What does "historical_friend = ARA" in history files (Portugal in this case) do?
If the emperor is also an elector of the HRE and is the only independent elector left, do you need to vassalize him too in order to dismantle the hre? Or do you just need to control his capital?
Yes. If you take enough provinces in a separate war or make them release some vassals you should be able to vassalize (or annex).So I'd need to reduce their number of provinces?
Vassals don't give manpower.
Why does being at war with a horde count as peace in the monthly war exhaustion?
Why when Golden Horde occupied a province it became their own soon after (within THEIR borders)? In my previous game they simply occupy it and then demand tribute - they never annexed. This time they capture them without any peace deal - occupy and after few months - it's theirs. Is this normal?
I'm new to this game, so I don't know
I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you mean
Ok, according EU3 wiki:
"Hordes - Cannot win or lose provinces normally. Instead, civilized neighbors may colonize provinces that they control. If a settlement reaches 1000 people it defects. In 5.1 and onward, if a horde controls a civilized province for a long enough period, it will defect to the horde."
But I haven't seen such behaviour in my previous games... In previous game they somethimes occupied enemy province for years and nothing happened. Right now they took two already...