of forc e ,
sending an army unit into the province and de­feating the rebels in a field battle. When an
a rmy unit is fighting and taking losses, then
morale decreases over time, until the unit pan­ics and has to retire. The rebels will never re­tire. If the morale of the rebels reaches the pan­ic level the unit simply dissolves. Do not forget
that provinces conquered and controlled by
rebels will generate new rebel forces, which
must be conquered in order to put a stop to the
rebellion.

Liberation Movements

A liberation movement may start as a regular
rebellion, but may develop after a while into a
liberation movement with demands of inde-

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pendence. Certain areas, like Brittany, Norway,
Catalonia, and the Ukraine, among others,
may develop into liberation movements, and
then proclaiming their independence, but this
is also true of formerly existing countries,
which have been annexed during wars. The
p rovinces under the control of the rebels are
simply transferred from your country to a new
c o u n t r y, which has just appeared. The new
country starts its existence automatically at war
with your country. There is nothing that pre­vents you from conquering the new country
and annexing it.

Example: France (stability 0) is at war with
Switzerland. The monarch and the govern­ment are of the firm opinion that the war may
be won, and decide to switch the state religion
f rom Catholicism to Protestantism. Stability
d rops to –3, and rebellions start in several
Catholic provinces. The war with Switzerland
is not successful, and an alliance consisting of
Spain, Lorraine, and Cologne declares war
with France. After half a decade France has lost
a few provinces to the "alliance," but Provence

28

and Brittany have appeared as independent
countries. The "alliance" refuses to offer peace
without massive concessions of land, and
France finds it necessary to make smaller con­cessions to Provence and Brittany, in order to
lower the number of adversaries, thus avoiding
a loss of land to Spain.

Religion and Tolerance

Religion was a very important part of life during
the period. Catholicism was the uniting force in
Christian Europe. In 1492 Castile and Aragon
had "liberated" the Iberian Peninsula from al­most 800 years of Moslem government. Neither
the Pope nor the Emperor had the same power
over people any longer as during the Middle
Ages, but religion still served as a common sys­tem of thought for the inhabitants of Euro p e .
People on the eastern fringes of Europe still con­fessed to the Orthodox variety of Christianity,
and lived within a similar, but slightly diff e re n t
system. The Ottoman Empire was both the in­heritor of the Byzantine Empire and the
Caliphate of Baghdad, and here the Sunnis were

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in majority. The Sunni Moslems were fighting
the Shia Moslems of Persia. This struggle con­c e rned who should lead the Moslem Caliphate.
A c c o rding to the Europeans, the world beyond
E u rope and the Middle East was simply popu­lated with lots of heathens.

When the Reformation occurred the
Catholic Church was divided, and Protestants
and Reformists emerged out of the split, which
also brought about a wave of violence, with
both religious and political overtones. Reli­giously it was a struggle for the reformation of
the old church order. It will be noted that the
Catholic Church was also reformed from with­in. The political struggle concerned the power
over the possessions of the church and the ap­pointment of priests, but above all about the
freedom of thought: whether the Pope had the
right of interpretation in all religious matters or
not. You could also say that Catholicism repre­sented a universal view, a common European
c h u rch, while the Protestants and the Re­formists wanted more decentralized, National
churches.

After a while the struggle developed into re­ligious wars without any clear winners. Because
of a general European fatigue, the diff e re n t
variants of Christianity were finally forced to
accept the status quo. This was the first step to­ward tolerance and freedom of thought, which
would really get underway during the Age of
Enlightenment.

State Religion and Provincial Religion

Each country has a state religion, and as has
been mentioned earlier, it was a system of
thought, regulating morals and the philosophy
of life, but it was also a form of state ideology
the rulers used in order to control their sub­jects. This means that the religion of your
c o u n t ry affects certain phenomena of society
in the following ways:

Catholicism: Provides your country with 2
additional diplomats each year. The monarc h
may be elected for the office of Emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire (see The Holy Roman
Empire). Poland-Lithuania is an example of a
Catholic country.

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Counter Reformed Catholicism: Pro v i d e s
your country with 2 additional diplomats each
year, and 1 additional colonist each year. You
have the option of forcing protestant and re­f o rmist countries to convert to Catholicism.
This religion will also provide a positive bonus
when investing in stability, due to the authority
restored to the Pope. Finally it lowers your an­nual and monthly income by 20%, as this part is
due the Pope in Rome and the church, which is
separate from the state. The monarch may be
chosen for the office of Emperor of the Holy
Roman Empire (see The Holy Roman Em­pire). The Papal State, naturally, and Spain dur­ing the reign of Charles V are examples of this
religion.

P rotestantism: Provides 1 additional diplo­mat and 1 additional colonist each year.
Provinces in Protestant countries will also have
a higher production value and provide higher
taxes on production than countries with other
religions, as the protestant mind frame places a
g reat emphasis on individualism and work
ethics. Each Protestant coastal province pro-

30

vides up to 3 additional merchants each year.
As individualism gives rise to sectors and popu­lar uprisings, your country gets a negative
bonus when investing in stability, but as the
church is controlled by your monarch and gov­ernment, your annual and monthly income are
increased by 20%. Sweden became a Protestant
country in 1544.

R e f o rmist: Provides 1 additional diplomat
and 3 colonists each year. Militant Reform i s t
army units and fleets are also provided with one
extra level of morale. Reformist merchants re­ceive higher profits than merchants of other re­ligions. Each Reformist coastal province pro­vides up to 3 additional merchants each year.
The Reformist society was heavily contro l l e d
through the general social norms, which pro­vides a positive bonus when investing in stabil­i t y. Your annual tax income will decrease by
30%, as the Reformist society was strongly de­centralized, and public spending was handled
at the community level. Examples of Reformist
countries include Holland, Switzerland, and
Scotland.

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O rthodox: Provides 1 additional colonist
each year. The Orthodox Church was not in­volved historically in the enflamed conflict be­tween Catholics and Protestants, and its diplo­matic relations were not affected in the same
way by religious change in the rest of Europe.
The best example of an Orthodox Euro p e a n
nation is of course "The Third Rome," Russia.

Shia Moslem: Provides 2 colonists per year.
During a very long period the Shia Moslem
faction was forced to keep its religion a secret,
in order to avoid the wrath of the Sunni
Moslem majority, but after a number of upris­ings and heavy fighting, the Shia Moslems
managed to establish a number of independent
nations, with sharp theological differences to­ward the Sunni, which also gave rise to a cer­tain fanaticism, providing their army units and
fleets with an additional level of morale. The
Shia Moslem countries had a stricter relation­ship to the Koran for political guidance, which
p rovides a positive bonus when investing in
stability, but as a much stricter interpretation of
the Koran regarding religious taxation was ob­served, the annual income is lowered by 30%.
Examples of Shia Moslem countries include
Persia and the Egypt of the Mamlukes.

Sunni Moslem: No special advantages or dis­advantages in game terms, but functions in­stead like Catholicism in the Christian world.
An example of a Sunni Moslem country is the
Ottoman Empire.

The state religion is the religion pre f e rre d
and supported by the monarch and the govern­ment. In practice it means that the re l i g i o u s
leaders of the state religion were re s p o n s i b l e
for the spiritual guidance of the people. They
also acted as missionaries. In certain countries
religious minorities could be exempt from the
state religion and keep their own religious lead­ers and church organizations. This practice was
fairly common and came about as a result of
provinces being ceded in war only if the popu­lations were allowed to keep their old religions.
Another reason could be a lack of resources or
an actual will to "combat heretics" in the coun­try. An example of a country with several differ-

ent religions within the borders, combined
with a high religious tolerance, is Poland­Lithuania, while Spain under Ferdinand and
Isabella may serve as an example of a country
with a low tolerance.

The provincial religion is the religion of the
population of the province. A province may
have another religion than your state religion,
which may result in rebellions if you have a low
tolerance toward the religion of the popula­tion. As a player you have a religious/political
tool you may use to control the level of toler­ance of your monarch and government toward
different religions.

Religious Tolerance

You may control the level of tolerance in the re­ligion window regarding different religions on
a scale from 0 to 10. Note that you have a "nat­ural balance in a zero-sum game" between how
you determine your levels of tolerance. For ex­ample, if you only have two religions to control
your tolerance against, and you maximize tol­erance toward Catholics (10), then you will au­tomatically minimize tolerance toward Protes­tants (0). The level of tolerance affects the risk
of rebellion in your provinces (according to the
tolerance toward the provincial religion), and
also your diplomatic relations with other coun­tries.

An example: Sweden has a high tolerance to­w a rd Protestants (9) and a low tolerance (1)
toward Orthodox Christians, which will affect
diplomatic relations with Russia (state religion:
O rthodox) and improve diplomatic re l a t i o n s
with Brandenburg (state religion: Protestant)
over time.

Four Important Events

T h e re are four important historical events
closely tied to religion during the course of the
game. In chronological order, these are the Re­formation, Jean Calvin, the Council at Trent,
and the Edict of Tolerance. Note that they all
assume that the previous one has occurred. In
order for "Jean Calvin" to occur, the "Refor­mation" event must already have happened.

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Europa Universalis

The first event is the "Reformation," although
not earlier than 1517. After Martin Luther
nailed his 95 Theses on the gate of the church
at Wittenberg a far-reaching discussion started,
p a rticularly in Germ a n y, about the re l a t i o n s
between religion and royal power. You could
say that the big question raised by Mart i n
Luther was whether the Pope and the Curia of
Rome really had the right of interpretation in
the areas of religion and politics, and that reli­gion and politics had become inseparable was
obvious. After a while there came a break be­tween the pope and countries that had taken
up the views of Luther and Melanchton of the
church as an inseparable part of the influence
of the princes. This means that your country
may now convert (see Converting Peacefully
or Using Force) to Protestantism. If a country
changes its state religion from Catholicism to
Protestantism, the country receives 25 ducats
per province for confiscated church property.
Note also that many European provinces will
change their provincial religion from Catholi­cism to Protestantism as soon as the event oc­curs. In a country like Sweden, for example, al­most all of the provinces become Pro t e s t a n t ,
while the state religion is still Catholic, which
may be as good a reason as any to change your
state religion.
The event "Jean Calvin" occurs after the Re­formation, and actually represents the appear­ance of Jean Calvin as a reformer. Before him
Ulrich Zwingli, John Knox, and Ulrich von
Hutten had already acted as reformers. Calvin,
though, was one of the most important post­Lutheran reformers, and organized Protestants
in a decentralized fashion, with greater empha­sis on the role of the layman in the church. Fur­t h e r, the main points concerned work ethics
and predestination, and a strong anti-Catholic
sentiment, which strongly increased the al­ready great tension in Europe. This means that
your country and others may convert to the
Reformist teachings. Please also note that cer­tain European provinces automatically convert
from Protestantism to Reformist.
The "Council of Trent" event occurred be-

tween 1545 and 1563. The goal originally was
to reform the Catholic Church to let Protes­tants and Reformist to be able to return. The
goal was not reached, however; one reason was
that the Protestants and the Reformists refused
to attend. They did succeed in renewing and
reforming the activities and the organization of
the church, and as en effect of the wars in
progress they repudiated the teachings of the
P rotestants and the Reformists. This in turn
led to an agenda to let the lost sheep return to
the fold. This means that Catholic countries
now are able to convert to Counter Reformed
Catholicism, which provides a unique ability. If
a Counter Reformed country totally defeats
(controls all of the provinces) a Protestant or
R e f o rmist country, it may demand that the
c o n q u e red country must convert to Catholi­cism as part of a peace treaty.
The event "The Edict of Tolerance" is a gener­ic term for all of the edicts and treaties that
tried to create a permanent religious peace be­tween Pro t e s t a n t s / R e f o rmists and Catholics.
None of these succeeded to any great extent
nor did any last very long. Ironically the sword
and not the pen brought peace to the religions
instead. Both the French wars of religion and
the Thirty Year War created such widespre a d
fatigue, that people were forced to accept the
status quo in the matter of religion. The effect
for your country is that the effects of both the
"Tordesilla Treaty" (see The Tordesilla Treaty)
and the Council of Trent end. All Counter Re­formed Catholic countries return to the status
of "regular" Catholic countries, and all
p rovinces and colonies with a Counter Re­f o rmed church are now automatically
Catholic.

The Foreign Policy Consequences of

Religion

The state religion of your country is extremely
i m p o rtant to diplomacy. Your diplomatic ca­pacity, that is your annual supply of diplomats,
is affected by your state religion. Catholic and
Counter Reformed Catholic countries receive
2 additional diplomats, Protestant and Re-

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formist countries receive only 1 extra diplomat,
while Orthodox and Moslem countries do not
receive any extra at all. The diplomatic re l a­tions (on a scale of +200 to –200; see Diplo­mats and Relations) of your country are also af­fected by your state religion. The relationship
between a Protestant country and Catholic
countries deteriorates over time. A simple rule
of thumb is that relations deteriorate all the
time between Counter Reform e d
Catholics/Catholics and Pro t e s t a n t s / R e­formist, and between Christians and Moslems,
between Sunni and Shia, and to a lesser extent
between Orthodox Christians and every b o d y
else. Relations only improve over time between
countries with the same state religion, between
Reformed Catholics and regular Catholics, and
between Protestants and Reformists. Also note
that your country may only arrange royal mar­riages with countries of the same religion, with
exceptions between Protestant and Reformist,
and Counter Reformed Catholic and Catholic
countries. Orthodox countries could enter
marriages with any and all Christian countries.

The Effects of Religion on Domestic

Politics

When we talk about the effects of religion on
domestic politics, naturally we discuss how the
monarch and the government are handling the
politics surrounding the religious issues. The
levels of tolerance in the religion window gov­ern this. It is important that you think strategi­cally when you handle religious issues. If your
country has a lot of religious minorities within
its borders it may become difficult to handle
religious issues and become difficult to wage
w a r, as the entire population probably has a
rather lukewarm view of your policies, mean­ing that some are quite happy, while others are
definitely unhappy about the whole thing.

Let’s try an example. It is 1631 and the state
religion of Sweden is Protestant, and all of its
provinces are Protestant. Sweden knows about
Catholics, Reformists, Orthodox, and
Moslems, and thus has a level of tolerance to­w a rd each of these. Sweden may in principle

maximize its tolerance toward Protestants and
R e f o rmists (allies), and minimize tolerance
against all the rest. In a violent two front war
Sweden then conquers and receives during
peace treaties provinces from both Russia and
Spain. The Russian provinces are Ort h o d o x
and of the Spanish provinces one is Catholic
and the other is Sunni Moslem. The problem
now is dividing tolerance, as you cannot maxi­mize all of them at the same time. If you chose
to keep a low tolerance toward Catholics, even
though you now have a Catholic province in
your country, you must expect rebellion. It is
not improbable for you to lose the province. If
instead you set all tolerance levels at the middle
level, war fatigue will be felt much quicker,
which in itself may be quite a problem if you
a re going to fight a war for thirty years. The
question is if it is really a good thing for you to
settle a peace on such conditions. That is why
you must plan ahead, strategically, to avoid
ending up in impossible situations.

The levels of tolerance and stability are the
key to both control of your country and devel­opment of the same. If you let rebellion ru n
rampant, it will affect your treasury.

Converting by Peaceful or Violent

Means

In modern democratic countries matters of
faith are viewed as concerns on which each in­dividual must take a stand. Should I or should I
not convert? During the period this was not
the case. The monarch and the govern m e n t
were often seen as responsible for the spiritual
life of their subjects, as Gods representative on
E a rth. A country where the subjects had the
same faith was also much easier to rule. Con­version may mean several things in the game.

It could mean that your country changes
state religion in a peaceful manner under your
control. In order to change state religion, go to
the religion window to choose the religion to
which you wish to convert, and then click the
" c o n v e rt" button. Note that you may not
change state religion non-historically; for ex­ample, Gustavus Vasa of Sweden may not

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switch from Catholicism to heathenism or the
Sunni Moslem faith. Changing state religion is
not done lightly, because there will be a lot of
negative consequences. Your stability is low­e red by five steps (–5) when you switch re l i­gion. There is one exception, though: when
you switch from Catholicism to Counter Re­f o rmed Catholicism, as these two re l i g i o n s
were so much alike that the subjects never real­ly bothered. The second consequence is a dete­rioration of your diplomatic relations with
countries that still have your old re l i g i o n ,
which may lead to war if things turn out really
bad. There is also a huge risk of rebellion in
your provinces, especially if you switch be­tween Catholicism and Protestantism.

It may also mean that your country forc e s
another country to change state religion, or
another country forces your country to
change. This situation re q u i res that the "en­forcer" is a Counter Reformed Catholic coun­try and the victim is a Protestant or Reformist
country. Also note that the actual conversion
occurs when you make an offer of peace (see
Peace Treaties and War Damages). An obvious
gain as a Counter Reformed Catholic is the
amount of victory points received for convert­ing Protestants and Reformists.

Finally you may be forced to change state re­ligion if there are such widespread rebellions in
your country that the government itself is
falling.

Your provinces may also convert to other re­ligions, either to the state religion or to some­thing else. It may happen in one of two ways.
Catholic provinces may change to Pro t e s­tantism because of the "Reformation" event,
Protestant provinces may change to Reformist
through the "Jean Calvin" event, and Catholic
p rovinces may change to Counter Reform e d
Catholicism because the country has per­formed the same change of state religion. The
second way for a province to change religion is
as a random event. It could be a change to the
state religion through the work of church offi­cials, or to another religion as part of a heretic
movement.

F i n a l l y, under certain conditions you may
convert provinces of your country to the state
religion. Under certain conditions you may use
your colonists as missionaries. Use the same
p ro c e d u re as when you are colonizing. Yo u
may use your colonists to increase the popula­tion level to 5000 inhabitants. If you send
colonists to a province with less than 5000 in­habitants it will change its religion to the state
religion.

Example: Sweden (state religion: Pro t e s­tantism) has conquered the province of Carelia
( p rovincial religion: Orthodox / population:

4876) in a war with Russia. You decide to con­vert the province by sending a colonist as a mis­sionary (in the same way you send a colonist).
If the colonization (the missionary operation)
is successful the province of Carelia changes
from Orthodoxy to Protestantism.

Note that a rebellion in a province often low­ers the population. This means that if your
country has provinces you wish to convert, you
may lower the level of tolerance toward their
religion until they rebel. If you then quash the
rebellion, thereby lowering the population to
less than 5000, you may now convert the re­mainder using the above method. It is impor­tant to remember, though, that rebellions are
quite dangerous affairs for your country, espe­cially if you are not able to keep them under
control. Production and income are lowered,
and finally you lose victory points when the
population drops, as this is a clear sign of your
disability to run your country. To willingly put
your country at risk through a sort of religious
terror must be considered carefully. Examples
of failed religious politics are the Spanish driv­ing out of the Moors, and the French persecu­tion of the Huguenots.

Politics and Diplomacy

Diplomacy was developed during the second
half of the 15th century from the legislative
system of the Pope into an effective and orga­nized tool in the hands of the rulers at the be­ginning of the 16th century. The diplomat was
the personal representative of the prince in all

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f o reign courts, and it was his duty to defend
and strengthen the interests of the prince.
There were also many different types of diplo­mat, but all of them are gathered under this
name. Envoys had special tasks, while ambas­sadors had the highest rank and were accredit­ed to foreign courts, perf o rming all sorts of
tasks for the prince. The most important mat­ter was that the informal rules for exchanging
diplomats were formalized and became part of
the civilized behavior between the countries.
The "rules" also protected the diplomat
against arbitrary violence.

In the game we only talk about diplomats.
The diplomats re p resent the ability of your
country to use non-violent power and to main­tain relations with other countries. By sending
diplomats your country may present gifts, de­liver insults, discuss royal marriages, or even
declare war or make offers of peace. The two
most important factors governing effective and
productive diplomacy are access to money and
the amount of available diplomats.

Diplomacy as a Political Weapon

Power, violence and diplomacy are intimately
connected. Earlier diplomacy was talked about
as the "first tool" of the monarchs and war as
the "ultimo ratio regum," or their last arg u­ment. In the classic lines of Carl von Clause­witz, war is "the continuation of politics using
other means." Frederick the Great once said
that diplomacy without power is like an orches­tra without notes.

The diplomatic and military means may thus
be seen as alternative ways of reaching the same
goal—influencing another country in a desired
w a y. Let us now see how the "political
weapon" may be used.

Diplomats and Relations

The nations of the world may be regarded as a
very large and quarrelsome family, where each
member is a separate country. Just like in a
large family, there are members with different
amounts of power, and they are able to enforce
their will in varying degrees of success. In addi-

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tion each family member has a special relation
to everyone else.

Your country has a specific relation to each
other known country in the game. This rela­tion may vary between –200 and +200, and
may be influenced by many different things. To
s t a r t with, you should note that re l a t i o n s
change much more slowly if they are very good
or very bad, but quicker if they are neutral. The
second item to consider was the view of the un­touchable rights of the princes to their own
countries, which meant that a declaration of
war without a good reason (Casus Belli) was
quite unacceptable. The same thing applied to
the annexation of formerly independent na­tions.

The relation between your country and an­other country is affected positively if there is a
royal marriage between members of your royal
families, and if you are part of the same alliance.
Countries with which you have this sort of tie
are less affected by any negative acts performed
by your own country. But the opposite also ap­plies; for example, if Sweden declares war on
the Teutonic Ord e r, then the relations be­tween countries with marriage ties to the Teu­tonic Order and Sweden will deteriorate more
than with any other country.

Alliances are also important for your foreign
relations. By entering an alliance your relations
to your brothers in the alliance will impro v e ,
and continue to do so as time passes. In addi­tion the members of your alliances are much
m o re indulgent toward your acts against any
" t h i rd parties" (for example wars or annexa­tions aimed at countries that are not part of the
alliance).

Religion is another important factor regard­ing relations. Your levels of tolerance toward
various religions affect the relations of your
country. If your country has a high level of tol­erance toward a specific religion, your relations
will improve as time passes, while they will de­teriorate with regard to religions where toler­ance is low.

Annexations will almost certainly have a neg­ative impact on your relations. It is perhaps not

so much a question of loyalty to the expelled
monarch, but the painfully realized awareness
that all annexations disturb the balance of pow­er between the various countries.

Diplomats will use any kind of communica­tion between countries. When you wish to pre­sent a gift, declare war, make offers of mar­riage, etc, you send a diplomat, which means
that your "diplomatic corps" is reduced by
one. On the other hand it does not cost any­thing to reply to an offer from another diplo­mat. You may not send more than one diplo­mat a month to the same country. You must
then wait a month before you send another
one. The "diplomatic corps" of your country
increases in numbers each year. The number of
diplomats you receive depends on the diplo­matic ability of your monarch (each value
above 5 provides an additional diplomat), and
if your country is at war you receive an addi­tional diplomat. If your state religion is Protes­tantism or Reformist you receive one extra
diplomat, but if your state religion is Catholi­cism or Counter Reformed Catholicism you
receive two additional diplomats. It may also
receive diplomats because of random events.
Your country will always receive one diplomat
because your neighbors recognize it.

There are three different methods of directly
improving relations with other countries. You
may send a letter of introduction, which costs
25 ducats and will give a small improvement.
The letters of introduction were a common
feature of the period, and it was not unusual for
some monarchs to send steady streams of let­ters to each other. Catherine the Great of Rus­sia, Gustavus III of Sweden, Frederick the
Great of Prussia, and Joseph of Austria, were all
involved in discussions on the subjects of phi­losophy and national finances, for example.

You may also send personal gifts, which will
cost 100 ducats, giving your relations a stable
boost. In order to show how important these
diplomatic gestures used to be, we only need to
remind you of the tea services, embro i d e re d
silk cushions, beautiful furs, etc, that are on dis­play in many European museums. You may al-

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Europa Universalis

so send a gift of state, which will cost you 250
ducats, giving your relations a huge boost. His­torically these were often a combination of dif­ferent things. It could be a large personal gift,
like a gilded gala carriage or a pleasure yacht,
but often there were subsidies involved in the
game. Subsidies were similar to today’s aid to
developing countries, gifts to poor relations. If
you want to be cynical you could say that coun­tries bought the friendship of weaker coun­tries. Examples include Sweden during both
the Scanian War (1674–1679) and the War of
Pomerania (1757–1762), both of which were
financed by French subsidies.

You may also choose to worsen your re l a­tions. You have three methods at your disposal,
reminiscent of the methods above (which you
used to improve your relations), with a small
difference—it never costs any money to worsen
your relations. The first method is sending let­ters of warning, which will worsen your rela­tions a little bit. These were quite common and
were used to let somebody know that a certain
act was not acceptable and that violence could
be the response to further actions. The game
does not require any actual unfriendly acts to
have happened if you would like to send any
letters of warning. Just invent something, like
Peter the Great before the beginning of the
war against Sweden in 1700. He claimed that
he had been treated quite badly during his visit
to the Swedish town of Riga, but most of the
surviving documents suggest that this was just
an excuse.

The second method is sending insults, which
really worsen your relations. This was more un­usual, but did occur now and then. It often
concerned problems between countries, which
escalated when the monarchs were unable to
solve their differences at the negotiation table.
A good example is the exchange of letters be­tween Erik XIV of Sweden and Ivan the Terri­ble of Russia, which started with letters of in­troduction, turned into letters of warning, and
then changed into a veritable flood of written
insults. The relations then deteriorated into
war.

The third and final method is to pre s e n t
claims to the crown of a certain country, which
may worsen relations all the way down to out­right war. It was not unusual to lay claims to
the crown of other countries, but to do this
openly was a mortal insult, as it implied that the
sitting monarch was a usurper. A historical ex­ample is the claims of the Polish Vasa kings to
the Swedish crown for a number of years. The
Danes also had claims to the Swedish crown,
and certain English monarchs had claims to the
F rench crown. Both Spanish and Fre n c h
monarchs had claims to the crown of Naples.

It is important to remember that changes of
relations are not static, but continually depend
on the diplomatic talent of your monarch. If
your monarch is undiplomatic, basically an in­competent in the area, even a gift of state may
cause a worsening of relations. You don’t give
l a rge gilded crosses to the sultan of Istanbul
without punishment, you know. The state reli­gion of your country, and its level of tolerance
t o w a rd other religions also affect your re l a­tions. If Sweden has a very low tolerance to­w a rd Sunni Moslems, the relations between
the Ottoman Empire will deteriorate over
time.

There are some other diplomatic actions re­quiring diplomats. These will be explained in
g reater detail later on, but we will mention
them here anyway. Diplomats are re q u i red if
you wish to make a declaration of war or make
offers of peace. Diplomats are also required if
you want to trade information about discover­ies with other countries, basically to get access
to the maps of the other country. Finally, you
must send a diplomat if you want to offer to
lend money to another country.

Royal Marriages

The royal marriage was intended to unite two
dynasties and thus two countries to each other.
When such marriages were made the relations
between the countries improved. In order to
arrange a royal marriage both parties must be
of the same religion. There is one exception.
O rthodox Christian royalty could marry into

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any other Christian faith. The marriages were
also the basis for further diplomatic relations,
for example alliances and vassalage, after which
an eventual political annexation was possible.
Also note that the royal marriage could have a
defensive purpose, as the risk of war between
countries sharing royal blood is lowered. In the
game this is represented by a further lowering
of stability by one step if anybody declares war
on a country with which it has ties of marriage.
For example, you could imagine a royal mar­riage between Sweden and Russia as a precau­tion when preparing for a war with Denmark,
in order to avoid the risk of a two front war. Fi­nally it should be noted that you may annul any
royal marriages your country is involved in, but
it will lower stability by one step as an effect of
the political turnaround, and the fact that your
monarch is breaking what the population views
as divine order—the holy matrimony.

Please note that the term "royal marriage" is
not to be interpreted literally, as even a mar­riage between the republics of Venice and the
United States is defined as a royal marr i a g e .
The important thing to remember is the im­p o r tant political bindings such an "off i c i a l
m a rriage of state" entailed in the anarc h i c
world of nations. They were the most impor­tant proofs of friendship between countries
you could give. Even non-monarchies like the
Papal State, Venice, and the United States mar­ried off the protégés of important and power­ful men in order to strengthen and protect the
interests of their countries.

Alliances

During the period alliances between countries
were as important then as now when it came to
keeping the peace and being fortunate in war.
To be a member of an alliance was a good thing
both as a deterrent and as protection during
war. The system of alliances of the period was a
sort of self-help. A number of countries swore
to defend each other’s independence on the
principle of "one for all, all for one." Anyone
attacking a member of an alliance was risking
war with all of the other members of the al-

liance. You should also remember that the "al­liances" described here were a kind of ideal. In
reality monarchs and governments with a
s t rongly developed self-interest ruled the
countries. It was not at all certain that every
one in the alliance should honor their pledges.

In the game you may enter into already exist­ing alliances, accept requests of entering al­liances, or create new alliances by suggesting
the idea to another country of your choice. All
this is handled using the diplomacy window. In
order for your country to be able to do any­thing at all, you need to have good re l a t i o n s
with the country in question, or with the lead­er of the alliance you want to join. Each alliance
has a leader. Traditionally this was the strongest
member of the alliance, but it could also be a
rather small countr y. The Papal State and the
Republic of Venice are both examples of small
nations that often act as leaders of various al­liances. In the game the leader is always the
country that created the alliance. The advan­tage of being the leader is that only the leader
may invite new members, and is also the only
one who may force members of the alliance to
leave. The leaders of two alliances may also en­ter a peace treaty with each other above the
heads of the other members, which means that
these two countries set the rules that the rest
must obey. This is something that Sweden suf­fered after the war of 1674–1679, when France
at the peace negotiations of Fontainebleau set­tled the peace between Sweden and its enemies
and at the same time did not allow the Swedish
envoys to even enter the chambers where the
discussions were held. The disadvantage is that
you, as the leader, may never leave the alliance
yourself, but have to wait until it expires. This
is not the case if you are not the leader.

Alliances are perishables. If the members do
not regularly repeat their solemn promises of
coming to each other’s rescue the alliance loses
its relevance and expires at a set date. The run­ning time is normally 10 years from the date of
the latest peace treaty of the alliance. Note that
t h e re can be diff e rences if various members
make separate peace treaties or choose to wage

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their own wars, without requesting the active
support of the other members. If one member
of an alliance (Hungary) is attacked by another
country (the Ottoman Empire), all of the oth­er members of the alliance (Venice and Persia)
are asked if they want to declare war on the at­tacker (the Ottoman Empire). There are two
natural choices in this case, and the other two
members will make the diff e rent choices. In
our example Venice chooses not to honor the
alliance, and will not declare war. Venice’s sta­bility is lowered by one step because of its dis­tasteful act of cowardice. Venice may also be
f o rced to leave the alliance if relations with
H u n g a r y drop suff i c i e n t l y. Persia chooses to
honor the alliance and declares war with the
Ottoman Empire. This may be done without
loss of stability. Persia is now at war with the
Ottoman Empire in conjunction with Hun­gary. The leader of the alliance, either Hungary
or Persia, may also end the war with the Ot­toman Empire without consulting the other
member.

The art of upholding a good alliance, where
all members actually honor the alliance, is di­rectly related to maintaining good relations be­tween the member states. If you are not suc­cessful the alliance will dissolve sooner or later.
Military annexation of countries during peace
t reaties is a sure way of destroying even the
strongest of alliances. A factor of some impor­tance is the fact that you receive a temporary
Casus Belli toward each country not honoring
an alliance if your country is attacked. The tem­porary Casus Belli is only good for six months.
Two alliances could not be joined in order to
form a single alliance. The diplomatic system
during the period was not flexible enough to
handle this. There were actually reasons why
two alliances should keep away from each oth­e r, because sometimes the hatred between
members of two diff e rent alliances could be
enough to prevent it, and at other times the
problem was simply the case of the general un­predictability of even the biggest and strongest
of nations.

Vassalage

The purpose of vassalage changes with time in
the game. Originally the "vassal" emerged dur­ing the Middle Ages as a subordinate prince,
who was obliged to provide his lord with a
number of knights for the defense of the entire
kingdom. As compensation the vassal could
keep most of the income from his territory, but
was also required to uphold law and order in
his territory, which was a profitable line of busi­ness. At the end of the middle ages, which is
the earliest phase of the game (1492-1520),
the political systems of Western Europe devel­oped away from feudalism and toward more
centralized states, when the kings started to
create the professional embryos of the state bu­reaucracies. This development also led to a
lessening of the importance of having vassals
throughout the country. Instead the vassal be­came countries heavily dependent on the
monarch of the country on which it was depen­dent. If you were to translate this concept of
vassals into modern times, you could compare
the political position of some of the small Cen­tral American states in relation to the United
States during the 1950s and the 1960s. A
Swedish historical example would be the sub­o rdination of Estonia under the Swedish
crown during the reign of Erik XIV. The Esto­nian knighthood submitted to the Swedish
crown under certain conditions, which may be
defined as vassalage. At a later stage the
province was simply drawn into the kingdom
of Sweden to be more or less annexed.

Vassalage may be the result of your country
arranging a royal marriage with another coun­try. If the relations between the two countries
a re at 190+, they are both sharing the same
state religion; your country may offer the other
country the status of vassal. If the country ac­cepts, you may freely use the provinces of that
country for movement purposes, and you also
receive a part of the yearly income of the coun­try. It may not enter into any royal marriages
with any other countries and will be on your
side if war breaks out. This also applies to the
vassals of other countries, so if you declare war

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on a vassal, you risk getting the "main coun­try" coming after you.

If you start a scenario as a vassal, or if for some
impossible reason you have accepted to become
a vassal of another country, your only possibility
to get rid of your status as a vassal is to declare
war on your lord. This will of course result in a
massive loss of stability. The same thing is true if
you have a vassal and want to get rid of the vas­sal in order to declare war on that country. The
reason for such an event could be because your
relations have deteriorated so much that your
vassal has started to send tenders of alliance to
the archenemies of your country. Note also that
your vassal may end the dependence and de­c l a re war on you if your relations deteriorate
too much (it has this opportunity already at
120+). Countries available as player nations in
the scenario may not be vassalized. Note that
only vassals may be annexed politically.

Annexation

Political annexations were not as common dur­ing the period as military annexations, but did
occur now and then. For example the union of
Scotland with England, and the union of Bo­hemia and Hungary with Austria may be seen
as political annexations. The political annexa­tion of a country means that a formerly inde­pendent country becomes part of your own. Its
p rovinces become your provinces, and your
laws, your state religion, and your decisions are
to be followed, exactly as in your own country,
or more correctly, the provinces become a dis­soluble part of your country. Political annexa­tions are the epitome of diplomatic ability and
effort. This is where the border between war
and peace disappears, and diplomacy fulfills the
same goals as war.

You may only offer annexations to countries
that are your vassals, and only if your relations
are extremely good (190+). If your vassal ac­cepts, the provinces of the vassal are turn e d
over to you and will behave just like your own
provinces. You also control all of the fleets and
army units of your former vassal. It is a good
idea to gather everything directly after the an-

nexation, so you don’t forget any of the units,
which will then needlessly suffer attrition (see
Attrition). Your country will also receive a
bonus when researching various areas of tech­nology, if the annexed country had any levels
that were higher than your own. Your country
will also receive a stability bonus if the annexed
country had a higher stability at the moment of
annexation. If the vassal had any loans at the
moment, these are written off (your country is
not liable). Finally your country will receive all
of the maps of the annexed country, which
means that your country now will "see" every­thing that the former vassal could see.

As an explanation you could say that "the of­fer of annexation" is given to certain select
p o w e rful citizens of the country, such as the
nobility or the church leaders, as the vassal
himself probably would not like to lose his
power, regardless of the size of it.

Refusal to Trade

To politically close a center of trade for the
merchants of certain countries was not an un­usual occurrence during the time period. After
the Dutch struggle for liberation, when the
United Provinces were created, a temporary
peace treaty was signed with Spain. This peace
did not last very long, as the Dutch had closed
the waterways to Antwerp, thus monopolizing
trade in the whole area. This was of course un­acceptable to the Spanish king. Also mercantil­ism contributed to a monopolistic attitude
with political overtones. The English Act of
Navigation of 1651 and the French acts under
the supervision of Colbert were de facto a re­fusal to trade. Sweden issued its own naviga­tion act during the 1720s, but with poor re­sults.

Using diplomatic means you may pre v e n t
another country from trading at your centers
of trade. If you subject a country to a trade em­b a rgo, this country may not send any more
merchants to the trade centers in any of your
p rovinces. The merchants already present are
"frozen," no longer providing any income to
their country. You can now put them out of

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business by sending in additional merchants of
your own. Trade embargo was a common prac­tice during the time period. Monopolizing
trade centers meant considerable income, and
the use of this political weapon was a very effec­tive way of creating or maintaining monopo­lies, especially if the country concerned had
more effective merchants. Note that refusal to
trade involves some adverse effects. The coun­try you are putting into quarantine has a Casus
Belli toward your country as long as the refusal
to trade is in effect. If you chose to allow trade
again, the Casus Belli against your country dis­appears. Also note that a trade embargo will
adversely affect research in trading technology,
meaning that your country receives a negative
bonus (–1) for each country it subjects to a re­fusal to trade.

Also remember that your country may be
subjected to the same trade embargo if your
merchants start to act aggressively in any other
center of trading, especially if they are starting
to put the owner of the center out of business.

War Affects Your Relations

War will of course affect your relations. Decla­rations of war will catastrophically lower the
level of your relations toward the one you have
d e c l a red war upon, and to the allies of that
c o u n t ry to a lesser degree, even if the allies
choose not to honor the alliance. Relations
with any country that has a better relationship
to your enemy than you have will be lowered.
This will also apply to all countries tied to your
enemy by royal marriage. The deteriorating ef­fects of the declaration of war will lessen if you
have ties through royal marriage to aff e c t e d
countries.

The result of the war – the peace treaty – may
also affect your relations. Military annexations
will result in catastrophic worsening of re l a­tions with every country that knows about you.
Only your allies are not affected this way. If you
receive provinces as part of a peace treaty your
loss of respect (the lowering of your relations)
a re not quite as damaging, although you are
now seen as dangerous and threatening. Re-

member that it is quite easy for relations with
your surroundings to deteriorate. This may
turn you into a hated pariah, but it takes a long
time and large sums of money to repair and re­build your relations.

The relations of your country also affect you
in war. Countries that hate your country will
feel much less uncomfortable when attacking
your country, even stabbing you in the back.
Any country ceaselessly attacking other coun­tries, annexing countries left and right, will eas­ily become prey to one or more alliances that
want to put it in its place.

Tolerance Affecting Your Relations

We have already mentioned that your tolerance
t o w a rd the various religions is affecting your
relations. Historically countries saw themselves
as the protectors of every inhabitant in the
world sharing the same religion (or at least as
many as possible). For example, Russia consid­ered itself to be the protector of all Orthodox
Christians, just like Spain during the 16th and
17th centuries considered itself to be the pro­tector of every Catholic.

The level of tolerance is a value between 0
and 10, but only the really extreme values will
a ffect your relations. Normal tolerance, or a
tolerance of 5, will not make any difference. A
high level of tolerance (6–10) will increase the
annual improvement of your relations in rela­tion to your level of tolerance. A tolerance of
10 will result in a higher increase than a toler­ance of 6. The opposite is of course true for low
levels of tolerance.

This phenomena means that your country
may have problems later in the game when try­ing to maintain good relations with countries
of other state religions than your own. If your
monarch and your government have a low lev­el of tolerance toward a religious minority, it
could happen that a country with that same
state religion may declare war on your country
in order to protect the "religious rights" of the
minority.

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The Holy Roman Empire

During the period the Holy Roman Empire
was not a single nation, like Sweden or Eng­land, but rather a supranational org a n i s m .
During the Middle Ages it was supposed to be
a country, a vast Christian Roman empire. It
had its origins in the eff o r ts of Charles the
G reat to reestablish the Roman Empire. The
efforts failed when his sons and grandsons di­vided the realm and started to fight over it. At
the end of the Middle Ages the Empire had
been quite decentralized, reducing the emper­or’s power. The Empire consisted of a number
of independent states, with more or less their
own foreign policies. Some of these states were
called electors and elected the emperor at cer­tain times. In the game the Holy Roman Em­p i re consists of all of the independent states
within its borders, except for the Italian coun­tries, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The
Hapsburg dynasty ruling Austria and Bohemia
had at this time been able to make the crown
go from father to son within the dynasty, but
the office of emperor still had to be appointed
by election, and this remained.

The office of emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire had certain advantages. The emperor
may freely move all of his troops throughout all
of the provinces of the entire empire if he is at
war. He also has an easier time improving his
relations to all of the countries within the em­pire. Note that your own state religion must be
Catholicism or Counter Reformed Catholi­cism if your monarch is to be eligible. The rela­tions to all of the electors are very important if
you want to be elected emperor. You gain 50
victory points if you are elected emperor.

Note that conquered and annexed electors
no longer count as electors, and neither may
the conqueror "assume" the office of elector.
There is one special case. If a province of the
Holy Roman Empire is somehow given up to a
Moslem country through peace treaties or an­nexation, the province is no longer part of the
Holy Roman Empire, as the Turkish sultan
may never hold a fief under a Christian emper­or, regardless of the size of the land.

42

War and Peace

Casus Belli and Declarations of War

Casus Belli has been mentioned earlier, but has
not been fully explained. Casus Belli is Latin
and roughly means "lawful cause of war." If
your country has a lawful reason to declare war
on another country, it will not affect any third
parties negatively, third parties being your own
population and any other countries. Normally
your stability is lowered by two steps if you lack
a proper Casus Belli. If you have a Casus Belli,
you do not lose any stability at all.

How do you receive a Casus Belli against an­other country? Firstly, there is permanent Ca­sus Belli at the start of each scenario, because of
ancient enmity between countries. The perma­nent Casus Belli are in effect throughout the
scenario. Secondly, each country may re c e i v e
t e m p o r a ry Casus Belli. If your country loses
any of its core provinces during war you receive
a Casus Belli, which is in effect until you have
regained your province. If a country does not
honor an alliance when you are attacked, you
receive a limited Casus Belli against the coun­try or countries that chose not to honor the al­liance (6 months). If a country refuses to repay
a loan to another country, this country receives
a limited Casus Belli (of 12 months duration).
Any country receives a Casus Belli against
countries that refuse to trade. The Casus Belli
is in effect until trade resumes.

You may make declarations of war whenever
you wish, but with two exceptions. Firstly, your
country must have a diplomat available in or­der to declare war, and secondly, you may not
declare war if the stability of your country is at
the lowest possible level (–3). Your monarc h
and your government have enough on their
minds keeping the country in one piece to wor­ry about anything other than the unrest at
home.

A country must declare war on another
c o u n t ry in order to move its army units into
that country. There are exceptions to this rule
(see The Holy Roman Empire, The Treaty of
Tordesilla, and Vassalage).

Europa Universalis

A declaration of war almost always will result
in loss of stability. The loss may have a number
of reasons (see Stability). After the declaration
of war your country is at war until a peace
treaty has been signed between your country
and the country or countries with which you
a re at war. Being at war affects a number of
things in the game and your route toward vic­tory. Let’s take a closer look.

Advantages and Disadvantages of War

We should start by stating that if you want to
win the game you must collect the gre a t e s t
number of victory points. Vi c t o ry points are
distributed throughout the game. For example
you receive victory points for having the largest
number of army units and fleets, by having a
high level of stability, by conquering provinces,
by winning pitched battles and naval battles, by
taking fortifications through sieges, by win­ning wars (getting stars when peace ro l l s
a round), and by actually keeping the peace.
You lose victory points by losing wars (having
tombstones when the peace treaty is to be
signed), by losing provinces, pitched battles
and naval battles, by losing fort i f i c a t i o n s
through sieges, by losing historic commanders
in battle, by breaking peace treaties, by declar­ing war, and finally when you suffer rebellions
in your own country.

It is quite easy to see that war means a high
risk of losing victory points, even though war
may bring you victory points. If you win the
war you gain many points, and if you lose the
war you lose many points. Note also that this
also applies to your opponent. If we take Swe­den as an example, you could say that Russia
passed Sweden in victory points at the peace of
Nystad in 1721, where Russia gained the same
number of points that Sweden lost. All losses of
victory points are directly due to declarations
of war. If a declaration of war lowers your sta­b i l i t y, which it usually does, you will also re­ceive a lower annual and monthly income.
Your monthly investment in technology de­pends on your income, which lowers the speed
of technological development. The country

leading in technological development receives
a number of victory points as time passes. In
this case it will be a country other than yours.
You also receive victory points if you have mer­chants present at the international centers of
trading, and your ability to send merchants is
limited in proportion to your loss of income.
We want to stress that war is not a profitable
adventure unless you can wage war without a
loss of too much stability, and you should go to
war only if you think you are able to win.

Now you are hopefully deterred from declar­ing and fighting wars without care or plan. War
can also be a very good prospect for your coun­try. War is actually one of the best ways of ex­panding your country with new provinces, and
by winning wars you may increase your income
from your provinces. The higher income may
now be invested in new technology, which may
enable your country to defend itself at a later
stage in the game. It is important to think
strategically, especially when playing the long
scenario from 1492 to 1792. If other countries
are expanding territorially when your country
is not, they are becoming relatively stronger at
your expense. Later on it may become fatal, es­pecially if they have a higher income, better
m i l i t a ry technology, and a better manpower.
You risk your independence as a nation.

The relative effects of any shift of power
should not be underestimated. Let’s try an ex­ample. Sweden (annual income: 100 ducats)
goes to war with Russia (annual income: 100
ducats). Sweden wins the war and re c e i v e s
Carelia, Onega, and Novgorod, which in our
example are worth a total of 25 ducats annual­ly. The total effect of the war is that Sweden re­ceives an annual income of 125 ducats, and the
annual income of Russia drops to 75 ducats.
This shifting of power may change the entire
game. Make sure you also keep track of all of
the more distant countries, or else you may
find that they are undefeatable.

In order to lower the impact of the negative
consequences of war you may enter into an al­liance where at least one of the member states
hates the country against which you would like

43

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to declare war. Chances are fairly high that
your brother in the alliance will declare war
sooner or later, and when this happens you may
honor the alliance without loss of stability. You
may also try to surround your enemy through
alliances with all of his neighbors. If war breaks
out, at least you have minimized your risks of
losing the war.

Side Effects of War

One of the first things you must consider is the
duration of the war. The longer a war lasts, the
g reater fatigue you suff e r, and consequently the
risk of rebellion in your provinces increases. If
your country has a number of religious minori­ties a long war may be fatal. Your eff o rt at im­p roving your stability is a much slower affair if
you are at war, compared with a period of peace.

The re c o v e ry after a war is also a diff i c u l t
time. You may have to invest in stability for
many years. This is when you should be invest­ing in new technology instead, the very thing
your enemies are certainly busy doing. After a
long war there is a particularly great risk of hav­ing lagged behind in technology, which may
mean that you will loose the next war, even if
you won the last one. Your foreign re l a t i o n s
may also be ruined, especially if you have won a
war and have annexed another country. Also
remember that your country may be ruinously
devastated after the war, with a number of
provinces plundered, and many of your trading
posts may also have burned.

A very unpleasant side effect of war is the risk
of other countries getting into the game. If you
are really doing badly in a war, there is a risk of
getting declarations of war from countries
where your relations are really bad, as they may
think that your country is about to collapse.

Manpower and the Limitations of

Your Provinces

Each country has a manpower base, limiting
the possibility of recruiting army units. When
you recruit army units you will see how your
manpower base is lowered. Each unit of 1000
infantry, 1000 cavalry or 10 pieces of artillery

lowers your manpower base 1 step. There are
always a limited number of available young
able-bodied men, and there is always a perma­nent demand for strong men and women if you
want your farming to be handled properly in
each village. This all means that there is a limit
to how many soldiers you may re c ruit. Each
province has a recruitment value, showing how
much it contributes to the armed forces of your
country. The manpower base is computed as an
annual sum, which is increasing as time passes.
If your country has conquered new provinces
or developed colonies into towns, your annual
manpower base may increase. It will also in­crease as time passes because of a general popu­lation growth. Your manpower base may also
d rop if you lose provinces or suffer losses of
population for any other reasons. Building
ships for your fleets is not affected by your
manpower base, as there was a relatively small
demand of manpower, compared with the
needs of the army units.

T h e re is also a local limitation, or re c ru i t­ment capacity when applied to the recruitment
of army units or fleets. You recruit your army
units in your provinces, which means that the
level of development of each province limits
each separate recruitment attempt. By appoint­ing officials, upgrading fortifications, and
building factories, you improve the re c ru i t­ment capacity of each province. Note that the
population level is the most important factor
defining recruitment capacity. If you are raising
an army unit or building a fleet in a province,
you may not start recruiting a new unit or build
a new fleet until the work in progress has been
finished.

If your country has reached a suff i c i e n t l y
high level of military or naval technology, you
may increase the re c ruitment or building ca­pacity by constructing conscription centers
( m i l i t a ry tech level 31) and naval shipyard s
(naval tech level 16). The conscription center is
shown as a small military tent, and represents a
number of administrative and economic func­tions in your province, making it easier to es­tablish larger army units. The effect is a tenfold

44

Europa Universalis

i n c rease in the re c ruitment capacity of your
p rovince, and improved maintenance ability
for any army unit in the province (see Mainte­nance, and Attrition). The pro v i n c e ’s contri­bution to the re c ruitment capacity of your
c o u n t ry is also greatly increased. The naval
shipyard will change the port symbol of your
province, making it larger and colored in gold.
The naval shipyard is simply an improved ship­yard, with the capacity of building all ship types
at a much higher speed, a sort of "assembly
line" production of the times. The naval ship­y a rd increases the building capacity of your
province tenfold. The first naval shipyard you
build also provides one extra colonist each year.

Pillaged Provinces

Army units often lived off the land of whatever
province they occupied. This means that they
arbitrarily "requisitioned" whatever they need­ed. These necessities and moneys were of
course taken from the inhabitants of the
province. It is therefore quite understandable
that provinces where enemy army units have
passed through do not contribute as much to
the state treasury.

In the game this means that provinces where
the enemy or rebels have gone through may
have been pillaged. You will see that a province
has been plundered by the fires around the
town or colony of the province. The pillaging
does not provide any income to the pillager,
but there will be negative consequences for the
owner of the province. The pillaged province
does not contribute to the income of the coun­try, and the population growth of the province
is decreasing, which will affect your total in­come in the long run. A pillaged province will
recover after a while, usually 12 months, and
then the town or colony will stop "burning."

War Taxes

War was associated with standing armies and
a rmed fleets during long periods. Moving
t roops through the kingdom or making the
fleets seaworthy almost always required good
coin. The money covered running expenses for

supplies and ammunition. Money was also
needed to strengthen already re c ruited arm y
units. Attrition because of friction was as high
then as now, although it was caused by other
reasons then.

War taxes are a generic name for a number of
smaller taxes that were justified because of the
c o u n t r y being at war. The populations were
rarely very fond of all of these special taxes, war
contributions, war taxes, or lack of compensa­tions for the activities of the state.

When choosing war taxes as an option, you
will get a 100 percent increase in income from
each of your provinces during 6 months. The
price to pay is a loss of stability of one step. You
should really consider if this extra income is
greater than the cost of regaining your stability.
If not, you should really save this measure for
any really desperate situations.

The Goal of War

We are used to looking at war in the rearview
mirror and with a focus on the 20th century –
the Age of Total War. During the epoch of the
game the scope and goals of war were not total
and all encompassing. This was an era when
ideas like Honor, Fame, and Status were more
i m p o rtant than Freedom, Justice, Equality,
and Brotherhood. There was also a sort of fluid
boundary between the war of the Prince and
the war of the Nation, which of course influ­enced the overall goals. One of the reasons for
the Swedish declaration of war against Prussia
at the outbreak of the War of Pomerania in
1757 was that the Party of the Hats of the
Swedish Parliament wanted to insult the
Swedish queen, who was the sister of Frederick
II of Prussia. This will serve as an example of a
somewhat diff e rent way of thinking as com­pared with what we are used to. The goals were
often more modest than today. Taking too
much was always punished. Both Philip II of
Spain and Louis XIV of France met heavy resis­tance from strong coalitions when their lust for
power was perceived as a threat, but also Gus­tavus II Adolphus of Sweden and Maximilian
of Austria ran into these "European scales of

45

Europa Universalis

balance." When making an offer of peace your
c o u n t ry may receive or lose a maximum of
t h ree provinces. The exception is when you
c o n t rol all of the provinces of a (non-player)
country, where you may offer annexation, and
thus win the entire country.

In a game like this, of course each player
must formulate his or her goals. There are a few
things that must be pointed out. It is important
that you plan your wars. Continually ask what
you want to gain through the war, and always
consider your actions. Sometimes your goals
may be as clear as water, for example you want
to take just that province, presenting a very
clear approach. There may be greater pro b­lems, though, especially if you have a larg e
country with the ambition of rubbing elbows
with the great powers of the world. What
would happen if your neighbors realize that
one of their greatest competitors has gro w n
very powerful and seems to be increasing even
more in power? In this case it may be necessary
to form alliances and start a war against that
power – which may be a war they don’t always
expect to win. In this case your goal may be to
keep your enemies continually occupied by
wars with other countries, thereby bre a k i n g
apart in rebellion because the fatigue of war has
become too great.

In order to win your wars you only need to
do two things, although they are admittedly
quite difficult. You need to prevent your ene­mies from taking your provinces, and you need
to take the provinces of your enemies. You may
only demand provinces that you are actually
controlling at the time of the peace talks, and
your enemy will be more than willing to accept
your terms if you are also controlling the capi­tal of the enemy.

Peace Treaties and War Damages

A peace treaty may be reached in three differ­ent ways. Either you accept the offer of peace
coming from your enemy, or you make an offer
of peace, or there will be an automatic status
quo peace between you and your enemy. Note
that the third alternative will occur automati-

cally only between two countries at war with
each other, when there have not been any hos­tile actions during the past 36 months, and if
neither of the parties are in control of any
provinces belonging to the enemy. Let’s look
more closely at the details. If you are offered
peace you may only accept or decline. You may
not renegotiate. You may decline and then fol­low up with another offer to your enemy. If
you want to offer peace you open the diploma­cy window, choosing "Peace off e r," where b y
another window opens. The first thing you see
is the number of "stars" or "tombstones" the
war has given your country so far, and a verbal
assessment of the actual meaning of all these
stars and tombstones.

E s s e n t i a l l y, the more stars you have, the
more you may demand, and the more tomb­stones you have, the more you must give up in
order to get your peace. Each star/tombstone
represents a tribute of 250 ducats, which you
may either demand or pay. Two stars/ducats
re p resent one province, which you may de­mand or cede. Note that you may never de­mand or pay more than the number of stars or
tombstones, as they are directly related to the
fortunes of war so far. Also note that no more
than three provinces may change ownership
t h rough the same peace tre a t y. You may also
only demand provinces you already contro l ,
and you may only cede provinces controlled by
the enemy.

What actions result in stars? You receive stars
for controlling enemy provinces, by winning
pitched battles and naval battles, and for con­trolling the capital of the enemy. Will your ene­my accept your offer? It all depends on how
well the offer conforms to the fortunes of the
war, and if you are generous or not.

L e t ’s take an example. Sweden and Russia
are at war, and Sweden has been fortunate, and
is now offering peace. Sweden has four stars. If
Sweden chooses to demand 2 pro v i n c e s
(2+2=4 stars) there is a risk that Russia will not
accept the off e r. If Sweden demands one
province and 250 ducats (2+1=3 of 4 stars) the
chance of peace is greater, and if Sweden would

46

Europa Universalis

demand only one province (2 out of 4 stars) it
is very likely that Russia will accept.

Also note that you may never demand the
province where your enemy’s capital is located,
or cede the province of your own capital. There
is one special case, which has been mentioned
b e f o re, and that is "military annexation." If
you control all of the provinces of the enemy,
with its cities, when you offer peace you will re­ceive all of its provinces (including colonies
and trading posts). The enemy country then
ceases to exist. There are two things of note in
this case. The first is that you make an "offer"
of annexation, which means that you make an
offer to the political elite of that country to be­come part of the political elite of your own
country; these powerful men may actually de­cline the off e r. The second is that countries
that started the scenario as player countries
may never be annexed, for example if you play
the "The Grand Campaign of 1492–1792" as
Spain, you may annex any country except
France, England, Portugal, Sweden, Poland­Lithuania, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire .
Don’t forget that military annexations always
will worsen your foreign relations enormously.
When you have annexed a country you will also
control all of its army units and fleets. A useful
line of action is to gather all of these immedi­ately after annexation, so you don’t "forg e t "
any of them, which would make them suffer at­trition (see Attrition).

When your country has accepted an offer of
peace, or when your enemy has accepted your
offer of peace, or when an automatic peace is
settled, your country and your enemy now
have a peace treaty. A peace treaty also means
that if either of you declares war on the other,
the one breaking the peace treaty within 5
years after signing it will suffer a terrible fate.
Breaking a peace treaty results in a massive loss
of stability—a total of five steps (–5).

If your country is involved in an "alliance
war," involving one or several alliances, there
are two possibilities regarding peace offers. If
your country is at war with an entire alliance,
you may make an offer of peace to the leader of

the alliance, and thus get a binding peace treaty
with all of the members of the enemy alliance,
or you may sign separate peace treaties with in­dividual members of the enemy alliance. There
are many instances when using this option is an
excellent alternative. With a separate peace the
game only involves counting the stars and
tombstones that apply to your country and
your single enemy to whom you are off e r i n g
peace, while all of the stars and tombstones in­volved in the war are counted when you are
dealing with the leader of the alliance. Here is
an example of when you should offer a separate
peace during a war against an alliance. The Ot­toman Empire is at war with the "Small Al­liance," consisting of Hungary (the leader),
Venice and Bohemia. The Ottoman Empire
has won a few battles against Venice and con­t rols three Venetian provinces. Hungary, on
the other hand, has taken two Ottoman
p rovinces and has won two battles. Bohemia
has won a single battle against the Ottoman
Empire. The Ottoman Empire starts by offer­ing Venice a separate peace. Here the Ottoman
Empire has 5 stars, and demands and receives
two provinces. Venice is out of the game. Then
the Ottoman Empire makes an offer to Bo­hemia. The Ottoman Empire has one tomb­stone, but is hoping for a peace of status quo,
and succeeds. Bohemia is out of the game, and
only Hungary remains. The Ottoman Jan­itchars are turning toward Hungary. Even a
peace with only the leader of the alliance may
be quite effective. Sweden is at war with Russia
(the leader), Poland-Lithuania and Denmark.
The war is going badly for Sweden, as all three
members of the alliance control three Swedish
provinces each. Sweden makes an offer to Rus­sia, offering 1 province and 1000 ducats, rep­resenting 6 tombstones. Russia accepts and
neither Denmark nor Poland-Lithuania re­ceives any provinces. In this case Sweden gets
off the hook in relatively cheaply, only losing
some money and a single province.

Movement and Battle

Battles and movement are the tactical compo-

47

Europa Universalis

nents of warfare. During the period, battle and
movement could often be decisive for the out­come of a war. A single pitched battle or a naval
battle could save the existence and indepen­dence of an entire country. If the Spanish Ar­mada had not foundered in 1588, England
probably would have become a vassal state of
Spain, just like Portugal. If the Ottoman Em­pire had won outside of Vienna in 1683 Eu­rope, as we know it, most likely would not have
existed. Another immensely important factor
was how efficiently a military unit could be
moved. Poland-Lithuania defended their giant
commonwealth by dashing about with their in­c redibly mobile armies: one moment to the
coast of the Black Sea; the next to the Baltic;
the next to the Ukraine, winning battles in the
meantime.

You may move two kinds of military units in
the game: army units and fleets. There are
t h ree kinds of battle: Pitched Battles, Sieges,
and Naval Battles. All of this will be thorough­ly covered in this chapter.

Army Units

As has already been mentioned, there are
three branches of the army that may be includ­ed in the army unit: infantry, cavalry and ar­tillery. The infantry was the basic army unit and
the cheapest one to recruit, and was also easier
to train. The infantry, together with the ar­tillery, served as a garrison for a fortification. In
a field army, the infantry was slower than the
cavalry but faster than the artillery. The cavalry
was less economical and took longer to train;
however it was the fastest unit, extremely ma­neuverable, and could have an enormous shock
effect in the heat of battle. On the other hand it
was less serviceable in a siege. It is also worth
noting that the cavalry, as the successor of the
knight, was the "army branch of the nobility,"
a status it was to hold until a long time after the
period covered by this game.

At the end of the 15th century, artillery was
chiefly used in sieges. Cannons were usually
very heavy and immobile and seldom of much
use in a pitched battle. The basis of the field

army was the infantry, which often lacked the
firepower to make it the decisive factor in a bat­tle. The cavalry was the principal actor of the
b a t t l e g round and lacked all fire p o w e r, but
made up for this by its strong shock effect with
the ability of quickly shattering the morale of
the enemy, if it was employed efficiently. In the
late 16th and early 17th century, the emphasis
was shifted from shock effect to firepower in
the armies of Europe. The infantry became the
equal of the cavalry, although the two forc e s
served different purposes during a battle. The
artillery had become lighter, and thereby more
mobile, and was also beginning to be utilized
as relief for the infantry in battles. During the
18th century, another shift in focus of battle ef­ficiency took place. Drill and discipline had
been established in the European arm i e s ,
thereby making it possible for the infantry fire­power to be utilized more efficiently. Infantry
became more important on the field of battle
than cavalry, even though the cavalry still
played a very important operational role, being
the most efficient branch for re c o n n a i s s a n c e
purposes during the period. In addition, the
c a v a l r y was still the only fast, long-range
branch of the army, which made it indispens­able in deep-going wars such as those in Russia,
Poland, and the Middle East. The efficiency of
the art i l l e ry had increased, and it was org a­nized in batteries with a direct fire eff e c t
against infantry on the battlefield. Eff i c i e n t l y
utilized artillery could be the decisive factor of
a battle, simply because the heavy artillery fire
could shatter morale in a wing or even a flank,
an advantage that was then used by sending a
c a v a l ry shock against the shaken, retiring in­fantrymen.

The time it takes to recruit a unit varies be­tween the diff e rent branches, partly because
the time it takes to train an efficient army unit
varies, partly because the setup of the unit de­manded several kinds of specialized equip­ment. To simplify, we can say that artillery units
take the longest to recruit, followed by the cav­alry, and then the infantry.

The cost of re c ruitment depends upon a

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Europa Universalis

number of factors. Firstly, diff e rent kinds of
t roops always cost diff e re n t l y. Art i l l e ry is the
most expensive, followed by cavalry, and in­fantry is the cheapest. Secondly, the cost is de­pendent on which country is re c ruiting the
troops. Different countries had different tradi­tions when it came to choosing army branches
and the composition of army units. Some
countries, for instance, chose quality above
quantity. Thirdly, the cost will vary depending
on which level of military technology your
country possesses. In general, troops get more
expensive the higher your military technology
level is, since a higher level of technology
means costlier training and more expensive
equipment. Infantry and cavalry are recruited
in units of 1000 men and artillery in units of 10
pieces.

The maintenance of your army units is paid
monthly. By accessing your country’s Financial
Summary you’ll be able to see how large the
sum is compared with your other expenses.
You may change the maintenance payments of
your country by accessing the army inform a­tion window, where you may choose what per­cent of the maintenance you wish to pay. The
payment must be at least 50% of the actual
costs. The size of the maintenance is also based
on the size of your troops; if you have 20,000
men you’ll have to pay twice as much as if
you’d had 10,000 men. You may disband army
units to reduce the cost of maintenance. Note
that your morale will be adversely affected if
you pay less than 100% maintenance.

Fleets

As has already been mentioned, a fleet may in­clude three kinds of vessels: warships, trans­p o rts, and galleys. Warships are oceangoing,
heavily armed vessels, re p resenting a number
of diff e r ent sizes and designs. Your level of
naval technology is the determining factor.
Galleys also represent different sizes, levels of
a rmament and designs, but they differ fro m
warship in that they are less seaworthy on the
open sea, and their strength relative to the war­ship diminishes over time. Their advantage lies

in being cheaper to build. Tr a n s p o rts are a
jumble of different designs, differentiated, like
the other types of vessels, by your naval tech­nology level.

Building times vary between the diff e re n t
types of vessels, due to their different levels of
advancement. Generally, the higher the level of
naval technology a country possesses, the
longer it will take to build a vessel. One rule of
thumb is that warships take the longest to
build, followed by transports, and then galleys.

The cost of building a vessel depends upon a
number of factors. Firstly, diff e rent kinds of
vessels always vary in cost. Warships are the
most expensive, followed by transports, and
galleys are the cheapest. Secondly, the cost is
dependent on which country builds the vessels.
D i ff e rent countries had diff e rent naval tradi­tions about the composition of fleets. Some
countries, for instance, chose quality above
quantity. Note that galleys can only be built in
coastal provinces along the Baltic Sea, the
Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Red Sea, and
the Gulf of Persia, which means that countries
by these seas will have naval traditions includ­ing the employment of galley fleets. Third l y,
the cost will vary depending on the level of
naval technology your country possesses. In
general, vessels become more expensive the
higher your naval technology level is, since a
higher level of technology entails more expen­sive training and equipment. All vessels are
built in units of one ship, although cert a i n
coastal provinces can build more than one at a
time.

The maintenance of your fleets is paid
monthly. By accessing your country’s Financial
S u m m a r y you can see how large the sum is
compared with your other expenses. You may
change the maintenance payments of your
c o u n t r y by accessing the naval inform a t i o n
window, where you may choose what percent
of the maintenance you wish to pay. The pay­ment must be at least 50% of the actual costs.
The size of the maintenance is also based on
the size of your fleets; if you have 72 vessels
you’ll have to pay twice as much as if you’d had

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36 vessels. You may disband fleets to re d u c e
the cost of maintenance. Note that your
morale will be adversely affected if you pay less
than 100% maintenance.

Commanders and Specialists

A commander leads each army unit or fleet.
Commanders have a very large impact on bat­tles (see Pitched Battles and Naval Battles),
transportation, and attrition. Commanders are
historical or general. The former are well­known generals and admirals who worked dur­ing the period and who are regarded as particu­larly interesting, either because of their skills or
their imperfections in battle. The latter come
from a "national pool" and have names from
history, but none of them were distinguished
enough to become historically import a n t .
They are something of a cheaper article, but
they still mirror the state of training and skill of
the country’s body of officers.

An army unit or a fleet may have more than
one commander, but only one of them will
command the unit; this will be the highest­ranking commander, who is also the only one
who will add anything to the battle. Note that
you may split a unit if you want to take advan­tage of more than one good commander.

Commanders may die in battles or through
random events. A monarch, for instance Gus­tavus II Adolphus, may be a commander,
which means that if the monarch dies in a bat­tle, the heir to the throne or regency will suc­ceed him. If a commander dies in a battle, the
second-highest ranking commander will auto­matically assume command of the army unit or
fleet. If the unit or fleet only had one historical
commander, a general commander will imme­diately assume command.

All commanders are assigned a value in each
of the skills of Movement, Firing, Shock Ef­f e c t / B o a rding, and Siege. Note that each
commander is either an army or a navy com­mander. General commanders always have the
same values, depending on their country of ori­gin. Their values may never exceed 6 or go be­low 0. Historical commanders have unique val-

ues that may be much more varied, i.e. be high­er than 6 or lower than 0.

There are also two kinds of specialists: Con­quistadors and Explorers. They function like
commanders, but also possess some special
functions.

Conquistadors lead army units and receive a
special bonus for exploring new pro v i n c e s .
They also receive a special bonus when battling
natives, and a very high capacity for mainte­nance (i.e., small risk of attrition.)

Explorers lead fleets and have a special bonus
for exploring new sea zones and bord e r i n g
provinces. Like the Conquistadors, they have a
very high capacity for maintenance (i.e., small
risk of attrition.)

Movement Restrictions

When you order an army unit to move, i.e.,
give it marching orders, there is no limit to
how far away from the province where the unit
is stationed the destination may be. The unit
will start moving toward the destination at the
speed of its slowest army branch. If you, for in­stance, have a unit consisting of infantry, caval­ry, and art i l l e ry, the whole unit will move as
slowly as if it only consisted of artillery. If an
enemy army unit should move into a province
t h rough which your unit is moving, the unit
will stop immediately and a battle will take
place. If your army unit should lose, it will re­tire. You cannot influence where it will retire,
as the commander automatically will move into
a neighboring province, giving pre f e rence to
provinces that you control. If your army unit
wins the battle, the enemy will retire while your
unit stands still, and you must give it new
m a rching orders. Thus, two army units fro m
enemy armies may never stand still in the same
p rovince after a pitched battle, unlike units
from allied countries.

In times of peace, you may move your army
units both through your own provinces and
those of your vassals. When you are at war, you
may also move through the provinces of your
allies. You can also move freely through unfor­tified and fortified enemy provinces, provided

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that you detach a troop to watch the fortifica­tion. After detaching a troop, the main part of
your unit may march on. To detach a troop for
guard purposes, click on that button in the in­formation window.

Each army unit is assigned a number of move­ment points each month, according to the fol­lowing table:

Infantry 2

Cavalry 3

Artillery 1.5
Each time you move to a province it costs
movement points as follows:

Open terrain 1
Woods 1.25
Mountains 1.75
Desert 1.25
Swamps 1.5

Rivers 1

Country border 0.5

Example: A cavalry unit (3 MP/month) is con­sequently able to move through thre e
p rovinces of open terrain in one month; or
t h rough one desert and one mountain
p rovince in one month. A mixed army unit
with all three army branches (1.5 MP/month)
wanting to move into a swamp province on the
other side of a river and a country border (1.5 +
1 + 0.5 = 3) will need two months to complete
their movement.

Fleets are moved in the same way as arm y
units, the only diff e rence being that the sea
zones through which the fleet moves don’t be­long to anybody. If you move into a zone
where an enemy fleet is located, an attempt of
naval interception will occur (see Naval Inter­ception.) If neither your fleet nor the enemy
fleet succeeds with the interception, you may
keep moving. If either of you succeeds, a naval
battle will take place and the one who success­fully intercepted the other one will receive a
bonus since he surprised the other one. Ports
do not count as sea zones, and no interception
or naval battle can take place against a fleet in

port. However, it may be blockaded if the level
of naval technology is sufficiently advanced
(see Naval Blockades and Ports.)

Each fleet is assigned a number of movement

points according to the following table:

Naval
technology
level Warships Galleys Transports
Carrack 6 4 6
Galleon 10 4 10
Lateen sail 10 4 10
Battery deck 10 4 10
Vaisseaux 12 4 12
Three-Decker 14 4 12

Each discovered sea zone costs one movement
point.

Naval Supremacy and Interception

As has already been mentioned, you cannot
control the ocean; you can only try to prevent
the enemy from controlling the shipping lanes.
Naval warfare was conducted in a fundamen­tally different way from the battle on land, and
reaching what is sometimes known as domina­tion of the seas was a lengthy process. We will
attempt to explain this.

Firstly, it was important to defend coastlines
and the strategic and important passages that
must be used. Enemy fleets could not be al­lowed to cruise off a country ’s own coast, as
this could mean a sudden landing with disas­trous consequences; England lived under this
threat for many years, mainly from Spain and
France. Moreover, a country could have a nar­row canalizing passage such as the English
Channel, the control over which would give
economic advantages and would minimize the
risk of having part of the country cut off from
the rest. To defend a coast from a nearby ene­my fleet, it was necessary to go out to sea, find
the enemy, and attack, and thus forcing him
back to his own waters. This is where intercep­tion is important. Since the sea zones were so
large, and a fleet could only control a small area
physically, it was never certain that a naval bat-

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tle would occur. Many times, two enemy fleets
would keep sailing back and forth looking for
each other for a long time without having a de­cisive battle.

When your fleet gets into the same sea zone
as an enemy fleet, there is always a chance of a
successful interception and an ensuing battle.
What happens depends on what respective lev­els of naval technology the combatants possess,
how skilled the commanders are in maneuver­ing their vessels and a considerable portion of
luck. Luck in this context is all about how the
wind blows. The one in the right quarter of the
wind usually had the decisive advantage in the
era of sailing ships. Note that fleets cru i s i n g
outside their own coast receive a bonus when
intercepting, and that interceptions in certain
coastal provinces (Scania, Zealand, the
B o s p h o r us, Gibraltar, and Tangiers) always
succeed, due to the tactical advantages for the
fleet controlling these constricted passages.

After having successfully chased an enemy
fleet away to their own port, the defending
fleet would then cruise outside the enemy coast

52

or try to blockade the enemy ports. When a
majority of the enemy fleets were eradicated or
in blockade, naval supremacy was achieved.

Naval Battles

A naval battle will occur when two or more en­emy fleets receive orders to stop in the same sea
zone, or when an attempted naval interception
has succeeded.

The battle will consequently come about
when two or more enemy fleets are in the same
sea zone. You will see two battling sailing ships,
symbolizing the two sides in the battle. Each
ship will have a narrow rectangle. The color of
the rectangle shows the level of morale and how
it changes during the course of the battle. The
length of the rectangle shows the size of the
fleet compared with the enemy fleet, and how
the relative size of the fleets change as they suf­fer losses in the battle. The battle is divided into
a number of phases that will continue until one
side loses the battle. Note that you can’t influ­ence what happens during the various phases;
this is the duty of the fleet’s commander.

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The losing side is the one which first loses all
its morale and thereby flees, i.e. retires (see Re­treat) or who loses all its vessels in the battle.
Note that both sides may choose to re t i re at
any point during the battle. If you do, your
fleet will hoist a white flag. If you win the bat­tle, the enemy will re t i re and you may either
move your fleet to another sea zone or, if you
wish and possess the naval technology for it,
begin a naval blockade; or simply cruise in the
sea zone.

What determines the outcome of a naval bat­tle? Firstly the odds, i.e., the relative difference
in strength between the fleets, are immensely
i m p o rtant. Secondly, the diff e rence in naval
technology levels is very important. Third l y
the commander is important, as his skill value
in maneuvering, firing, and boarding will influ­ence the phases of the battle. Fourthly the out­come of the battle is influenced by who has uti­lized the wind conditions most efficiently, for
which your commander is responsible. Yo u
cannot influence this, but note that only one
side will get the bonus for wind conditions.

The loser of a naval battle must retire from
the sea zone. If the enemy originally tried to
force himself out of a blockaded port, his fleet
will retire to the same port, or else it will retire
to the sea zone which is closest to one of the
country’s own or allied ports, and which does
not contain an enemy fleet.

Naval Blockades and Ports

It has already been stated that cert a i n
p rovinces—coastal provinces—possess port s .
You may send a fleet into one of your own
ports (i.e., a port in your own country) at any
time providing that you control the province
where the port is located. You may also send
your fleets into the ports of allied countries
provided that the country in question controls
the province where the port is, and that your
country and the allied country together are at
war with another country.

Why would you want to send your fleet into
p o rt? Firstly, a fleet in port may never be at­tacked by an enemy fleet, which means that it
can be tactically sound to send a fleet into port

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if the enemy’s naval strength is superior to
yours. Secondly, fleets don’t suffer attrition in
port, which means that it is advisable to send a
fleet into port from time to time. Note that if
an enemy army unit takes control of a province
in which there is a port where you have a fleet,
the fleet is automatically forced out of the port
into the nearest sea zone. If there is an enemy
fleet there, a naval battle will take place.

What is a naval blockade? A naval blockade
means that you have a fleet in the sea zone ad­jacent to a port, and that your country has
reached the right naval technology level. What
will automatically happen is that your fleet
blockades every enemy port bordering on the
sea zone. Your fleet will patrol the entrance of
the port and thus prevent ships from leaving
and calling at the port. A fleet blockading a
port can be attacked both from other sea zones
and from the port in question. The fleet will
automatically receive the bonus for successfully
utilizing wind conditions if it defends itself
against the blockaded fleet.

54

Pitched Battles

A pitched battle will occur when an army unit
moves or withdraws into a province containing
a hostile army unit, or when a hostile army does
something similar and moves into a pro v i n c e
containing one of your own army units. It may
also occur when an army unit moves into an in­dependent province and encounters a band of
natives. If you have an army unit present a
pitched battle will take place. If not, one of two
things may happen. Either you had no trading
post or colony there before, and then nothing
will happen, or you had one, and in that case
the natives will take control over the colony.

Pitched battles, in other words, occur when
two or several army units find themselves in the
same province. You will then see two fighting
soldiers, symbolizing the two sides of the bat­tle. Each soldier has a long rectangle. The color
of the rectangles shows the level of morale and
how it changes during the battle. The length of
the rectangles shows the size of the army unit
in proportion to the enemy army unit, and how

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the size changes when the unit sustains casual­ties. The battle is divided into phases that will
continue until one of the sides loses the battle.
Note that you can’t control the action during
the phases. That is the task of the commander.

The side that either loses its morale and
t h e reby flees (or withdraws, see Retreat) or los­es all its soldiers has been defeated. Note that ei­ther one of the armies may chose to withdraw at
any time. If you do that your army will carry a
white flag. If you win the battle the enemy will
withdraw and you may either move your arm y
to another province or you may chose to begin
a siege or assault against any fortifications in the
p rovince where the army unit is standing.

What determines the outcome of the battle?
Firstly, the odds, i.e. the relative strength be­tween the army units, are extremely important.
S e c o n d l y, the diff e rence in level of military
technology is very important. Third l y, the
commander is important since his skills of
movement, fire, and shock effect will influence
the phases of the battle. Furthermore, the out­come of the battle is affected by the side that
has cavalry superiority. This will give the com­mander scouting information that he may use
while commanding the battle and an effective
f o rce to send against retiring enemies. Note
that cavalry superiority loses its importance in
p rovinces with forests, swamps, and moun­tains. Finally, the invader will receive a negative
bonus when attacking in a mountain province,
a c ross a river, or when disembarking in a
province containing a hostile army unit.

The defeated party in a battle must withdraw
f rom the province, preferably to a pro v i n c e
c o n t rolled by its own country or an ally, and
not containing any hostile army units.

Retreat

R e t reat will occur if either of two conditions
are present: when your army or fleet is defeated
in a pitched battle or naval battle, or when you
order your army or fleet during a pitched battle
or naval battle to move away from the province
where the battle is taking place, i.e. voluntary
retreat.

Note that if an army is defeated in a pitched
battle or if a fleet is defeated in a naval battle it
must withdraw. If, for some reason, there is no
province or sea zone to withdraw to, the unit
will be destroyed.

When a fleet or army withdraws the unit’s
flag will be exchanged for a white flag, thus
marking that your are no longer in control of
the unit, that it will not affect the province it
withdraws to, and that it is increasingly vulner­able if attacked by the enemy.

When a withdrawing army or fleet arrives in a
province or sea zone free of hostile units, the
unit’s flag reverts to the flag of its country, the
player regains control over the unit, and
morale will slowly recover.

Note that it is tactically sound to pursue a
withdrawing enemy and immediately re s u m e
the pitched battle or naval battle, thus using
the advantage of your unit’s superior morale.

Fortifications, Sieges, and Assaults

The importance of fortifications cannot be
o v e restimated. A hostile army unit automati­cally controls a province without a fortress as
soon as it has moved into the province. A
province with a fortress, however, must either
be put under siege or assaulted. Sieges may
take a long time; anywhere from three months
up to a year is common. The assault may be
quick, but usually with great loss of life. In ad­dition, the great loss in combat morale experi­enced after an assault makes you vulnerable to a
quick counterattack that could completely
wipe out a hitherto successful military opera­tion (see Combat Morale). You should ere c t
fortifications in your provinces. The basic cost
is 100 ducats, but the price may be higher de­pending on the country’s level of inflation. You
may also upgrade existing fort resses to more
modern and larger models, but in order to do
that you must achieve a certain level of military
technology.

A siege commences after a victorious pitched
battle in a fortified enemy province, or once an
army unit is moved into a hostile province with
a fortress but with no enemy army units pre-

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sent. In both cases the army unit must be of
minimum size in order to initiate the siege.
Normally the size should be equal to that of the
unit stationed at the garrison.

Why would you want to besiege a fortress?
This is your only opportunity to control the
city and thereby the province. A contro l l e d
p rovince gives you more stars when you or
your enemy offers peace. When preparing for a
siege, you have a couple of options. Firstly, you
may assign a watch detail. This makes it possi­ble for you to maintain a supply line through
the province, keep an eye on the fortress, and
control the province. Secondly, you may assign
the actual siege force. This force will subse­quently attempt to take the city by building
trenches that are successively extended and ad­vanced, attempt to undermine the fort re s s
walls using sappers, fire upon, and starve the
garrison into surrendering.

Each month the garrison’s defenses are test­ed. If they fail, the fort ress falls into your
hands. Factors that affect this include how long
the siege has been in place, the besieged com­mander’s siege experience, the province’s ter­rain (where the fortress is located), the relative
difference in artillery, the size of the fortress,
and earlier results.

A fort ress usually falls sooner or later, but
note that your enemy may send an army unit
into the province, forcing you to fight and win
a pitched battle in order to continue the siege.
Another problem is attrition: If the size of your
a rmy unit becomes smaller than that of the
forces defending the garrison, then the siege is
lifted and you may only guard the fortress. You
may of course move additional units into the
province and resume the siege. Also note that
at any time you may break off the siege in order
to leave the province, or assault the fortress.

It has been noted earlier that an assault may
t u rn out to be very bloody. An example of a
failed assault is Charles X Gustavus’ attempted
assault of Copenhagen in 1659. Assaults may
also be successful. Assaulting after a few
months’ siege is usually a good strategy. To
launch an assault, click on the assault button in

the information window. The assault itself is
similar to a pitched battle, with a few notable
exceptions.

The person launching the assault will win if
the enemy’s garrison is completely wiped out
or forced to retreat (which means it is disband­ed). The terrain is of no consequence. Nor is
cavalry used during an assault. If the assault is
successful, the fort re s s ’s level is lowered one
step (e.g. from medium to small), although
never so low that the province is left without a
fortress. Finally there is a risk that the town is
pillaged, which significantly reduces the popu­lation. Pillaging is an abstract phase of the bat­tle that can’t be seen, and the player cannot
control it since it is the result of soldiers who
run amuck.

Supply Lines

A rmy units and fleets sometimes suffer attri­tion, i.e. suffer a loss of lives without having ex­perienced battle. Army units must maintain
functioning supply lines in order to reduce the
risk of attrition. Historically, a supply line was
more or less a caravan of wagons with supplies
and necessities that shuttled back and forth be­tween the field units and the supply depots lo­cated in more civilized areas. Each army unit
has its supply level checked once a month. If
the level is high there is a low rate of attrition,
but if the level is low the unit will lose more sol­diers.

So what is a supply line? An army unit must
be able to draw an imaginary line thro u g h
provinces on the map to a province that serves
as a supply base. There is no limit to how long
this line may be. This line may only be drawn
through provinces that are controlled by you
or your allies and not through those containing
enemy units or provinces that are not held ei­ther by your forces or those of your allies. The
point is that the line cannot be drawn through
a province containing enemy army units. Also,
the line may not be drawn through neutral
p rovinces (i.e. provinces belonging to coun­tries that are not involved in your war) or inde­pendent provinces.

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Which provinces may then serve as supply
bases? First of all, all provinces with a town or
colony, without a port, that belong to and are
c o n t rolled by the countr y. Secondly, coastal
provinces controlled by the country (i.e. they
do not have to belong to the country) and that
a re not under a sea blockade. Note that you
and your allies may use each other’s supply
bases during war. In addition, note that
provinces with trading posts cannot be used as
supply bases.

The effect of not being able to draw a supply
line is that the attrition rate increases by 30% a
month.

Attrition

Army units were traditionally worn out more
quickly than they are today. There wasn’t the
same level of medical care, the diet was differ­ent, and there was a different awareness of hy­giene. You marched regardless of the weather,
you were seldom dry, and you slept under the
stars. Diseases and epidemics flourished and
poor nutrition increased susceptibility. To top

it all off, there were soldiers who didn’t want to
fight. They were simply fed up and escaped as
soon as they saw their chance. These are a few
factors affecting attrition and are sometimes re­ferred to as one element in the strategic con­cept of "friction."

In the game it is of course the case that the
more trials an army unit or fleet is exposed to,
the greater the attrition. Time also plays a part.
Each month the supply level of each army unit
and fleet is checked. The result is shown as the
number of losses due to attrition.

Which are the factors affecting attrition in an
a rmy unit? Most important is the size of the
unit. Secondly, the allegiance, control, and sta­tus (pillaged or not) of the province in which
the unit is located. Thirdly, the province’s rela­tive richness, i.e. the size of its production, is
c o n s i d e red. You may see this information for
each selected province in the information win­dow if you click on the church. Also, some
types of terrain and the weather in the province
may have an influence (e.g. desert or swamps,
and winter). Moreover, the attrition rate is af-

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fected by the use of the army unit: movements,
re t reats, battles, sieges, assaults, and whether
the unit is able to maintain a supply line. Final­ly, the attrition rate is lowered in proportion to
the commander’s movement skill. Note here
that one of the great advantages of the Con­quistadors above all other commanders is their
ability to reduce the attrition rate to a mini­mum level.

A skull in the information window indicates
the attrition level for a selected army unit. The
extent of attrition is shown using colors.
Red Lacks a supply line
Yellow Attrition is occurring
White Army unit located in tropical climate

(very high attrition)

Grey No attrition

Which factors play a part in the attrition of a
fleet? Firstly, the level of naval military technol­ogy achieved affects attrition. The higher the
level, the lower the attrition. Secondly, it is a
matter of where the fleet is located. Attrition is
always zero in port, but increases incrementally
in the following: sea zones that border on a
coastal province, sea zones that border on an­other province, and finally sea zones that do
not border on a coast. The attrition rises to
catastrophic levels if the fleet is located in a sea
zone where there is a storm or one that is ice­locked. Further, attrition is reduced in propor­tion to the commander’s movement skill. Also,
attrition increases for each month that the fleet
is at sea without visiting a port. Finally, attrition
i n c reases on galleys operating outside the
Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean, or the Black Sea.

A skull in the information window indicates
the attrition level for a selected fleet. The ex­tent of attrition is shown using colors.
Red Storm (as well as galleys in any "in-

correct" sea zones)
Yellow At sea
White Following the coast
Grey In port

Combat Morale

Combat morale is an important factor in battle.
If the army unit’s or fleet’s combat morale falls
to the lowest level during combat, then it will
lose the battle. Each army unit and fleet has a
combat morale value, shown as a narrow rect­angle at the base of the unit. This indicates the
unit’s morale in the scale red-yellow-green. A
newly recruited or assembled unit always starts
its career with the lowest possible morale. It in­creases each month until it reaches the maxi­mum level possible considering your level of
technology.

The combat morale depends on the naval
and land military level of technology, re s p e c­t i v e l y, that your country has achieved. The
higher the technology level is, the higher the
combat morale. There are some special cases.

F i r s t l y, countries with a re f o rmed or Shia
Moslem state religion experience a bonus in
combat morale. Secondly, the combat morale
in your country decreases for five years if it has
s u ff e red an economic collapse. Third l y, the
morale is lower if you pay less than 100 % of the
cost of maintenance. Fourthly, fleets consisting
only of transport ships have a very low combat
morale. Finally, galleys always suffer a low com­bat morale and are not affected by impro v e­ments in naval military technology.

Note that a unit whose combat morale has
d e c reased will recover to maximum morale
each month. It may there f o r e be tactically
sound to wait a month before using a unit with
low morale to attack and thereby allow it to
"take the bull by the horns" when it is fully re­covered.

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Economy and
Infrastructure

Your Economy Is Your Heart

Economy is, of course, the art of managing
your re s o u rces. Your country enjoys many
sources of income, but also has a number of ex­penses as a result of the activities (war, trade,
etc.) that your country carries out. If your
country is poor, i.e. all enemies or potential en­emies are richer than your country, then an im­portant conclusion to draw is that you must in­crease the income and/or reduce the expenses.
Also note that poorly financed activities (such
as financing war by taking loans) seldom pays
in the long run.

There are different types of income, and they
vary both in form and size. First of all, we dis­tinguish between annual, monthly, and other
incomes.

Annual income

The annual income is received at the start of
each new year and comprises a Census Ta x ,
Tolls, and Trade Tariffs. When you receive the
annual income, the funds are placed in your
treasury at your disposal.

The Census Tax is a fixed tax that was as­sessed per inhabitant and in the game it is based
on the sum value of your provinces’ taxes. In
reality, tolls were the fees that the state charged
on goods as they were transported from one
place to another within the country, and it was
through these that the government attempted
to control trade by channeling goods to only a
few cities. The size of the tolls depends on your
country’s level of trade technology, as well as
the size and number of cities, colonies, and
trading posts that belong to your country.
Trade tariffs are a fixed fee that merchants must
pay in order to run their business in the trade
centers that belong to your country (i.e. those
located in one of your provinces). The trade
tariff is 5 ducats per merchant.

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Monthly income

The monthly income is received once the
monthly cost (more about this later) has been
deducted. The monthly income comprises Tax
Income, Production Income, Interest on Ex­tended Loans, and Income from factories. The
monthly income is to be distributed. You may
invest in stability, research in areas of technolo­gy (land military, naval military, trade, infras­tructure), and make "withdrawals" to cash.

The exact composition the of tax income
varies from country to country and period to
period, but historically it may be said in gener­al that land taxes and informal fees (e.g. salt
fees, etc.) made up the largest part. Tax income
is based on the sum value of your pro v i n c e s ’
taxes. Production income traditionally came
f rom the sale of products from the ro y a l
g rounds, as well as the sale of official off i c e s
and a throng of various minor fees aimed at the
subjects’ production and consumption. The
production income is based on the sum value
of your provinces’ production. Trade income
derived primarily from an indirect tax on inter­national trade, but during the Mercantile era
also became a political method of attempting
to subsidize the development of the country’s
means of production. The trade income’s size
is a result of the total number of merc h a n t s
your country has stationed in foreign centers of
trade. Interest on extended loans is exactly
what it says: the interest you earn on the loans
you have made to other countries (see Loans).
Income from factories is the income that the
state receives, partly due to the special prices
that the governments’ own institutions enjoy
when buying the factory products, partly be­cause the state often owned part of the facto­ries and thereby received part of the pro f i t s .
These incomes are dependent on how many
factories your country has and of what type
(see Upgrading the Infrastructure).

Other Income

The other sources of income lack re g u l a r i t y
and appear on special occasions when the in­come appears as liquid assets in your treasury.

These can be gifts from other countries, new
loans, tributes paid as a result of a peace agree­ment, the levying of a war tax (see War Taxes)
as well as random events.

Such things as the stability of the country,
the national level of inflation, and the level of
technology at which your country’s infrastruc­t u re operates affect both the annual and
monthly incomes.

In terms of expenses there are only monthly
expenses and other expenses. In other words,
there are no annual expenses. Monthly expens­es include the cost of maintaining a military
and the interest on loans you have taken. As
mentioned earlier, the monthly expenses are
deducted from the monthly income before it is
received. If the monthly balance is negative,
the difference is withdrawn from the treasury.
If there isn’t enough money to cover the differ­ence or the treasury is empty, then your coun­try is automatically forced to borrow money. If
your country already has borrowed the maxi­mum five times allowed in the game (see
Loans), then it is automatically declare d
bankrupt.

For example, balance is achieved if: monthly
income – (monthly expenses + investments) =

0.

If there is no balance, then: liquid assets in
treasury – negative result.

The other expenses lack regularity and ap­pear on special occasions at which the cost is
immediately deducted from the liquid assets in
your tre a s u ry. These include gifts to other
countries, repayment of loans, payment of trib­utes as a result of a peace agreement, as well as
random events. Included in other expenses are
the variable costs incurred when re c ru i t i n g
army units, building fleets, appointing officials,
building or upgrading fortresses, and sending
out colonists, traders, and merchants.

Provinces and Population Growth

If it is true that your country’s economy is its
h e a rt, then the provinces are your country ’s
veins. It is in the provinces that everything hap­pens. The economic system is alive with the ex-

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change of goods. This occurs in the market
places next to where people live, people who
produce and consume.

In other words, the population of a province
is directly related to the amount of goods pro­duced, the number of people working, the ex­tent of the trade, and finally the government’s
ability to receive income from taxes and fees.

This means that every province has a tax val­ue, a production value, and a trade value.
These are in direct proportion to the size of the
p ro v i n c e ’s population. If the population in­creases, then these three values increase as well,
which in the end means that both the monthly
and annual incomes increase.

How then do you increase the size of the
population? Note first of all that when we refer
to the population we are talking about the
town’s, the colony’s, or the trading post’s pop­ulation, i.e. the provincial center. Each
province normally experiences a positive popu­lation growth that contributes to an increase in
the size of the provincial population each
month. You can see the exact amount by click-

ing on the church in the information window.
The amount of growth can be higher than nor­mal if there is a center of trade in the province
or in a neighboring province, if there is a facto­ry in the province, or if the province contains
the country’s capital.

The province may also experience a negative
population growth (i.e. the size of the popula­tion decreases over time). This is likely to occur
in provinces where you have founded a colony
and in cities located in very inhospitable are a s
(e.g. in the tropical parts of Africa). The
p rovince may also suffer a temporary negative or
less positive population growth if the province is
p l u n d e red, besieged, or if the province is con­t rolled by re b e l s .

T h e re are also times when the size of the
population changes suddenly and at once, ei­ther up or down. When you send a colonist, the
population will increase by 100 inhabitants, al­though you cannot send colonists to provinces
with a population of 5000 or more. When an
a rmy unit successfully conquers a pro v i n c e
through siege or assault, the population might

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decrease in size due to a massacre (the soldiers
of the time were sometimes very difficult to
c o n t rol). Finally, random events may change
the size of the population.

So, the larger the population the higher the
p roduction value, tax value, and trade value.
Trading posts usually have a very low produc­tion value and barely any tax value, but have a
very high trade value. The colony will be seen
as a less developed city. A city has more bal­anced values, but the production value and tax
value may increase significantly as the popula­tion increases, while the trade value re m a i n s
steady. Note that the trade value is not as de­pendent on the population size as are the other
values. What is much more important is supply
and demand and the market price, but more
about this later. To get an idea of at what popu­lation levels these three values are strongly af­fected, see "levels of development" below.
When a city’s population has grown so much
that the city achieves a new level of develop­ment, the three values increase significantly.

62

Level of development Inhabitants

Colony Level 1* 100
Colony Level 2* 200
Colony Level 3* 300
Colony Level 4* 400
Colony Level 5* 500
Colony Level 6* 600
Colonial City Level 1* 700
Colonial City Level 2* 1400
Colonial City Level 3* 2800
City Level 1 5000
City Level 2 10000
City Level 3 20000
City Level 4 40000
City Level 5 80000
City Level 6 200000

Sending colonists may increase the population.
Also note that if the population size re a c h e s
1000 inhabitants it can never decrease to less
than this amount. Remember that stability al­ways has an impact on population growth.

Europa Universalis

Production and goods

Production is, of course, the foundation of any
e c o n o m y. The inhabitants of a province pro­duce goods and these goods are varied, but
usually one or a few stand out as characteristic
for a province. Using modern terminology one
would speak of "comparative advantages," i.e.
if a province is best at producing a certain prod­uct then that product should be the one they
produce. It isn’t difficult to see that it is better
they produce wine and feta cheese in southern
Europe, and timber and furs in northern Eu­rope rather than the other way around. There­fore, in this game each province has a specific
product that they produce. This should be seen
as the most important product in the province
(after all, historically every province produced
grain and fish).

For obvious reasons, products have different
prices on the market. The market price de­pends on supply and demand, but also on what
we call the product’s base value. What is base
value? Today there are relatively few new prod­ucts that have never been seen before, but the
pricing mechanism is affected by advert i s i n g
and trends. During the period of the game
there were similar factors that affected pricing.
N e w, exotic goods created the same kind of
"higher value" as our trends today. Status was
not only as important then as it is now, but it
was more visible. Open and boastful consump­tion brought status and showed everyone what
a great person you were. Base value is, in other
words, the difference in value that is caused by
reasons not normally taken into account by the
pricing mechanism. The chart below shows the
products found in this game and their respec­tive base values.

Product Product’s base value

Cloth Normal (10)
Gold* Special (-)
Cotton Normal (10)
Fish Normal (10)
Fur Normal (10)
Grain Low (5)
Ivory High (15)

Iron Normal (10)
Copper Normal (10)
Chinaware Very High (20)
Naval Supplies High (15)
Salt Normal (10)
Slaves Normal (10)
Spices Very High (20)
Sugar High (15)
Tobacco High (15)
Wine Low (5)

Wool Low (5)
*Gold is not traded and is not given a base val­ue. However, the production value is automat­ically converted to liquid assets. Below you will
find a more detailed description of each prod­uct and what affects the demand side of the
pricing mechanism.

Cloth represent various fabrics and raw ma­terials for clothes that were used during this
time period, primarily fleece and wool, but also
linen, rough homespun, etc. Once the planta­tions started up in America during the 18th
century and trade with India increased, cotton
also became a raw material in the production of
cloth. Demand for cloth increases when more
trade good factories and re c ruitment centers
are built.

Gold and silver were the basis for the entire
m o n e t a r y system in Europe, and they were
much-coveted raw materials. The discovery
and exploitation of gold deposits in Central
and South America made some Euro p e a n
countries very wealthy, but also increased infla­tion and significantly lowered the value of their
currencies. The value of gold is not affected by
supply and demand. The more gold that is ex­tracted globally, however, the more inflation
i n c reases for all countries in the game. The
countries mining gold will experience even
greater inflation.

Cotton originally came from Central Asia
but was not commonly used in Europe until it
was successfully planted in the American
colonies. It was used as an inexpensive and ad­equate complement and substitute for wool in
the emerging textile industry of the 18th cen­t u ry. The demand for cotton increases when

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more trade good factories are built, as well as
when provinces that produce textiles are colo­nized.

Fish was not only the basic source of nour­ishment for historical Europe (meat was con­sidered the luxury food of the upper class), but
also the entire fishing industry contributed to
considerable shipbuilding. Fishermen were the
p r i m a ry manpower for most naval military
fleets. The demand for fish increases when
more factories, recruitment centers, and naval
shipyards are built.

Furs were the basis of high quality, warm
clothing and came from a number of different
animals such as sable, fox, mink, bear, and wolf.
The highly desirable furs originally came main­ly from Scandinavia and Russia, but as America
was colonized this also became an import a n t
source up until the middle of the 18th century.
The demand for furs increases when more fac­tories, recruitment centers, and naval shipyards
are built, as well when an increasing number of
cities appoint chief judges and governors.

Grain re p resents the diff e r ent vegetables
that constituted the foundation of the daily di­et (i.e. bread) for both humans and domesti­cated animals. The lack of grain nearly always
led to uprisings and rebellion. The European
cereals – especially rye, oats, and barley – were
later joined by tomatoes, corn, and even pota­toes, which provided a significantly more var­ied diet. The demand for grain increases when
more factories, recruitment centers, and naval
shipyards are built.

Ivory was one of the most important trade
goods from Africa alongside the slave trade.
Ivory was highly sought after by the craftsmen
of Europe, who used it to make eating utensils,
j e w e l r y cases, reliquaries, instruments, orn a­ments, furniture, etc. The demand for ivory in­creases when more factories, recruitment cen­ters, and naval shipyards are built; and when
more cities appoint chief judges and governors.

Iron includes iron and similar metals except
copper, lead, and precious metals. Iron was the
most important raw material of the entire met­al industry, and was used for weapons, tools,

shipbuilding, reinforcement of buildings, etc.
The demand for iron increases when more
weapon factories and naval shipyards are built.

Copper also includes metals such as tin, zinc,
lead, and silver, as well as gems. Copper is one
of the ingredients in brass and therefore impor­tant to the early foundries, but it was also used
in its pure form or in other alloys to manufac­ture receptacles, weapons, armor, and canons.
The metal was also used to make coins and ob­jects of art. The demand for copper increases
when more weapon factories and naval ship­yards are built.

C h i n a w a re includes various exotic trade
goods such as silk, porcelain, carpets, gems,
ebony, and other arts and crafts manufactured
in India, China, Persia and the Far East. Since
every object of this sort was completely unique
in Europe, the merchants and sea captains who
succeeded in bringing home a couple of ob­jects often received astronomical sums. The
demand for chinaware increases when more
factories, recruitment centers, and naval ship­yards are built; and when more cities appoint
chief judges and governors.

Naval supplies represent all of the different
raw materials necessary for shipbuilding, from
timber and canvas to tar, hemp, and ro p e s .
Originally most of these raw materials came
from Scandinavia, but later North America be­came an increasingly important source. The
demand for Naval supplies increases when
m o re shipbuilding plants and naval shipyard s
are built.

Salt was as important a part of the domesti­cated animals’ diet as it was for the humans. It
was also the only way (apart from freezing in
the winter) of preserving food. They used ei­ther the mineral salt from the mines in Central
Europe, or the sea salt extracted by evaporation
at sunnier latitudes. The demand for salt in­creases when more factories, recruitment cen­ters, and naval shipyards are built.

Slaves were an accepted commodity for trade
since antiquity, but demand increased drasti­cally when they were needed as labor on the
N o rth American cotton, tobacco, and sugar

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plantations. Slaves were an important com­modity in the Moslem world long after the
time when slave trade was more or less abol­ished in Europe. The demand for slaves in­creases as more provinces that produce cotton,
sugar, and tobacco are colonized.

Spices were known in Europe since antiquity
and used both for food preservation, seasoning
of rather rotten food, and for alleged healing
p ro p e rties. Pepper, ginger, nutmeg, cinna­mon, etc., were shipped from East Africa, In­dia, China, and the Spice Islands (today called
Indonesia) to the markets in Alexandria and
the Middle East. The European call for a faster
and less expensive supply was the main reason
for the first Portuguese explorations eastward.
The demand for spices increases when more
factories, recruitment centers, and naval ship­yards are built; and when more cities appoint
chief judges and governors.

Sugar was used not only as a seasoning but
also as a pre s e rvative. At the time cane sugar
was the only known source of sugar, and it was
originally cultivated near the Mediterr a n e a n .

The plantations in America, primarily in the
Caribbean, quickly took the lead, however.
The demand for sugar increases when more
breweries are built.

Tobacco was unknown in Europe until the
first Conquistadors re t u r ned home fro m
America during the 16th century. It quickly
became fashionable in the upper classes to
smoke the expensive tobacco, which lead to a
quick economic boost for the British colonies
on the North American East coast and in Por­tuguese Brazil. The demand for tobacco in­creases when more factories, recruitment cen­ters, and naval shipyards are built; and when
more cities appoint chief judges and governors.

Wine had been produced in southern Eu­rope for as long as anyone could remember and
was a regular feature in the daily diet, with the
exception of the Moslem world. Wine was not
considered exclusive, but was probably a rather
welcome relief from the pains of everyday life a
couple of hundred years before penicillin, an­tibiotics, and sterile environments. In northern
and eastern Europe mead, beer, vodka, and

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low-alcohol beer were similarly used as meal­time beverages. The demand for wine increases
when more factories, recruitment centers, and
naval shipyards are built.

Wool came primarily from the flocks of sheep
that were kept in Europe and Asia’s more dis­tant corners, and together with linen constitut­ed the main raw material for clothing before
the arrival of cotton. The demand for wool in­c reases when factories, re c ruitment centers,
and naval shipyards are built.

External Factors

Your country’s economy is, of course, affected
by what happens in the world at large and what
your country does. The factors we discussed
earlier in the chapter – production, taxes, trade,
etc. – take place in your provinces; i.e., within
your own country. We have also described
what "normally" happens, when the world is
quiet and peaceful. Things may be quite differ­ent, however, in times of war or general unrest.

Two factors that affect your economy on dif­f e rent levels and thereby have "multiple eff e c t s "

66

a re your country ’s level of stability and its level
of infrastru c t u re technology. If your country
s u ffers reduced stability, all of your income will
be reduced together with your ability to invest
in re s e a rch. War is another scourge since, even if
your country ’s stability is intact (i.e. another
c o u n t ry declares war on yours), you will face re­duced re s o u rces. Pillaged provinces, centers of
revolt, sieges, assaults, and many other factors
may reduce the population of your pro v i n c e s
and, with time, your income.

Remember that you must think re l a t i v e l y.
When you look back on the past decade and
discover that your annual income has risen
10%, it is not necessarily time to celebrate. If
the annual income of your potential enemies
has increased by 50% during the same period,
you have lost economic strength in relation to
them.

Loans

Loans during this period were as common as
they are today, but repayment was not as com­mon.

Europa Universalis

First of all, you may receive a loan from the
country’s national bank. This means that you
a re borrowing money internally from your
own subjects. If you do not repay the loan you
will suffer the consequences, since your sub­jects are not likely to trust you in the future. A
national bank loan equals 200 ducats, no more
and no less. The size of the loan, however, may
change as a result of development of your
c o u n t ry ’s financial institutions (random
events). Your country may have no more than
five loans simultaneously. Each loan has a term
of five years (effective as of the loan date). After
five years, the loan is either repaid or extended
for five more years. If a loan is extended, then
the interest rate on all loans increases. Each
month the interest due on all loans is deducted
from the monthly income, since the interest is
part of monthly costs, as was mentioned earlier.
The level of stability in the country, the num­ber of loans you have taken, if the country has
been declared bankrupt, and whether you have
renewed any loans, affects the interest rate.

Countries may also lend each other money.
You decide the terms when you extend the off e r
to lend money (in the diplomacy window). Here
you decide the sum you want to off e r, and you
may offer no more than half the sum in your
t re a s u ry at any one time. You may also decide
the interest rate, which can be between 1 and
10%. Finally you decide the loan period, which
may be between 1 and 300 months. Note that
your counterpart may decline the loan off e r.
This is a result of the terms you off e red and your
f o reign affairs relationship. If you are off e red a
loan you cannot negotiate the terms. You may
only accept or decline. If two countries that have
a loan relationship (one has borrowed from the
other) go to war, then the loan ceases to exist,
i.e. the lender will never be repaid and the bor­rower never has to repay the money.

Repayment of a loan is always a problem and
may sometimes come as an unpleasant surprise.
The best way to avoid the surprise is to use the
a rchive effectively (see Archive). Loans fro m
the national bank are for a five-year period,
which means they are to be repaid five years af-

ter they are issued. You cannot choose to repay
the loan earlier because loans of liquid assets
had to be repaid in liquid assets, and since the
majority of the country’s income and expenses
was managed within a barter economy, careful
planning was required. Nor can loans be amor­tized, i.e. paid back a little bit at a time. This is
because those who extended the loans obvi­ously want to maximize the interest income
they receive. When a loan is due for repayment,
you may choose either to repay it in full, or to
renew the loan. Note that if you renew a loan,
you are only postponing the problem because
sooner or later you will either have to repay or
declare national bankruptcy. The latter is very
unpleasant and should be avoided at all costs.
Repayment of loans from other countries
works a little diff e re n t l y. Firstly, they are not
counted toward the five-loan limit. Secondly,
you may simply decide not to pay back the
m o n e y, i.e. declare that you do not owe the
other country any money. This will re s u l t ,
h o w e v e r, in your stability level dropping one
level and giving the other country a Casus Bel­li against your country.

You must declare national bankruptcy if your
c o u n t ry has five unpaid loans and you either
cannot repay one of them on the due date, or if
you have five unpaid loans and your monthly
income/expense balance is negative and your
treasury lacks the funds to cover the difference.
Note that if this should occur and you have less
than five loans, then a loan will automatically
be taken to cover the negative balance.

When your country declares national
bankruptcy the stability level drops one level,
since your subjects lose faith in the ability of the
monarch and the government to manage the
country’s finances. All loans from the national
bank are written off (i.e. disappear) when you
d e c l a re bankru p t c y, but all future loans fro m
the national bank will have a much higher in­t e rest rate. Inflation is cut in half since the
c o u n t ry no longer has interest payments to
make. Finally, your army units and fleets’ com­bat morale drops. This effect will last for three
years from the time your country goes

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bankrupt. The reason for the drop is the gener­al unrest that spread through the troops when
they heard that the national tre a s u r y, fro m
which their salary is paid, was empty.

Observe that loans are not necessarily trou­ble, only poorly managed loans are. Loans are
in fact often a necessity. A few examples are
when your country wants to build factories or
needs to re c ruit army units quickly for a war
that is about to break out. In other word s ,
there will be times in the game when you can­not afford not to take a loan, and then it will be
m o re profitable to take the loan instead of
slowly saving money in the bank.

Inflation

In the past inflation was an even greater prob­lem than it is today, at least in Europe. The rea­son for this was that they had a lesser under­standing of the causes of inflation than today,
and that they lacked the political control neces­sary to suppress it.

As you know, inflation is a function of gener­al price increases keeping a higher pace than in­dividuals’ increases in income, as well as the
amount of legal tender (i.e. money) circulating
in the economy. This was very pro b l e m a t i c
during the pre-capitalist era, and for good rea­son. One problem was the differentiated mon­etary system during this period. It meant that
part of the system was a barter economy with­out money as a means of payment. When mon­ey was used there were several different types of
coins used simultaneously. The value of the
coins was based on the value of the metal of
which the coins were made. Generally it can be
said that the majority of people used copper
coins, the merchants and city dwellers added
the use of silver coins, and the govern m e n t
added gold coins to the mix. If, say, the value of
copper dropped then the relative value of silver
and gold coins increased, amplifying the effects
of inflation for the broad masses of society. An­other problem was the subjects’ confidence in
the quality of the coinage. There were many
possibilities for forg e ry, a fact abused by less
scrupulous governments.

What will increase inflation in your country?
First, it is the supply of gold in your provinces.
The problem was that gold could be used for
little else than coins. If a country could extract
a lot of gold from its gold-pro d u c i n g
p rovinces, then the country ’s govern m e n t
could use this gold as a means of payment. In
simple terms you could say that the amount of
currency in a country must be in balance with
the country’s total production, and when the
means of payment increased disproportionate­ly inflation followed. The rule of thumb is,
then, that gold causes inflation, but at the same
time gold production provides a direct profit of
liquid assets that the other provinces do not
yield. Secondly, inflation is affected if your
c o u n t ry borders on a country that pro d u c e s
gold. Thirdly, the inflation rate will be impact­ed for every neighboring country that has
higher inflation than your country. Fourthly, it
is affected by each loan your country has taken,
since the loan results in liquid assets pouring
into your country ’s monetary system. Fifthly
and perhaps most importantly, it is changed by
the amount of liquid assets you choose to with­draw from your monthly income. By with­drawing liquid assets in this way you are financ­ing public consumption through the produc­tion of coins, which in modern terms is usually
referred to as "starting up the printing press"
(for bank notes).

So what will decrease the country’s inflation?
You may conquer and annex countries that
have a higher inflation than yours, but for obvi­ous reasons this is hardly cost-effective. Choos­ing to cede gold-producing provinces through
peace treaties isn’t an alternative either since
these provinces are some of the richest in the
world. There were, after all, more reasons than
just establishing trading posts for why Spain
chose to colonize America. You may, however,
attempt to avoid taking loans, or at least take as
few as possible and pay them back on when
due. To never withdraw part of your disposable
monthly income as liquid assets is a near im­possibility, but not doing it unnecessarily is a
virtue. Declaring national bankruptcy will cut

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inflation in half, but as mentioned earlier car­ries with it a number of negative economic
consequences. It is almost impossible to avoid
inflation completely, but through a planned
and well-executed economy you may lessen its
effects. One thing you may do to control infla­tion is to appoint mayors as governors. They
a re efficient inflation fighters and each ap­pointment lower inflation by one percent.

What are the effects of inflation? Basically,
the price of anything that money can buy will
increase with inflation. This includes recruiting
army units, building fleets, building or upgrad­ing fortresses, building factories, and appoint­ing public officials. Note that all income con­nected to taxes, trade, and production is affect­ed by inflation.

Upgrading the Infrastructure

Your country ’s income is dependent on the
provinces and their ability to generate it. How
can you affect the provinces’ tax, production,
and trade value?

First of all you may appoint public officials in
the provinces. The bailiff can be appointed tax
collector (infrastru c t u re technology level 1 is
necessary), which means that the province’s tax
value and production value increase, while at
the same time the risk of rebellion in the
p rovince increases. The population does not
approve of the introduction of an efficient tax
a u t h o r i t y. Provided that you have appointed
the bailiff as tax collector you may appoint the
legal counsel to chief justice (infrastru c t u re
technology level 3 is needed), which further in­creases the province’s tax value and lessens the
risk of rebellion. The population is justified in
feeling more secure with an efficient justice sys­tem. You may also appoint the mayor to be
governor (infrastructure technology level 5 is
necessary), which increases the province’s pro­duction value and population, while at the
same time lowering the country ’s inflation.
This is natural since the highest public official
has higher status and authority to control and
manage the province.

One should view the appointment of public
o fficials in the game as a development over
time from a decentralized semi-feudal political
system to an increasingly centralized political
system. The political reform introduced during
the period of the game had strong ties to the
o rganization of the country ’ s economy. In
countries with a semi feudal economy such as
Poland-Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire ,
the political development toward a more cen­tralized society could quickly come to a halt.

Secondly, you may build factories which of
themselves affect a lot of other factors (see In­vesting in Factories). Factories raise the pro­duction value and tax value of the province in
which they are built, since their relatively ad­vanced work methods had "spin-off" eff e c t s .
Note also that factories increase the size of the
population in the province and increase global
demand for certain products.

Thirdly, you may build and upgrade fortress­es. These do not affect the economy signifi­c a n t l y, but protect the province from enemy
control that in turn would lead to a loss of in­come.

Managing Your Resources

Managing your resources is not a miracle drug,
but it may significantly simplify your country’s
challenging path toward victory. "Resourc e s
are limited, but goals are unlimited" is an old
saying that rings true to this day.

When you use your resources, "balance" is a
keyword. This applies both to the monthly bal­ance between income and expenses, as well as
the balance between the different enterprises in
which you may invest your re s o u rces. We di­vide these enterprises roughly into three areas:
Defense, Finance, and Expansion.

The challenge is to defend your country while
you are investing in re s e a rch and upgrading
f o rt resses, appointing public officials, and colo­nizing the New World. If you can succeed in cre­ating monopolies in trade centers and winning a
war or two, then your fortune is secure d — b u t
i t ’s all a matter of keeping the balance.

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Trade and Colonization

When the Europeans first came to America it
was to find gold, honor, and new souls to
Christianize. But the driving force of the ex­pansion changed very quickly. While they start­ed out as discoverers and explorers, the Euro­peans changed to become traders and con­querors. Both in the role as trader, which the
Europeans were in Africa and initially in North
America; and in the role as conqueror, which
they were in South and Central America, the
motivational force behind the expansion
evolved as the native ("discovered") people’s
economy was penetrated, broken apart, and fi­nally replaced with the Western economic sys­tem (during the larger part of the historical pe­riod a form a proto-capitalism).

What happened may be illustrated by the Eu­ropean contact with the native peoples of Nort h
America. The native population primarily sub­sisted on hunting and fishing before the Euro­peans came, but after the first contact when the
E u ropeans off e red weapons and luxury items in

70

exchange for furs, it made more sense in the
s h o rt term for the native people to hunt and
gather furs and to a lesser extent grow corn for a
living. By so doing the native people slowly but
s u rely moved further inland and left the fishing
waters and game-filled hunting grounds behind.
When a tribe later experienced a poor harvest or
d rought they were forced to turn to the Euro­pean traders who exchanged goods for future
supplies of furs at prices that today would be
called profiteering. The areas that the native
people left behind, either due to the afore m e n­tioned reason or because of epidemics, was ex­t remely suitable for European colonization that
indeed started during the early 17th century.
Once the Europeans had a strong foothold in
N o rth America the native peoples never suc­ceeded in retaliating. The Europeans had more
advanced weapons that in fact could have been
p a rried by the native people’s mobility and ef­fective combat tactics, here t o f o re never seen by
the Europeans, but what finally proved decisive
was the diff e rence in political systems. While the

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E u ropean system’s main purpose was to central­ize re s o u rces for use by a small government, the
native people’s decentralized system pre v e n t e d
the North American tribes from mustering joint
re s i s t a n c e .

Due to increasing international trade, more
and more non-European economies were tied
to the European economy, which eventually
transformed into a global economy. The new
colonies grew, increasing the demand for prod­ucts, sparking a dynamic, forw a rd - p u s h i n g
economic effect.

Supply, Demand and Market Prices

As was mentioned earlier, each province has a
tax value, production value, and a trade value.
Production and taxes were an important part
of a pro v i n c e ’s economy, but very few coun­tries were autarchies, i.e. self-sufficient. Differ­ent countries’ inhabitants were variously profi­cient at producing diff e rent products, and
some countries lacked the necessary prerequi­sites to produce some products. Switzerland
does not produce a lot of fish, and Sweden does
not produce a lot of ivory. Trade started as a
means to acquire all the goods that a country
needed but didn’t produce. You could say that
a province’s tax and production values benefit
the country to which the province belongs,
while a province’s trade value goes into a pool
from which every country can compete for the
profits using merchants.

E v e ry province has a trade value based on the
size of the population and the base value of the
p roduct. The trade value is placed in the trade
center to which the province belongs, which you
may see on the trade map by clicking on the trade
symbol in the information window. All trade
t h e reby takes place in the globally distributed
centers of trade. In these centers market prices
a re "set" as a balance between the product value
and the trade value, which re p r esent supply and
demand. The trade income your country re­ceives depends on the number of merchants you
have sent to the trade centers around the world,
i.e. your income is directly pro p o rtional to how
much of the trade your country contro l s .

Centers of Trade, Merchants and

Trade Income

When a center of trade has "set" a market price
each country with merchants in place will re­ceive income from the trade in proportion to
how much of the trade they control. Note that
different centers have different total trade val­ues. A center of trade with a relatively low total
trade value provides less trade income than a
center with a high total trade value. Your coun­try’s trade income depends primarily, however,
on two factors: trade levels and trade techno­logical levels.

First, it depends on the trade level your
country has achieved in each center of trade. A
country may have anywhere from no trade lev­el (i.e. does not control any trade there) to
trade level 6, which means they have a monop­olistic status. More than one country may have
the same trade level. The only exception is
trade level 6, since only one country may have a
monopolistic status. The reason the term "mo­nopolistic status" and not "monopoly" is used
is simply because a country with trade level 6
may accept that other countries trade at the
center but do not send more merchants. In
terms of trade income, the higher your coun­try’s trade level is, the greater the trade income
will be.

Second, your country ’s trade technology
level plays an important part. The concept
"trade technology" perhaps sounds a bit
strange, but it is a generic term for a number of
innovations in the areas or transport a t i o n ,
measurement, credit systems, accounting sys­tems, administrative and financial advances
such as corporations and insurance, and corpo­rate law. The higher your country ’s level of
trade technology, the greater your trade in­come from all centers of trade; and each mer­chant is given greater competitive power in the
battle over market shares.

How do you increase your trade level at a
center of trade? The only way is to send your
merchants. Stationing merchants costs money,
as does their maintenance. It is more expensive
to station and maintain merchants abroad than

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it is to do so in your own country, and it is more
expensive the further from your own borders
the center is located. When one or more mer­chants have been sent to a center of trade they
will fight with existing merchants for market
s h a res. It takes at least a month to settle this
and success depends on the distance from your
capital to the center of trade. Once it is done,
you may see if your country has achieved a
higher trade level or not as well as if you have
driven the merchants of any other country out
of the market. Doing this means that their
country drops one trade level. Note also that
the reverse may happen to you; i.e., that you
lose trade levels in a center of trade as a result of
other countries sending merchants who drive
you out of the market.

Your country ’s merchants’ guild will gro w
each year. The reason for this is your country
starts with one merchant, in addition to which
you earn one merchant for every center of
trade within your country’s borders, one mer­chant for every center of trade where your
c o u n t ry has a monopolistic status, one mer-

72

chant if your country has achieved trade tech­nology level 5, one merchant for every core
p rovince that is also a coastal province, one
m e rchant for every two coastal provinces if
your state religion is Reformist or pro t e s t a n t
(to a maximum of three merchants), and final­ly the level of stability is deducted or added de­pending on whether it is negative or positive.
Your country does not have to send out the
m e rchants immediately upon receiving them
but may instead save up to six merchants at a
time. You may also choose to automatically
send the merchants to the centers of trade. This
you do at one of the centers of trade. Observe,
however, that in this case, you cannot control
where the merchants are sent. The computer
will instead calculate which placement is the
most profitable for your country and send the
m e rchants as soon as there are ducats in the
treasury. Also note that you cannot send mer­chants to trade centers located in countries that
are carrying out a trade embargo against your
country (see Trade Embargo).

The competition at a center of trade depends

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on how many merchants have been sent there
and how often. If the level of competition is
high at the center it may be because the total
trade value is high, the cost of sending mer­chants there is low, and that nearby countries
have access to a small number of altern a t i v e
centers of trade. It is important to remember
that the trade income from a center of trade
where you have monopolistic status (trade lev­el 6) is so much greater than the income at oth­er levels that the fight for monopolistic status
may increase competition immeasurably. In
terms of income, the country with monopolis­tic status receives trade income from their trade
level (6) as well as all other trade income that
would have been generated if the center of
trade had been filled with merchants; i.e., had
all the trade levels been occupied.

The competitiveness of the merchants de­pends on the relative trade technology level of
their country, the administrative skill of their
monarch, which trade level they have already
achieved at the center of trade in question, and
the stability of their country. Additional factors

that may affect their competitive ability is
whether there is a trade embargo in place be­tween competing merchants of different coun­tries, and if the center of trade in which the
competition is taking place lies within either of
the competing merchants’ own borders or not.

Trade income is based on how many trade
levels your country has achieved in the centers
of trade. At each center of trade there are 20
trade levels that may be occupied by the mer­chants. When the trade income is distributed
your country receives as large a share of the to­tal trade value of the trade centers as the num­ber of trade levels you hold divided by the total
number of trade levels, and finally multiplied
by your country’s trade technology level divid­ed by ten.

Example: Curland has trade technology level
3 and four trade levels in the center of trade
"Novgorod" (total trade value: 200). The for­mula reads: (Curland’s trade levels / 20) x total
trade value x Curland’s trade technology level
/ 10 = Trade income from center of trade.
Curland would in this case receive (4 / 20) x

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Europa Universalis

200 x 3/10 = 12 ducats from the trade in
"Novgorod."

As mentioned earlier, monopolistic status
(trade level 6) gives you extra trade income.
What makes this so is the number of trade lev­els that you may count as yours; i.e., you are
c redited for all the "empty" trade levels. It
seems you have more trade levels than you real­ly own. Here’s an example.

Example: Spain has trade level 6, England
trade level 3, and Curland has trade level 2.
Since there are 20 trade levels at a center of
trade, Spain may count on 6 + (20-6-3-2) trade
levels = 6+9 = 15 trade levels, which gives them
15/20 of the center of trade’s total trade value.

The closing of Japan – a historic event

In 1636, the warlord and leader of Japan, the
Shogun Tokugawa Iyemitsu, decides to close
the door of Japan on the world. The Japanese
are not allowed to travel abroad, and those re­siding abroad are not allowed to return home.
This is the beginning of a consistent blockade
policy under which Japan lives in total isolation

74

for 250 years – a petrified Middle Age king­dom, shut out from the world’s political, so­cial, and economic progress, but also protected
from the aggressive colonial policy of the Eu­ropeans.

The event means that Japan carries out, au­tomatically and without negative conse­quences, a trade embargo against every other
c o u n t ry in the world. In order to trade with
Japan you have to defeat them in a war.

Pirates

The period of 1492-1792 may be described as
the golden age of piracy. Pirates worked in
more or less all the known seas, mainly because
of the lack of any protective bases. The relative­ly unprotected trade caused piracy. The colo­nial powers naturally tried to protect their
trade, but they were not able to patrol the
oceans beyond Europe until the later part of
the period. Nevertheless piracy continued and
still exists today, although on a lesser scale.
Piracy involves enormous risk, but also very
high profits if you are lucky.

Europa Universalis

Pirates are autonomous fleets cruising the
sea zones close to centers of trade. The goal of
the pirates is to exploit the weakly protected lu­crative trade far away from the European naval
bases, thereby stealing as much as possible. Pi­rates, (naval units) may never be controlled by
a player but are always autonomous. Pirates are
automatically at war with every country in the
game, and may attack and be attacked by all
countries in the game at any time. Note that a
country does not have to declare war to attack
pirates. A country is never at war when pirates
attack their ships. The country does not lose
any stability, and may not issue any war taxes,
etc.

Pirates influence economy and trade in the
area they reside in by capturing ships and at­tacking coastal provinces. In all provinces adja­cent to a sea zone with pirates, tax income and
trade values are lowered by 0.5 ducats for each
ship of the pirate fleet. In this way pirates affect
both your annual and monthly incomes.

The only way to get rid of pirates is to wipe
them out by sending a fleet and defeating the
pirates in a naval battle. Note that the pirates
may return, because even if the risk was great,
the chance of profit was even greater. We also
recommend placing a fleet in the vicinity of any
sea zone where pirates have attacked, in order
to quickly eliminate any further attempts. Fi­n a l l y, pirates strongly dislike fortifications as
they make it harder to attack your coastal
p rovinces. Building fortifications lessens the
risk of pirates appearing at your coasts, and
thereby leaving your income untouched.

Trading posts and Merchants

Trading posts do not provide any notable pro­duce from the province, but instead give you a
better trading value, which affects the center of
trade it belongs to. It may never have more
than six levels. At the higher levels the trading
post provides a very high trading value. Each
level is equal to one merchant you have sent
there who has succeeded in setting up the next
level. Your colonists may be used as merchants,
colonists or missionaries.

You could say that by setting up a trading
post you lose the ability to start production, as
you let the local inhabitants produce, and in­stead manage the trade with the goods pro­duced.

Trade centers have been mentioned earlier
and it will again be noted that there are big dif­ferences between centers situated in your own
country and centers located outside your bor­ders. If your country has trade centers within
its own borders, the trading value of each trad­ing post your country establishes will belong to
centers in your country. It is also easier to ac­quire and maintain a monopoly (trading level

6) in a center of trade in your own country, as
your merchants will have better competitive
powers.

What are the advantages and disadvantages
of trading posts? The advantage of having trad­ing posts compared with colonies is that they
a re cheap. It is a cheap and practical tool to
"claim" what is yours and thereby tell other
countries to stay away. You may at any time
send a colonist and turn the trading post into a
colony.

Additionally, some parts of the world are di­rectly unsuitably for colonization, but trading
posts are always feasible. Greater parts of Africa
and Asia have climates, which prohibited al­most all colonization prior to the 19th century.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, trading
posts produce high trade values, especially
when trading in unusual and exotic products.
If you manage to establish a number of such
posts and also manage to acquire a monopoly,
trading posts can be a lot more profitable than
colonies.

The drawbacks of trading posts are that they
do not increase the population of your country,
and thereby do not increase your production
and tax values. Trading posts also lack port s ,
which limits the reach of your fleets. You may
not build fortifications, recruit armies, or build
any fleets at your trading posts. This makes
them quite vulnerable to attacks. Additionally,
the maintenance ability is low in provinces with
trading posts, which means that attrition is very

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Europa Universalis

high. Finally, while colonies may only be trans­f e rred to other countries through peace
treaties, enemy army units in the province may
burn trading posts.

If your army unit is in a province with an en­emy trading post, a "Burn trading post" but­ton will appear in the information window. If
you press the button the trading post will dis­appear and the province will be emptied.

Establishing trading posts is the quickest and
easiest way to raise the total trade value of a
center of trade.

Colonization of the New World

We have mentioned before that trading posts
are cheaper then colonies, and most often the
attempt to establish a trading post has a greater
chance of success than an attempt at coloniza­tion. Furt h e rm o re, it is easier to establish a
colony in a province where you already have a
trading post, compared with a neutral
province. Provinces with colonies may develop
into provinces with towns, which is very good
for your country. Provinces with towns provide
both tax and production income, along with
certain trading revenues. A nation with a limit­ed economy can never win in the long run. Be­sides war, colonization is the means by which
you may expand your country ’s financial
strength. It must be noted that not all coun­tries were colonial powers of the same caliber as
Spain, Portugal, France, England, and the
Netherlands. Countries like Russia, Sweden,
Denmark, and Curland made attempts along
those lines but failed to create lasting empires
mainly due to their less strategic geographical
locations and relatively weak economies. To
colonize, your country must explore new
p rovinces, and have access to colonists that
may be sent out as settlers (including mer­chants).

You receive an annual number of colonists at
your capitol. The actual number available to
your country depends on the following condi­tions. Firstly: you never get any colonists if
your country lacks coastal provinces. Secondly:
you acquire one colonist if you build a naval

shipyard. Thirdly; countries with the following
state religions acquire colonists in accordance
with their religion: Catholics and Sunni
Moslems get none; re f o rmed Catholics, Or­thodox Christians, and Protestants get 1; Shia
Moslems get 2; and Reformists get 3. Further:
you may receive colonists through random
events. Finally you may receive 0-3 colonists
depending on colonial dynamics. This depends
on what nation you are playing and what year
you have reached in the game.

When you discover an independent province
to colonize, there are a couple if questions you
should ask. First, check to see if the province
contains local inhabitants, and in such cases, al­so check the size of their military forces (in
game terms: number of army units) and the ag­gression level of the units. You have two choic­es. Either you may send army units to destroy
all enemy forces or you make an attempt at col­onizing, even though the local inhabitants are
still in the province. The advantage of your first
choice is that you get a higher chance of suc­cess, and that there are no more locals to rebel
and take over your colony. The advantage of
the second alternative is that when you have
sent seven colonists to the province, it develops
into a town. The local army units will then dis­solve and are added to the population of the
city, which in turn may provide very high pop­ulations and thereby a high income. Base your
choice on the aggression level of the locals,
which varies from province to province but falls
within a scale of "Ve ry low" to "Ve ry high."
You should also consider whether the province
is suitable for colonization or not. Maybe it
would be better to set up a trading post. This is
something you will learn by playing the game,
but the goods produced by the province and
the aggression level of the natives also play a
part. A rule of thumb is that Africa is rarely suit­able for colonies.

The chance of establishing a colony or a trad­ing post along with its respective costs depends
on a number of things. The cost is lower if you
have a conquistador in your province or an ex­plorer in an adjacent sea zone, if it is a coastal

76

Europa Universalis

province, and if it borders on a province with a
town, or a colony belonging to your nation.
The cost is also heavily dependent on the ag­g ression level of the natives, the distance to
your capital, things present in the province at
your colonization attempt, whether it already
contains a trading post, colony or town, and
what level it may have. The climate of the
province also plays a part. The chance of suc­cess depends on whether you have a conquista­dor in the province or not, if there is a town,
colony or trading post already present, and the
number of earlier attempts. Note also that
France has a small extra bonus if there are na­tives in the province, which represents the his­torical successes of France in negotiating with
the natives of America, India and Africa.

When you have succeeded in establishing a
colony it is appropriate to check the rate of
population increase of your province by click­ing the church icon in the information win­dow. If the population growth is negative you
have either chosen a very poor location for the
colony or your country has a low stability. Note
that growth also is dependent on the size of the
c o l o n y, i.e. if you send more colonists and
thereby increasing the population, you will also
i n c rease the growth rate, and the chance of
success at your next attempt at colonization
will increase. It’s a good thing to have colonies,
but developing them into towns is even better.

The Treaty of Tordesillas —

A Historical Event

The Treaty of Tordesillas formalized the decree
of the Pope that the world west of the Azores
should belong to Spain and that the eastern
half should belong to Portugal. The dividing
line was later moved to the west of the Cape
Ve rde islands, allowing Portugal to keep its
possessions in Brazil. The world was also divid­ed in the Pacific to let Spain keep the Philip­pines. Portugal got everything west of the line
and Spain everything to the east. The borders
of the Treaty can be seen on the map, i.e. the
one you use when you want to send colonists.

The Treaty of Tordesillas ceases to be valid

when the Edict of Tolerance occurs (see Four
Important Events).

Explorers and Conquistadors

E x p l o rer and Conquistadors are often abso­lutely necessary if your country is to become a
real colonial power. Explorers explore sea
zones that are Terra Incognita, and conquista­dors explore provinces that are Terra Incogni­ta.

Note that there are areas that are Permanent
Te rra Incognita that may never be explore d .
When a country reaches Naval Te c h n o l o g y
Level 21 and Land Military Level 11 any "nor­mal" commanders may discover provinces and
sea zones that were previously Terra Incognita,
but it takes much longer, when compared with
explorers and conquistadors.

Conquistadors and explorers also have some
unique abilities, which is why they are called
specialists and not commanders. Conquista­dors and explorers provide lower attrition rates
for their respective fleets and army units. This is
due to their personal courage and excellent
ability to lead these units into the unknown.
Conquistadors also receive a bonus in pitched
battles against natives, due to the better
weaponry of the Europeans, and the ability to
turn cultural beliefs about gods and myths to
their own advantage. Finally, the conquista­dors have a nasty ability to spread disease
among the natives in the provinces thro u g h
which they pass.

Note that the measles, smallpox, and the
common cold were some of the most impor­tant reasons why the Europeans managed to
establish control over North America. Note al­so that none of the special values have any ef­fect in Europe and that the power value is a lot
lower there then beyond the borders of Eu­rope.

Note also that explorers need to get ashore
from time to time; otherwise they will wear out
and disappear. A good tactic is to establish
colonies here and there, so that your explorers
do not have to travel far every time they go to
e x p l o re Te rra Incognita. Regarding the con-

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Europa Universalis

quistadors it may be a good idea to develop at
least one colony into a town in every important
region or continent you try to explore, as you
may then periodically increase the army of the
c o n q u i s t a d o r, as even these units suffer attri­tion.

As the conquistador increases the chance of a
successful attempt at colonization, it may be a
good idea to return with a conquistador to a
colony when you want to speed up the devel­opment by sending more colonists. Remember
that it may be a good idea to "claim" a province
you can’t afford to colonize by establishing a
trading post, as the trading post is both cheap
and easy to establish.

Colonial Growth and Economic

Consequences

We have mentioned that the populations of
your provinces grow over time. The popula­tion of a province grows or declines on a
monthly basis, with growth depending on the
population growth factor of the province. The
only difference between a province with a town

78

and a colony is that the colony has a lower pop­ulation growth due to its smaller size. Other
then that all growth factors are the same.

Whether it is best to concentrate on a few
colonies and develop them into towns as fast as
possible, or to go for more colonies that partly
run themselves and let them develop over time
with the population growth, is not an easy
question to answer. It all depends on the style
of the player, the position of your country on
the map and what the other countries are do­ing, where your colonies are located, et cetera.

The important thing to keep in mind is that a
good balance between trading posts and
colonies is very profitable for your nation, as
you receive higher income from both produc­tion and taxes, and from trade. Trading posts
c o m p a red with colonies provide higher re v­enues in a shorter period of time at a lower
price. The only problem is in defending them.
Another good point is that, no matter what
strategies you choose, you always have to find a
way to defend your possessions. Remember
that if, for example, you have decided to colo-

Europa Universalis

nize North America, (between 50 to 100
colonies) with Level 1 colonies, and if you have
not deployed any army units or fleets as protec­tion, your transatlantic empire will be a quick
and easy target for any of your neighbors. Even
computerized countries enjoy free lunches.

Protecting Your Colonies

As has been mentioned earlier, colonies and
trade centers need protection. The attrition
rate of the army units are often very high in
p rovinces with trading posts and high in
provinces with colonies and for this reason it is
often a good idea to expand a colony into a
town, preferable in a province within marching
distance of your other colonies and trading
posts. You may only re c r uit army units and
build ships for your navies in provinces with
towns. Unless you want to transport a gre a t
number of army units that are rapidly worn out
all over the oceans, it is important that you try
to create a small, civilized zone in an ocean of
colonies.

It is also appropriate to base naval forces at
strategic points along your new pro v i n c i a l
coasts, in order to fight pirates and to ward off
enemy troops. We should mention that a trade
station may never provide the province with a
port, which in some regions (i.e. Africa) means
that you may have to build colonies in less prof­itable locations if you want to be able to sail
from Europe to India or Asia, or if you want to
be able to defend any of your trading posts in
Africa.

Note that diplomacy is a natural tool for pro­tecting your colonies and trading posts. If for
instance the Netherlands were creating a small
trade empire with unprotected colonies and
trading posts spread all over the world, it
would be wise not to make enemies with pow­erful neighbors like Portugal.

Technology and
Development.

To Develop Over Time

This game starts in the late Middle Ages when
a rm o red knights, crossbows, and halberd s
ruled the battlefield. Then comes the re n a i s­sance with the first fire a rms and the drill. It
ends with the late baroque period with well­trained and drilled mass armies in perf e c t
squares and scientifically formed sieges. Under
such conditions it is of utmost importance that
you develop over time.

Your nation has four areas of technology. Re­search is automatic in these areas and the level
of technology in each field increases over time.
This basic re s e a r ch is slow, but may be im­p roved by investments. This means that you
may choose how much of your monthly in­come you want to spend on research in the var­ious fields on a regular basis, but you may also
directly invest in one or more areas of research.
The direct investment cost 200 ducats and pro­vides a technology advancement equal to 100
ducats spent over time. Note that you may on­ly invest directly in a field of technology once a
year. All investments are made in your state ac­count. When enough research has been made
within a field the level increases by one step. If
your nation has reached the maximum level in
a field of technology at the end of the game, all
investments in that area are transferred to the
treasury.

The four fields of technology are Land mili­t a r y technology, Naval military technology,
Trade level and Infrastructure.

Besides the investments mentioned above,
research is influenced by the military and ad­ministrative skill of the monarch with reference
to trade and infrastructure, which both influ­ence the land and naval military technology.
Also, you receive a negative research bonus for
e v e r y trade embargo your country has re­ceived, as it prevents influence and impulses
from abroad. The levels of your neighbors in
those areas influence all areas of technology. It

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is also linked to the technology group of your
country, which will be explained later. Finally,
re s e a r ch is cheaper if your country is small
(containing fewer provinces) than if your
country is large (with more provinces), as ap­plying and coordinating re s e a rch and intro­ducing the results need more time in larg e r
countries compared with the smaller ones.

Note that every consecutive level of technol­ogy becomes more expensive over time. This is
due to inflation and the increase of your in­come, as well as due to the fact that innovations
in time become more highly advanced and
need more resources. Technology does not re­ally advance until the Industrial Revolution.

To Invest in Stability

Stability is not technology as such, but as we
mentioned earlier, it is a generic term for the
political and social state of your country. You
may divide your monthly income as "invest­ments" in stability or you may make point con­tributions in the same way as in the other tech­nological areas. This investment is actually the
cost of countering and pacifying various upset
social groups. It should be noted that when
your country ’s stability reaches its maximum
(+3) the entire sum invested each month is
paid out in real ducats instead. It is therefore
wise to watch this development, in order to re­set the distribution of your investments so you
won’t get unnecessary inflation.

Areas of Technology and Research.

There are four areas of technology in the game;
Land military, Naval military, Trade and Infras­tructure.

Land Military Technology concerns the in­novation and change of weaponry and equip­ment; e.g. firearms, standardized uniforms and
new systems of maintenance and support, but
also tactical and strategic developments such as
f o rmations and the introduction of the dra­goon on the battlefield. Sometimes advances in
natural science may have immediate effects on
warfare. Your land military technology affects
all of your army units. The higher the level is,

the higher the firepower, the shock effect, and
the morale of your units will be. It should be
noted that in pitched battles, the most impor­tant factor is the relative strength of the oppos­ing forces.

Naval Military Technology comprises inno­vations and changes in weaponry, equipment
and new types of ships, e.g. new naval artillery
types, roping and rigging in new materials, new
navigational techniques, or the introduction of
the frigate as a heavily armed vessel etc. Also in­cluded are tactical and strategic advancements
such as new flag signaling systems, new battle
arrays and new improved ways of maneuvering.

Sometimes advances in natural science may
have immediate effects on naval warfare. Your
naval technology affects all your fleets. The
higher the level is, the higher the firepower, the
shock effects and morale of your fleets, along
with a better ability to use the winds and the sea
will be. As with pitched battles, the important
factor is the relative strength of the opposing
forces.

Trade is not technology in itself, but a devel­opment and refinement of the rules and meth­ods that make trade more effective and prof­itable. Examples are transportation, measure­ments, and systems for credit, bookkeeping,
administrative and financial innovations like
companies and insurance, and the right of
c o m m e rce. Trade technology affects the in­come of trade and the competitiveness of your
merchants.

Infrastructure is not technology either, but a
generic term covering the changes in society,
which increase governmental influence and ef­ficiency of the economy. The systems of trans­p o rtation are another example. Additionally
we should mention factors such as new im­proved systems for taxes and fees, a functional
national banking system, the bureaucracy of
the state management, partitioning of land and
c rop rotation, and changes in the guilds. In­f r a s t ru c t u re affects all your income except
trade revenues.

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Cultural Technology Groups

The game contains four technology gro u p s :
the Exotic, Orthodox, Moslem, and Latin
groups. Each nation belongs to a technology
group, which may never be changed. You may
not change technology group by changing
your state religion, as there are more factors in­volved than just religion. The technology
groups represent the different political and so­cial attitudes, along with cultural and religious
beliefs about and against new technology. The
d i ff e rence between the technology groups is
the rate of research. The groups are listed be­low in technological order of eff e c t i v e n e s s
(from the slowest to the fastest).

Exotic: All non-European nations having
neither Moslem nor Christian state re l i g i o n s ,
along with the Nubians and the Mughal Em­pire.

Moslem: All nations with the Moslem state
religion except the Nubians and the Mughal
Empire.

O rthodox: All nations with the Ort h o d o x
state religion, including Hungary, Poland­Lithuania, Moldavia and Wallachia.

Latin: All other nations.

Investing in Factories

Your nation may invest in factories, which are
specialized buildings of great importance to
your nation. Historically we may show that the
number of proto-companies and pro t o - i n d u s­tries determined the relative importance of the
various regions of Europe in economic, politi­cal, and social status. A factory turns your
p rovince into one of the important regions. Yo u
may only build one factory in each pro v i n c e .

Factories provide a monthly income, as has
been discussed above. Additionally they affect
research in their respective fields of technology,
lessen the risk of rebellion, increase the de­mand for certain goods, and increase the rate
of population growth in the province where
the factory is located. There are five buildings

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that are called factories: refineries, naval equip­ment factories, fine arts academies, weapons
factories, and goods factories.

The refinery was usually a semi-governmen­tal distillery, which could produce alcoholic
beverages at a reasonable price and in much
higher quantities then at home. Lots of liquor
became important export goods to fore i g n
countries and colonies. Liquor also became a
part of the social intercourse among both high
and low. The calming effects of the intoxicat­ing beverages lessened social anxiety and in­c reased the fighting ability of soldiers and
sailors during harsh conditions. You may build
refineries when you have reached technology
level 2, providing an extra monthly income if
the refinery is placed in a province producing
sugar or wine. Every re f i n e ry provides a re­search bonus in Trade.

Naval equipment factories were a number of
smaller factories producing rope, rigging,
treated hemp and flax and sails. Naval equip­ment factories are necessary if you want to
achieve the status of naval nation, because all of
these goods are in demand if you are going to
build ships. The naval equipment factory may
only be built when you have reached naval
technology level 5, providing an extra monthly
income if it is built in a province pro d u c i n g
naval necessities or fish. Each factory you build
p rovides a re s e a rch bonus in naval military
technology.

The fine arts academies were not actually
places of manufacture, but places where the at­mosphere and environment were designed to
attract artists such as singers, philosophers, his­torians, academics and learned men. The fine
arts academy also contains a number of things,

which attract these people, such as universities,
theaters, opera houses, churches, and magnifi­cent castles and palaces. They had immaculate
botanical gardens, and you could also find the
occasional triumphal arches.

A fine arts academy may be built when you
have reached infrastructure level 4, and it pro­vides an extra monthly income if you build it in
your capital province. Each academy provides a
research bonus for stability.

The weapons factories consisted of a number
of diff e rent production facilities. These were
advanced furnaces, smithies, and foundries,
and they could also contain mines and facilities
for ore processing. To have a weapons factory
is a definite plus in the technological struggle
for advantages on the battlefield. Weapons fac­tories may be built when you reach land mili­tary technology level 17 and they provide an
extra monthly income when building in
provinces producing iron or copper. Each fac­tory provides a research bonus in land military
technology.

Goods factories are a generic term for all the
specialized smaller workshops producing goods
for export. Mostly these include refined cloth,
cotton, and tobacco, but other luxuries may al­so be included, such as ivory, furs, spices, and
oriental goods, or even the packaging and han­dling of fish, sugar and salt. The spread of the
goods factories comprised the origin of indus­trialization, a catalyst for huge trade volumes
and capitalism in general. Goods factories may
be built when you reach infrastru c t u re level 6
and each provides a monthly income if built in
p rovinces producing cloth, cotton or tobacco.

Each factory also provides a bonus in re­search in the area of infrastructure.

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Monarchs

Stimulating Development

The development of your country is aff e c t e d
by a number of factors. It is affected by every­thing you may do that is described in this text,
along with everything that your opponents are
doing and how they are reacting. We have
mentioned earlier that you are playing the man
behind the throne, "the gray eminence." This
means that the monarchs of your country are
succeeding each other over time. The qualities
of your monarch affect the development of
your country in a number of areas. Each
monarch has a military, an administrative, and a
diplomatic skill.

The military skill provides a continuous
bonus in research in both land and naval mili­tary technology. Note that a monarch does not
have to be skilled on the battlefield to obtain a
high level of military skill, but may be a re­f o rmer with strong interests in technological
and organizational development. Examples of
such monarchs are the Swedish king Charles XI
and the Ottoman sultan Süleyman the Great. If
the monarch is a great leader on the battlefield,
your country will then gain a supreme com­mander in the monarch. Note that the
monarch may die prematurely in battle on land
or at sea, just like ordinary commanders. If this
happens, governmental control is taken over
by regency. Andrea Doria, a leader of the Gen­ovese Republic, Jan Sobieski, a Polish-Lithua­nian king, and Gustavus II Adolphus, a king of
Sweden, are examples of such monarchs.

The administrative skill provides a continu­ous bonus in re s e a r ch for infrastru c t u re and
trading technology, along with an investment
bonus for stability.

The Administrative skill affects your foreign
political relations every time your country is in­volved in diplomatic activities. The higher the
skill of your monarch, the greater the chance of
making successful suggestions will be.

Epochal Events

There are monarchs and there are monarchs.

In the game, some monarchs are joined in what
are called "epochal events." This simulates the
exceptional dynamics of your country during
the period. Below is a list and description of the
m o n a rchs and statesmen who automatically
provide epochal events. These events are in fact
random events, which are no longer random,
but happen automatically during each re i g n .
Exactly what these events are will not be re­vealed here, as you will have to play to find out.

Süleyman I

Country: The Ottoman Empire
Skills:

Administration: 9
Military: 8

Diplomacy: 7
Period of reign: 1520-1566
Type: Monarch
Süleyman the Great, or "the Magnificent" as he
was also known, was the son of Selim I, and
gained power in a fast and bloody coup. His
b rothers, who lost all their influence in the coup,
w e re executed, just like Ottoman custom dictat­ed. His 46 years as a ruler is re g a rded as a very
glorious period in Ottoman history, and poster­ity often calls this the golden age of the Ottoman
E m p i re. He was a highly skilled administrator
and lawmaker, and he also re f o rmed the econo­m y, financing system, and the bure a u c r a c y. He
also sped up the incorporation of Euro p e a n
technology in the Ottoman Empire. After hav­ing re o rganized and modernized the Ottoman
a rmies, the great conqueror launched thirt e e n
g reat military campaigns. These added Serbia,
Rhodes, Hungary, Iraq, Moldavia, and Azerbai­jan to the realm. Parts of Hapsburg Austria and
Persia were also conquered. At the same time
the Ottoman fleets were spreading terro r
t h roughout the Mediterranean. The Christian
nations in the area were highly concerned about
ending up under the scepter of the sultan. He al­so negotiated with François I of France, who re­g a rded Süleyman as a bulwark against Austrian
h e g e m o n y. Until his death in 1566, Süleyman –
and thereby the Ottoman Empire – was perh a p s
the most important arbitrator of Euro p e .

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Henry VIII

Country: England
Skill:

Administration: 7
Military: 8

Diplomacy: 6
Period of reign: 1509-1547
Type: Monarch
As the son of Henry VII, the founder of the
Tudor dynasty after the War of the Roses, the
most important goal for Henry VIII was the
s u rvival of the dynasty. To reach his goal he
married six times in order to provide the En­glish throne with an heir. Henry VIII was a
monarch of his times and he was very proud of
his court and its splendor, but he nevertheless
took care of the political, economic, and reli­gious problems facing England. He very skill­fully used the animosity between Spain and
France, and allied himself sometimes with the
one, sometimes with the other. As an adminis­trator, Henry managed very well in his work to
pull England out of the economic misery it had
fallen into after the War of the Roses. He
chiefly supported the production of wool, and
it would later become the foundation for Eng­land’s prosperity, as this wool was then export­ed to the Flemish cities, which turned it into
cloth, dyed it, and sold it. Because of this eco­nomic connection, England would later on
show a great interest in the Dutch struggle for
freedom.

Charles V

Country: Spain and Austria
Skill:

Administration: 9

Military: 8

Diplomacy: 6
Period of reign: 1516-1566
Type: Monarch
Charles was the leading man of the house of
Hapsburg, and as son of Philip the Good and
Joan the Mad he came to inherit a realm where
the sun never set. From his mother he inherited
Spain, southern Italy, and The New World to
the west, and from his father he inherited Aus-

tria, Bohemia, Hungary, and the Netherlands.
In Austria he was Charles V but in Spain he was
known as Charles I.
Charles was a very pious Catholic and spent
most of his time fighting the Pro t e s t a n t
h e retics in Germany and the infidel Turks in
the whole of the Mediterranean region. He al­so launched an attack against the Barbary
States of Algeria and Tunis, and although the
attack failed, it did not affect his rising star. His
greatest victory was against France in Italy. The
French had invaded this region and Charles de­feated François I at Pavia in 1525. The struggle
against the French fared worse at his northern
front in present day Belgium and Lorraine, and
this may have been the first signs showing that
his realm was far too big and too diverse. In
1566 he abdicated, bitter about his setbacks in
the religious conflicts in Germany. The empire
was split between his brother Maximilian of
Austria and his son Philip II of Spain. Charles
returned to his beloved Spain where he spent
the last of his days praying in the monastery of
San Yuste.

François I

Country: France
Skill:

Administration: 8
Military: 9

Diplomacy: 5
Period of reign: 1515-1547
Type: Monarch
When Louis XII, also called the spider king,
died in 1515, his sons were long since dead. As
France had an order of succession preventing
women from inheriting the throne, François de
Valois-Angoulème, the son of a second cousin,
succeeded to the throne. He was crowned in
1515 as François I. He was imbued with the
c h i v a l rous and knightly ideals of the earlier
generations, and the legendary Bayard had
dubbed him a knight directly on the battlefield
at Marignano in 1515. He was also without
s c ruples as a diplomat and politician, who
made alliances with both the heretic Pro t e s­tants of Germany and the Moslems. François

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was also a leading personality in the field of cul­ture and a protector of the arts, with a passion­ate interest in the Italian renaissance. François
was less successful in his wars against Charles V
and left his nation in chaos at his death in 1547.
Maybe he should be excused as France had ac­tually fought several wars against one of the
greatest empires of the world without losing as
much as an inch of his lands.

Ivan IV

Country: Russia
Skill:

Administration: 4
Military: 9

Diplomacy: 8
Period of reign: 1533-1584
Type: Monarch
Ivan was born in 1533 and his mother Elena
ruled the nation from when he was three years
old until he ascended to the throne as czar of all
Russia in 1547. He was a highly skilled and ac­tive organizer and re f o rm e r, and set up the
S t relstser Guard (infantry in the west Euro­pean style equipped with firearms), and man­aged to expand the realm south (Volga) and
east (Kazan and Siberia). He failed to make in­roads in the Baltic counties or Finland, but in
all probability laid the foundation for the
strategic dogma which influenced all later
czars, namely to gain ports in the west. Ivan is
often given the epithet "the Terrible." It is true
that he reigned with terror chiefly against the
powerful nobles at the end of his period, but it
should be noted that his mother "disappeared"
when he was only eight and that during the
next decade he lived in fear of the nobles who
had pushed him aside and humiliated him. He
also accused them of the death of his beloved
wife Anastasia in 1560. His violent behavior
seems to have its origin in the senile dementia
Ivan acquired toward the end of his life. The
fear of forgetfulness and the hate he felt for the
nobles could well have been the offsetting fac­tors. His death in 1584 was followed by a long
period of anarchy in Russia.

Mehmet Sokullu

Country: The Ottoman Empire
Skill:

Administration: 9
Military: 6

Diplomacy: 6
Period of reign: 1564-1579
Type: Statesman
Mehmet Sokullu was Sadr-I azam or "grand
vizier" in the Ottoman Empire. Sokullu Pasha,
as he most often was called, was a very righ­teous and loyal administrator, which was rather
unusual during the period. Mehmet part i a l l y
reformed the financial system of the Ottoman
Empire and made the state less dependent on
the feudal system. He also managed to recon­struct the finances after the costly wars of Sü­leyman the Great. At an early stage he also un­derstood the fact that the naval forces of the
country were not up to the task of expanding
its dominion at sea in the Mediterranean and
then keeping it without upgrading the technol­o g y. Unsuccessfully he tried to convince his
ruler, but Süleyman’s continued naval warfare
resulted in the battle at Lepanto in 1571,
which turned into a strategic loss for the realm.

Elizabeth I

Country: England
Skill:

Administration: 8

Military: 6

Diplomacy: 8
Period of reign: 1558-1603
Type: Monarch
Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and
Ann Boleyn and succeeded her half bro t h e r
E d w a rd VI and her half sister Mary on the
throne. Elizabeth was a strong monarch with
the same spirit as her father and grandfather, a
true Tudor. Under Elizabeth’s firm leadership
England developed from a backward land of
farmers on the outskirts of Europe to a nation
of merchants and seafarers. It was also during
her reign that English explorers and adventur­ers, like the Cabots, father and son, and Sir
Francis Drake, sailed the oceans. She also es-

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tablished trading companies for trade to the
West Indies, the Far East and India. The manu­facture of wool was developed further with dif­ferent protectionist measures and special trad­ing companies. Elizabeth ruled with an author­ity that resembled the autocracies later devel­oped on the continent. Autocracy never got a
foothold in England, mainly because of its
strong parliament, but during the reign of Eliz­abeth, decisions were often made by royal de­c ree and within the Privy Counsel without
passing through parliament. This way of ruling
worked during the reign of Elizabeth, as the
nation faced strong and powerful neighbors
like Spain and France, but after the destruction
of the Armada in 1558 and the death of the
queen in 1603, the conflict between the new
S t u a rt dynasty and the parliament incre a s e d .
This would eventually be the catalyst for the
coming civil war.

Richelieu

Country: France
Skill:

Administration: 8
Military: 7

Diplomacy: 9
Period of reign: 1624-1643
Type: Statesman
Armand Jean du Plessis, the cardinal Richelieu,
was 39 years old when he was accepted into the
council of ministers through the widowed
queen, Marie de’Medici. Four years later he
was the prime minister of Louis XIII. His
greatest accomplishments in domestic politics
were the elimination of resistance against the
crown among the dukes and princes, and the
abolition of the privileges of the Huguenots,
enjoyed since the religious peace of Henry IV.
He was also a man of progress who supported
colonial expansion, non-European trade, and
the founding of a permanent royal navy. His
best characteristic was perhaps his exceptional
diplomatic skill. The intricate game he played
during the Thirty Years War is a prime example.
With subsidies he managed to maintain an ef­fective Swedish offensive, which seriously

t h reatened the power of the Empero r, and
made France finally enter the war against the
Emperor in 1653. France entered as an individ­ual participant that made it independent of the
f o rtunes or misfortunes of the other nations.
His goal was to reduce the power of the Haps­burg dynasty and prevent the surrounding of
France; for the most part, the great card i n a l
was successful in this.

Olivares

Country: Spain
Skill:

Administration: 8
Military: 7

Diplomacy: 7
Period of reign: 1621-1643
Type: Statesman
The Count of Olivares led the Spanish govern­ment under the reign of Philip IV between
1621 and 1665. Philip IV ascended the throne
as king at the age of 16. He was a talented
youth and more interested in culture than pol­itics, which gave Olivares quite a free hand.
Olivares was a brilliant man, a cunning states­man with a hard grip. Poetry, literature
(Calderon), and art (El Greco, Velasquez, and
Murillo) flourished. Spanish fashion and cus­toms spread rapidly across Europe. In its poli­tics Spain fared worse, mainly because the
country no longer had the resources of a few
decades earlier, but also because Olivares tried
to accomplish too much in too short a time.
He quickly involved Spain in the Thirty Years
War on the side of the Emperor and the Span­ish troops were considered the best in Europe
at the beginning of the war. At the same time
he started a re-conquest of the Netherlands.
When the Holy Alliance started to lose ground
and it was seen that Spain couldn’t retake the
Netherlands the situation turned chaotic.
Spain was paralyzed by rebellion and in 1640
both Catalonia and Portugal broke free of the
kingdom, although Catalonia was re c a p t u re d
in 1652. The tre a s u r y of Spain was emptied
and the nation was exhausted by the wars. Oli­v a res was dismissed. It should be noted that

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many of the Spanish problems were based on
economic reasons, or depended on the poor
strategic position of Spain, for which Olivares
should not be blamed.

Gustavus II Adolphus

Country: Sweden
Skill:

Administration: 8
Military: 9

Diplomacy: 9
Period of reign: 1611-1632
Type: Monarch
Gustavus II Adolphus was crowned in 1611 at
a time when Sweden was in the middle of a rag­ing war. He was a magnificent and refined, but
slightly choleric, gentleman who had inherited
many of the traits of his grandfather, Gustavus
Vasa. His goal was to bring order to the domes­tic politics and to stop Russian expansion and
the Danish attempts at recapturing Sweden.
These political goals later developed into a de­sire to control the sea and to create a Swedish
influence in Protestant Germ a n y. Sweden
reached peace with Denmark in 1613, with
Russia in 1617, and agreed to a cease-fire with
Poland-Lithuania in 1692, all of which provid­ed Sweden with a political breathing space,
some new provinces, and customs income
from a number of Polish ports. This gave Gus­tavus II Adolphus a chance to engage in the
Thirty Years War. It was a war that, for a short
period of time, turned Sweden into a gre a t
power, but also resulted in a number of neigh­bors lusting for revenge. Gustavus II Adolphus
reorganized and made the military more effec­tive, and thus provided Sweden with one of the
s t rongest armies of the century. As a man he
was always at the center of events, and died in
battle one foggy morning at Lützen. He was
the last of the Vasa dynasty, as his daughter
Kristina left no heirs, and after a short reign she
abdicated and left Sweden for Rome and
Catholicism.

Axel Oxenstierna

Country: Sweden
Skill:

Administration: 8
Military: 8

Diplomacy: 8
Period of reign: 1612-1654
Type: Statesman
Count Axel Oxenstierna was born in 1583 and
started his career in the service of the state as
early as 1602. In 1612 he was appointed lord
high counselor and became the right hand of
Gustavus II Adolphus. In many ways he was al­so the king’s teacher in economic and diplo­matic matters, but his influence did have limi­tations. He did not manage to stop the king
from entering the heavy strife over religion that
developed into the Thirty Years War. After the
death of the king in 1632 he took control over
Sweden and the Protestant Union. He also
managed to get Richelieu’s France to intervene
in the conflict. Initially he also had a stro n g
grip on domestic politics, but lost everything
when queen Kristina abdicated, something he
was dead set against. He died in 1654, only a
s h o rt time after the coronation of Charles X
Gustavus.

Colbert

Country: France
Skill:

Administration: 9

Military: 8

Diplomacy: 8
Period of reign: 1661-1683
Type: Statesman
Jean-Baptiste Colbert was born in 1619 and
was appointed counselor of the exchequer in
1661 by Louis XIV. Colbert created a uniform
F rench economy in the modern sense. His
s t a t e - c o n t rolled economy resulted in better
systems for taxation, systematic budgeting, and
budget follow-ups. Colbert was also one of the
first economy theorists. By defining the work­ings of the economy he was able to influence
the economy profitably. In this sense Colbert
c reated the economic and political theories

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that today are known as mercantilism. In ac­cordance with this he strove to maintain trade
balance by supporting exports and introducing
t a r i ffs on imports. He encouraged and in­c reased the efficiency of domestic trade by
building roads and canals, by abolishing local
tolls, and the introduction of state monopolies.
He subsidized manufacturing, supported trad­ing associations, and forbade emigration to ar­eas other then Canada, etc. He supported the
royal navy, the merchant fleet, and the national
shipbuilding industry. The main weakness of
m e rcantilism was that it did not strive to en­courage any increase in production. When
C o l b e rt died in 1683, his son Colbert de
Seignelay took over until 1690. The son was a
good and loyal associate but he lacked the bril­liance and courtly skills of his father.

Peter I

Country: Russia
Skill:

Administration: 9
Military: 9

Diplomacy: 9
Period of reign: 1682-1725
Type: Monarch
Piotr Alexeievitch was the son of Fyodor III
and succeeded him to the throne in 1682, at
the age of 10. His half sister Sophia was not
pleased and through a palace coup she placed
his mentally ill half brother Ivan V as co-re­gent. She herself ruled Russia from behind the
t h rone with her lover Vasilij Golitsyn. When
Ivan died in 1689, Peter took over as ruler. His
goal was to expand Russia and to succeed
where his predecessors had failed. He made a
trip to We s t e rn Europe in 1697-98 and it
probably gave him the practical ideas needed to
i m p rove the technology of Russia. Thro u g h­out most of his reign he was busily making war.
Before the Great Nordic War he was conquer­ing lands around the Black Sea. During the
Great Nordic War he conquered the Baltic, and
the battle of Poltava is considered one of the
most important battles in Russian military his­tory. The victory marked Russia’s position as a

E u ropean nation and one of considerable
s t rength. His re f o rms were mainly aimed at
creating a powerful and skilled army, but it pro­vided a number of positive side effects. The re­f o rms concerned trade, production, politics,
military organization and the establishment of
a navy. Many are of the opinion that Peter the
Great, as he was called later, was the greatest of
all the Russian czars.

Köprülü

Country: The Ottoman Empire
Skill:

Administration: 9
Military: 7

Diplomacy: 8
Period of reign: 1656-1661 (Mehmet) and
1661-1676 (Ahmed)
Type: Statesman
Mehmet Köprülü was born sometime between
1557 and 1580 in the small village of Radnick in
Albania. His parents were Christian and as a
young boy he was re c ruited by the devsirm sys­tem (Christian boys without clan loyalties were
collected at a very young age and brought up as
w a rriors and good Moslems). He started his ca­reer as a cook and advanced to the ministry of fi­nance, where his competence soon made him
pasha of central Anatolia, where he before long he
e a rned a reputation of being a very fair and disin­t e rested administrator. This was relatively un­h e a rd of in the Ottoman Empire during the peri­od, as local clans were quite powerful. You need­ed great integrity and social competence to rule a
p rovince with authority. As governor of Damas­cus he was brought to Rum on the 15th of
September in 1656 and entered the role as sadr- i
azam (grand vizier) by order of the mother of the
young sultan Mehhmet IV. Köprülü was a warr i o r
by heart, who fought corruption and intro d u c e d
many re f o rms, balanced the state budget, and led
the nation in war against Venice. After his death in
1661, his son Ahmed the Righteous inherited the
position and ruled until 1676. Other sadr-i
azams, like Kara Mustafa (1676-1683), Mustafa
Pasha (1689-1691) and Hussein Pasha (1697-

1702) were all descendants of Mehmet.

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De Witt

Country: The Netherlands
Skill:

Administration: 9
Military: 7

Diplomacy: 8
Period of reign: 1653-1672
Type: Statesman
Jan de Witt became prime minister in 1653,
and the Netherlands experienced a golden age
during his rule. Jan also spent the greatest part
of his life fighting the power of the house of
Orania. This struggle can be viewed in the light
of the battles between parliaments and the roy­alty of other nations, but the house of Orania
was the "stathoulder," which was more like
s u p reme commander of the military, rather
than royalty. In 1667 Jan managed to get his
bill of exclusion directed at them, thereby elim­inating their influence from the affairs of the
state. This would later backlash when the
Netherlands declared war on France, as the
family returned and he himself was imprisoned.
On the 20th of August 1672 Jan and his broth­er Cornelis were lynched by a mob incited by
de Witt’s political adversaries.

Louis XIV

Country: France
Skill:

Administration: 6

Military: 9

Diplomacy: 8
Period of reign: 1643-1715
Type: Monarch
Louise XIV inherited the throne from his fa­ther Louis XIII at the age of five. A rebellious
nobility and civil war threatened France during
the early years of his reign. When he personally
came to power he ruled as autocrat. "I am the
State," is an expression that has been attributed
to Louis XIV. The expression "We’ll see,"
which he used systematically to always get the
last word, is more interesting. During the peri­od the palace at Versailles was completed and
the royal family took residence there. The no­bles had no alternative but to go there to re-

ceive their orders. Louis XIV was very
pompous; he regarded himself as the Sun King,
and his goal was French hegemony in Europe.
The pomposity had two very real political pur­poses—to serve as propaganda to trump others
in pomp and flare, and by limiting the influen­tial power of the nobility on the rule of the na­tion by the pompous rituals surrounding the
monarch. Louis XIV did not succeed with the
goal of hegemony, but nonetheless managed to
put his grandson on the Spanish throne. It
must also be mentioned that his anti-Pro t e s­tant domestic politics, which were a conse­quence of the autocracy, resulted in economic
and humanitarian disaster. The highly industri­ous Huguenots left France for countries like
England, the Netherlands, and Sweden, where
they provided an economic renaissance. When
his majesty died in 1715 at the age of 78,
France was exhausted and on the verge of
bankruptcy. But at the same time France had
become the leading nation of culture ,
renowned for its fine arts, its culture and fash­ion. Louis XIV is probably the best-known
French king throughout history.

Frederick William I

Country: Prussia
Skill:

Administration: 8
Military: 7

Diplomacy: 7
Period of reign: 1713-1740
Type: Monarch
Frederick William I of Prussia was a very com­petent organizer who shunned all unnecessary
expense, except when it applied to military
matters. It has been said that Frederick William
tried to build a company of guards consisting
of giants (i.e. they were all more than two me­ters tall) and pairing these with equally giant
ladies, but to his great dismay their offspring
were of normal height. Frederick William is of­ten called the "soldier king" and more or less
lived with his soldiers, because that was what
he preferred. It’s been said that when he was
sick, he used to order his favorite regiment to

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m a rch through the royal bedchamber in full
parade uniform. This naturally improved his
mood and made him feel better. He built an
army of 80,000 men that was one of the best
organized and trained in Europe. He reorga­nized the social system, giving the junker class
(the land-owning nobility) priority to the army
in exchange for total obedience. The only time
he used this magnificent war machinery was
when he occupied Swedish Pomerania during
the Great Nordic War. His son, Frederick II,
had greater use of the army.

William Pitt the elder

Country: England
Skill:

Administration: 9
Military: 9

Diplomacy: 9
Period of reign: 1757-1778 (actually a recess
between 1763 and 1765)
Type: Statesman
William Pitt the elder was born in 1708 and
was the grandson of the English governor of
Madras, India. Originally he was meant to have
a military career, but he became member of the
House of Commons as a representative of the
Whig party and a glowing patriot. Wi l l i a m
s t rove to turn England into a global empire
based on the supremacy at sea. He led his coali­tion government to victory in North America
and India during the Seven Years War, despite
the strong disapproval of king George II.
William was forced to leave his position in
1763, which probably saved France from los­ing even more land than they did at the peace
of Paris. William regained his power in 1766
despite his failing health and became involved
in a war with France in 1778. William died the
same year and was thereby spared the indepen­dence of the United States at the end of the war
in 1783.

Hensius

Country: The Netherlands
Skill:

Administration: 8
Military: 7

Diplomacy: 9
Period of reign: 1688-1720
Type: Statesman
Antonius Hensius was born in 1640 and en­joyed the confidence of William II of Orania
throughout his life. He was sent to Versailles
after the peace at Nijemen in 1672 to supervise
the implementation of the clauses and was ap­pointed prime minister in 1668 when William
became king of England and had to move to
London. Hensius was a tough negotiator and
one of the greatest and most obstinate oppo­nents of France. He was the mind behind most
of the anti-French coalitions made during the
late 1600s to counter French expansion. He
died in 1720

Kaunitz

Country: Austria
Skill:

Administration: 8

Military: 8

Diplomacy: 9
Period of reign: 1753-1792
Type: Statesman
Count Wenzel-Anton of Rittberg-Kaunitz was
b o rn in Bohemia in 1711 and was later ap­pointed Prince.
He was raised in the spirit of the enlightenment
and he was a dutiful man of the state. Through­out his career he had the confidence of queen
Maria-Theresia. After his initial diplomatic ca­reer he became prime minister of Austria, a po­sition he held until two years prior to his death.
As a specialist in alliance changes and with an
acute sense for new political currents, he built a
strong alliance with France against the Prussia
of Friedrich II. But at the end of the Seven
Years War he turned to Prussia and pro v i d e d
Austria with large areas of land at the first parti­tioning of Poland-Lithuania.

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Fleury

Country: France
Skill:

Administration: 8
Military: 7

Diplomacy: 9
Period of reign: 1726-1743
Type: Statesman
Hercule de Fleury was born in 1653 and was
the son of a tax collector. He made his way up
in society by means of his own skills. In 1715
he became the teacher of young Louis XV, and
a very great mutual trust developed between
the monarch and his teacher. At the age of 73
F l e u ry was appointed chief minister in 1726.
He held this position until his death in 1743.
Fleury was loyal and honest and stood above all
the intrigue of the court and strove for peace
for France. During his reign France had its
longest period of peace in more than 300 years.

Guilio Alberoni

Country: Spain
Skill:

Administration: 7

Military: 7

Diplomacy: 6
Period of reign: 1702-1719
Type: Statesman
Guilio Alberoni, the son of a simple gardener
in Fiorenzuela of Italy, was born in 1664 and
began his career in the service of a French gen­eral, the duke of Vendôme. Alberoni advanced
to negotiator to the duke of Parma, when the
duke married Elizabeth Farnese to Philip V of
Spain. As a reward for his services Alberoni en­tered the center of the Spanish state adminis­tration and was appointed cardinal in 1717.
Neither his politics nor his diplomatic talents
helped Bourbon Spain to any greater acquisi­tions of land. His Spanish adventure ended in
1719, when he was banished from this country.
Alberoni was a talented and ambitious politi­cian, but failed to raise Spain out of its deep re­cession.

Frederick II ‘the Great’

Country: Prussia
Skill:

Administration: 9
Military: 9

Diplomacy: 9
Period of reign: 1740-1786
Type: Monarch
Frederick II had a very harsh childhood under
his tyrannical father Frederick William I, who
regularly whipped his frail son, who was inter­ested in culture. Eventually he ran away, but
when his tough-skinned father caned his little
sister Wilhelmine, he gave up and reconciled to
the will of his father. Frederick was an enlight­ened monarch, but also a warrior. He success­fully led his father’s army during the Austrian
War of Succession (1740-1748) and he thor­oughly learned the art of war, which gave him
the epithet Frederick the Great. He was one of
the greatest field marshals in history. His quali­ties on the battlefield were definitely shown
during the Seven Years War (1756-1763),
when he used inner lines and tactical off e n­sives. This gave him many victories and he also
avoided many losses if the war itself was one he
could not win. Frederick was also a skilled
diplomat and among other things he produced
the Machiavellian plan to divide Poland. He al­so enjoyed culture, was a personal friend of
Voltaire, and a good example of a typical en­lightened despot.

Robert Walpole

Country: England
Skill:

Administration: 8

Military: 7

Diplomacy: 9
Period of reign: 1721-1742
Type: Statesman
Robert Walpole, the count of Oxford (1676-

1745), was appointed minister of war in 1708,
but was compromised by a number of scandals,
and he lost his position. When the house of
Hanover came to power in England he re-

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gained his position as minister and pursued a
consequent policy of balance in order to pro­mote peace in Europe. He dominated politics
in England from 1721 to 1742 as First Lord
and Exchequer, a post that later developed into
the present office of prime minister.

Charles XII

Country: Sweden
Skill:

Administration: 6
Military: 9

Diplomacy: 5
Period of reign: 1697-1718
Type: Monarch
Charles XII became king at the age of 15 in

1697. He was a bold and sometimes quite
s t u b b o rn ru l e r. Charles was less skilled as a
diplomat. He liked the simple life of a soldier
and had great problems with the refined flat­tery and ramblings associated with diplomacy.
To this may be added his strong religious con­victions, which at times may have swayed his
decisions at certain points. He was an excellent
field marshal who often used the superior tac­tics of shock, and his greatest victory may very
well have been the one at Narva where his
10,000 Swedish soldiers met 36,000 Russians
and won an overwhelming victory. The defen­sive battles against Denmark, Poland-Lithua­nia, and Russia were too great a task in the long
run. The invasion of Russia was a high-risk
campaign, which turned bad. His gre a t e s t
chance at maintaining and supporting his
troops was to be found in the Ukraine, but Pe­ter the Great beat him to it and Charles XII had
to make do with wagons of provisions that
slowly rolled across the almost endless country.
After the battle at Poltava, the greatest victory
of Peter the Great, Charles fled to Bender in
the Ottoman Empire where he tried to gain the
support of the Ottomans, which succeeded in
1711, when the Ottoman Empire attacked
Russia. Nothing was accomplished by the war,
and after peace was signed Charles XII was

banished from the Empire. He re t u rned to
Sweden in 1715, and in 1716 and 1718 respec­tively, he launched two invasions against Dan­ish Norway in order to kick Denmark out of
the enemy alliance. On The 30th of November
1718 a bullet from outside the Norwegian for­tification at Fredrikshald killed him. As Charles
had no brothers the crown went to his
youngest sister, Ulrika Eleonora, who together
with her husband Frederick of Hessen-Cassel
made peace with all of the enemies of Sweden.
The nation lost almost a third of its holdings
and its status, as a great power was lost.

Catherine II

Country: Russia
Skill:

Administration: 7
Military: 7

Diplomacy: 8
Period of reign: 1762-1796
Type: Monarch
Jekatrina II, who also was called "the Great,"
was a princess of German origin who married
the czar Piotr III. She managed to win the love
and respect of her people by converting to the
Orthodox faith, by supporting the church and
fighting the pro - P russian politics of her. He
was probably mentally ill and indulged in a
number of atrocities, which were directly of­fensive to the people surrounding him. In
1762 Katarina launched a successful coup and
then ruled without hindrance after the execu­tion of her husband. During her reign Russia
reached its greatest expansion after having con­quered the Crimea in 1783, Odessa (1774 and

1791), nort h e rn Caucasus (1786) and in the
west the three partitions of Poland (1772,
1793 and 1795). The only major threat to
Russia during the period was the Pugatchev re­volt in 1773-74. Catherine was a typical en­lightened despot, who exchanged letters with
Voltaire. She turned a major part of the gov­ernment over to her lover Potemkin.

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Oleg Potemkin

Country: Russia
Skill:

Administration: 9
Military: 8

Diplomacy: 9
Period of reign: 1772-1796
Type: Statesman
In the year of 1772 the great prince Oleg
Potemkin became prime minister and the fa­vorite of Catherine the Great. This happened
immediately after her former favorite, Gregorij
Orlov, had been dismissed from office and was
forced to retire. Potemkin is mostly known for
the conquest of the Crimea and his talents as an
a d m i n i s t r a t o r. He increased the development
in the more backward southern parts of the
e m p i re. He was also a highly skilled political
leader and must have been rather loyal and de­pendable as he held the confidence of the Em­press, and actually retained his position when
she left him for a younger lover.

Stefan Batory

Country: Poland-Lithuania
Skill:

Administration: 5

Military: 5

Diplomacy: 3
Period of reign: 1574-1586
Type: Monarch
In 1574 King Henri de Anjou left the country
and declared it as a republic of nobles with an
elected king. Poland-Lithuania was facing
chaos. Czar Ivan IV of Russia, Emperor Max­imillian II of Austria, and Johan III of Sweden
all tried to seize the throne, but it was the
Prince of Siebenbürgen (Transylvania) who
eventually claimed it, much to Poland-Lithua­nia’s joy and fortune. Stefan became an unusu­ally powerful ruler, who both managed to keep
the nobility at bay and successfully maintained
the interests of Poland-Lithuania on the Baltic.
When he was elected king in 1575 he immedi­ately made sure that his brother Christopher
could succeed him in Siebenbürgen. He then
launched a quick campaign to pacify Poland.

After reinforcing the army with Cossack units
and sending a suggestion of peace to the Ot­toman Empire he attacked czar Ivan IV, whose
forces were trying to capture the Baltic hold­ings of Poland-Lithuania. This war is often
called the Livonian War and ended in 1582
when Russia had to recognize the rightful
holding of Polotsk and Livonia. Stefan had a
very faithful and loyal associate in his statesman
and field marshal, Jan Zamoyski, who helped
him reinforce royal authority and of course aid­ed in the wars. Stefan Batory was a stro n g ­willed man and also an ardent Catholic. Per­sonally he had a very tolerant view of the other
religions of his realm. Nevertheless he gave
some support to the Counter Reform a t i o n ,
which met with great resistance among the
people. He also had to fight difficult battles of
domestic politics to reinforce royal power, but
he never let these problems stop him from ful­filling his ambitious plans of expansion. Ste­fan’s goal was to unite Poland-Lithuania, Rus­sia and Siebenbürgen under his personal lead­ership. His advanced plan of a war against Rus­sia and the Ottoman Empire was stopped only
by his own death. Stefan is re g a rded as the
most ambitious monarch in the entire history
of Poland-Lithuania.

Wladyslaw IV Vasa

Country: Poland-Lithuania
Skill:

Administration: 7
Military: 6

Diplomacy: 4
Period of reign: 1632-1648
Type: Monarch
Wladyslaw was born in Krakow on the June 9,
1595, the son of King Sigismund of Poland­Lithuania and Sweden, and he was the crown
prince of Sweden for almost six years. When he
turned fifteen his father managed to have him
elected czar of Russia, which was a step on the
way to conquering all the Russians by force and
c o n v e rting them to Catholicism. The thro n e
was not held for long as the "time of troubles"
in Russia ended shortly after he had ascended,

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and instead Michail Romanov took the throne.
During his youth he participated in many Pol­ish wars and acquired a lot of military knowl­edge. His most important meeting was perhaps
the one with the Spanish field marshal Spanio­la, who taught him the value of having a well­trained military. The country suffered during
the rule of his father, an obstinate and humor­less man, with extreme religious politics and
many failed wars. As king, Wladyslaw healed
many of the wounds his father had inflicted on
the society of Poland-Lithuania. He was imme­diately forced into war against Russia and the
Ottoman Empire, but successfully kept them at
bay. He succeeded with his main goal, which
was to create peace for Poland-Lithuania. The
main solution was his modernization of the
army, and from 1633 and for a long period af­terward, Poland-Lithuania fought on equal or
better terms than its enemies. Wladyslaw never
managed to regain the Swedish crown, nor did
he manage to stop the "Sejm" (the parliament)
from undermining royal power within the na­tion. In a final effort in trying to become indis­pensable, he ord e red the Cossacks to attack
t a rgets within the Ottoman Empire, to forc e
them into attacking Poland-Lithuania in re­turn, thereby placing him at the center of at­tention again, but these tactics failed. Broken­h e a rted over the recent death of his son, he
himself died in 1648. That same year the Cos­sacks began the greatest rebellion in the history
of Poland-Lithuania.

rior king with excellent qualities. He never lost
a single battle after being appointed field mar­shal and crowned as king. He was appointed
field marshal in 1668. During the 1650s he
p a rticipated in many battles against Cossacks
and Swedes and did so with great skill. During
the 1670s he won a number of brilliant victo­ries against the Ottoman Empire. He also ne­gotiated a secret agreement with France to at­tack Brandenburg together with Sweden. This
chance never materialized as the war against
the Ottomans could not be interrupted, and
Sweden lost two great battles in Brandenburg.
After the peace with the Ottoman Empire, Jan
made a compact with Austria, and in 1683 he
relieved and rescued Vienna from the Ottoman
armies. In two great campaigns he led his army
of 65,000 men to victory. This gave him a rep­utation of almost epic proportions and stopped
the Turkish advances in Europe. Unfortunate­ly, Jan continued his wars against the Ottoman
Empire, which hindered him from seeing the
g rowing danger of Brandenburg - P russia and
Russia. He also avoided dealing with the do­mestic reforms without which Poland-Lithua­nia would be lost. When he died in 1696 the
commonwealth was on the verge of bankrupt­cy, and was faced with another chaotic round of
electing a new king. The Polish nobility took of
that chaos during a very brief period of time.
Jan III Sobieski was the last of the great kings
of Poland-Lithuania; afterw a r ds, the nation
was slowly brought under Russian dominance.

Jan III Sobieski

Country: Poland-Lithuania
Skill:

Administration: 7
Military: 9

Diplomacy: 8
Period of reign: 1674-1696
Type: Monarch
The legends tell that Jan III Sobieski was born
in 1624 in Olesko in present day Ukraine on a
night when the thunder was rolling and the
Tartars were attacking. Jan was a typical war-

94

Random Events

We have mentioned earlier that random events
may affect your country and its dealings. There
is a function in the game that randomly gener­ates events of a kind that may affect any of the
areas previously discussed. Exactly what those
events are will not be discussed, as it would de­s t roy the fun of playing the game. Random
events may be of a political, economical, social,
religious, or military nature, and may be either
t e m p o r a ry, i.e. occurring between two dates,
or may become permanent.

Europa Universalis

D) The Archive

To the player the archive is what the royal secretary
was for the renaissance prince. All the inform a t i o n
you might need is stored systematically in the
archive. As with all other kinds of information it may
initially be hard to see the forest for all the trees, but
by using the archive effectively you will soon realize
what a gold mine it really is. It is the only way you
may see how your country fares in comparison with
your opponents. When you click the icon showing a
small book in the information window the game
pauses and the archive opens on the last page you ac­cessed.
The archive contains 33 pages organized in the fol­lowing chapters:

Monarchs and victory points 1-4
Economy 5-16
Diplomacy 17-20
Technology 21-22
Military 23-29
Settlements 30-32

There are three ways of browsing through the pages.
You may either right click on any page to get an in­dex, where you click on the page you want to view.
Or you may turn one page at a time by using the ar­row keys on your keyboard. The third way is by click­ing the arrow icons of the archive. You may also
change chapters by clicking the icons for each chap­ter, which you will find below the page at which you
are looking. If you do, the archive will open on the
first page of the chosen chapter.

T h e re are two types of pages—those that present da­ta in tables, and those that display the data in graphs.
To sort data into tables, just click on the corre s p o n d­ing column and it will be sorted according to the label.
For example, if you click on Year of ascension in the
M o n a rch table you will see the monarchs in chro n o­logical ord e r. You may also add/remove data in the
graphs by checking or unchecking the boxes at the
bottom of the page. Checked boxes will show the da­ta, unchecked will not. When many lines in the graphs
a re very close to each other it is often hard to see which
one is which. A good tip is to check/uncheck the
needed lines several times to make them blink. An ex­ample of this is the graph for naval military technology
development, where the leading nations may be very
close to each other in the race for new impro v e m e n t s .

Monarchs and Victory Points

The victory points gained and developed along with
the monarchs of your nation are shown on these four
pages (1-4). One graph (1) shows the victory points
over time, which is also shown in a table (3) bro k e n
down by Battle, Diplomacy, Explorations, Economi­cal development, Settlements, Missions and Peace
t reaties. There is also a separate table (2) showing the
missions you have received and whether you have suc­ceeded or failed, and of course your re w a rds in victo­ry points. Finally there is a table (4) showing the for­mer and present monarchs of your nation. The table
will show each monarch along with an assessment of
his or her ability to rule the country within the ad­ministrative, diplomatic, economic, and military ar­eas. You will also see the year of ascension to power
and the year of death, along with the number of victo­ry points your country gained during the reign of that
p a rticular monarc h .

Economy

The four first pages contain graphs showing the de­velopment of your country’s wealth, inflation, infras­tructure, and trade levels compared with the other
great nations. All the graphs show development over
time. Note that wealth is what is left when your na­tion’s expenses have been subtracted from your in­come. Inflation is given as a percentage. Changes in
infrastructure and trade levels are given in levels of
technology levels.

The following four pages (9-12) show the income
and expenses of your country, broken down by entry,
and the income/expense ratio of each entry along
with the figures for these from the previous and the
current year.

The last four pages (13-16) deal with information in
the provinces, trade, and any loans, along with the
maintenance costs of your army and navy units. The
p rovincial information contains tax revenues, the base
of re c ruitment, production income, and specifies the
main product of the province. The table may be viewed
as a summary of the pro v i n c e ’s financial strength. The
trade information presents a table of all the trade cen­ters you know of, your activities at each of them, the
level of competition as a percentage, the center’s total
trade value, and the monthly cost associated with keep­ing a merchant there. The loan information shows
which loans you have, where they come from, the sum,
the interest in absolute numbers, and percentages and
their expiration dates. The table for maintenance costs
shows the number of men and the monthly cost of

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keeping them trained and equipped, branch by branch
(cavalry, infantry, etc.).

Diplomacy

These four tables (17-20) show the other nations
(friend and foe), existing alliances, along with cur­rent wars, if any. The first two tables (17-18) show
your relations to other nations. The first (17) con­tains all the countries you know of and specifies who
your vassals are, and describes your alliances. It also
shows where you have dynastic connections in terms
of royal marriages, where you refuse to trade, and
w h e re you have Casus Belli (reason for war). The
other table (18) shows anyone who has a Casus Belli
against you, trade embargos directed at you, and the
nations with which you are at war. The last two tables
(19-20) show both existing alliances, the members of
the alliances, and the expiration dates (month and
year) along with all other current wars, showing the
participants of each.

Technology

These two pages (21-22) show the development of
land and naval military technology over time for all
the great nations.

Military

Seven pages (23-29) showing graphs and tables for
commanders and experts, army and naval units, ship­building, and army recruitment, along with the total
military losses of your country.

The first page (23) shows each of your comman­ders and specialists, giving the name, type, rank, and
name of the units under his command, his year of ap­pointment, along with his skill levels in maneuvering,
battle, shock and sieges.

The following two pages (24-25) show a graph of
the strength of your army in thousands of soldiers
and the strength of your navy in number of ships over

time, and in comparison to the other nations. Note
that each piece of artillery counts as 1000 soldiers.
Following that you will find two tables (26-27)
showing your armies and fleets with their respective
names, provinces or sea zones, regions, and
s t rengths. Page 28 describes army units under re­cruitment and naval units under construction, both
in table format. The page shows the number and type
of unit under construction, where it is being assem­bled, and when the unit will be ready for battle. Fi­nally table 29 shows your total military losses of men
and equipment up until now. It is divided into
branches showing the amount lost in total, in battle,
by attrition and by disbandment of units.

Settlements

The first page (30) contains a graph showing how
your entire terr i t o ry, your provinces, colonies and
trading posts have changed over time, along with the
rest of the nations. The table on page 31 gives infor­mation about your provinces. Each province is de­scribed by name, the area and greater region in which
it is located, the provincial capital, its population, its
base of recruitment, and the extensiveness of fortifi­cations, and whether any other nation has taken con­trol over it. The third page (32) shows your colonial
holdings in table format. You will find its name,
whether it is a trading post or a colony, and in what
region and on what continent it is located. You will
get information on the size of the holding, the size of
any fortifications, and whether any other nation has
taken control over it.

These tables can be of great help if you use them
correctly. It is easy to see the advantages if you com­pare the amount of work you have to put in to check
your status by moving around the entire map in or­der to spot any hostile takeovers among any of your
thirty some holdings. Instead you can just right click
the archive icon, choose page 32, and have all your
holdings listed.

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Europa Universalis

E) Historic Review

Three Points of Departure

The Year of 1492

This is a year more than five hundred years ago. It is a
year imprinted upon our historic consciousness and
collective view of the world. It was the year when
Columbus discovered America. A new world opened
up for Europe, but what constituted Europe?

E u rope had experienced a relatively quiet period
for approximately a century. The population was
about 70 or 80 million people. The continent had
not quite recovered from the catastrophic ravages of
the Black Death during the 1350s. The towns had
g rown somewhat, but only at the expense of the
countryside.

Today it is difficult to imagine what the long lost
landscapes of that age really looked like, but we may
assume that swamps were more prevalent, covering
vast areas of northern Germany, Russia, and parts of
France. The Italian countryside was very desolate
and not quite as romantic as we may imagine it. The
Slavic name for the Hungarian plains, which consist­ed of nothing more than grass and ponds, was ‘pusz­ta’, which means "desolate" or "abandoned" The
Muscovite deciduous forests were beginning to give
way to the vast fields of oats, even if the conquest of
the steppe south of Moscow had not yet begun.
Along the shores of the North Sea the struggle to re­claim land from the sea had not yet had any notable
success. In the far North of Europe there were vast
a reas of pine and spruce and fur-bearing animals,
which turned hunting into an important source of
income, and at the same time farming and raising cat­tle contributed to the clearcut areas of central Swe­den. In the Po Valley and on the Spanish plains the
landscape was transformed by irrigation, and the
conquest of distant valleys of the vast Alpine are a s
continued.

Europe was still an entity with one foot in the Mid­dle Ages and one foot in the new era. All of the 15th
century, as well as the Middle Ages, were as one with
Christianity. "The Empire," together with the Pope
and his clerical administration, was and remained a
powerful moral and spiritual force, in which people
still believed, regardless of its laughably small actual
p o w e r. It was primarily seen as a Republica Chris­t i a n o rum, Corpus Christianorum (a Christian Re­public, a Christian Body), without any special refer­ence to the holy Roman crown. The idea that all

s o v e reigns were equal became more and more ac­cepted, as a result of the previous political power
struggles between Pope and Emperor. Of course the
E m p e ror had many problems if he chose to work
with any kind of authority within the formal borders
of the Empire.

Diplomacy had its origins in the Papal bureaucracy,
and it developed because a hierarchy of states existed
based on importance and prestige. The political or­gans of the kings of France, England, Port u g a l ,
Castile, and Aragon had monopolized this diplomat­ic function. The first important steps toward a cen­tralized rule were taken in these countries at that
time.

Economically Europe was facing a change of sys­tem. Poland-Lithuania and the Baltic area were the
main producers of grain. England, Flanders, Bra­bant, and Northern Italy produced fabric. Northern
E u rope provided furs and fish. The Hanseatic
League was the most important transporter of goods
in the Northern half of Europe, but was on the de­cline. A more differentiated trade was slowly emerg­ing throughout Europe. Venice and Genoa were the
middlemen in the Southern part of Europe, with
monopolies on the trade with the Levant. Northern
Italy was the strongest economic center of Europe,
with an enormous ability to finance production and
trade. The Ottoman Empire functioned as an inter­mediary with trade from the Orient. This situation
raised the prices greatly on goods like spices, incense,
dyes, and silk.

The effect of all this meant that rich and strategical­ly situated countries like Spain and Portugal intensi­fied their eff o rts to reach India by sea in order to
avoid the Ottoman middlemen. The Portuguese had
already found the way to India by rounding the Cape
of Good Hope, but the Spaniards wanted to find a
more direct route. Columbus went looking for India
when he left Europe, but instead discovered Ameri­ca, a continent named after the explorer Amerigo
Vespucci, who was the first to claim that the new con­tinent could not be a part of Asia. Soon Spaniard s
such as Cortez and Pizzaro had conquered the Aztec
and Inca empires. Pedro Alvarez Cabral discovered
Brazil, Diego Diaz discovered Madagascar. Francis­co de Almeida and Albuquerque conquered impor­tant coastal provinces in India. These discoveries and
conquests broke the economic power of Venice and
Genoa. Slowly but surely Portugal and Spain
e m e rged as the economic great powers of Euro p e ,
P o rtugal through its control of the trade of spices
and silk in India, and Spain through the silver and

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Europa Universalis

gold mined in America.

Culturally Europe was facing a period of expansion,
and 1492 hints at the great things that were about to
be created. At the court of Ludovico Sforza a 40­year-old man named Leonardo da Vinci was busily
drawing statues of horsemen, building cannons, and
creating machinery for the theater. At the monastery
at Steyn Geert Geertsz, a 26-year-old monk, was say­ing his prayers. He would soon leave the monastery
when he no longer felt his calling. We know him as
Erasmus of Rotterdam. The 23-year-old son of a
p o o r, but well-bred family, was sitting in his study
finishing his exams in Latin. Within two years he was
about to start an undistinguished career as a civil ser­vant in Florence. As an adult Niccolo Machiavelli was
exiled from his beloved Florence and would write
"The Prince," a study of ‘realpolitik.’ There was a
1 6 - y e a r-old in Florence named Michelangelo
Buonarroti, who was said to be quite talented with a
chisel. The Duke of Ferrara had a commander, whose
17-year-old son was called Ludovico Ariosto. He was
studying law, but would soon begin a literary career
and write "Orlando Furioso," one of the gre a t e s t
"bestsellers" of the period. Nine-year-old Rafael
Santi lived in Urbino, the son of the rather mediocre
c o u rt painter Giovanni Santi. A Saxon boy by the
name of Martin, son of a miner with the surname of
Luther, was nine years old. As a priest he would cre­ate the greatest ideological upheaval in Europe since
the advent of Christianity. Ignatius of Loyola had
been born the previous year and was still in his cradle.
As an adult he would provide the Catholic Church
with its greatest rekindling since the Middle Ages.

In 1492 the struggle for supremacy was knocking
at the door. The political arena of Europe was a
hotbed of intrigue, drama, and great personalities. A
few days after Columbus left Seville, the College of
C a rdinals had just elected Rodrigo Borgia as pope
under the name of Alexander VI. He was probably
one of the most controversial popes in history. This
pope was rich, both in earthly goods, energ y, mis­tresses, and children. A few years later he hammered
out the Treaty of To rdesillas, which divided the
world between Portugal and Spain. During the later
half of the 15th century Europe’s first federal experi­ment was carried out—the Duchy of Burgund, con­sisting of the Netherlands, Lorraine, Franché­Comte, Bourgogne, and periodically southern Italy.
When this state was dissolved there was a conflict
about how to divide it involving Maximilian I of Aus­tria, Charles VII of France, and Ferdinand and Is­abella of Spain, and finally Henry VII of England.

France was most aggressive, and when Charles VII
p re p a red and carried out an invasion of Naples,
Spain, and Austria closed ranks in a way that led to a
dynastic marriage. France brought the war to the
Netherlands, the Spanish border, and southern Italy,
but no real victor emerged. It was rather the dynastic
union between Spain and Austria that resulted in the
most important shift of power during the entire 16th
c e n t u ry. We should mention that France tried to
counter the union by binding Poland-Lithuania to
France, by making Henri of Anjou elected as king,
but the plan was a total failure.

The transformation of the political structure of Eu­rope had begun. Both the heritage of Burgundy and
the Spanish-Austrian marriage were to create con­flicts and tension for years ahead, initially at the
Dutch border and in nort h e rn Italy, but it would
soon spread to all of Western Europe.

In the south Portugal was busy with its new colo­nial empire and did not get involved in the politics to
any greater extent.

In the southeast Venice, Hungary, and Poland­Lithuania were involved in small clashes with the Ot­toman Empire, which was definitely on the rise, and
would have conquered all of the Balkans, Hungary,
the realm of the Mamelukes all the way to Egypt,
Iraq, parts of Persia and Austria within 50 years. The
multinational commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania
was in principle the largest country of Europe and
the only one to stop the Ottomans from conquering
Europe from the southeast. Russia was still a mere
babe in arms. Austria had not yet grown strong un­der the Hapsburg dynasty. Venice was still fighting
the Ottoman Empire, but was too weak to confront
the Ottomans on her own. Hungary was large, but
quite feudal and lagging in development, and would
soon succumb. Russia had just been created when
the Grand Duchy of Moscow conquered the mer­chant’s republic of Novgorod. The country was still
lagged technologically after having been under the
yoke of the Mongols, but was quite aggressive and
would soon start to expand far in all directions. The
wish of Russia to conquer a window on the oceans,
and the goal of the Ottoman Empire to conquer Vi­enna, in order for the Imperator at Rum (Con­stantinople) to become the only legitimate ruler of
Europe, were the main destabilizing forces in eastern
Europe (the sultan regarded himself as a Roman em­peror).

In the northwest England was licking its wounds
after the War of the Roses, but would soon be em­broiled in dynastic conflicts with Spain, France, and

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