@Enewald: Because as I am playing different countries for only a short period of time, I would probably not have time to go through with that. Besides, since Granada has already grown too large for diplo-vassalization I would need to vassalize them through a series of war which I would rather avoid until Iberia is more or less free of Christians.
And so we are done with the first period of our first country. I decided I should write a little overview after each period, summarising what has happened during my time with the previous country, an overview of the present situation, as well as a little analysis of what is going on in the surrounding world. This gives new readers a chance to hop in and take part in new elections without the need to go through all the previous updates. It will also shine a light on the global balance of powers, giving each of you a chance to evaluate which country might be in the most interesting situation to be played as.
Above we have the final situation of Morocco on 2nd of January 1461. I unfortunately missed the 31st of December end date that I have set for myself, but I don't think those 2 days off our next candidate's period will be that much of a loss.
As you can see above, Castile has been rather heavily carved out, and I doubt they will ever recover to their former glory. Even if they were to win over an AI Morocco and finish off the reconquista, which I still see as perfectly viable for them, Aragon is pretty much guaranteed to dominate the Iberian peninsula from now on, as long as they don't run on a crash course with the BBB.
That being said, Morocco is far from having a secure and stable footing in Iberia, or even in North Africa. With hardly any manpower that will take many years to recover (it still needs to reinforce half of its army), Morocco can stand its ground but needs a lengthy period after each war to recuperate before it can defend itself against another foe.
Having a five-year truce with both Portugal and Castile will keep the two Christian kingdoms at bay for the time being, but Aragon is increasingly hostile on the diplomatic level, and keeps eyeing Moroccan and Granadan holdings in the south.
I would also like to point out a little mistake I made in the recent war - I suddenly realised I could have made a separate peace with Portugal, thus being able to actually take provinces from them instead of negotiating directly with Castile. I have no idea what caused such a silly blackout but what's done is done.
Before we move on to look at the current state of Morocco and the world let me quickly go through what has happened thus far.
- Morocco signs an alliance with Granada and ships 17000 men to Iberia in preparation for a future Castilian invasion.
- Castile declares war on Granada and is eventually defeated, leading to a devastating end after Aragon jumps in and declares war on Castile. As a result the country is cut to less than a half of its original size and the entire Castilian navy is sunk.
- Morocco has little luck in trying to stabilise its new gains in Southern Iberia with constant rebellions in majority of the provinces.
- Eventually Castile declares another war on Granada and Morocco, this time pulling in their Portuguese allies. The war is short-lived and ends in a petty defeat for Castile.
- Elsewhere in the world Qara Qoyunlu has nearly vanished from the map with their territory evenly divided between their neighbours.
- France regains the continental holdings of England apart from Calais and Normandy, and have now declared another war on the English.
- Crime and the Ottomans keep expanding westwards and northwards.
- There are three expanding powers worth to mention within the HRE, all located in the north; Friesland, Cologne and Lüneburg, while the south is still dominated by Austria.
Let's get back to Morocco and begin our overview from the economy. As you can see it is in a slightly better state than before the war, although the country can still be considered rather poor. Inflation is finally under control and 4.5% is low enough to be lived with. The country has one 22 ducat loan left that it is able to pay off right away from its treasury. All in all, the economy is now in stable and satisfactory condition.
An unfortunate setback for Morocco are the two landlocked provinces that cannot be cored in Spain. The country needs to form a quick link either through Toledo to existing holdings in the south, or to seize a bit of the Portuguese coastline to ease the burden. I have recently also been toying around with the idea of selling them to Granada and instead of having direct holdings in Iberia, focusing on nurturing Granada into an Iberian powerhouse. Stability has obviously become very costly due to overextension and decrease in religious unity.
On the bright side I am able to convert all of the Iberian provinces within a short time frame. My piety is also back in 75% and Morocco should attempt to keep it as high as possible in the current state of affairs.
Let's see what rest of the world looks like at this point. Things haven't really managed to heat up quite yet during the short 16-year period, but we can already see some obvious signs of emerging powers and future hotbeds of action.
As per usual, the dominating big players in Europe are France, Austria and the Ottomans. The next tier would include Denmark - which is soon done with annexing Holstein and is in the process of integrating Sweden and Norway, and is leading a successful war against the Teutonic Order, Muscowy in Russia, Aragon, Bohemia and surprisingly stable Hungary.
As I mentioned earlier, there are three powers in the north of Germany that keep constantly expanding at their neighbours expense; Lüneburg (the one with a province under rebel occupation), Cologne (the dark green 'snail' near Austrian Netherlands) that has cut through into the Netherlands and Friesland (the brownish blob between Denmark and Austrian Netherlands) that is currently winning a war against the Hansa for the fate of Bremen. There isn't much else to say at this point regarding Europe apart from what you can see with your own eyes.
Apart from Muscowy ravaging through Novgorod, Russia has been quite quiet for a good while now. Oirat Horde is on a westward expansion through Uzbek.
Meanwhile in the Middle-East and India we have the usual Timurid expansion to both directions, Qara Qoyunlu being almost wiped off the map, Golden Horde making a slight southward expansion and Hedjaz in a dominant position in the Arabian Peninsula. Ethiopia is leading a successful war against Adal, but just days before the end of my period as Morocco the Mamluks declared a war on them.
In India the three expanding powers are Vijayanagar, Jaunupur and little Gujarat, but it is still too early to tell which one(s) might stand as the dominant ones in the future.
In tge Far East, Ming has been surprisingly calm, having only conguered a bit of Manchu and Korea, leaving its eastern and southern neighbours to do as they please. In Indochina, Ayutthaya is quickly developing into a regional powerhouse, with their Khmer vassals nearing an annexation.
That's all for now, I'll post up a list of future candidates later on today, perhaps between 18:00-20:00 GMT.