Conquest of the New World
And crumble of the Old
With Spain humiliated and Granada's reputation once again in ruins over the acquisition of Sicily, it seemed natural that King Kan would retaliate in the name of
Infidelity Christianity. But for some reason, he didn't. Maybe it was rumors of religious strife being on the verge of breaking out that kept Kan's hands idle, or maybe the wine had made him soft - who knows?
With France docile, Granada turned her attention towards the new world. Contact with the Aztec empire had been established, and bribes were issued until Granada was in possession of map describing the locations of all Aztec provinces.
At the same time, colonies were established in Porto Rico and Jamaica. They were merely meant to serve as supply stations for Granada's expedition forces, but Puerto Rico proved useful far beyond that, for gold was found on the island!
The Aztec Empire... ripe for the plucking!
The Aztecs never suspected any mischief, thinking Granada had paid hundreds of gold for their map out of idle curiosity. How wrong they were became obvious to them all too soon, when Granadian cavalry landed on their shores! With supply lines shaky, Granada's expedition force had to split up in order to avoid attrition. Fortunately, the Aztec generals chose not to make advantage of this, and opted for a wait and see approach while they assembled a huge army in an uncontested province.
Why don't they seek battle? Did Granada's forces forget to bathe?
After Granada had taken several provinces, they finally decided to intervene by trying to win back an undefended conquered province. The Granadian general wasn't keen on risking the lives of any of his men due to the difficulties of getting replacements, so the war largely went without bloodshet. Instead, simply he lay siege to another undefended Aztec province. It soon became obvious that more soldiers would be required to defeat the Aztecs, but just when the reinforcements were about to embark in Tago, fate intervened!
Lack of troops and certain developments in Europe delay the conquest of the Aztecs.
England declared war! They were part of an alliance let by Venice. None of its members had had any quarrel with Granada before, so their motives were a little opaque. But it's not like the infidel barbarians need an excuse for bloodshed, anyway.
This time around, Granada's navy didn't even leave the port, remembering how futile naval battles had been against the Spanish coalition. With England free to chose the battlefield, they picked Rousillion. What is it with this province that every nation seems hell bent to conquer it? Well, no matter, it suited Granada well. Attempts by Venice to directly land troops there were easily defeated. England, however, attacked it via Gascogne, which once again betrayed her master.
Battling a new enemy on familiar ground...
Keeping the English out of Rousillion was a costly business, taking the lives of many Granadian men and horses. It was largely successful, however, and eventually Venice sued for peace. Their compensation offer was an insult to Granada's dead, but the Emir was all to glad to take it for Granada's coffers were empty by now.
Hardly a fair compensation. But at least England takes care of the rebels on the Balears for Granada!
About the same time, the "reformation" struck Europe. From then on, granada was left in peace while the rest of Europe descended into chaos. France, the former superpower, became the battleground of an European war. The Huguenots and French Catholics split from it, were conquered, split again, were annexed by a foreign power, and seceded again. Only to come under foreign influence again. Meanwhile other nation, chiefly among them Poland, pounded the remainder of France, annexing several provinces. Gascogne was caught in the crossfire and got herself annexed by England. This might actually be a blessing in disguise, as England would be unlikely to grant France military access. Not that France was such a terrible threat anymore...
Behold the self destruction of the infidel!
Spain grabbed parts of the Netherlands for herself, but mainly focused on colonizing America. Granada was free to pursue her own agenda in America, and conquered the Aztecs in a series of wars. Compared to the last war against England and Venice, the Aztecs with their obsolete weapons were pushovers. The biggest problem was the small supply limit of Aztec provinces, but this became less of an issue once a few had been annexed.
The conquest of Tenochtitlan concluded Granada's expansions for the time being. Europe was still tearing herself apart, so the Emir decided to finally get his diverse and decentralized empire in shape. Much of the Aztec gold was reinvested into conventing the New World to the True Faith, while domestic policies were enacted to centralize the administration of the empire in Granada. This was dull work, but substantially increased revenue and sped up research.
Spain was also active in the New World, establishing colonies left and right. Unfortunately for them, they seemed unable to deal to revolts there, and not before long, several had defected to Granada!
Another milestone was reached when Granada received her first Conquistador. For the first time, it was possible to gain further knowledge of America without conquering the Spanish capital. Exploring turned out to be quite fun, even though it didn't compare to sticking it to the Spanish, of course...
Granada's current oversea possessions.
It was this way that contact with the Inca was established. Unfortunately there was no realistic way of reaching them with a sizable army, so the Emir had to content himself with watching Spain's failures to conquer them. Having been thoroughly bored with decades of peace, Morocco's attack on the Songhai empire was a welcome chance to increase the empire again. In a series of wars, the Songhai were broken up into several kingdoms, and their centre of trade Timbuktu was annexed by Granada.
After that, expansion occurred only via colonists. This was a costly and often unsuccessful business, but at that time, Granada had pulled ahead of the rest of the world in trade technology. Granadian merchants dominate the markets at the time this is written, generating more than enough revenue to fuel colonization attempts.
The wars between the European nations appear to have calmed down a bit by now, with France coming out as the big loser. Poland, along with Austria, are major powers now. Fortunately too far in the East to be a threat to Granada - or so the Emir likes to believe!
How the mighty have fallen!
With France's threat contained, Spain and England look posed to be most dangerous threats. Spain has the second largest income in the game - behind Granada - but its inflation is much higher. It holds claims on half of Iberia's provinces, which are viewed as legitimate for some bizarre reason. England was barely scratched during the latest wars, and had at some point Brittany and the Huguenots as vassals. I believe Brittany is now a vassal of Spain - it's hard to keep track. In any case, they look to be in a good position to challenge for a spot in the New World. Both nations are way ahead in military technology, since Granada focused all research on Trade and Infrastructure for the better part of a century.
We are now in a comfortable position with plenty of cash flowing in. By simply keep sending merchants it should be possible to generate enough income to stay ahead in the trade technology race. Colonists could be used to flesh out our oversea holdings, many of which are trade posts or level 1 colonies. That'd probably be smart move, if a bit dull.
Or we could use to money to try to extend Granada's reach further into Europe. With France being in such a weakened state, it should be possible to take a province or two. Our bad boy rating is way down to ~10, since Granada acquired only one "Old World" province, Timbuktu, in over a hundred years.
So what to do?
@Kan
I took a peek at the monarch file, and there appear to be enough to last until the end of the game. There was a noticeable improvement in quality since the historical monarch had run out. No more "Civil War" kings...
EU2 does allow you set doctrines - it's called "domestic policies". You can change them only once in 10 years, though, and then only by a single notch. Taking Granada from a decentralized mess to a strictly centralized empire took almost 100 years!
Edit:
Two more pics showing the current (1646) economic situation:
