X. - Ascendancy
Ascendancy - 1400 to 1415
Where last we left off, I was hovering indecisively over the button to Form the Aztec Nation. That button was grayed out as this session began, so I go about my regular EU3 business, waiting for it to return.
Towards the end of 1400, we make another Free Subjects move. The increased rights and privileges of the peasantry apparently make us look weak in the eyes of our neighbors. We inform our neighbors (all 1 of them) that if they care so much, they can call us 'weak' to the faces of our 42,000-man army, mightiest in the hemisphere. Our vassal, Huastec, nods sheepishly and goes about its merry way, quietly dreading its rapidly-approaching fate.
The following March, the button returns. My inability to access the Aztec files in Death and Taxes means that we will be stuck with a Mexica label and kings, but we're Tarascan where it counts - in our Tarascan culture, and the capital, Tzintzuntzan. Our cazonci takes up several crowns at a ceremony in Mexico, including the old Aztec title of Hue Tlatoani, and 'High King of the Yucatan'. Eyes will mist for centuries to come at the mention of the beautiful tale of 'aztec_nation_desc'.
The rejuvenated Tarascan state celebrates by renouncing all treaties with the Huasteca. As the vassalization is broken, and we gain cores on all three of the Huastec provinces, a new mission for our nation arises - to wipe out the Huasteca once and for all.
Speaking of cores, tag-switching to the Aztecs has granted us cores on the entire Aztec region, including three uncolonized provinces in between our territories. No colonists are yet forthcoming, so these cores remain frustratingly outside of our grasp for the foreseeable future.
At the beginning of July 1401, our armies cross the border, and the conquest of the Huastec nation is at hand.
The Huastec army is defeated first at Tohancapan, and then at the capital at Huastecas. Our forces fan out to lay siege to the entire country.
The sieges continue into the next year, with only occasional resistance from Huastec troops as the defenses of their cities continue to be battered away. News arrives from the west, as a new region enters the Empire, completely unexpectedly. An independent Tarascan chiefdom in Sayultecas decides to throw its lot in with its larger cousins to the south, expanding our control further up the Pacific coast.
It occurs to me now that this same event likely struck the Kan Pech, and that they never had colonists at all - thus how they controlled Guatemala for all of a month before our armies moved in to conquer them. What is a great boon for us proved to be the Maya's undoing.
A captured slaves event triggers - I'm going to miss this when the days of Mesoamerican conquest are over.
The resource in Sayultecas proves to be wool. Just what is producing the wool I cannot imagine - perhaps the locals are corralling bighorn sheep, or llamas have made the way north from the recently-discovered Andean kingdoms.
The new province also shows us a previously unknown, distant COT, the Sindhu Delta. As with the other two we have been afflicted with, its distance makes it useless to us.
Almost 2 years after the invasion began, the last Huastec fortresses are under our control. We annex the nation, completing the 50-year conquest of Cem Anahuac for the Tarascan Empire.
This victory notwithstanding, our cazonci lasts only two years longer before his achievements are forgotten, and he winds up dead somewhere on the road between Tzintzuntzan and Tenochtitlan. A new and more impressive leader, Auitzotl, rises to power in his place.
Yes, yes, this event is just hilarious. Why does this keep firing?
Events that actually effect us, however, do come further on down the line. The stability hit and loss of 68,000 manpower sounds nasty, so I take the discipline hit instead. This proves to be a poor choice later on when rebellions in the Yucatan flare up again, but lessons have to be learned.
Also in 1412 comes more interesting news, as a new kingdom, larger than any others yet contacted, is discovered amidst the Andes. The Aymara seem to be the predominant power in South America at present.
Our conquests from the Great Mexican War of the 1370s core around this time, Mixtec first, and then the Zapotec lands.
Another slider move comes, and this time we choose to move toward Innovative. It looks as though it won't particularly hurt our chances of getting colonists (at the moment, 0), and we could really use the help in pushing our technology forwards.
In April 1413, the Zapotec culture finally grows to full acceptance in our nation. There is now no longer any revolt risk in our Empire, west of the Yucatan at least.
In June 1415, we notice that the COT of Malabar has finally reached 800 in value, and we take advantage of this fact to liberate the provinces of the New World from the tyranny of distance centers of trade. We ultimately choose Mixtec as the spot for our new center of trade. Adjacent to our national focus, it is a fairly populous and wealthy province. Contrary to my misgivings, the COT does not stagnate to any noticeable degree as soon as I open my markets to the South American kingdoms (they haven't discovered the province and so can't trade there, but I could swear opening my markets increased the center's value nonetheless). As of the time of this writing (namely, around the late 1430s in-game) it still hasn't, so it seems to be a worthwhile investment after all.
The COT's coastal placement also offers another bonus:
At last, we're gaining colonists, however slowly. We expect our first colonist to arrive some time in the 1440s.
... It's going to be a long century.
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