Rise of Colonialism and Imperialism, and colonial independence

Future Game Society Stage
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So… how will colonies be handled? In spore it was just you have the colony until it’s taken over by blue or you win civ stage.

We could also have it where there is colonial “impatience” (IDK what else to call it but yeah) which acts like world tension like in HOI4 but only mother nation to colony. It starts off very low but as time goes on, the colonies size increases, and what the player does, the impatience can get higher. At a certain point, the colony will make a series of demands that get bigger and bigger that if you refuse, they can declare independence, and war will go on. Also, if your colonies are below 50% impatience and 1 colony has successfully rebelled, they can get a peaceful independence if they ally with the mother nation. Also, successful attempts at rebellion will increase other nations impatience, and failed rebellions will lower them.

Pre-Colonial tribes. How could the colonial superpowers interact with them, and what if the tribes were very advanced? I think first trade goes on and as colonies grow the colonial nation can send expeditions to raid and kill the tribes, to get more land. If the tribes were advanced, I think colonization for other nations (other than the one who made contact and was severely annihilated, unless that one was behind) is a no go, and if they make contact, the tribes could even attack the colonial mainland.

Also, what if you want to play from the perspective of the rebellion? Well, I don’t think some people would want to do that, and some people do, so if there is a button that appears when the rebellion comes that could say, “Do you want to switch to the rebels?” and there could be a yes or no. If you play as the rebels, you are outnumbered, but you have an advantage. You know the land like the back of your hand and you know where the mother colonies troops are stationed. You would get (50% of X)% of the troops in the colonial nation where X = colonial impatience. So, if you have 50k troops in the colony and the colonial impatience is 80% then you would get 40% of 50k, or 20k troops. The mother nation will still have troops from other colonies and the mainland, so it still will be hard.

Good examples of the rebel colony eclipsing the mother nation are the USA and Brazil (at least after getting independence).

Either way works, maybe in the settings there could be a difficulty slider where you could change the complexity of the game, right next to the LAWK toggle.

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That is a very interesting topic you have brought up. I am surprised there hasn’t been a discussion about it in so long,

I am not sure how the Society stage would look like. It is very far (but not too far, hopefully) in the future and I haven’t seen any statements on how it may look, so ideas on how to implement colonialism (or anything, really) may not be fitting with whatever comes to be.

So for the sake of the discussion, I will assume that the game will take a sandbox approach to the matter, where the world is the canvas and we are the painter. Imagine a game of Civilization, albeit more complex and less cartoonish.

Overall, I don’t think that colonialism actually deserves a special mechanic. Colonisation is an important part of history, but I think that it is a term so broad and so applicable to everything that trying to build it as a separate mechanic, independent of other mechanics, is wrong.

The Phenicians and Greeks colonised the Mediterranean Basein by establishing new cities everywhere.

The Romans, the Greeks, the Persians conquered and exploited many different ethnic groups, with the Romans specifically assimilating many cultures. The Greeks fancied themselves Roman and had adopted many Roman traditions and practices long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

The Arabs spread their faith through conquest, going all the way to the Iberian peninsula. We can see the results of their conquest even to this day, with Northern Africa and Anatolia being Muslim.

We can go on and on, but my main point is that colonialism serves much more as an umbrella term than a specific set of actions. Hence why I think that the approach the game should take is the development of the main economical and military mechanics, which should drive the in-game societies through history.

i. First and foremost, miggration. People will travel even to the end of the world in search of a better future. Immigrants built the colonies in the New World - people, running from religious opression, folks searching for wealth in the Americas, explorers wanting to reveal the secrets of the Mother Earth, etc, etc.

In order for colonisation, both ancient and modern, to work, the game mechanics shoud allow for people to move around freely and settle new territories. The game mechanics must also allow the player to affect migration meaningfully.

For example, during Manifest Destiny, the American Government encouraged people to move west by promising them free pots of land. This meant that not only settlers west will recognise American authority, as they are de facto there for a land promised by the government, but they will have an initiative to move and abandon their previous life.

Cities could attract immigrants by becoming a safe heaven for the downtrodden. Prisoners, slaves, etc. could all find fortune somewhere, where everyone is free.

ii. Your idea of an Impatience Metre is a good suggestion. I have nothing to add to it, I think you have thought it out well enough. However, I would apply it more specifically, not just to all the population. In society there are many interest groups, to whom you relate differently.

In the context of Early America, for example, slaves would be constantly displeased and impatient, but they are not an interest group that is important, so you can afford ignoring their wishes.

But the Plantation owners, on the other hand, contribute a lot to your society in one way or another, so having them being displeased is a bad omen. You cannot afford to make them angry.

Your society should have various interest groups, lobbying for different things, and you must find balance in order to keep your nation together.

iii. In the context outside of colonialism, you have things like military might, international relationship, production, labour force, etc, which should also be implemented and interconnected.

iv. And lastly, regarding colonial independence, every territory you own should be able to act as an independant actor. The player should be allowed to stop them, if they so desire. But the option of letting them go should also be on the table. It should be up to us to decide which one would be more beneficial and less costly.

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