Vassals and Colonising

[Exorcimus]

Hello my fellow EU4 players,

As Burgundy I just managed to snatch Portugal as a vassal from Castille with the transfer subject age bonus. (They were under a PU)

This is the first time I have a colonising nation as a subject nation and have some questions about it.

Integration:
1) Will I get Portugal's colonies as my own if I integrate them later?
2) Will the integration cost increase as they get more colonies?

Colonising:
3) As my vassal, will they keep colonising? (They have 7/7 exploration and expansion ideas and already have Caraibas as a colony)
4) Is there anything I can do that will affect them colonising faster and more? (Paying Debt, enable scuttage, gifts, developing their provinces, ...)


Thanks and cheers!

 

[Opanashc]

1. Yes. Caveat - if you have your own colonial nations in same region, after integrating Portugal, you will have 2 colonial nations in same region. Double the fun!
2. No. Only their directly owned development matters.
3. If they have the money to splurge on colonizing - as a vassal, they pay you some of their income, so you might need to subsidize them.
4. Once their budget allows it, they will colonize. So give them subsidies - same as money gifts, but monthly, without need to use a diplomat more than once, and set for a time and amount once given.

 

[Exorcimus]

1. Yes. Caveat - if you have your own colonial nations in same region, after integrating Portugal, you will have 2 colonial nations in same region. Double the fun!
2. No. Only their directly owned development matters.
3. If they have the money to splurge on colonizing - as a vassal, they pay you some of their income, so you might need to subsidize them.
4. Once their budget allows it, they will colonize. So give them subsidies - same as money gifts, but monthly, without need to use a diplomat more than once, and set for a time and amount once given.

First of all, thank you for the quick reply!


If I recall correctly, colonising maintenance goes up in increments of 2 ducats per, unless you go over the limit?

So seeing that Portugal now has a positive income of over 3 ducats they should keep colonising even without those subsidies right now?
Or will they be more inclined with even more income?

I enabled scutage so they don't have war expenses or ships destroyed. (I had to wreck them a bit to get the warscore ^^)

 

[Exorcimus]

Additionally,

I have been sparing England and Castille from meeting their inevitable doom, as I planned to let them colonise and then later subjugate them.

Since I now have Portugal, who has a head start already vs England and Castille, should I still let England and Castille colonise or will Portugal take over most of their work if I destroy England and Castille?

 

[bokorthedust]

You can see in their expenses breakdown that they are already maintaining 3 colonies.

 

[Opanashc]

Just because their income is enough to support colonization, does not mean the AI thinks it is big enough. The bigger its income, the better.
Bigger subjects have bigger liberty desire, hence incentive to keep them fairly small. Colonial nations don't take up relation slots, so no incentive to keep their number small. Each colony over 10 cored provinces gives a free merchant to its overlord, so 4 colonies of 12 provinces each are better than 1 colony of 48 provinces. Make your decisions based on your own ideas, just learn all the facts.