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Sete

Lt. General
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Jan 24, 2018
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Hello! In my EU IV adventures i have been having fun with Madeira Island, toying with some NI and trying to make a viable Empire spawning from a single area. The starting position of the Island also makes it a challenge. i had fun with a set of ideas roughly similar to Portugal, and then i decided to go down the rabbit hole, and found a few interesting bits of history that inspired me for a proper set of National Ideas.

Traditions (with a bit of history to justify them)
Colonial Range 20%

Administrated by the Military Order of Christ until the Reign of D.Manuel I, Madeira became an important outpost during the Age of Discovery. Even after being colonised, Captains of the Order would still participate in raids against Morocco, and exploration down the coast of Africa.

Álvaro Fernandes was a 15th-century Portuguese slave-trader and explorer from Madeira, in the service of Henry the Navigator. He captained two important expeditions (in 1445 and 1446), which expanded the limit of the Portuguese discovery of the West African coast, probably as far as the northern borderlands of modern Guinea-Bissau. Álvaro Fernandes's farthest point (approximately Cape Roxo) would not be surpassed for ten years, until the voyage of Alvise Cadamosto in 1456.

António de Abreu (c. 1480 – c. 1514) was a 16th-century Portuguese navigator and naval officer. He participated under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque in the conquest of Ormus in 1507 and Malacca in 1511, where he got injured. Departing from Malacca in November 1511 with four ships, in an exploratory voyage to the 'Spice Islands' of Maluku, he led the first European expedition to reach Timor and the Banda Islands, in Indonesia, in 1512.


Naval Leader Maneuver +1
Volta do mar
, volta do mar largo, or volta do largo (the phrase in Portuguese means literally turn of the sea but also return from the sea) is a navigational technique perfected by Portuguese navigators during the Age of Discovery in the late fifteenth century, using the dependable phenomenon of the great permanent wind circle, the North Atlantic Gyre. This was a major step in the history of navigation, when an understanding of winds in the age of sail was crucial to success: the European sea empires would never have been established had the Europeans not figured out how the trade winds worked.

The volta do mar was a sailing technique discovered in successfully returning from the Atlantic islands, where the pilot first had to sail far to the west in order to catch usable following winds, and return to Europe. This was a counter-intuitive sailing direction, as it required the pilot to steer in a direction that was perpendicular to the ports of Portugal. Lack of this information may have doomed the thirteenth-century expedition of Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi, who were headed towards the Canary Islands (as yet unknown by the Europeans) and were lost; once there, without understanding the Atlantic gyre and the volta do mar, they would have been unable to beat upwind to the Strait of Gibraltar and home. Discovering this technique was crucial for returning from future discoveries; for example Christopher Columbus would never have returned from the Americas without applying the volta do mar by sailing northwards from the Caribbean through the Horse Latitudes to catch the prevailing mid-latitude westerlies.

Some years before his voyages across the Atlantic, Christopher Columbus, visited Madeira. It is generally accepted that he was born in Genoa, Italy as Cristoforo Colon. In Portugal it has been claimed that he was born in that country, as Salvador Fernandes Zarco but this is disputed.

Columbus married the daughter of a plantation owner on Porto Santo and so was well aware of the profits to be made. He also understood the necessary growing conditions for sugar and the navigational technique known as the Volta do mar.


National Ideas:

Goods Produced Modifier 20%

Henry the Navigator ordered commercial crops to be planted so that the islands could be profitable.These specialised plants, and their associated industrial technology, created one of the major revolutions on the islands and fuelled Portuguese industry. Following the introduction of the first water-driven sugar mill on Madeira, sugar production increased to over 6,000 arrobas (an arroba was equal to 11 to 12 kilograms) by 1455, using advisers from Sicily and financed by Genoese capital. (Genoa acted as an integral part of the island economy until the 17th century.) The accessibility of Madeira attracted Genoese and Flemish traders, who were keen to bypass Venetian monopolies.

"By 1480 Antwerp had some seventy ships engaged in the Madeira sugar trade, with the refining and distribution concentrated in Antwerp. By the 1490s Madeira had overtaken Cyprus as a producer of sugar."

Sugarcane production was the primary engine of the island's economy, increasing the demand for labour. African slaves were used during portions of the island's history to cultivate sugar cane, and the proportion of imported slaves reached 10% of the total population of Madeira by the 16th century.

Global Trade Power 15%
The first alfandega (customs) of Funchal was determinated by D. Beatriz, then administrator of the Order of Christ in 15th of March of 1477.

Construction Cost -20%

During the second half of the 15th century, the sugar industry expanded significantly along the southern coast, from Machico until Fajã da Ovelha, making Funchal the most important industrial centre of the industry. By the end of the century, fronting the Order of Christ, D. Manuel, Duke of Beja, expanded the support of the local community; he ordered the construction of the administrative Paços do Concelho and the Paços dos Tabeliães (completed in 1491), raised the construction of a church (began in 1493 and later raised to cathedral in 1514), and finally the construction of a hospital and customs-house in the village. In 1508, it was elevated to the status of city by King Manuel I of Portugal, and in 1514 (on completion of the Sé Cathedral) the bishopric was headquartered in Funchal.

28px-Fort_defense.png
Fort Defense +10%

The island, and Funchal specifically, were vulnerable to privateer and pirate attacks. In September 1566, French corsairs under the command of Bertrand de Montluc, a gentleman in the court of Charles IX of France and second-son of Field Marshal Blaise de Montluc departed from Bordeaux with a force of 1200 men, on a small fleet of three main ships and eight support craft. The armada sacked Porto Santo. When the news was relayed to the settlements on Madeira and the villas of Machico and Santa Cruz the citizenry armed themselves for the inevitable. In Funchal, the governor, Francisco de Sales Gonçalves Zarco da Câmara, did not take any action that could be construed as hostile. Meanwhile, the armada anchored off the beach of Formosa, disembarked a contingent of 800 men that marched towards the city in three columns, encountering no resistance until the main bridge in São Paulo. At the bridge the privateers encountered a force from the small fort, with a few small-caliber pieces, which were quickly routed in confusion. At the road near Carreira, the attackers were confronted by a small group of Franciscan friars, who were quickly dispatched. Funchal's fortifications were finally assaulted by land, where its defense was thin; the defenders could not even reposition many of the cannons directed towards the sea. The city suffered a violent sack that lasted fifteen days, after which little remained.

The following year, the military architect Mateus Fernandes III was sent to Funchal in order to completely modify the defensive system of the city. Evidence of the work produced by this architect was published in the "Mapa de Mateus Fernandes" (1573), considered to be the oldest plan of the island of Funchal. The document identifies the major defenses of the city, which included a large fortification in the area around the dyke in Pena.

Fire Damage Received -10%

Brazil has, throughout history, fascinated islanders, who have been linked to its construction process since the beginning. In the centuries. XVI and XVII, the presence of Madeirans, from the north to the south of Brazil, stood out, as farmers and sugar mill masters, who were pioneers in the definition of export agriculture based on sugar cane, employees, who consolidated the local institutions and royals, and military, who fought at different times for Portuguese sovereignty. The strong impact of Madeira in the early days of Brazilian society led Evaldo Cabral de Mello to define the captaincy of S. Vicente as “Nova Madeira”. The beginnings of the colonization of Brazil are linked to Madeira, and a bridge was established between the island and the colonies of Brazil. The first sugar mills were built by Madeiran masters. In Bahia, Pernambuco and Paraíba we find many Madeirans linked to the sugar harvest, as technicians or mill owners. Madeira also served as a model in the colonization process of Brazil, namely with regard to the hereditary captaincy and sesmarias regimes, and also in the administrative and religious apparatus, as Funchal was the seat of archbishopric between 1514 and 1533, with jurisdiction over the Brazil. Brazil's economic progress has attracted the attention of the Madeiran bourgeoisie, who emigrated to that colony in search of its wealth, in particular sugar. In this sense, there are several Brazilian families with Madeiran origin.

Another motivation for the movement of Madeirans to Brazil stemmed from the need to defend that territory. The liberation of Maranhão, in 1642, was the work of António Teixeira Mello, while in Pernambuco resistance to the Dutch was organized since 1645 by João Fernandes Vieira. Thus, the defense of Portuguese sovereignty was also achieved by sending companies of soldiers from the island. The sending of Madeiran soldiers to Brazil continued throughout the century XVII, in this way, we have the departure, in 1631, of João de Freitas da Silva; in 1632, by Francisco de Bettencourt and Sá; in 1646, by Francisco Figueiroa and, in 1658, by D. Jorge Henriques with 600 men. In 1696, 100 soldiers were to the state of Maranhão.


Merchant Trade Power +10
Since the 17th century, Madeira's most important product has been its wine.
Madeira wine was perhaps the most popular luxury beverage in the colonial Western Hemisphere during the 17th and 18th centuries. The British Empire occupied Madeira as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, a friendly occupation which concluded in 1814 when the island was returned to Portugal, and the British did much to popularise Madeira wine.
Madeira was an important wine in the history of the United States of America. No wine-quality grapes were grown among the thirteen colonies,so imports were needed, with a great focus on Madeira. One of the major events on the road to the American revolution in which Madeira played a key role was the British seizure of John Hancock's sloop the Liberty on May 9, 1768. Hancock's boat was seized after he had unloaded a cargo of 25 pipes (3,150 gallons) of Madeira, and a dispute arose over import duties. The seizure of the Liberty caused riots to erupt among the people of Boston.

Madeira was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, and it was used to toast the Declaration of Independence. George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams are also said to have appreciated the qualities of Madeira. The wine was mentioned in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. On one occasion, Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, of the great quantities of Madeira he consumed while a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress. A bottle of Madeira was used by visiting Captain James Server to christen the USS Constitution in 1797. Chief Justice John Marshall was also known to appreciate Madeira, as were his cohorts on the early U.S. Supreme Court.

Domestic Trade Power +15%

Throughout the eighteenth century the most important trade routes continued to go through Madeira. English fleet, both commercial and war, docked there on the way to the West Indies. And the same happened with the travel of scientists and explorers. Captain Cook and Charles Darwin spent time there. In 1815 Napoleon passed in Madeira on the way to exile. The ship docked in Funchal bay to collect supplies and Madeira wine.




Ambition:
Yearly Prestige +1

In the nineteenth century Russia became the main market of Madeira wine. Also in the history of North America no other wine had much prestige as the “Madeira Wine”, which for nearly 200 years dominated the halls, banquets and receptions.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Madeira became one of the first tourist destinations in Europe, mostly visited by European aristocracy of the time. The good air of the island and its landscapes were recommended by doctors to patients undermined by tuberculosis. Many went there to convalesce.

Starting leader could be Joao Goncalves Zarco, the explorer who found the island.
The flag could be white with the red cross of the Order of Christ.
( Personally i would add the Galician model which is my favourite and Iberian Ships. I do use the island modern colours for the flag with the white Knights of Malta cross.)
All the values are achived using EU IV costum nation table.
 
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The flag could be white with the red cross of the Order of Christ.
( Personally i would add the Galician model which is my favourite and Iberian Ships. I do use the island modern colours for the flag with the white Knights of Malta cross.)

Unless there was a different flag back on the day, why not the current flag of the island?
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=593740
 
Heck, why not?
I always felt a bit upset on how you don't have enough resources to develop Madeira and Azores.
By the way, should Azores remain under crown's protection or Duchy of Madeira should have a core on them?
 
Maybe canary islands, which is closer geographically. Dindt think abkut that. Bur maybe all macaronesia region.
Are you planning the ground for possible conflict over Canares with Castille? That should make an additional CB in case Iberian Wedding wouldn't go historical way ("marry local noble instead" option) or should hostilities escalate after that.
By the way, what do you think of the option to force the Duchy of Madeira to raise the Jolly Roger, if it's your vassal? Or for the Duchy itself? It stands at the crossroads of trade routes between Europe and Americas, so it would make sense for they could claim HUGE booty from treasure fleets...
 
Honesltly i did not think about any of that.
Just tought that Portugal should have a releasable tag.
Since no one gives a damn about historical acuracy around here.
 
I must say, i find your idea quite interesting.
Anyway, this Duchy is ahistorical, am i right?
Oh yeah absolutely not historical.
The island of madeira was under the administration of the order of christ up until 1501 i think. But the history for the ideas are historical.
 
I my opinion is as just as historical as Duchy of Madeira.
"the Algarvian kingdom had no institutions, special privileges, or autonomy. In actuality, it was just an honorific title for the Algarve based on its history and was very similar to the rest of the Portuguese provinces."
 
Well, the same can go to the Duchy of Madeira.
Anyway, as far as i know, the Kingdom of Jerusalem title was created artificially and later abandoned all together.
 
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I respect the work put into your suggestion, but what about the risk that Madeira will break off easily from an AI Portugal?
I mean, in early game there is small difference in troop qualities, so you can't just crush rebels as you do with your Prussian 30k stucks in 1700. So, if Madeira would get some unrest, they might riot for independence. Then there could be more than 5k rebel troops, which an AI not necessary can route. The outcome, an independent Duchy of Madeira would decrease Portugal's colonial range, hindering it's colonization and finally might upset the game's preconstructed course (like how Portugal explored the new world first, and they finally started to prioritize Brazil over the Caribbean).
I feel like the addition of this tag should add little flavour, but quite huge risk.
 
I respect the work put into your suggestion, but what about the risk that Madeira will break off easily from an AI Portugal?
I mean, in early game there is small difference in troop qualities, so you can't just crush rebels as you do with your Prussian 30k stucks in 1700. So, if Madeira would get some unrest, they might riot for independence. Then there could be more than 5k rebel troops, which an AI not necessary can route. The outcome, an independent Duchy of Madeira would decrease Portugal's colonial range, hindering it's colonization and finally might upset the game's preconstructed course (like how Portugal explored the new world first, and they finally started to prioritize Brazil over the Caribbean).
I feel like the addition of this tag should add little flavour, but quite huge risk.
Usually AI Portugal colonizes canary islands first thing, so the range would not be that impaired i reckon. At least thays my experience when i play with Madeira as costum nation.
 
Usually AI Portugal colonizes canary islands first thing, so the range would not be that impaired i reckon. At least thays my experience when i play with Madeira as costum nation.

Now I rather see this as a problem :D I've seen a suggestion about it, to create an event which practically prohibits portuguese colonization of the Canarias.

Honestly I'd also prefer Algarve as a releaseable over Madeira. Algarve could see some action. As Madeira you can just sit on your island trying to colonize before you get conquered.
 
Usually AI Portugal colonizes canary islands first thing, so the range would not be that impaired i reckon. At least thays my experience when i play with Madeira as costum nation.
Yeah, I see that often too ever since "Golden Century" was released. Both Portugal and Castille rush to colonize West Canary Isles or Rio De Oro.
I doubt that Madeiran rebels can cause so much of a problem and, as far as i know, your vassals do increase your colonial range.
If not, you can release it after you start colonizing in the Americas anyway.
And ever since GC, i often see that Castille and Portugal are unable to keep Morocco in check, it lays laims on the portuguese land and conquers Algarve and Madeira, which is more annoying.
 
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Yeah, I see that often too ever since "Golden Century" was released. Both Portugal and Castille rush to colonize West Canary Isles or Rio De Oro.
I doubt that Madeiran rebels can cause so much of a problem and, as far as i know, your vassals do increase your colonial range.
If not, you can release it after you start colonizing in the Americas anyway.

As mentioned before, there could be an event for that Canarias thing, as seeing Portugal there is rather weird.
And rebels on an isolated island can cause a lot of problem in early game.


And ever since GC, i often see that Castille and Portugal are unable to keep Morocco in check, it lays laims on the portuguese land and conquers Algarve and Madeira, which is more annoying.

I haven't seen it happening unless France or some other European power 'helps' Morocco defeating Castile.