Time for... ANTICLIMACTIC DIPLOMACY!
I really thought this game would go faster than this, but I'm glad it didn't. Even though I don't post much, I do enjoy writing these.
The Rapanui piracy industry overcame its earlier setbacks and continued to grow in both the Pacific...
...and the Atlantic.
The mysterious Indian airships still harassed them, but could not sink a single ship. The Arab navy was formidable, but did not adequately defend its colonies. The result? Both Australia and South America were great sources of revenue through the mid 1600s, and, coupled with technology-for-gold trading to the backwards Americans, supported another era of deficit-funded research.
Careful deliberation by the Rapanui court produced an ambitious plan to enter the War in Europe on the Chinese-Roman side, specifically targeting the significantly-weakened Greece. Although Persia was a veritable superpower, argued the nobles, Rapanui was far to isolated to be worth attacking, especially with India, China, and Japan ready to join their war in the Pacific. However, the God-King overruled their plan, shocking expansionists by declaring such an attack too much of an overextension for the Empire to handle.
His decision perhaps turned out to be prudent after all, as growing Japan declared its sovereignty from the Chinese sphere of influence and immediately made peace with Persia and its vassals.
This tipped the war in Persia's favor. In 1642, as Rapanui colonists, with reluctant permission from Indian authorities (That's an Indian longbowman on the tile along with mine. He was just chilling there, no settler in sight.) established Akahanga, Persia took the Roman city of Aritium.
Recognizing its losses and fearing for the total loss of its sovereignty, Rome capitulated to Persia soon after. Asia was now securely the seat of the world's major powers.
This is not to say the Rapanui did not also come out ahead — by sitting the war out and focusing on development instead, they were able to find new ways to improve the infrastructure of their colonies — especially with the application of the brand-new "steam engine" invented in 1660.
The establishment of Akahanga had secured the remaining fertile land of Australia for the Rapanui, effectively dividing the continent into northern and southern halves. And, in 1662, even as other islands in the Caribbean were slated for settlement or other development, Hummingbird Island, in the Province of Tarakiu, was set aside to become the Empire's first nature preserve. It was administered locally by its indigenous inhabitants, the Arawaks (see
this for explanation), making it also arguably the Empire's first instance of multiculturalism.