Balancing culture with expansion

[Ola]

In the beginning of the game I usually try to expand a lot by grabbing all the free land there is. I usually don't go to war early on though. I usually build a few improvements like temples and libraries in most of my cities, but since I'm expanding so much settlers always comes first... This always results in that I lag behind a lot when it comes to culture. Most other cultures are usually disdainful of my culture. Is there a way to balance a strong expansion with cultural growth? I play as Monarch by the way...
All tips are welcome!

 

[Psychlone]

I have found that slowing the expansion just a bit to build an early temple helps quite a lot. Generally what I will do is build a couple of warriors, a settler, and then a temple (once i get ceremonial burial). I tend to try keeping my capitol growing, so I can build wonders, as opposed to pumping out settlers just because it has the pop to do so. When I settle a new city I try to get a temple built immediately, unless I'm in dire need of troops, of course. It's usually my second city that becomes the settler farm. (I also have incredible luck at finding settlers in goody huts! )

Generally, using this strategy, I start gaining cities due to culture flips fairly early. It doesn't always work, but it's reliable enough to be a cornerstone of how I play. I can manage to be a culture giant AND a military powerhouse using this technique. Last night as Germany, I refused to give the Zulus polytheism, and they declared war on me. Over the next few turns they brought in allies, the allies brought in allies, and I was at war with no less than 6 civs. I was not only holding them off from my cities (although I sure was being hard pressed at times), but during the war I had 3 enemy cities flip over to me, cities which I had been amassing troops to take by force. My land area may not be the biggest, but for culture none come close, and for power, only the Zulu (who started the war but haven't yet actually fought me) exceed me, and I am assuming their units are more primitive than mine.

 

[Ironikinit]

Psyclone speaks the truth. An early temple will provide more culture than a wonder sometimes, as demonstrated on the demographics screen, where cities without wonders occasionally place higher than cities with one or even two. (Yet another bonus for religious civs.)

 

[Salvor]

The amount of expansion you need depends on the map size (duh!).

I've found that early temples are necessary, not just for the overall culture, but to generate enough to get access to the full 21-sqare city radius.

After the first 2-3 cities (and as I plan even those) I start to specialize. One or two on some good food-producing squares become settler and/or worker farms, and crank out enough to cover most of my expansion needs. Another couple of towns become shield-producers, generating military units, improvements, and wonders, with the occasional settler/worker mixed in if they get too big to stay happy. This way I'm able to keep a good balance at the macro-level, while specializing the individual cities, and can keep up militarily, culturally, economically, and expansion-wise in the all-important early stages of the game.