There’s going to be techs, I presume. There’s going to be idea-based techs too, like in V2, I presume (economic theories, evolution, stuff like that). So I suggest three ideas:
-Importing ideas and technologies should not only be a normal part of the game, but central to the tech system. Everybody didn’t invent the train. Britain invented the train, everybody else copied and iterated on it. Some technologies were invented in multiple places, but most were not.
-You should need a base level of good literacy to be able to import technologies and ideas. Japan had 40% in 1864, which is why, along with Rangaku (the body of imported European scientific texts studied in Japan for 200 years leading up to the 1850s), Japan was the only country outside of the Western world to dramatically improve their standard of living in this time period.
-You should need to import a range of scientific concepts before being capable of inventing new ones.
To be extra, extra clear: Japan was the only country outside of Europe with a high literacy rate by the standards of the 1860s, 1900s, or 1930s, and had continuously imported European sciences for the last 200 years. They didn’t magic into being developed because the Americans showed up and asked them to do it, or because they pressed a ‘Westernize’ button. But if there’s no ‘Westernization’, there should still need to be scientific importing and prerequisites to it that aren’t there to begin with, because it serves the same goal of making sure Ethiopia doesn’t wind up as a developed country in 1900 just because the AI happens to be moderately competent at urbanizing.
To put it bluntly, it isn’t period-accurate for the standard of living to increase outside of the West, regardless of whether a country is colonized by Europeans or not. I won’t ramble about the history, but to keep things brief, I’ll just mention some life expectancies. In 1850, Chinese life expectancy was 32 years. In 1930, it was 32 years. In 1850, Indian life expectancy was 25 years. In 1930, it was 21 years. The Ottoman Empire, a ‘recognized’ power, had a life expectancy of 35 in 1930. By contrast, almost everywhere in Europe went from life expectancies in the 30s in 1850, to 50-65 in 1930. It didn’t matter what country. Imperialists or puppet states; empires or tiny nations; landlocked, resourceless, barren mountains, or lush, fertile valleys… from Switzerland to Britain to even the conquered regions of Poland, living standards skyrocketed.
And, of course, in Japan. Where life expectancy rose to 46. Unlike in every other country outside of Europe, where it didn’t rise at all.
And to make one last argument, I’ll throw up Portugal. Portugal left the 19th century as one of the poorest countries in Europe, even poorer than Japan, which had only started trying to dramatically copy Western state models halfway through the 19th century. Why?
Because as it turns out, even if you free the peasantry, allow free political debate, promote exports, abolish fees paid to landowners, prohibit monopolies, codify a civil code that provides rights to everybody regardless of class, secularize the state, nationalize church property and sell it to the public…
None of that matters if people aren’t literate.
Poor 19th century Portugal. It tried so hard to give the people social reform, and tried so little to give them schools. Even in 1930, the government had still made no serious effort to establish public schools, and the literacy rate was 33%.
That’s right. 33%. It was lower in 1930 than it was in Japan in 1864.
There might be some error there in the polling methods, but the point stands.
TL;DR:
Importing technology and ideas should be more common than developing your own technology and ideas, even in Europe, but overwhelmingly important for undeveloped countries. Literacy should be central to allowing this to happen. Inventing new technologies should first require importing a range of technologies and ideas.
-Importing ideas and technologies should not only be a normal part of the game, but central to the tech system. Everybody didn’t invent the train. Britain invented the train, everybody else copied and iterated on it. Some technologies were invented in multiple places, but most were not.
-You should need a base level of good literacy to be able to import technologies and ideas. Japan had 40% in 1864, which is why, along with Rangaku (the body of imported European scientific texts studied in Japan for 200 years leading up to the 1850s), Japan was the only country outside of the Western world to dramatically improve their standard of living in this time period.
-You should need to import a range of scientific concepts before being capable of inventing new ones.
To be extra, extra clear: Japan was the only country outside of Europe with a high literacy rate by the standards of the 1860s, 1900s, or 1930s, and had continuously imported European sciences for the last 200 years. They didn’t magic into being developed because the Americans showed up and asked them to do it, or because they pressed a ‘Westernize’ button. But if there’s no ‘Westernization’, there should still need to be scientific importing and prerequisites to it that aren’t there to begin with, because it serves the same goal of making sure Ethiopia doesn’t wind up as a developed country in 1900 just because the AI happens to be moderately competent at urbanizing.
To put it bluntly, it isn’t period-accurate for the standard of living to increase outside of the West, regardless of whether a country is colonized by Europeans or not. I won’t ramble about the history, but to keep things brief, I’ll just mention some life expectancies. In 1850, Chinese life expectancy was 32 years. In 1930, it was 32 years. In 1850, Indian life expectancy was 25 years. In 1930, it was 21 years. The Ottoman Empire, a ‘recognized’ power, had a life expectancy of 35 in 1930. By contrast, almost everywhere in Europe went from life expectancies in the 30s in 1850, to 50-65 in 1930. It didn’t matter what country. Imperialists or puppet states; empires or tiny nations; landlocked, resourceless, barren mountains, or lush, fertile valleys… from Switzerland to Britain to even the conquered regions of Poland, living standards skyrocketed.
And, of course, in Japan. Where life expectancy rose to 46. Unlike in every other country outside of Europe, where it didn’t rise at all.
And to make one last argument, I’ll throw up Portugal. Portugal left the 19th century as one of the poorest countries in Europe, even poorer than Japan, which had only started trying to dramatically copy Western state models halfway through the 19th century. Why?
Because as it turns out, even if you free the peasantry, allow free political debate, promote exports, abolish fees paid to landowners, prohibit monopolies, codify a civil code that provides rights to everybody regardless of class, secularize the state, nationalize church property and sell it to the public…
None of that matters if people aren’t literate.
Poor 19th century Portugal. It tried so hard to give the people social reform, and tried so little to give them schools. Even in 1930, the government had still made no serious effort to establish public schools, and the literacy rate was 33%.
That’s right. 33%. It was lower in 1930 than it was in Japan in 1864.
There might be some error there in the polling methods, but the point stands.
TL;DR:
Importing technology and ideas should be more common than developing your own technology and ideas, even in Europe, but overwhelmingly important for undeveloped countries. Literacy should be central to allowing this to happen. Inventing new technologies should first require importing a range of technologies and ideas.
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