Round 8: 1600AD - 1740AD
Guessing that Ramesses was researching Replacable Parts, I decided to research Physics first, which is on the path towards Computers (which we need for Fibre Optics and labs). Hopefully in a couple of turns Ramesses would have gotten Replacable Parts, and we could get it off him and start researching towards Assembly Line for infantry and factories.
I also decided to sell the by now old tech of Liberalism:
The gold would again be useful for keeping our science rate up.
Then Mehmed, the ungrateful man, came to us with a demand:
Well, I guess he really believes that it's good, but a demand is a demand. Yes, we're Spiritual, but again, accepting his demand would do us more harm than good. We would suffer from higher upkeep for at least five turns, not to mention losing the benefits of Free Speech (both important at this point). Besides, it would put us out of sync with the planned temporary switch to Slavery, thus allowing Lyons to starve when it comes out of revolt (in 4 turns' time) and thereby wasting population points that could be converted into hammers, which could in turn be converted into quick culture. Whew, what a long sentence!
Anyway, as agreed, we used the GE to rush the remaining 545 hammers or so of the SoL (don't worry, we switched to another build while waiting for the GE to get there):
The result of which Mexica became the land of the free

Immigrants from all over the world came when they heard about the Declaration of Human Rights, which followed the peaceful mass demonstrations of the Civil Rights Movement (although Slavery had been abolished for some time, the descendants of slaves continued to suffer from discrimination) and was immortalised by a giant copper statue that marked the site of Itzlcoatl King's speech ("I have a dream..."). This influx of foreign talent would prove to be significantly beneficial for us.
However, the tensions within the Aztec society did not dissipate easily. Many conservatives were appalled by the liberalism of the respresentative government. With the continued rebellion in Lyons reaching its 35th year, the Republican government lost its credibility among the right-wing generals of the army and a coup was quickly planned. They conspirators came to a compromise on who was to lead the coup and chose a centre-right general who kept the representative government, appointing an interim Cabinet and promising elections within 5 years. The major policy shifts of the new government were the limited re-establishment of Slavery and protectionism (the closing of foreign trade routes, ostensibly to eliminate a balance of payments deficit, protect local business and reduce unemployment):
Most of the empire, however, did not see the significant return of slavery as the junta was not keen on offending sensibilities too much. Slaves were used to build cannon in a few cities, the government's rationale being the fact that the Romans to the south continued to pose a threat to national security, despite good bilateral relations. In Lyons, however, the larger part of the native population was thrown into labour camps and forced to build necessary infrastructure - theatres and libraries meant to disseminate government propaganda to combat Roman cultural imperialism. Over 60% of the population were affected and about 50% died in what, in retrospect, seems to be more of a reaction against the rebellion. However, revisionist historians have argued that the rebellion was effectively exhausted by then, after decades of bloody struggle. More recently, some have argued that the city would have suffered from mass starvation anyway due to the flood of impoverished Roman migrants who took advantage of the chaos and settled around the city, causing a major food shortage. But, even then, they conceded that the famine would have claimed far fewer lives than the labour camps.
After 5 years had elapsed, elections were finally held, but they were rigged. The junta was 'voted' back to power and the Cabinet remained, with only minor reshuffling done. The same thing happened for the next three elections, but those that accused the government of fraudulence became increasingly vociferous. The junta tried to silence the press, but its efforts were in vain. Pamphlets and illegal newspapers were widely circulated, and in Tenochtitlan itself there was a large dissident movement led by the Republicans. On the fourth election, 25 years after the military siezed power, the junta again won by a landslide, but the Republicans demanded a recount with greater transparency. When the government refused, a general strike was called, crippling the Aztec economy. Even the slaves refused to work. After a week, the government finally collapsed. The police turned on the junta and arrested its leaders, and another election was held in which the Republicans swept to power once again. Slavery was again abolished, but the popular protectionist policies remained. [end story]
Anyway, true enough, Ramesses did research Replacable Parts. But we waited for the discovery of Physics, so we could kill two birds with one stone:
Going for Assembly Line, it seemed natural to research Steam Power next. But since all the other AIs already had it, I assumed that it would soon be Ramesses' research choice (after Rifling), so we waited by researching Electricity (on the path to Computers) first. Anyway, the extra commerce from windmills and watermill would be nice.
And then I noticed that Augustus had become Friendly, so...
We should be relatively safe now, assuming we can keep the Roman Catholics happy enough to maintain the pact.
As I guessed, it turned out that Ramesses did get Rifling next:
Rifling is needed for Rocketry and also leads to it via Artillery. We'll see if the Egyptian did get Steam Power next. Several turns later, Electricity was discovered, but Ramesses still didn't have it. Oh, well, let's research Radio first, then.
Meanwhile, we got our next GP:
Since a prophet is of limited use this late in the game, I decided to keep him for a GA later on. We don't know what GPs we would be getting next. If we get a GE subsequently, we might want to use him to hurry the Space Elevator, and there's no telling that we'd get the different types of GP needed for a GA in time for a space win.
And our gamble did pay off. Ramesses did research Steam Power:
Great

We left Radio for now and researched Assembly Line first.
Anyway, it's getting late and this post took longer to write than expected, with the story and all

, so I'll post the next half of the update tomorrow.
[to be continued in the next post...]