Spanish Gold - Spains place in the 20th century

And so we begin! Spain has a couple of issues (and opportunities) immediately facing it. Neighbouring Portugal is a competitor in the colonial races, a much larger and more powerful France on our borders, the inevitable race for Morocco, Algieria and Tunisia, and we have a civil war to win before we get going.



As our far superior brigades move into position to deal with this uprising, we begin by researching Medicine. Spain doesn't have the population to compete with the larger GP's (yet), so we need every advantage on population growth.




We also switch to a reactionary government which supports state capitalism. Immediately the state finances the construction of a cement factory in Leon-Castilla, with a supporting National Focus point on craftsmen. One thing I'm trying to pay more attention to in this game is my population segments and who is promoting/demoting. Victoria 2 has amazing depth and learning the game past the surface has been a fun challenge. But Spain doesn't have the population to support a ton of industrialization just yet.

My other National Focus is put into Havana, as I try to load it full of bureaucrats to turn it from colony to state.



AHA!



I was quite concerned about not having any alliance offers right off the start in this game. I've noted previously that Russia likes to offer alot of alliances early (Jan.1, 1836 usually), especially to Spain. But having the United Kingdom make us an offer, well how can we refuse? And of course, following this, Russia does make us an offer for an Alliance. As long as I have the UK in my back pocket I should be safe, but having Russia as an ally could open interesting options against the Ottomans in the future (as an FYI, I have a personal hatred for the Ottomans after they stymied two of my games as Two Sicilies).



Another portion of the game which I'm still trying to wrap my head around is reforms. Since I can appoint my governments I'll take any opportunity to increase Liberals right now. If they do end up forming government I'll just switch it back to a conservative or reactionary party government later. I can't leave Spains meager industry in the hands of idealists!

Much of my thoughts revolve around infamy management though, which is one of two reasons I kick myself for being slow to pounce on Morocco. Instead I looked to our eastern colonies (mainly because my attention was drawn to the ability to raise new brigades in the phillipines while I was dealing with the Spanish civil war). So I got distracted and declared war on Brunei, with a war goal of establishing a protectorate over it. My early stage goal in the Pacific was to grab Brunei and Johore, setting up the conditions to invade a larger uncivilized nation like Dai Nam once I felt confident I had a technological advantage over them in army techs.

But in Africa, I dropped the ball. Imagine my horror when I looked over and saw this:



Well, not the horror of my troops climbing all over northern Morocco, but that the French had already declared war on Morocco and taken Tazar and its associated provinces. Trying to make the best out of a bad situation I demanded the Ajdir region, adjacent to my one original province in Africa, and western Morocco, which at least gives me one province to work from when its time to colonize Africa.

On Jan. 1, 1840 we begin researching Idealism. I'll insta-research as many of the techs that give research points, but early on my focus is going to be on industrial techs to help the Spanish economy.
I also got the "Iron and Blood" event in June of 1840. I'll take the militancy hit for the increased production to my mines. I know I can produce a decent military score later on, but pumping out industrial score is critical right now for Spain.

From here I took some time to concentrate on the Spains economy, shifting National Focuses around to try and get craftsmen and clerks into our state run factories (I decided to build a small arms factory and another cement factory). In October of 1843 we start to research clean coal. This news must have reached the ears of our capitalists because suddenly a flurry factories begin to be built across Spain. Wineries, glass and clothes factories are all under production. To support our burgeoning industry we begin to research experimental railroads in 1846.

And its also time for Spain to return to conquest!

If the French beat us in Western Africa, we'll make sure those damn dirty Ottomans don't beat us in eastern Africa!

Egypt seems to be everyone's punching bag.
And I'm sure everyone decides to take the Suez region of Egypt for the same reasons I do. I want to build the Suez canal, I want to expand south to discover the source of the Nile, and it also gives me one province on the Red Sea where I can launch attacks into the Middle East.




The Egyptian campaign was actually hard fought and I ended up losing a smaller stack of brigades at one point due to poor movement choices. But the outcome was never in doubt.

Even better, shortly after I finished my war with Egypt, the U.S. allies with Egypt and would fight the Ottomans wars of expansion to a standstill through the 1840's and early 1850's. And I of course graciously allowed Egyptian troops to travel through my territory to fight the Turkish hordes.

But the problems of the Spanish army in the Egyptian campaign are enough of a concern that its time to do something about the army. With the experimental railroad finished being researched, we begin work on muzzle-loaded rifles on April 1, 1848. If Spain is to take on larger countries, its armies must perform better!

Spanish industry continues to improve as capitalists finance railroads across Spain.



This is excellent news. Spains economy is key to its success. One of Spains long-term goals is to raise a fleet to enforce its possessions across the globe (likely still 2nd to the UK, but not by much).


A look out the most recent Spanish elections

On Feb. 23, 1851 we finish the research of muzzle-loaded rifles and begin research of Mechanical production.

Spain is still burning off its infamy at this time, but thats ok, because the economy demands our attention. In August Spain experiences huge income problems which force us to adjust our national spending priorities.



In order to avoid dropping into a massive national debt we make a few adjustments.
- we drop spending on the national stockpile
- the government still finds the money to give a slight bump to education and administration spending
- we make a slight drop in military spending (down to 90% instead of being fully funded)
- And a look at the middle class tells me almost all of them are getting their luxury needs met. If they can afford luxury goods, they can afford higher taxes, and we raise it to 60%. The poor and rich strata's remain at 50% taxes.

The economy settles down and these austerity measures work in keep the treasury around neutral for the short term. Eventually our economy just grows us out of problems, as our capitalists continue to build Spains industry. Railroads are constructed in most of our colonial possessions in 1853 and by 1854 we have some immensely profitable factories. Our wine factory in Catalonia is making a profit of $127, while our wine factory in Galicia is making $58 and our clipper convoy in the same province is making almost $18.

On Jan. 1, 1854 our research moves to ideological thought, a necessary step in our colonial ambitions.

In May Two Sicilies, our ally, declares war on Egypt, demanding the Aegan Islands. Its doubtful they will have much success if the U.S. throws its weight behind Egypt, but we will see. It does remind us though, that since the Suez region is supposed to be Spains strategic staging point into the Middle East (and maybe India), that we should fortify our positions. Not against the ridiculous Egyptians, but for the inevitable conflicts to come with the Ottomans. We build forts at the narrowest points in our Egyptian holdings.




A look at the conflicts currently happening around the globe:



Unfortunately this is where I show my true colours in Victoria, which is green.
We receive "A place in the sun" causus belli on Portugal and begin to move colonial troops back to Spain to prepare for an invasion. But Portugal is also within my SoI, so not only do I have to break my alliance with them, but I'm not even sure if I can invade them still once I do. Instead of tempting fate, I let the opportunity slide by.

As I'm looking Portugal over though I notice they are fortifying every border province they have. We look to the north and see the French doing the same thing. Maybe Spain should get in on this as well. We're not worried about Portugal attacking us, but we begin constructing a line of forts across the border from their French counterparts.

We also decide to build the Spanish fleet, ordering a bevy of Man O Wars in the main Spanish ports, and more clipper transports and frigates in our colonial possessions.

A quick run down of our relations with the other Great Powers:
UK: 135
France: 78
Russia: 115
U.S.: -95 (a couple of decisions forced us to drop our relations)
North German Federation: 5
Austria: 60
Netherlands: 47

Diplomacy does demand our attention though. Spain has a nice little SoI going but the Netherlands is causing problems. In March of 1856 they manage to remove Brazil from our SoI. And they are gaining influence in Brazil far faster than we are, thanks to having a neighbouring colony next to Brazil. Our only hope is they try to get 100 points and put Brazil in their own sphere, while we hit 65 and ban them from the country. I'm not sure if the AI will make this mistake or not, we'll see. I also notice at some point we gave the Netherlands military access, so we revoke it.

In October 1856 we finish ideological thought. We'll save our research points now so when empiricism becomes researchable in 1860 we can get it right away. We use our new National Focus point to encourage clergy in Barcelona. Its a major centre and only has middle of the road literacy (14%).

And Spain begins moving more troops back to its Egyptian holdings. Ethiopia is in the middle of a war with Egypt and the U.S. and making little headway. So Spain has several opportunities in eastern Africa and the Middle East right now.

1. Continue to carve up Egypt.
2. Look to the east and try to make Hedjaz, Yemen or Oman into a protectorate.
3. Look at an assault in Nejd, thinking to an oil producing future (Spanish black gold?), but at a cost of at least 12 infamy, since its to large to immediately declare a war goal of establishing a protectorate.
4. Or move south and invade Ethiopia, giving us a big base in east central Africa.

Hochseeflotte said:

Always been a fan of Spain, especially Carlist Spain (love the X flag)

Didn't the Spanish gold.. run out, and thats what helped cause the regression of Spain as a great power?
What is your opinion on re-colonization of New Spain?

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Yes the gold certainly did run out. I think the drop in the value of their carribean holdings was a major factor in Spains drop as a world power. I don't hold an illusions about usurping the UK as the #1 power, but I think there is more value in trying to pick off certains uncivilized nations in India and Asia. I think a big population to support a robust military will ensure Spains place as a GP, and holding onto some strategic resources (like the precious metals in Johore and eventually alot of the worlds oil and rubber) will keep Spains gold flowing.

That said, if the opportunity to take Mexico down a notch presents itself, I will certainly jump at it. In other games I've eyed up the Yucatan peninsula, but any movement in North America will require Spain being very sure of its military position and I think that necessitates having a navy which can handle the U.S.N.

Spain is currently sitting in 7th position in the world. Ahead of the Netherlands, but not by a huge amount.
This leads us to fire the decision 'confiscations of Medizabal.' It drops our relations with the Papal States by -50, but they don't figure into our long term plans anyway. The 10.50 prestiege is certainly worth the militancy hit.



We also place a national focus point on bureaucrats in Havana (working towards statehood) and clerks in Galicia. We need to get our clerk population up so they can contribute to research points and make our factories more profitable.

So out of our bevy of possible action we decide to go after Ethiopia. Egypt's ally, the U.S., could cause trouble for us in the carribean that we are not yet prepared for. Nejd is allied with Persia which could also make a war of conquest time consuming and costly. The smaller uncivilized countries aren't worth the infamy hit right now. And Ethiopia obviously has a war it is already strained by. Unfortunately...



But no matter. Even with the Ethiopians calling an end to their attack on Egypt, we can handle them.
Our larger army decisively beats the Ethiopian army, driving it from the battlefield. Spanish forces are then split in two; one occupying army to capture provinces, while two infantry brigades pursue the remnants of the Ethiopian army.



As they pursue the Ethipoians we are able to move so much faster than them that we can even arrive in provinces before them, gaining a defender bonus.



We end up confiscating the southern half of the country. Unfortunately Ethiopia will never again be strong enough to properly threaten Egypt for us, but I'm sure the Ottomans will rise to the task soon enough.

The war has unfortunately strained the national treasury, costing Spain approximately $100,000. But with some minimal adjustments to national stockpile spending the books are once again in the black and we soon begin paying off our $36,000 debt.

As 1860 hits we select empiricism as our research focus. Thanks to our saved research points it finishes in May and we shift our research to breech loading rifles, which will allow the creation of guard brigades.

And our capitalists begin investing again. Our clipper convoy factory shut down in 1859, but the new construction of a liquor distillery in Extremadura and a Steel factory in Galicia will more than offset that.

On the diplomatic front we add Bolivia to our SoI in May of 1860, small comfort for the earlier loss of Brazil, but a small gain none the less.
And in October of 1860 we look in on Havana to see there are more than enough bureaucrats to turn it into a full fledged state! This is excellent news and solidifies Spains grasp in the carribean.

Sorry for the absence but a vacation from Canada's winter was in order. The positive of it was that I was able to get some hours in on Vicky 2 during my flights.

Unfortunately the travel and a jumbling of screenshots let me forget so many important happenings.

As Spains latest war winds down, we shifted gears to the diplomatic front. Spain turns its attention to South America, which has been largely ignored by the other European powers. Bolivia enters our SoI, joining Uruguay and the USCA. We have spent considerable effort trying to keep Brazil in our SoI, but the extra influence the Netherlands gets for having a neighbouring colony makes this largely futile and they continue to spam the banning of our ambassadors.



Spanish scientists are also making gains! We encounter Pragmatism, Empiricism and Secularization, which increase our prestiege (important as we continue to fight to stay a GP) and our pluralism (which helps with our research points).


We also manage to snag Panjab into our SoI. Great Britain has a solid grasp of India, but Panjab fell through their fingers. Perhaps this is an openning into the subcontinent for the future?

We also continue to get Safari events, all of which we're choosing to go forward. Again the prestiege is worth the militancy hit right now.



The state budget continues to be strong. Meanwhile Spain is working to improve its relations with its neighbours and build alliances to ensure its security.



Portugal is the largest and most important of these alliances right now. We have a huge amount of common border obviously. Having them as almost a puppet of Spain by having them in our SoI and as an ally helps to ensure Spains security, especially with much larger France and Great Britain lurking about.

With our truce up with Egypt the time seems right to try and tear away another chunk of it away from its original owners. Spanish armies based out of the Suez region move quickly to occupy the country and put Egypts meager armies on the run.



It doesn't take long when you outnumber and outclass your opponent as much as we do over Egypt.

In October of 1865 Spain gains two more regions from Egypt. The infamy hit is large but our choices are strategic. Taking the Asyut region in the north adds to our northern Egyptian holdings, an area large enough it can serve our immediate needs to support a fleet to connect us to our Asian holdings. It also has the infrastructure for enough brigades to hold off an anticipated attack from the north.
In the south the Khartoum region will become part of the base that we expand from as we join in the colonization race of Africa.

The war with Egypt did put us in alot of debt though, something that will take a year or three to pay off.



In February of 1866 we discover the ability to create commerce raiders. While Spain would like to recreate the Grand Armada (without the poor ending this time), the current financial burden of paying off our war debt will mean we can't pursue a large building program in the near term. But make no mistake, the creation of a world class navy is at the forefront of Spains goals.

The Netherlands, our diplomatic nemesis over Brazil, takes advantage of Spains hard(ish?) work reducing Egypt to a 4th rate power. Netherlands declares war, demanding Lebanon as a concession. The hawks are circling Egypt....
By the end of the year the Ottomans and Greece have also declared war on Egypt.



But there is a more interesting development in worlds affairs:

France has declared war on the Netherlands! Perhaps distracted by the French, after only a few months we are able to sneak Brazil out of the Netherlands SoI and into our own. Having the geographically huge Brazil in our SoI should remove any shortages of raw materials that Spain has.
However this diplomatic victory is short-lived, and we begin what will become a decades long struggle with Mexico for influence with the United States of Central America. We manage to ban their advisors for now, but it will require constant vigilence to keep control of the USCA from Mexico.

We finish the research of State and Government and decide to take the time to upgrade Spains meager railroads to "early railroads."

Lets go look for plants!



I had no idea that botany was such a highly valued science in the 19th century.

In further world events, after dealing with the Netherlands, France continues to show its strength to the world, declaring war on the North German Federation. The NGF, which can still put up a good fight, has lost too much strength in the preceding years though. France, Russia and Austria are the powers on the European continent right now.

We choose analytic philosophy as our next technology to research as the calender hits 1870. We will continue to try and keep our research moving as fast as possible and try to be ready to seize these technologies as they come available. It is already becoming apparent that Spain will not match the numbers of some of the other powers. Being a more advanced society may be Spains only way to remain at the top of the great game of politics.



I'm happy to see these discoveries which increase reform desire. With each election I've been trying to make choices that will shift support to Liberal ideologies. Its seems strange that its the 1870's and slavery is still alive and well in Spain! But we cannot seem to shake the conservative hold on the country.



Yes! Finally that money paid off. It took a couple of tries but we discover the source of the Nile first. We are still in a race to maintain GP status. With our relatively shoddy economic score, these prestiege events are still quite important to Spain. But we can't let it cloud our judgement of where Spain sits when it comes to hard power in the world.


A year after analytic philosophy became available we have finished its research. We shift research to machine guns. This is a huge step forward for both our armies and our colonization ambitions. Spain is so close to being able to colonize the uncivilized world!!!

Spain continues to industrialize. Our capitalists have financed the upgrades of our rail-lines.

In June of 1876 we finish researching Nationalism and Imperialism. Finally we can begin to colonize the world! All 5 of our national focus points go into colonization. The rest of Brunei and states in eastern and western Africa are our immediate targets. Dijibouti so we can build a seaport in eastern Africa is the #1 priority right now. It will allow us to more easily shift about our African troops to wherever they may be needed.

It has been some years now since France last declared war on the Netherlands and does so again in 1878. This will become extremely important shortly.

In 1880 Spain turns its sights on the Middle East. Nejd, modern day Saudi Arabia, is only allied with Persia. We declare war, with the intent to establish a protectorate over the entire state.



Its not much of a war. Persia decides to abandon its ally and within the span of a few months the entire country is occupied. Nejd is now Spanish Nejd, and its oil fields are ours! Let the black gold flow!

The infamy hit of taking Nejd was going to keep Spain out of any offensive actions for some time, but then we were given a gift.


Spain gets an "acquire state" caucus belli on the Netherlands. We decide to take advantage and follow in Frances' earlier foot steps.

I won't spam alot of pictures in here about movements and strategy. The Netherlands was severely weakend by France, which demanded one of the Netherlands home territories in their peace deal. The Spanish fleet was more than sufficent to keep control of the sea and our armies quickly occupied their European provinces and territories in Egypt. More importantly our fleets hem in a large group of brigades in South America. The only real action happend in Asia.

Spains demand was for Dutch Java. Its large number of provinces and population would help solidify our foothold in Asia.

It is my extreme dissapointment in myself that I was not able to force a close to the war sooner. It took more than a decade, yes a decade to bring the war to a close. A single stack of Dutch troops was an overpowering force that we could not defeat. Even when they would attack our troops (they still held a numerical advantage) they were regaining their numbers far faster than our own. Our allies managed to land some troops to support us, but not in any great numbers (Korea eventually got its own seperate peace with the Netherlands, taking their 3 southern provinces in Brunei to sign a peace).



Each defensive victory was followed by an offensive loss it seemed and one year turned to two, then three. Eventually Spain transported its African troops to Asia and managed to overwhelm the Dutch, but poor organization slowed even this down. Finally in 1891 the Dutch gave up. The loss of their home territories to the French, Lebanon to the Ottomans, Brunei to Korea had made it a shadow of its former self. The loss of Java to Spain was the final nail in the coffin. Never again would the Netherlands be a force on the globe.

And now with an enlarged Asian empire, a foothold in the Middle East and a rapidly expanding colonial empire in Africa, Spain is rising as a world power.

Well, with the Spains big wars of expansion over (for now) I thought this would be a good opportunity to catch up on some other viewpoints, just to give a better picture of where Spain stands in the world. I have stopped at 1900 now, so there is a short run up of history and then an over view.

Shortly after Spains war with the Netherlands, the country went into a period of building and heavy industrialization. The colonial expansion of Spain across Africa exponentially increased the countries ability to field forces. Though the populations in these provinces were relatively poor, and often consisted solely of soldiers, farmers, slaves, and clergy, they made a couple of large changes to Spains world situation.
1. It gave Spain a diverse mix of troops across the globe, but also an ability to raise a large amount of regular infantry, cavalry and artillery units in Africa.
2. It vastly increased Spains borders with France and the United Kingdom.
3. In terms of naval bases, Spain now had ports which could facilitate its fleets to anywhere in the world with the exception of the western coasts of the America's.

In 1892 the United Kingdom declared war on France. France was aided by a small group of other countries, the most notable among them being the recently unified Italy and the Ottoman empire, which was not a great power but still a geographically vast state.
Spain was called on to help its ally of the time as well. It was a very tough decision, but on paper it looked clear that the vast resources of the United Kingdom would overwhelm any who opposed it, so Spain shirked its pledge to France and opted out of the war.
However France and its allies were able to resist the UK, and ended up defeating it. This grand coalition centred around France may now be the de facto #1 power in the world, even though the UK holds on to the #1 GP score by a wide margin.

Our relations need to be shored up with France every few years now it seems, something we did not have to expend diplomatic points on before, so the possibility exists that they are actively trying to scuttle our relationship.

Spain ended up establishing a protectorate over Abu Dhabi and exercised a causus belli to humiliate Bali in 1896 and 1898 respectively. Sweden was given control of the Congo in the Africa lottery, so Spain accidently lost a few provinces when that state was created (though Spain was actively trying to work around its borders until a decision on who controlled the Congo was made). We also managed to build the Suez Canal, which was a boost to our world prestiege. Now Spain is settling in to an extended period of waiting for its infamy to go down, lest we feel the wrath of the rest of the civilized world.

In the world commodity markets Spain is doing quite well. It is a top 5 producer in many raw material and consumer goods, but still lags behind in the production of industrial or military goods. Spain was the #1 producer of fuel for a few years, but has now dropped to #2. This is currently a very profitable industry for us, one we hope to continue to exploit.

Along with the black gold, Spains coffers are being filled by our gold mines, more than $100 per day. We are the worlds lead exporter of coffee and #2 in the production of rubber. Our top 3 exports are coffee, fruits and grain, while our top 3 imports are tea, coal and fabric.
Spain is also buying up small arms, artillery, canned food, wine, liquor, fuel, timber, lumber, luxury clothes, steamer convoys and clipper convoys. Most of this is due to our massive military expansion.

Here is a shot of most of our African/Middle East holdings:



Spain is the 3rd largest country in the world right now, with 309 provinces (behind the UK and Russia) with a total population of 89.58 million people. It also boasts 53 factories, with several more currently being built.

As a naval power Spain has also put itself into the top powers of the world. The UK is by far and away the worlds naval leader, with 1,014 ships. France and Spain are the only other really large navies, with 343 and 304 respectively. Russia is the 4th place naval power in terms of numbers with 97. With that said, France had ironclads and monitors many years before Spain, so it seems safe to assume they are more technologically advanced in naval warfare.

Spains technological standing:












In terms of defensive alliances, Spain only has the countries within its sphere of influence to rely on right now. Denmark, Portugal, Greece, Oman, Panjab, Korea, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay make up our alliance. If something happens in South America we are well positioned, but on the European continent Spain seems vulnerable to Frances' much larger coalition

Selzro said:

Nice job! I've always wondered what playing as Spain would be like, but there are so many interesting nations that I never got around to trying it... but that's what AARs are for! 10 years to win a war is brutal but sometimes necessary... I see your literacy is still low (is it 21.9% in the last screenshot?). That would affect the ideology of your population as well as your research. Might I suggest some education techs in the near future (especially biologism)?

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Your quite right Selzro. As you can see, literacy has come up about 10% in the last 10 years now, mainly thanks to the late research of positivism. I didn't realize that affected ideology (I guess it makes sense though when it is in the category of 'social thought'). One of my main hopes out of this aar was to learn from others some strategies on tech research. Biologism just rocketed up my priority list.

soldarin said:

Java, nice way to add 2M+ to your numbers. But doesn't all this colonization leave Spain with a lot of colonies that will draw away your industrial potential in the form of the unemployed?

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So having unemployed drops your industrial score? Or the potential to build factories?
I think the only unemployed I had was actually in Java, since I'm leaving one of the 2 factories there closed, since its a money loser. But I believe most if not all of the craftsmen there finally migrated to the other factory, which wasn't full at the time.
Wouldn't having all these natural resources in my economy encourage the construction of more factories?

Hochseeflotte said:

How did Sweden get the Congo?

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There was an event in the mid 1890's ("Congo Convention" or something to that effect) where you paid $75,000 to attend and get a chance at being awarded governance of the free Congo state. Somehow Sweden got it and I have no idea how the dice rolls decided that.

Any advice on where I should go with my research next? I'm currently on Late Classical theory and then will be targetting bilogism (thanks Selzro!). I'm thinking after that to target dreadnaughts and shore up some of my lower navy techs. I'm 2nd guessing myself though by leaving those commerce techs so low, because it seems to be inhibiting my factories from expanding to a higher level.