That's the plan, though I currently have 0 colonists and am gaining precisely +0.00 per year. Even fairly far into the Narrowminded zone, it doesn't seem to be having much of an effect. Another Mesoamerican country is capable of colonizing, as I see later, so I'm at a loss.
BIG UPDAET TEIM
Bundles of Years - 1383 to 1400
1383 passes quietly. In December, some more South American provinces come to our notice. Just barely visible at the edge of the
terra incognita is a trace of green, which our explorers suspect to be a rich kingdom high in the mountains. Our priests scoff at the notion of civilization outside of Cem Anahuac, but I'm curious nonetheless.
I am not entirely sure of what possessed me here. I guess my logic was that I didn't want to drop into negative stab (I forgot to record the passing of a comet event) and that I needed to keep relations with my vassals up in order to annex the Metztitleca as soon as possible. A centralization move goes down the drain.
As 1386 dawns, Tlacotzin II kicks the bucket after a long and successful reign, and Curicaueri punishes our foolish slider move with a legendarily bad 3-3-3 cazonci. I offer our new king a nifty position at the head of one of our armies and humbly suggest he go fight the 10,000 natives in Tohtepec for a while, and the excitable young fellow does so with gusto. Let's hope he drowns in a river or takes a spear to the eye before the campaign is over.
Another demands of freedom event triggers, hot on the heels of the last one. Again, my hand is forced, as the death of the last cazonci has put me at -1 stability and I'm loath to drop all the way to -3. Two hard-earned slider moves have been for nothing, so I swear my undying vengeance upon these good-for-nothing vassals. Their destruction will have to wait, sadly, as more pressing matters are at hand.
I guess they're good for one thing...
We take a Free Subjects move, unwilling to make another move to Centralization when it's likely to just be reversed again. A minor drop in prestige follows, but we don't especially care.
Resolving a diplomatic incident with Metztitlan helps to boost our relations with our vassals.
In August 1390, our new king's destruction of all the natives in the surrounding uncolonized provinces goads (as I had hoped) one of the Maya powers into colonizing a province adjacent to our territory. At last we have a
casus belli on Kan Pech, and waste no time in declaring a war that soon includes both of the other Maya states.
We immediately seize the newest colonized province, and here our armies split to lay siege to the Q'iche lands, and to turn north into the Yucatan. The combined armies of Kan Pech and Chetumal are defeated in Belize, which is immediately occupied due to its lack of a fort. Chetumal is immediately annexed, and our armies begin laying siege to Peten and Campeche, which have been fortified in recent years.
Another crushing defeat is dealt to the Campechanos at Peten, and our armies pursue them further north.
By July 1391 the Q'iche are utterly defeated and have no choice but to join our growing empire.
The army of Kan Pech keeps running, and is utterly destroyed at Tulu'um. The province of Yucatan falls without a fight, but the rest of our armies must continue the arduous task of sieging the three fortified Campechano provinces.
As the sieges continue, we receive more tribute from our vassals, and a comet passes by.
At about the same time, we receive some interesting news - we have made contact with a pair of mountain kingdoms far to the south. The priesthood is quick to assert that they always knew there could be civilizations past the lands of Quatemala in the south, and that Curicaueri works in mysterious ways. The peoples call themselves the 'Chimu' and 'Wanka', the latter of which nearly causes a diplomatic incident when presented to our emissaries due to the vulgar-sounding nature of their name.
We're unsure of just what to do about these nations for now. They're too far away to add to our empire, and they seem to be suffering from the same trade problems that we are, so there's no economic reason to pay them any attention.
It isn't long before the last of the sieges in the Yucatan concludes, and Kan Pech is at last added to our empire. The last of the Maya states have been incorporated into the enlarged Tarascan state, which now more or less controls all of Mesoamerica.
We've broken our BB limit for the first time, and the revolt risk likely means we'll be busy for a while before we can even think of annexing Metztitlan as we'd been hoping.
This CB would have been handy a few decades ago...
Predictably, a wave of revolts hits the Yucatan. Like last time, our troops seem unwilling to kill more than a few hundred in any given battle (one battle yields only 50 enemy casualties), and it takes two of our new 14,000-man armies combined to deal a killing blow to the Maya peasants. Thankfully, there are no rebellions to contend with for the rest of the decade, and our troops enjoy a well-earned rest.
The former Mexica provinces core at last in 1397, and Mexica becomes an accepted culture. The conquests of the Great Mexican War should likewise core around 1412, in the not too distant future.
Through Chimu contacts, our knowledge of the Andes expands and we make contact with the kingdom of Quitu.
After 12 years of rule, our people at last see fit to depose the incompetent cazonci Tizoc, replacing him with a noble named Axayacatl who promises to be a fair military ruler. This would have been handy when there were still enemies to fight.
In July 1399, Metztitlan is at last added to our growing realm. A non-core province comes along with it, but it's not much of a concern. Next, we set our eyes on our tributary, the Huastec, the last semi-independent polity in Mesoamerica (other than our own glorious empire).
A nascent Mexica revolt is put down first in Mexico and then in Tlaxcala.
On 14 October 1399, I stop to appreciate how far our nation has come in the last 43 years. All of Cem Anahuac is under our boot, our economy (despite the lack of merchant trade) is growing from the rich goods we control, and our technology is growing, slowly but surely. Nevertheless, I am not completely pleased with our present situation.
We've lost two crucial Centralization moves, and as long as Huastec exists (which will be for several more years) there's the danger of any Centralization slider moves being reversed. Diploannexing them is hard enough on its own, but would also bring two more nasty, uncored provinces into our demesne. There is, however, something that could remedy all these problems at once, even as unappealing as the act itself seems - to regain the two Centralization, to core not only some of our current provinces but all the Huasteca ones and the uncolonized territories inside of our lands, and to allow us to do away with the Huasteca as quickly as possible.
The decision sits there as I hesitate - our culture would remain Tarascan and our capital at Tzintzuntzan, but to adopt the guise of one of our ancient enemies...?