I agree, and that way westernizing would have solved also the problem of having much weaker units (if high land tech granted almost european-level armies).
Noirin - I wouldn't modernise the units. That's nothing to do with this game I just don't like the idea it seems to make every country into a western european clone. I'd rather high tech level units in the non-Latin culture groups were stronger.
But actually, I wanted to go beyond that.
See, I think you shouldn't have westernized, because it doesn't really fit. In these 180 years you have demonstrated how everything is manageable, be it TSCs, random rebels, random dows, bb wars, or other pile ups. All this together has just delayed your conquests.
So why westernize and make the endgame of this impressive and amazing achievement like every other game's endgame? In 100 years you will be unstoppable; wouldn't it have been more fun and much more remarkable to go on without westernization?
Alas, when you started the AAR it was already too late, as you had already planned and built your strategy around westernization.
Maybe another time, maybe with another game.