I'm new here and would firstly like to thank Rhye for the modpack, it's fantastic and made such a big positive difference to my CivIII gaming. Thank you!
However, I do have one gripe, not just with this modpack, but with all Civ games. It may sound trivial to some, but in terms of historical accuracy and REPRESENTATION, I think it is quite important. I do not think that the civilization 'England' should be titled as such. It would be far better re-labelled 'Great Britain', accompanied with the corresponding 'Britons' and 'British' labels where appropriate. There are a number of reasons behind this thinking.
ENGLAND SHOULD BE RENAMED GREAT BRITAIN: MY ARGUMENT
(1) Great Britain denotes two things. Firstly, the geographical island that England, Scotland and Wales share. Secondly, it is also an acceptable alternative name to the political union of the United Kingdom, which currently includes Northern Ireland as well as the Great Britain nations, but additionally, in the past has comprised of what is now the Republic of Ireland too. Since the Celts are no longer a Civ in play, the use of Great Britain helps to account for some these peoples in the game. However, due to modern times, it would in most cases be insensitive and incorrect to mean Great Britain include Irish citizens of the Republic of Ireland.
(2) It is very important to account for these British Celts in the game. Many have immigrated to Canada, New Zealand, Australia and other former colonies, all of which have no representation in CivIII. British Celts make up a sizable proportion of the Western world, especially when one considers the United States populace too. And of course, the number of Scottish, Welsh and Irish people themselves who live in the UK today number some 10 million people. This figure is greater than the present day population of some Civs that appear in the game (e.g. Austria has a population of 8.1 million).
(3) In the CivIII mod game, England always takes over the whole of the island of Great Britain from the outset. Usually Hastings is planted in the Scottish Highlands and sometimes Canterbury in the Shetland Islands! My point is that England never, apart from a brief period of enforced occupation that Robert the Bruce ended, ruled the entire island until it become Great Britain. To allow England the advantage of the entire island from the outset of the game is an historical inaccuracy that overpowers England in the early part of the game. Arguably, England was a second-rate European power (despite the one hundred years war with France) until it precociously defeated the Spanish Armada. In fact, throughout most of medieval times England was thought of and technically operated as a region of France, whereby the English crown was subservient to the King of France. English kings were of French blood and spoke French instead of English. Hence, England should not be so overpowered. By renaming the Civ as Great Britain, this overpowering is accommodated for by the inclusion of the Celts. Although Great Britain was not formally a single nation then, England had acquired Wales and eventually Ireland, as well as exhibiting cultural ties to lowland Scotland. Furthermore, all islanders could accurately be Britons for geographic reasons (remember Monty Pythons Holy Grail film
I am Arthur, King of the Britons! LOL). Therefore, by introducing Great Britain into the game from the outset, one is not really creating much of an historical anomaly, but instead, actually somewhat correcting one.
(4) British Celts have made a huge impact upon the history of England, such that, without them, England would not be considered so important in the world today. Arguably, Englands greatest period in history was during the age of empire (whatever one thinks of imperialism) and this was not done as England, it was a collaborative effort with the British Celts as the country of Great Britain, founding the British Empire. And this country (albeit without empire!) still exists today. So close were cultural ties between the British nations during this era that Scotland often referred to itself as North Britain. The Crowns of Scotland and England combined in 1603, when James of Scotland became James of England too. From that moment onwards, for the next 400 years until today, Great Britain was more than just a geographic or cultural phenomenon, it was a political one too. Then is 1707, the Scottish Parliament voted itself out of existence to merge with the English Parliament to form a British Parliament. Later, in 1801, Ireland joined the union (and southern Ireland left again in 1922). The impact upon England of British Celts has shaped both peoples histories inseparably.
(5) The contribution of British Celts to the world today is outstanding. To ignore them, is to ignore one of the most productive and intellectual peoples of human history. I will take Scotland as my example. In the 19th Century a survey was conducted of the most intelligent races that then existed. Despite its obvious racisms against non-White peoples, the study does help to shown what 19th Century opinion was of the worlds peoples. The Jewish people were ranked first and lowland Scots were ranked second in the world it is not hard to understand why: -
5a - Modern education was invented in Scotland where the first compulsory free state education for children, since the time of ancient Greece, was introduced England would not follow suit for another 200 years. This lead to a burst of genius that never ceased. The Scottish Enlightenment of the 17/18th Centuries produced great philosophers, mathematicians and jurists such as David Hume. Their ideas directly influenced the American Revolution the declaration of independence is a document steeped in the Scottish philosophy of liberty. In fact, one third of the signatories of the declaration of independence were of British Celtic origin. The American system of university education was set-up on the Scottish model e.g. at Princeton. Scottish education lead to a swathe of doctors, lawyers and engineers, well out of proportion to its small population, which crucially helped to administer and build the British Empire. Even if not Scottish, many famous people have came to study in Scotland based on its reputation for education e.g. Charles Darwin studied medicine at Edinburgh University.
5b To cut a long story short, in no particular order, here are just a brief list of Scottish achievements: 1. The creation of modern banking practice (i.e. Civs Banking tech) by (a) Adam Smith writing the Wealth of Nations (which itself created modern economics a Civ wonder!), (b) founding the Bank of England (by William Paterson) and (c) the pioneering Banks of Scotland. 2. Sir Alexander Fleming discovered one of the most important medicines of all time in 1928: Penicillin. 3. James Simpson, an Edinburgh physician, was the first doctor to use anaesthetics. 4. Joseph Lister first used antiseptics. 5. Joseph Black, father of Quantitative Chemistry, invented latent heat. 6. John Napier created the decimal point and also invented logarithms. 7. The first cloned animal was Dolly the sheep, done near Edinburgh in 1997. 8. Golf and Scotch! 9. Important literature by Robert Burns (poetry and music e.g. Auld Lang Syne), Walter Scott (Ivanhoe, Rob Roy), J M. Barrie (Peter Pan), Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island, Jekyll and Hyde), Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes novels) and Kenneth Grahame (Wind in the Willows). 10. Patrick Ferguson invented the breech-loading rifle, which was capable of firing seven shots per minute. 11. John Boyd Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre in 1888. 12. James Harrison invented refrigerators. 13. James Watt invented what would come to power the industrial revolution the steam engine (another Civ tech!). 14. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. 15. John Logie Baird invented the television. 16. John Roebuck invented the lead chamber process for the distillation of sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is of central importance in the manufacture of many other chemicals and in metal refining. 17. James Young was a chemist who made his fortune as the first to market paraffin as a lighting and heating oil. 18. John Paul Jones founded the US navy. 19. James Chalmers invented adhesive postage stamps. 20. John Loudon McAdam devised the macadamized road. 21. Thomas Graham is the father of colloid chemistry. 22. David Livingston great Victorian missionary and African explorer. 23. Andrew Carnegie steel magnate and philanthropist. 24. George Cleghorn discovered the first cure for malaria in the West. 25. Sean Connery and Ewan McGregor! 26. Adam Ferguson father of the subject of sociology. 27. Creation of the science of geology by James Hutton. 28. Thomas Blake Glover helped modernised and industrialise Japan. 29. Sir Robert McAlpine pioneer in the use of concrete. 30. Lord MacBeth - the last of Scotland's Gaelic Kings, best known due to the Shakespearian play. 31. Kirkpatrick Macmillan invented the bicycle. 32. Charles Mackintosh invented the coat that bears his name. 33. James Clerk Maxwell - studied electro-magnetism and prepared the way for quantum physics, third greatest physicist of all time after Newton and Einstein. 34. James Muir - naturalist and conservationist. 35. Sir William Ramsay discovered many chemical elements. 36. Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt developed and introduced RADAR. 37. Many British Prime Ministers.
And there is much, much more!!!
. Just pick up a copy of Bill Brysons A Short History of Nearly Everything and you will read how astonished the author is at how often he finds himself writing about Scots!
These Scots are truly Great Britons and deserve not to be excluded in CivIII. So too do many other great British Celts e.g. Wellington. FURTHREMORE, English Brits will also be properly represented by the change to Great Britain e.g. Winston Churchill and Queen Victoria.
(6) British Celts have fought and died with English troops in countless wars. Considering their population, a disproportionately large number of British Celts served in the British Empire armed forces
remember the Highlander redcoat!?!
(7) The retrospective issue may be of concern to some, in other words, for example, how do we place William Shakespeare? Ok, so Shakespeare was English. But, he was also a Briton because geographically he was from the island of Great Britain. Plus, even in a political sense, I do not think it retrospectively too much of an error to call him British. Nowadays if you are Scottish, English, Welsh or Northern Irish you are British and if Shakespeare were born today he too would be British. When we talk about something Scottish or English it is also British and this blends into historical analysis too. This is not much of an historical fiction.
CONCLUSION:
1. Rename England as Great Britain and the other labels to Britons and British.
2. Leader should be changed to either Queen Victoria or Winston Churchill
3. Retain Civ colour as red and capital as London.
4. Rename some of the cities in the Civs city list i.e. include Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast etc
.
5. In the expansion pack, change the Longbowman special unit to a Redcoat (perhaps a Highlander Redcoat!) special unit.
6. Make any other changes as necessary that I cant think of!
This is a small and simple amendment to the game, yet makes a great leap forward in historical appreciation, representation and accuracy. I hope that this idea gains support and is carried through, it certainly would mean a great deal to me and many others, making CivIII an even more enjoyable game!
Thanks for reading my post! (gee
its long!)
David.