Also, what bugs me about the Civ4:Colonization remake : the sheer size of the colonies compared to the overall small size of the map. In reality, few cities during the colonial period (16th to 18th Century) had more than a few thousand inhabitants. Philadelphia might be the only exception with 50 000 inhabitants by the end of the 18th Century. So having colonies become so huge on the map, just clashes with the overall historical reality and esthetics.
Population size of the different groups of natives, european colonists and african slaves in the americas was diverse.
(quotes fom wikipedia)
The Natives :
"Over the 1st century and a half after Columbus's voyages, the native population of the Americas plummeted by an estimated 80% (from around 50 million in 1492 to eight million in 1650), mostly by outbreaks of Old World diseases." Other numbers for natives go from estimated 100 million in 1494 down to 5 -10 million.
European Colonies :
New France :
"In the French colonial regions, the focus of economy was on sugar plantations in Caribbean. In Canada the fur trade with the natives was important. About 16,000 French men and women became colonizers. The great majority became subsistence farmers along the St. Lawrence River. With a favorable disease environment and plenty of land and food, their numbers grew exponentially to 65,000 by 1760. Their colony was taken over by Britain in 1760, but social, religious, legal, cultural and economic changes were few in a society that clung tightly to its recently formed traditions."
"In the middle of the 18th century, New France accounted for 60,000 people while the British colonies had more than one million people."
New England :
"The colonial population of Thirteen Colonies grew immensely in the 18th century. According to historian Alan Taylor, the population of the Thirteen Colonies stood at 1.5 million in 1750, which represented four-fifths of the population of British North America. More than 90 percent of the colonists lived as farmers, though some seaports also flourished. In 1760, the cities of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston had a population in excess of 16,000, which was small by European standards. By 1770, the economic output of the Thirteen Colonies made up forty percent of the gross domestic product of the British Empire."
"The Federal Census Bureau study of 2004 gives the following population estimates for the colonies: 1610 350; 1620 2,302; 1630 4,646; 1640 26,634; 1650 50,368; 1660 75,058; 1670 111,935; 1680 151,507; 1690 210,372; 1700 250,888; 1710 331,711; 1720 466,185; 1730 629,445; 1740 905,563; 1750 170,760; 1760 1,593,625; 1770 2,148,076; 1780 2,780,369."
Slave Trade :
"The total slave trade to islands in the Caribbean, Brazil, Mexico and to the United States is estimated to have involved 12 million Africans. The vast majority of these slaves went to sugar colonies in the Caribbean and to Brazil, where life expectancy was short and the numbers had to be continually replenished. At most about 600,000 African slaves were imported into the United States, or 5% of the 12 million slaves brought across from Africa. Life expectancy was much higher in the United States (because of better food, less disease, lighter work loads, and better medical care) so the numbers grew rapidly by excesses of births over deaths, reaching 4 million by the 1860 Census. Slaves were a valuable commodity both for work and for sale in slave markets and so the policy of actively encouraging or forcing slaves to breed developed, especially after the ending of the Atlantic slave trade. From 1770 until 1860, the rate of growth of North American slaves was much greater than for the population of any nation in Europe, and was nearly twice as rapid as that of England."
When doing a new Colonization game, the devs should consider to expand the focus and include a scenario for the Whole World (Europe, Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia) with many more commodities to trade and lengthen the timeline into late 19th century, so that the player can build railroads and factories and maybe the Panama and Suez Canal. The game should include
- Age of Discovery / Exploration,
- Age of Imperialism / Colonialism including Conquest, Colonization, Slavery,
- Age of Enlightenment (Science, Human Rights, ...) and Revolution
- Age of Industrialization
