Good morning! And thank you for so many replies everyone. Very interesting ideas here.
I have this kind of idea:
The explorers that the FAQ speaks of is for perhaps exploring new regions and finding new resources and provinces perhaps.
I have thought perhaps the player could lay claim to territories he desires by colonizing them and/or perhaps influencing them. Perhaps for example, there is an area, and an industrial nation sends colonists there, and begins to build in it. This could increase a kind of influence for that nation over that region, therefore giving the player influence over it. Other ways to gain influence would be taking power in regional politics, and perhaps also occupying land with armies.
Now, if two industrial nations both take claim of an area, this would cause rivalry between those two nations, and could lead to lots of diplomacy and maybe eventually war.
Perhaps also then, I wonder if you could actually take full control of land after sending some colonists or armies? Perhaps they could only make claims to the land, but you would have to take more steps to really make these claims have effect. So, you would need to gain full influence or control over a territory to directly control it. If you and a rival nation both have claim to a region, then you would want to try to make your influence more dominant over the rival's.
To become more dominant, you could among other things, send overwhelming numbers of colonists, build more, and influence more, etc. Also, a war could break out over that land, and defeating your enemy and occupying the area during the war could drastically lower your rival's claim.
Meiji-Tenno
