I abused France to keep Spain at bay in Europe, took their colonies, same for Portugal and England. With all those Colonial Nations at my side in America I just followed the trade route back to Asia. So after America I settled in West-Africa, then South Africa, East Africa, send trade ships to Aden, took all of the Indian Coastal provinces and eventually moved into Indonesia and China.
Meaning I have more income than any other nation, can rely on some powerful allies (France got replaced by Prussia).
Only to find out this made Russia hate me..