Australia and Canada are are colonies. I wouldn't mind them popping up if Liz liberates some cities, but giving them full civ status, no.
once again this could be said about the Us
Sure, but the US is a superpower of global relevance. Canada is a top ten economy and surely wields alot of diplomatic clout (there's a reason we were asked to negotiate the peace with Vietnam!) but ... this isn't the game "Nation-states" and it doesn't just cover the 20th century. If it was, Canada would deserve a place in the top 18. But it's not. This is the top 18 of all time. The US ... a bit iffy, it's only been a superpower for about 70 years, but justifiable. Canada would be totally unjustifiable.
And Australia ... well ... if Canada's not in, Australia shouldn't be in. Australia is sort of like Canada but about 10% less relevant. Smaller population, less important economy, fewer boots on the ground in the world wars, less participation in peacekeeping, less diplomatic clout. No offence intended to any Aussies; it's just the numbers, just a matter of quantity, not quality.
..... With Giant Killer Kangaroos, and man-size Funnel Web Spiders, and those huge Trapdoor Spiders with holes that can swallow an unwary cow, and not forgetting the most feared Australian predator of all........ the Bogan!
*cough* Returning the thread to on-topic, another Civ I feel worthy of a look at is the Norte Chico Empire of ancient Peru, in the Supe River area, with Caral as the centre.
They were the first Civilization in the Americas (originating from peoples dating back to 9200BC the "Civilization" rose in 3200BC) and recognised as one of the six original World Civilizations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norte_Chico_civilization
The Norte Chico are unique in that during the third millennium BC there is evidence that the area was the most densely populated in the World at that time. They also built pyramids simultaneously with the Egyptians, a feat worth recognising.
Whilst there is an absence of art and ceramics, there is ample evidence of agriculture terraces and "mounds" as well as exotic textiles. Evidence of music has also been found in the form of numerous flutes.
The Norte Chico also appear to have invented the Quipu, or "talking knots" to record information. The Inca used the same system.
There are 17 known population centres found.
Though I couldn't find any figures for numbers of actual troops.
Canada + Newfoundland, 1.1 million. Aus+NZ (couldn't find them separately), 900 000. Like I said, 10% less.
Better per capita, but mostly because Canada was alot busier industrially. We built twice as many trucks as the UK, 8x as many machineguns as the entire rest of the Commonwealth besides the UK (almost as many as the UK itself), five times as many fighters as the rest of the Commonwealth. Believe it or not, our merchant tonnage was not that far behind Imperial Japan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_production_during_World_War_II
Plus, some of the Manhattan Project sites ... including heavy water production ... were in Canada, owing to the fact MAUD facilities were there and then got merged with the Manhattan Project. After the destruction of the facilities in Norway, Canada was actually the only producer of heavy water in the world.
Not to denigrate Australian participation, but Canada was a more valuable asset all-round. That's really just geography though; Britain helped ramp up Canadian industry because it was much more proximate to the UK than Australia, plus, it could interface with American industry.
I just wish we knew enough about them to make a civ out of them. City names, leaders, enough sense of their military doctrines to design a UU - all are lacking.
Well sorry to not contribute to World War II, we were sort of tied up stopping the Imperial Army in Papua.
Leader:
Unknown
Could possibly use the Staff God, as worship of the deity originated from this time. Probably based on a famous leader.
UU:
Labourer - Replaces worker - -50% construction time.
UB:
Communal Mound - Replaces granary - reduces overcrowding unhappy, +1 food on farmed tiles.
We were on the beaches of France 2 years before D-Day, invading Nazi Europe practically by ourselves.
Hey, hey. Can't we just agree that the Commonwealth in its entirety was awesome in WWII?
Better than the Americans.