History has always been about the empire. Amassing wealth and gaining total domination over the surrounding areas has defined the greatest cultures in all of history. From the Egyptians to the Mongolians, taking over what you can, when you can has been what has made these daunting empires succeed but also fall.
To fuel an empire you need continual growth. Continual growth usually is found in the form of expanding cities and stronger economic systems. Strong militaries are built up to protect the people on which the empire has been built upon, or the innards of the empire. Keeping up the resources as the empire grows exponentially is what maintains and protects the kingdom. Surplus in resources is what fuels the empire. Colonization and trading is where this surplus usually comes from. For example in the early 1500’s
Too much growth becomes the culprit of the fall of an empire. Inflation rises and there are too many people within the domain and not enough surplus to properly feed them all. Economic issues and neglect of the well-being of the empire as a whole and the individual states becomes glaringly apparent when it all falls. After the fall of the Spanish empire it was easy to see that where squander on the colonies and not using them to be self sustaining, caused strife within kingdom causing its infrastructure to fail.
In the game Civilization, keeping the balance of giving each city enough attention individually as well as collectively gets really hard. Everything seems to be happening at once and it becomes blur as to what is going on where. This is where the democratic system succeeds. Allowing every city the option of doing what it believes is best for that particular city’s economy, while maintaining loyalty to the tyrant, has truly helped in becoming the best civilization in the world. By automating the workers and the other city processes it is to their discretion as to what needs to be worked on, as they are the only ones that can truly know what really needs to be done. In current history, this technique has the better lasting power. Empires like the
2 comments:
I really liked your observation about how colonization contributed to growth of empires. That is a concept I had not considered before, but makes perfect sense to me now that you mention it. To some extent, it might be even more effect than simply trading with foreign countries. Colonizing other territory and therefore imposing rule on it, allows taking resources, raw materials etc. without having to give a fair amount in return. Treating colonies that way might not be a fair way, but it has been done and worked that way in the past.
Ah, your point about keeping the attention between all cities balanced was terrific... I couldn't have put it into better terms! I get so distracted trying to make one city perfect that I forget about the others and leave them vulnerable and open to attack. It gets frustrating, because naturally, the computers are smarter than I am, and they always figure me out!! :( They attack and then I lose. It's a vicious cycle I've learned to come to terms with... But I'll continue doing what we're clearly both doing (automating the workers and establishing the democratic system). We'll see what happens!
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