The Brabant Rise To Power

update (quite a bit actually)...

sometime before 1500, Brabant joined a MA with Gelre (which had captured Zeeland from Bourgondy), Friesen and Oldenburg.
Since Brabant, with the rich Flanders, researched only infrastructure until level 5 was reached, its safe to say Brabant had a rather good income.
Thats also the reason why Gelre was convinced that becoming a vassal of Brabant was a good thing.
Not so long after this, Friesen also became a vassal.
Oldenburg couldnt be convinced in any way, so they were left out of the MA next time. Some 35 years after this, Brabant went ahead and annexed both Gelre & Friesen

We then continued to Ally ourselves with the big kingdom of Bavarai (about 15 provinces in Germany!) and its longtime ally, Poland (which had annexed Lithuania).
This brought is a lot (too many) wars, but one of them enabled us to annex Oldenburg as part of a peace treaty!

After this there were only 2 countries separating Bavaria from Brabant - Saxony (3 provinces) and her ally Magdeburg (2 provinces). We never needed to declare war on anyone - Bavaria was up for war with any bordering state...
so we were able to vassalize 2-province-Hessen, add Anhalt from Saxony while bavaria took Sachsen itself and Wurzburg. further more we were able to annex Magdeburg in the same conflict...

In the mean time, we were able to keep our reputation good. Brabant had at the lowest point of its history a tarnished reputation.

Now for the good news :rofl:

In the seconf half of the 15th century, a adventurer arrived in Flanders, offering his exploring services to the King
We quickly supplied him with some boats and sent him off! We were able to colonize following provinces: Watanaba, Placenta, Isle Royal, Massachusets, Roanake, Catawba, Mazatlan, Table, ... (see next post)

Brabant did have its own set of problems. The King has always actively pursued a policy of unity. this means that provinces can only differ in one thing: they can either have a different culture, or a different religion.
When protestantism & reformation came around, Brabant's only choices for the state religion were catholic & protestant
But flanders and the majority of the dutch provinces were reformed...
Since the state religion couldnt be changed to reformed, and all the established colonies until now were catholic, the decision was made to stay catholic and try to convert the reformed heretics

We were able to convert 3 reformed provinces (among which Flanders :rofl: ) but 2 reformed provinces remain, whose conversion remains a top priority in Brabant.

Currently, Brabant occupies the second position in the rating of top nations.
With a MA with Bavaria, Sweden, Poland & Hessen, we are no tasty bit to bite in for any hostile nation.

Priorities towards the future include - conversion of Zeeland & Geldre to catholic faith, annexation of Hessen by war (since we cant diplo-annex them them for some reason) and capturing Munster & Kleves from France at some point.

From the EU2 CIA Factbook:

Brabant (HAU) :

In 1190, the duchy of Brabant emerged from the duchy of Lower Lorraine. In 1430 it passed to Philip the Good of Burgundy and in 1477 it was inherited by the Habsburgs. Like the rest of the southern Low Countries, Brabant owed its extraordinary prosperity during the Middle Ages to its wool and other textile industries and to the commercial enterprises of the inhabitants of its cities and towns. Brabant's greatest city, Antwerp, was for a time the financial capital of Europe.

Brabant consists of the following province(s):
Brabant , Köln , Zeeland , Flandern , Luxembourg , Wabana , Geldre , Holland , Friesen , Oldenburg , Hannover , Roanoke , Placentia , Isle Royale , Anhalt , Massachussetts , Bas St-Laurent , Mazatlan , Karroo , Magdeburg , Transkei , Bremen , Bushman , Table , Catawba , Mtawa , Powhatan , Appalache , Namaqua , Penobscot .

Of these 29 are cities 1 are colonies


Number of provinces with following facility(es) in place (in progress)
Bailiff --- 25(0)
Courthouse --- 14(0)
Governors --- 27(0)
Art Galleries --- 1
Refinaries --- 1
Very small forts --- 19
Small forts --- 5
Medium forts --- 4



Brabant's Diplomacy

Poland , Bavaria , Sweden , Brabant , Hessen attacked Russia, Georgia on august 1648.
Poland , Brabant was(were) attacked by Courland, Denmark on december 1651.
Poland , Bavaria , Sweden , Hessen , Brabant was(were) attacked by Austria, Genoa, Brittany, Savoy on april 1653.

The nation of Brabant is part of the Brabant military alliance, consisting of Brabant, Poland, Bavaria, Sweden and Hessen. The alliance existed since february of 1588 and is expected to last until december, 1663.
Proceed to alliance ratings

In march 1592 Brabant successfully vassalized Hessen.

Brabant secured a royal marriage with Spain, Venice, Wallachia, Bavaria, Poland, France & Sweden.

From january 1427 Brabant is ruled by noble Filips van St Pol.
Our agents rank Filips van St Pol as:

Administrative skills = 5.
Diplomatic skills = 5.
Military skills = 5.
on The Holy Monarch scale.

Brabant has 73 Embassies around the world with Average Diplomatic Relation value of -92.

Brabant's closest friends: Milan
Brabant's very dear friends: Hessen
Brabant's dear friends: Portugal Venice Bavaria Papal States Savoy Scotland Sicily Navarra Sardinia Brittany
Brabant's friends: Poland Genoa Wallachia
Neutral to Brabant's cause: England Sweden Sibir Nubia China Inca Empire Royalists Mahrattis Burgundy Nogai Songhai Manchu
Brabant's enemies: Spain Chimú Kongo Benin
Brabant's hated enemies: Aztec Empire Jodhpur
Brabant's worst enemies: Austria Russia Ottoman Empire Aden Algiers The Hedjaz Crimea Denmark Helvetia Hyderabad Mameluks Moldavia Iroqouis Oman Persia Tripoli Tunisia Mughal Empire Georgia Courland Uzbek Kaganate Suzdal Serbia Ak Koyunlu Cyprus Baluchistan Huron Cherokee Creek Navaho Dakota Shawnee Lenape Maya Ethiopia Zimbabwe Zanj Fez Chagatai Khanate


Brabant's Government Policies

Aristocracy is strong in Brabant. Traditional nobility wields enormous control over all matters.
Brabant is completely decentralized. Brabant is a country in name only. The country is a collection of regions each ruled independently by local authority.
The independent and creative thought is pretty much not heard of in Brabant. Narrow-minded is to put it mildly when one talks about Brabant.
Heavily leaning toward serfdom doctrine, the freedoms of lower class are very limited in Brabant.
Brabant spent 0% of its last year budget in improving national stability.
Currently Brabant has stability rating of 3.



Brabant's Economy

With 13 merchant operations Brabant has a very strong trading base.
Lack of central government inhibits technological research and production efficiency in Brabant.
Technological research is stagnated in Brabant's narrow-minded environment.
Brabant current national treasury is estimated at 319.268,00 ducats. Inflation is 0.004%.
0% of last year's budget was spent on trade related research.
0% of last year's budget was spent on infrastructure related research.
Brabant's main trading partners are:
England France Portugal

Brabant reached trade level of 5.
Brabant reached infrastructure level of 5.

These 1 major trading hub(s) are located under Brabant's jurisdiction:
Flandern

Brabant's economy is concentrated on the production of the following goods:
Cloth (751 tons)
Copper (100 tons)
Slaves (100 thousands)
Furs (100 tons)
Fish (1017.6 tons)
Navigation supplies (283.3 tons)
Wine (100 tons)
Wool (150 tons)
Grain (734.3 tons)
Salt (150 tons)
Tobacco (300 tons)
Iron (150 tons)
Ivory (100 tons)



Brabant's People

Because of lack of central authority in Brabant regional revolts or independence movements are not likely here.
Brabant's narrow-minded policy helps the government to limit the chance of revolts. Also a lot of people that do not feel like they can expresses themselves here leave Brabant forever as settlers and missionaries.
Culturaly, Brabant's roots are mainly "dutch".
Brabant follows catholic religion.

In particular :

5 provinces or about 18% of the population follow Protestant religion.
23 provinces or about 68% of the population follow Catholic religion.
2 provinces or about 12% of the population follow Reformed religion.

With 429813 inhabitants Antwerpen in Flandern province is the largest city in Brabant.


Brabant's Military

With many regional warlords fighting for position people of Brabant have high tolerance for longer wars.
Narrow-minded Brabant society will be more acceptable towards longer wars.
Brabant generals believe that the best defense is powerful offense. The defensive theories are completely forsaken here in favor of very effective offensive tactics. Brabant's Generals are famous for their shock tactics and their troops always have high moral. On the other hard there is lack of siege and breach training and artillery in not giving a priority and thus is more expensive to produce.

A land based country, Brabant is determine to maximize the land warfare while virtually ignoring the naval technologies. Thus land units are cheap to train but naval is expensive. Also, Navy's moral suffers.

Price of soldier's life is very high in Brabant. Smaller armies are compensated by the fact that soldiers and sailors are true professionals and trained to be the best. Officers are very good at fire tactics and troops moral is higher, but there are less recruits and army training is more expensive in Brabant.

Additional 8.333 people are fit and available for military service in Brabant.

Currently Army's expenses are covered 100% in Brabant.
Currently Navy's expenses are covered 100% in Brabant

Last year 0% of the budget was spend on researching new military technologies for Brabant's Navy.
Last year 100% of the budget was spend on researching new military technologies for Brabant's Army.


There are some indicators that Brabant has gotten military passage rights from the following nations:
France Bavaria Hessen

Brabant reached land technology level of 26.
Brabant reached naval technology level of 16.

According to our agents Brabant Army has 66896 footsoldiers, 1049 cavalryman and 43 artillery units.
Brabant Navy has 0 warships, 0 smaller galleys and 3 transport ships.

Military records show a total of 352025 infantry 33130 cavalry 117 artillery 0 warships 0 galleys and 2 transports have been lost in combat in Brabant since its existance as a nation.
Military records show a total of 447948 infantry 39596 cavalry 0 artillery 3 warships 0 galleys and 17 transports have been lost to attrition in Brabant since its existance as a nation.
Military records show a total of 0 infantry 0 cavalry 0 artillery 0 warships 0 galleys and 0 transports have been disbanded in Brabant since its existance as a nation


Current Geo-Political Status

Geo-Political status consists of stability, is member of alliance, is leader of alliance, is bb rating the highest, is vassalized, has vassal - how many, is defender of faith, is emperor of HRE, more the 6 trade embargos,ownes at least one CoT, was bankrupt, each war after 2, more the 50% of population follow non-state religion, each religion with more then 1% of worshipers after 3, difference between owned and controlled provinces.
This rating is to show the immediate position of the country domestically and on international arena. For example, if Spain is the most powerful nation in the world by all other factors, but has stability of -3 and is vassal of some other nation then immediate Spain's power is significantly curtailed. However it is relatively fast process for Spain to cancel vassalization and increase stability so this setting is only used to define immediate current Geo-Political Status.
This setting does not affect Overall Nation Power Ratings because it is very volatile statistic. The most powerful nation is still most powerful even if it has some issues to resolve. However there is a new row in Overall Power Ratings - % which shows this rating. So, if in Nation Power Ratings you see 1.Spain(88)-0%(very low percentage) -- this tells you that most powerful nation of Spain has some serious issues at this time.


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