I already built courthouse in Delhi (now Derhi because we just couldn't wrap our tongue around that strange consonant), the -13 is AFTER we cut our extra unhappiness off. Before it was -20something.
How do I convince them to go to war with me? If I have inferior military, why would I want them to attack me, if I have superior, they would be stupid to attack first.
Wow. Having 6 cities at turn 180 is EARLY? I mean, the game is half over, and I have only 6 cities and that counts as rushing? In that case, I officially don't get it. Am I supposed to sit on my bum for 200 turns than unleash some massive horde all at once?
Also, about my conquests:
If I didn't take that city eary I would not have had space for the fourth, as I started on a peninsula. It was a must grab.
If I didn't take cape town I would have had 0 iron. Meaning no UU. Meaning no medieval powerspike. I could not have took Derhi without it.
And Derhi itself...It was the only city that I could take. Literally it was blocking everything else from me (apart from a small indonesian village that was randomly founded not far from where I started, and Gandhi kept bugging me with random elephant raiders and what not. He had to go down. After this I can either go to the north to take some city states, to the northeast for Indonesia or to the East for Poland (to the East for Poland). Again, I fail to see an alternate option.
NC: there was always something more important going on. But again, it was very easy to build at that point (only 2 turns).
The polish got the Notre Dame, but lo and behold, I would need to amass a huge army to take them, and take even more unhapiness to the face while doing so. I call mission impossible.
But I honestly don't get it. I only did my first real conquest when I got my UU, what else was I supposed to do? Just when should I start to work on my world domination?
Tradition depends on a lot of population in few cities. I believe the most popular strategy with tradition is to stay at 4 (or even 3) cities until the modern era, allowing for some variation based on nearby resources, being on a Pangaea where you just win by then, etc.
If you want people to play nice, you have to play nice with them. No one wants to fun the genocidal dictator, unless he looks like everyone's best friend.
You start working on your world domination from turn 1 though. Sure, you might not be building up an army with the aim to attack in the next 10 turns, but you are working on getting there.
That's not to say war can't happen early, but it's not the tradition 4 city start. If you are on a map with more than one major landmass, eliminating everyone (major civs, not city states) that you meet before astronomy, will result in no diplomacy hit for those you find after your killing spree, but, again, prepare for the pain of low happiness and be ready to manage your population.
On a map where you can meet everyone before astronomy, you can go to war early and take people out, too, but be ready to roll everyone, or, at minimum, survive on your own, after you start.
For happiness, if you want lots of cities, liberty is the better tree, but it's harder to manage, simply becasue it doesn't carry free gold (2 policies in tradition give cash, one with free culture buildings, another for pop in the capital) and happiness comes later while promoting a style that leads to a lot of unhappiness (founding cities). Religion can help too. Cerimonial burial can give you extra happiness for every city with your religion. Pagodas are a safe bet for happiness if you can get them, as well (I'm not a big fan, but being able to pop the building and forget is great for getting into the groove, and a good many people value it much more highly than I.)
For lots of cities, you can also try playing on a larger map. Even with the standard number of civs, a large or huge map gives you more leg room, but penalties for founding cities isn't as great. More civs makes domination (and culture) harder, though, and it doesn't eliminate issues of warmonger hate or happiness.