Part 7: Update 6 (Mar 1860 - Jan 1870): A Shift in Society

As our upper house is rearranged at the beginning of 1861, we can look at the changes in its composition to see how the views of our population and voters are changing. The introduction of anarcho liberals has generated a radical liberal counterpart to the conservative party's reactionaries. The total representation of normal conservatives is falling, while the other ideologies benefit from that shift.



Within about 15 years we'll see the beginning of massive colonization efforts by the great powers into Africa. By clicking on a province and hovering over the thermometer gauge, we can see that province's liferating. 15 is lower than our potential colonists could handle right now. There are three key inventions that raise our tolerance to lower liferatings, and with all 3 of those researched we'll have the capability to attempt colonization of the most unwelcoming areas in the game.

I'd like to see if we can take part in the colonization game, but it's a bit iffy. Even if we catch up with the bare minimum of technologies needed to colonize, our naval techs and naval infrastructure is pretty inadequate and that plays a big role in colonization. We may not have time to catch up on every necessary area before the greater powers beat us to the punch.



Uruguay continues its descent as its presidential dictatorship which overthrew the previous democratically elected presidency is overthrown by royalist reactionaries, who install an Absolute Monarchy.



A new decision becomes available to us. We can opt to sign the Geneva Convention, which would cut our maximum military spending by 10%. I'm already not fully funding our military spending slider, so we'd really only gain benefits from taking this decision. You also instantly lose 1 infamy when you take it though, and we don't have any infamy right now. It might be a good idea to save it for when we do so that we could erase a bit of it.



We begin research into Biologism. This is ~the big one~ in the category of education efficiency technologies. The associated invention of 'Darwinism' gives an additional +50% education efficiency when we discover it. Compare that to the total of +40% education efficiency we'll have after actively researching the 4 technologies up to and including Biologism. Once we research this technology, we should be able to lay off of the education techs for a while and catch up in other areas.



An event like this which raises consciousness and militancy can be pretty useful to push through a reform when you're on the edge. As it turns out though, our people are so happy from gorging themselves on everyday and luxury goods right now that the majority of any militancy we gain is fading away relatively quickly.



The 1861 elections end with a conservative coalition once again retaining power. The margin is narrowing, though.



In 1863, the first socialist political party appears in Luxemburg. Socialist parties will begin appearing in countries all around the world, now.



Shortly afterwards, we have the Partido Socialista form in Brazil.



Our socialist party is distinct from our other parties in that it supports an Anti-Military war policy. Most of Brazil's other parties so far have been Pro Military at the very least, with most being Jingoistic. I'm showing off our anarcho-liberal party as well since I think I failed to do so when they initially appeared.



Since we have a fledgling industry going, now would be a good time to ensure we have a few capitalists in our largest and most industrialized states. I hide all of the pop types but capitalists, then go through each state one by one, setting a capitalist promotion NF and removing it once we get a small group of them in place. Rio only has 2 capitalists right now, but I want to raise that number. Capitalists will help contribute to projects for new factories and railroads, improve the throughput of factories in the same state as them, and later when our factories are making large profits they will become a big part of our tax base. When our industry is as small as it is, I prefer to keep the total number of capitalists low. Around 20 per state should do. They will grow on their own to very large numbers later without any input from us. This is just a kickstart from us to get the first couple of dozen going in each state.



22 is fine for now. Once Rio is done, I remove the NF and continue down the list until they all have a few.



With Biologism now researched, I aim for State & Government. In addition to giving us another potential NF to place, this will open up one of the key inventions necessary for colonization. Aside from that, it also contains another 10% plurality in inventions which will boost our research speed, as well as a pair of inventions which say they increase political and social reform desire.



We discover the Darwinism invention relatively quickly, giving us a huge boost to education efficiency.



Our literacy will have no trouble catching up, now.



Going back to our industrial techs, there are a few options worth looking at. Steam Turbine in the power column is a clearly powerful choice, giving an additional +15% mining and farming output. High levels of railroads would be valuable as well, but we can't really afford a massive building project right now. Semi-Automatization, which is two techs further down in the Mechanization tree might be a good one to aim for in the near-term as well. The throughput bonus it adds to our factories will allow our smaller population to do the work of more people, and the 'Drying Techniques' invention associated with it would give another large bonus to our coffee RGOs, which are already quite valuable as it is.



On January 1st of 1864, our upper house is rearranged and we can see that the newly formed socialists have begun to find a niche for themselves.



One of the key inventions necessary for colonization has been discovered by us. There's only one other that is needed. The last one is tied to an army tech, and even though we haven't been focusing on our military, it wouldn't be the worst idea to bolster our defenses anyway.



Research into the next level of railroads completes and the infrastructure map mode shows us where new possible railways may go. One again, we have blue areas showing us where the first level of railways can be laid. The purple areas are provinces where we already have simple railways in place that can now be improved. Red provinces are still too difficult for us to build through.



Capitalists can contribute to railroad projects, just like factories. Our capitalists take a while to fund projects right now since our industry isn't making much money yet, but once things really get rolling they'll often fund projects before we even open the projects tab.



Our soldier pops have been bolstered up to around 4.5% in our larger states. At this point I start setting national foci for craftsmen on our larger states with factories.



Late in the 1860's, we're the first to discover Impressionist Music. I didn't think we would be the first to invent it since so much time has passed, but it looks like we are! That means 15 more prestige for us. The next nation to discover this invention will only get 7.5.



Japan begins industrializing and moves onto the Great Power list almost immediately, displacing the Ottoman Empire.



Out next technology goal will be to get the two circled techs in the Light Armament column. The final invention needed to colonize is attached to the Breech-loaded rifles tech. I should note though that the invention actually has a base chance to be discovered of 0% per month, and in order to have a chance of discovery, we either need to have one of a few different other techs that can only be researched starting in 1870, or another great power or bordering power needs to have already discovered it. This means that it'll probably be a few years into the 1870s at the earliest before anyone has a chance of getting it.



The first election following the introduction of our socialist party shows an even larger shift in the voting population. A conservative coalition still manages to retain a hold on the upper house, but only with a plurality of voters rather than a majority. In fact, it's only within about 2% of being unseated by a coalition of liberals and anarcho-liberals. The level of representation for the newly formed socialist party is nothing to scoff at either, considering it has only been in existence for a few years.



Muzzle-loaded rifles allows us to recruit engineer units. Engineers are a land unit with a 'siege' value. They are a defensive support unit which fights from behind the front line, and their siege value allows them to negate the effect of enemy fort levels in provinces which we try to occupy. We actually discover this technology right around the time that my soldier promotion project is finished. With 4 to 4.5% soldiers in our high population states, our number of possible standing regiments has swelled from around 6 to over 30.

I take the opportunity to reorganize our army, creating two main battle armies. Each one consists of 4 infantry with 3 artillery and 1 engineer as support, and 1 hussar for recon purposes. This gives us 2 armies of 9 regiments - 27k soldiers each. I station one in Rio, and the other in Pernambuco. Not only does this make me feel much more safe, but it bolsters our military score.



It seems like our cultural and technological progress hasn't gone unnoticed. This nice event gives us a choice between a lump of pure research, or a combination of research and prestige. I choose the one that offers some prestige as well.



Once our factories are about halfway full of craftsmen, I switch the NF to clerks. You need more than 50% literacy to promote pops into clerks, and some of the population in Rio is just beginning to break that threshold. It's optimal to have factories set up with about 20% of their workforce as clerks. This makes them run more efficiently, and starts building up a well-paid middle class for you to tax the pants off of. Clerks also boost your nation's research point gain much like clergy, so they are pretty great overall.



Once we discover breech-loaded rifles, I opt not to set another research goal just yet. There are two different techs in the culture tree which will become available in 1870 which I want to research (Analytic Philosophy and Expressionism), and if possible I'd like to get them both before any other nation. Reason being that they each have prestige granting inventions tied to them, and we want to be the first nation to discover prestige inventions if we can. Opting to not research anything will allow us to build up unused research points. You can see how many you have banked by hovering over your daily research point gain, and the value is shown at the bottom of the tooltip. This will give us a leg up in an attempt to get them both before other nations do. Keep in mind though, you can only bank up to 1 year's worth of research. Anything beyond that is lost.