They build the Frontiersman, John Paul Jones, and Rough Riders.
They cannot build Man-of-Wars or Blockade Vessels, or any pirate ships.
The United States is relatively young by Civilization standards, being barely more than 200 years old; it achieved its current size and influence only in the mid-20th century. America was the first of the European colonies to separate successfully from its motherland, and it was the first nation to be established on the premise that sovereignty rests with its citizens and not with the government. In its first century and a half, the country was mainly preoccupied with its own territorial exploration and expansion and with economic growth. American politics became increasingly democratic during the 1820s and '30s. But a matter of freedom would bring the nation to its greatest crisis: the American Civil War. On February 4, 1861 - a month before Abraham Lincoln (1860-1865) could be inaugurated in Washington - six Southern states sent representatives to Montgomery to declare a new independent government. With Jefferson Davis at its head, the Confederate States of America came into being, set up its own bureaus and offices, occupied federal buildings, issued its own money, raised its own taxes, and flew its own flag. With the Union preserved, the nation entered a period of unprecedented prosperity after the long conflict and reconstruction. In the ensuing two decades industrial production, the number of industrial workers, and the number of factories all more than doubled. European immigration, westward expansion, urban growth, technological advances
and a host of American inventions - including the telephone, typewriter, linotype, phonograph, electric light, cash register, air brake, refrigerator car, and the automobile - contributed to the American explosion, while widespread use of corporate organization offered new opportunities for large-scale financing of business enterprise and attracted new capital. Militarily speaking, the Spanish-American War of 1898 was so brief and relatively bloodless as to have been a mere passing episode in the history of modern warfare, but it catapulted the United States into the world arena. Before the 1890s, roughly speaking, most Americans had stubbornly adhered to the belief, as old as the Revolution itself, that their country should remain aloof from European affairs and offer an example of democracy and peace to the rest of the world. But the United States had become a great power by virtue of its prodigious economic growth since the Civil War; now many thought it ought to begin to act like one.
They begin the game with Seafaring.
They build Shore Parties, Raiders, Raider Captains, Francis Lolonois, Henry Morgan, Bilanders, and Schooners.
They cannot build Dreadnoughts, Man-of-Wars, Blockade Vessels, or Armies.
These ruthless pirates were among the first to terrorize the lawless Caribbean. They were fierce and aggressive fighters who enjoyed a little murder, mayhem, and slaving. Their name comes from the buckskin outfits they sometimes made from deer they slaughtered on shore.
They build the Fusilier, Dragoon Guards, General Oglethorpe, Chaloner Ogle, Woodes Rogers, English Brigantine, English Frigate, English Galleon, and English Man-of-War.
They cannot build any pirate ships.
In Roman times Britain lay on the periphery of the civilized world, and it emerged into the light of history only after the Saxon settlements in the 5th century AD. Tribal migrations into Britain began about the middle of the 5th century. The first arrivals were invited by a British chieftain to defend his kingdom against the Picts and Scots. The first mercenaries were from three tribes - the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes - which located on the coastlands of northwestern Germany. Eventually, these peoples would themselves topple the native kingdoms. But unity was fleeting; the subsequent Norman Conquest (1066) resulted in the subordination of England to a Frankish aristocracy, and the introduction of feudalism to the Isles. The English Normans would eventually give rise to a purely British line of kings, the Plantagenets. Three centuries later, the Wars of the Roses was the final struggle between the Yorkist and Lancastrian descendants of the Plantagenets for control of the throne. When Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, seized the crown in 1485, leaving the Yorkist Richard III dead upon the field of battle, few Englishmen would have predicted that 118 years of Tudor rule had begun. Elizabeth I (1558-1603) proved to be the most able Tudor
monarch. No observer in 1558, any more than in 1485, would have predicted that despite the social discord, political floundering, and international humiliation of the past decades, the kingdom again stood on the threshold of an extraordinary age. Her reign ushered in two centuries of British exploration, colonization, artistic and intellectual advances. When Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen," died childless, Parliament offered the crown to the closest blood kin, James VI of Scotland (1603-1625) and the United Kingdom was born, defended by the "wooden wall" of the Royal Navy’s Men-o-War. Every major war Britain engaged in during this period increased its colonial power. The Seven Years' War was particularly notable in this respect, and so were the Napoleonic Wars. By 1820 the total population of the British Empire was 200 million, 26% of the world's total population. However acquired, all these
acquisitions added to the crown’s and the country's power and reputation. For the privileged and the rich, the Victorian era was pre-eminently one of confidence and arrogance, under the able guidance of Britain’s two Prime Ministers, Gladstone and Disraeli. But the "long summer of peace" came to an end in the bloodbath of Flanders. Although Britain suffered far less physical damage than France and underwent no political revolution, World War I may have affected it more fundamentally than any other European power.
They build Indian Mercenaries, Black Robes, Dragoon Guards, Jean-Baptiste, Imperial Guards, French Field Artillery, French Horse Artillery, and French Steel Artillery.
They cannot build any pirate ships.
Modern France has its roots in ancient Gaul. In the 2nd century BC Rome intervened on the side of Massilia (Marseilles), a Greek colony founded in 600 BC, in its struggle against the barbarian tribes of the hinterland. The result was the formation, in 121 BC, of the Roman Provincia; between 58 to 50 BC Caesar seized the remainder. From 395 the internal problems of the Empire encouraged barbarian penetration of Transalpine Gaul. By 418, the Franks and Burgundians were established west of the Rhine, and the Visigoths had settled in Aquitaine. The period of the Merovingian and Carolingian Frankish dynasties (476-887) frames the Early Middle Ages. Following his ascension, the first Merovingian, Clovis (481-511), consolidated the position of the Franks in northern Gaul. Clovis came to believe that his victories were due to the Christian God. Clovis' subsequent conversion assured
the Frankish rulers of the support not only of the Catholic Church but of the majority of their own subjects. By the rise of the house of Valois in 1328, France was the most powerful kingdom in Europe. Its ruler could muster larger armies than rivals; he could tap enormous fiscal resources; and the king's courts maintained royal supremacy. The history of France in the Late Middle Ages is dominated by efforts of its kings to maintain their suzerainty, efforts that, despite French advantages, were long frustrated. The Hundred Years War was an intermittent struggle between
England and France in the 14th-15th centuries over a series of dynastic disputes, including the legitimate succession to the French crown. The war's turning point was reached in 1429, when an English army was forced to raise its siege of Orléans by a relief force organized by Joan of Arc. Her insistence that only consecration at Reims could make a true king, chosen by God, led to further victories. Charles III was anointed in Reims in July 1429. By 1453, England retained only Calais, which it finally relinquished in 1558. With the ascension of the infant Louis XIII (1610-1643), the security of the country was again threatened as factions disputed the throne. Crown and country, however, were rescued by the most controversial figure of the Bourbon dynasty: Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu. He proved an
indefatigable servant of the French crown, intent on securing absolute obedience to the monarchy and on raising its international prestige through the military prowess of the King’s elite Musketeers. Under the last Bourbons, France became the industrial and commercial center of Europe. These developments, although significant by themselves, gave rise to a still more momentous change: the French Enlightenment, a cultural transformation based on rationalism, empiricism, and an amorphous concept of freedom found in the influential writings of Rousseau (1712-78). Hence, what began in 1787 as a conflict between royal authority and aristocrats became a triangular struggle, with "the masses" opposing both absolutism and privilege. By any standard, the fall of the Bastille to the Parisian crowd was a monumental
event, a seemingly miraculous triumph of the people. But the Revolution soon degenerated in a reign of terror and chaos. Unlike others before him, Napoleon terminated the bloodshed, but at the price of suppressing freedom altogether.
In utter contrast to the Revolution, militarism became the defining quality of the Napoleonic regime. However, the revolutionary fervor of the French citizenry was undiminished by the Napoleonic experience, and led to further revolutions in 1830 and 1848, the latter leading to the Second Republic followed by the Second Empire (1852-1870).
They build Admiral De Ruyter, Boers, and Fluyts.
They cannot build any pirate ships.
Toward the end of the 16th century CE, the independent cities and principalities of Flanders and Belgium sent representatives to Utrecht to form an alliance. The alliance would coordinate taxation and military operations against Spain, whose ruling Hapsburgs had dominion over the Low Countries even after they adopted the Protestant religion. The Netherlands, comparatively small and poor compared to mighty Spain and its empire of gold in the Americas, often had to rely on Swiss mercenaries and other hired guns for its defense. This was not a long-term solution, hence the need for a much closer alliance. The result of this meeting was the Union of Utrecht, which formally created the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Spain, which had spent the previous decade alternately fighting and politicking against the armies and intrigues of William of Orange, was not pleased by this development. Orange’s position had always been that Spain’s sovereignty over the Netherlands was legitimate, but the governors chosen by the King were trampling the rights of Orange and the other native nobles. William also vehemently opposed the imposition of Catholicism on his homeland, but still felt the King of Spain could be persuaded to loosen his grip. This proved unrealistic, and in 1581 Orange publicly renounced his loyalty to the Spanish throne. He was assassinated a few years later; he did not live to see his country completely free of Spanish domination. However, once the provincial leaders (particularly those of Holland, the largest and most influential of
the United Provinces) and the nobles began to cooperate, putting their disagreements to one side, Spain was nearly defeated. Under the brilliant political, military, and economic leadership of Johan de Witt, perhaps the Netherlands’ greatest statesman, the Dutch Republic grew into a world power, its rapidly growing economy and naval presence allowing it to settle colonies around the world and establish a massive trade empire. This wealth translated into a cultural golden age lasting over a hundred years. During that time, Dutch thinkers made fundamental contributions to philosophy, law, science, and art. Hugo Grotius, a lawyer and philosopher, wrote “On the Law of War and Peace” in 1625 –- perhaps the first comprehensive analysis of international law. The philosopher Baruch Spinoza published substantial revisions of his mentor Rene Descartes’ rationalist works, and also wrote a lengthy defense of freedom of conscience –- which was promptly
denounced as heresy by his contemporaries. In art, an obscure portrait painter named Rembrandt van Rijn rose to prominence (and disapproval) for his religious paintings and figure studies. Peter Paul Rubens, a great painter in his own right, also ran an immense school for artists, attracting dozens of talented painters from all over
Europe to the Netherlands. The mathematician Christiaan Huygens developed his wave theory of light, which was a giant leap in the study of optics pioneered by Isaac Newton. And biology was made incomparably easier by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek’s invention of the microscope. After the Golden Age, the Netherlands retreated into the background, as the English fleet gradually achieved its supremacy. By the Napoleonic era, the Netherlands was once again dominated by its neighbors. In 1830, Belgium broke away from the United Provinces, in reaction to the restoration of the monarchy and the subordination of the Estates General, the council of stadtholders (provincial rulers). The Industrial Revolution came to the Netherlands as it did to the rest of continental Europe, and when World War I arrived, the Dutch remained neutral.
They begin the game with Seafaring.
They build Vasco de Gama and Black Robes.
They cannot build any pirate ships.
In 1139 CE, Afonse Henriques, appointed count of the province of Portugal by the king of Castile, defeated a Muslim army at Ourique. Impolitely, he took that opportunity to declare Portugal independent of Castile, with himself as king of the new country. He was able to get away with it largely due to the recognition by the
Christian kingdoms of Spain that the Muslims were the common enemy, and when assured that Portugal would still play an active role in the impending Reconquista, Castile-Navarre and Aragon were willing to overlook Henriques’ impudence. Two hundred years later, once the Muslims were confined to their tiny corner of Spain in Granada, Castile saw fit to repossess the Portuguese kingdom. When the Castilian army was soundly thrashed in battle by the warrior king John of Aviz, it was clear to all that Portugal was there to stay. After the victory over Castile and the collective reconquest of Iberia from the Muslims, Portugal looked overseas to continue its expansion. King John led a campaign against Ceuta in North Africa (modern-day Morocco). The ease of Ceuta’s conquest caught the attention of his third son, Prince Henry the Navigator. Henry’s older brother Duarte succeeded to the throne after John’s death, and the two were often at odds, with Duarte skeptical and suspicious of Henry’s ambitions to explore new lands and convert the natives to Christianity. For
the next twenty years Henry sponsored expeditions to western Africa, and even led a campaign to invade Tangiers in 1437 (which ended in defeat). But on the whole Henry’s personal seafaring experience was limited; his sobriquet comes from his patronage of other adventurers and the resulting age of discovery and colonization that they inaugurated with his support. Portuguese explorers continued their discoveries after Henry’s death in 1460. The greatest was Bartolomeu Dias, whose 1488 voyage around the southern coast of Africa made Europe aware of the Indian Ocean and a shorter route to India than the one Columbus gambled on just four years later. Dias also traveled across the western Atlantic to Brazil; on that voyage he was lost at sea in 1498. Closely following Dias was Vasco da Gama, who took Dias’ maps and went beyond their limits, landing in India in 1497. He made three trips to India over the following thirty years, the last of which took place in 1524 after his appointment by the King as viceroy of India. He did not live long after his arrival; some speculate he was poisoned by corrupt administrators who feared punishment at his hands. In 1543, Portuguese sailors were shipwrecked in Japan. They did not stay long, but left behind the technique of musket-making –- in that way, a handful of men changed Japanese history forever, as the samurai era was drowned by the sound of musketfire. By that time Portugal’s overseas holdings were vast, comprising holdings all over Africa, India, China, Macao, and South America. In 1580 Spain awoke, flexing its muscles as the world’s pre-eminent power. It took the opportunity to occupy Portugal, and for almost 100 years the two countries were united. The Portuguese royalty did not give up, though, and through clever diplomacy and alliance with England they were able to restore their monarchy and, with Spain greatly weakened and demoralized by the Thirty Years’ War, finally forced Spanish recognition of Portuguese independence. Portugal remained an influential and wealthy European power through the Napoleonic Wars, when its alliance with Britain gave the British a foothold on the Continent to oppose Napoleon’s armies. Portugal’s prosperity lasted until the 1890s, when a combination of inflation and sluggish
industrialization undermined its industries. Dissatisfaction with the monarchy led to a coup and the establishment of a republic in 1910; this did not last long, as radical groups pursued extreme agendas and unrest grew. In 1926, the army bloodlessly overthrew the republic; the junta asked a university professor and occasional member of parliament named Antonio Oliviera de Salazar to assume control of all economic policy. Six years later, Salazar became prime minister, a limited office in theory but dictator in practice. Salazar’s new constitution formalized his powers and he ruled Portugal with absolute authority for nearly 40 years.
They build Shore Parties, Raiders, Anne Bonney, William Kidd, Edward Teach, and Bartholomew Roberts.
They cannot build Dreadnoughts, Man-of-Wars, Blockade Vessels, or Armies.
These pirates were generally based in the Atlantic and were somewhat more sophisticated than their Buccaneer counterparts in the Caribbean. Privateers carried "letters of marque" (papers giving them permission to attack foreign vessels in competing trade lanes). But the Privateers often abused their positions or went completely rogue. Many of history's most famous pirates were Privateers.
They build Castilian Infantry, Dragoon Guards, Alonso de Leon, Alvaro de Bazan, Spanish Brigantine, Spanish Frigate, Spanish Galleon, Spanish Man-of-War, and Black Robes.
They cannot build any pirate ships.
The Kingdom of Spain is located in the extreme southwest of the European continent, and occupies approximately 85-percent of the Iberian Peninsula. Spain is bordered on the west by Portugal, in the Northeast by France, and by the great wall of the Pyrenees Mountains. The Iberian Peninsula that the Spanish inhabited was occupied by various other civilizations, including the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths, and Muslims, and Spain is now associated with having a very rich, eclectic culture as a result. The development of Christian society and culture in the first 300 years following Islamic conquest in Spain was slow, but major changes occurred for the Spanish in the 12th and 13th centuries. The population grew, communication with northern Europe intensified, commerce and urban life gained in importance, and the kingdoms of the Castile, Aragon, and Navarre, and Portugal emerged as the governing bodies of the Iberian Peninsula. These kingdoms reached the frontiers that they would keep, with minimum amount of alteration, until the end of the Middle Ages, when Isabella I became Queen of Castile. Isabella began participating in the royal court at the age of 13; and when Portugal, Aragon, and France offered their marriage candidates, she favored Ferdinand of Aragon. Isabella ascended to the throne as Queen of Castile to rule sensibly and with a prudent political program. Her unification of the states of the Iberian Peninsula into a single entity, the maintenance and control over the Strait of Gibraltar, policy of expansion into Muslim North Africa, reform of Spanish Catholicism, and support for the exploration and expansion in the unknown was evidence of her wisdom and capabilities as Queen. On October 12, 1492 Columbus, with the blessing and financial backing of Isabella, sought a route to the legendary rich markets of China and Japan, but instead discovered what would become known as "The New World", the present day Americas. This voyage gave way to a new golden age of expeditions and conquest, as the Americas contained gold, a valuable resource that Spain
happened to be desperately bereft of at the time. Following Columbus' lead, a Spanish military group known as Los Conquistadores, 'The Conquerors', were directed by Hernan Cortes to the New World with the sole purpose of seeking out new frontiers and riches in the unknown. The Conquistadores undertook their expeditions in the vast landmasses of the Americas at their own expense, risking their lives without aid from the Spanish royalty. Their conquests included campaigns in Guatemala, Peru, Cuzco, Columbia, Chile, the Bay of Honduras, and
as far as the Pacific Coastal regions. The Conquistadors, however, were given to fighting and searching for gold, and were swiftly replaced by administrators and settlers from Spain who governed in their place. Once the Spanish Kingdom established its presence in the Americas their operations inevitably became high-profile targets of pirates and other raiders who were endorsed by European powers such as England. The Monarchy of Spain endeavored to retaliate by building an armada of warships that was dubbed "The Invincible Armada". The armada was a collection of over 130 naval warships and transport-ships, which contained approximately 8,000 seamen and 19,000 soldiers. King Philip II directed
this armada to invade England when the various and frequent raids on Spanish commerce in the Caribbean became intolerable. England's success in repelling the Spanish fleet saved England and the Netherlands from potential consolidation into the Spanish empire, but despite the armadas' defeat, the blow dealt by the Spanish upon England's reputation as the greatest European power was palpable. Thereafter, Spain declined in power quickly; and by the 19th century, Spain became somewhat marginal in international politics. Spain's period of imperial power and exploration left a legacy that consisted of 18 Latin American states, Puerto Rico, and the ever-growing Spanish-speaking population in the United States today.
Agricultural city improvements (granary, for instance) are easier to build, and the center city square and irrigated deserts produce one more food.
Catholic civs can build
Black Robes and the
Papal Favor wonder.
The center city squares of all cities and metros produce
extra commerce and less
corruption is experienced.
The civilization starts the game with a Pioneer. Passive minor barbarians are friendlier, resulting in more gold and advances from goodie huts.
Workers complete tasks faster and the center city square of all cities produces extra shields in cities and metros.
It is easier to build military improvements (barracks, for example), and combat experience is gained more quickly.
Political civs are the only ones capable of spying, and they are also allowed two Forbidden Palaces (in AOP, they are referred to as a Colonial Capitol and House of Parliament).
Protestant civs can build the Reformation wonder.
Religious civilizations do not experience prolonged periods of anarchy during revolutions, and religious city improvements (Cathedrals, for instance) are easier to build.
Scientific city improvements (like
Libraries) are easier to build
and the civilization
receives a free Civilization Advance at the start of every era.
Each city built along the coast receives a commerce bonus in
the center city square, and Seafaring city improvements (such as the
Trading Port) are easier to build.
Ships move faster and are less likely to sink in the sea or ocean.
