victorian era Beta Download | At the Dawn of an Era - A Victorian Era "Mod" |

[RyanII 9]

Marvellous! But i have a problem with it, it crashes every time, i tried to do a gameplay with Teke but it isn't going well because of the crashes

[centur 7]

I think this project is great! But can I see some other scenario images if you made? I want to know other scenario project how progressing. 

[Commieslav 192]

10 hours ago, RyanII said:

Marvellous! But i have a problem with it, it crashes every time, i tried to do a gameplay with Teke but it isn't going well because of the crashes

That's weird. It hasn't crashed for me besides the typical 45% glitch. Could it be the civ? Have you tried any other civs?

 

[RyanII 9]

4 hours ago, Commieslav said:

That's weird. It hasn't crashed for me besides the typical 45% glitch. Could it be the civ? Have you tried any other civs?

 

Yes, it's the same, crashes every 20-30 turns, sometimes even less

[RyanII 9]

Ok, now it works properly

[St.Chmnd 125]

Sorry for the late responses.

On 12/24/2020 at 11:10 PM, RyanII said:

Marvellous! But i have a problem with it, it crashes every time, i tried to do a gameplay with Teke but it isn't going well because of the crashes

 

21 hours ago, RyanII said:

Yes, it's the same, crashes every 20-30 turns, sometimes even less

 

20 hours ago, RyanII said:

Ok, now it works properly

Glad you are enjoying the mod, although with some problems it seems haha.

I tested if there were any bugs with Teke or something, but nothing popped up, so maybe it was a problem with your device? Also, it also looks like it ended up fixing itself, or did you do something to fix it?

On 12/25/2020 at 1:12 AM, centur said:

I think this project is great! But can I see some other scenario images if you made? I want to know other scenario project how progressing. 

Eh...no... I haven't really advanced in the other scenarios, but in my defence, it was because I first needed to add a lot of civs to the game, to be able to complete the following scenarios. I'm also not sure if I'll release them with these scenario for Addon+, since we will start working in the proper mod for now on, but I'll try to at least port some of them like 1836, the Crimean War, the American Civil war, 1971, and maybe some others (probably without events). When we open our thread in the mods section we will probably be able to show some more things, but for now, we are still making some sketches and planning what to add into the mod...so please bear with us a little while hahaha.

 

[RyanII 9]

12 hours ago, St.Chmnd said:

Glad you are enjoying the mod, although with some problems it seems haha.

I tested if there were any bugs with Teke or something, but nothing popped up, so maybe it was a problem with your device? Also, it also looks like it ended up fixing itself, or did you do something to fix it?

Well, it fixed itself, in the first day crashing a lot but now i can enjoy it smoothly

Some questions about the mod, you plan on adding events? And how much do you plan on add?

[Duchy of Darkis and Fungus 98]

On 12/24/2020 at 8:30 PM, St.Chmnd said:

Final map for this version of the scenario, direct screenshot from the android port.

So yeah, it’s finally here. The “Victorian Age” Scenario’s beta version. The first release of “Dawn of A New Era”. A scenario that I lost its progress, either partially or totally, at least two times before, and which has changed quite a bit during its development.

DOWNLOAD HERE (for android):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17Ik8gs7n7Xb5j8ApQtrLHaVL162b0Z8_/view?usp=sharing

 

Some of the features of this beta version:

-          A ton of nations from which to choose from, with alternate flags for most of them.

-          Releasable nations for different parts of the world (Some well known, some others less).

-          New music (not much really, like 3 tracks, since I was trying to see how to make it work for android).

-          Some new formable nations, more will be added in the future. (I'd post a list of them, but it seems more fun to let the players discover some of the least known ones).

-          Fixed some crashing errors from the first beta, the one not available to the public (the typical error of having a scenario listed, but not present in the game files).

-          Suggested civilizations when using the scenario editor.

-          Eliminated some maps and scenarios (since the android version was getting a little bit heavy).

So, since the download is above, I’ll use this space below to place some “short” words, which I wanted to state:

Well, to start things up, I need to affirm that I don’t consider myself a “good modder”. Since this scenario mostly consists of new flags, some quite good and others not really, with a mix of realism and more than a pinch of “whoa, what if this absolutely minor nation had a communist revolution and changed its flag”; In other words, the mod isn’t as fancy as other ones here, it doesn’t have new provinces, a flashy new UI, custom leaders, nor even events…but I think that it has a lot of little details and things one can discover while playing it. Some flags are obscure references to something, others are a careful reconstruction (of flags with such poor quality in the internet, that only like two photos in a Facebook page is available…this really happened to me with Bilaspur’s flag…and the same, although this time I found the photos in Wikipedia, with one of the flags of Hunza), some flags have symbols taken from a local source of the area (many alternative flags for the Indian princely states or the first nations of the Pacific North West Coast have symbols based off from schools, municipalities, housing services and universities from the current administrative division they are part of now), and some flags are even a semi-total invention from my part (in the name of bringing options and content to most of  the nations).

But at the same time, I have learned a lot about how to troubleshoot through some of the bugs the game has to offer, and which can make one feel dead inside just by experiencing them without any knowledge of how to solve them (from bugs with the android version not starting, adding new civs which don’t register in game, crashes out of nowhere, etc). And at the same time, I want to be a better modder…but I’ll talk about that a little more at the end.

Passing over to other topic. I wanted to recommend that, for this beta, a list of “fun nations” and ideas for your play-trough:

-          Play a nation in the Salish Coast, and unify the tribes under one banner.

-          Play as one of the princely states in Rajasthan, or if you want a real challenge; as the little princely state of Chamba in Punjab, and embark in the epic journey of beating the EIC, forming the ultimate Hindu nation…

-          Form Abbysinia as one of the Lordships battling for the throne of it, thus ending the Zemene Mesafint.

-          Unify the Turkmen tribes in the steppes of middle Asia under the flag of Turkmenistan.

-          Fight for your independence as either Upper or Lower Canada, and gain the independence of the other nation as your fellow ally.

-          Unify Transvaal as one of the little Boer states in southern Africa, and kick the British out of Cape Town.

-          Play a simple game as the UK.

-          Pick a random nation!

Another recommendation, woulde be to play using the "Fog of war" option in the "Discovery" setting for the civs you deem to not have been able to know about the rest of the world. While using it in "Classic" for nations such as nations in Europe or the American Republics...although I'd mostly recommend that setting for civs who have overseas vassal states/"colonies".

Also, try to find your favorite flag in the mod and post it here, or your favorite nation if you’d like to too!

…And finally, I wanted to bring an announcement (although if you read some previous replies in this thread, it was kind of obvious): The scenario will become a Full MOD. We now have a team which will develop it. We will talk about it more when we open its respective thread in the Mod Section of the Forum! We have a lot planned for it…ranging from leaders, new ideologies, events…and more! Things may even get a little into an original “alt history” scenario. I hope you’ll meet the team soon, but I’m sure you’ll be able to recognize some of its members.

On the other hand…that means that for now, is time to say goodbye to Addon+ as a base for our work, and for a while to this little scenario I worked into too…wow, It’s weird to say that for a personal project hahaha. But don’t worry, I’ll keep updating it if people want to (mostly for those who don’t want the other full mod, but an experience based in addon+), albeit in a more sporadic manner.

At some point I’ll also post the link to the mod’s discord (the server is still under construction, although its mostly my fault for not paying much attention to it), so try to keep an eye on the thread during the next days.

And remember to respond about any errors in the scenario, or things that I forgot/that I could change into a better way!

Well, that’s all for a while…I’ll now lay down a little bit, since the holydays are already here. I hope that all of you will have an excellent time with your loved ones, and I say bye for now (though I’ll obviously try to answer to any comments that appear). Goodbye for now, and take care during these holydays!

Isn't it ironic that, with this release, we are now at the Dawn of a new Era for this mod? 

It's really good but you need to change the flags of the nations as many are wrong and a few border inaccuracies as well.

[Duchy of Darkis and Fungus 98]

Also Australia was divided in colonies and not a independent nation. New Zealand was not independent either.

[WorldStadiums 65]

On 24/12/2020 at 17:30, St.Chmnd said:

Mapa final para esta versión del escenario, captura de pantalla directa desde el puerto de Android.

Así que sí, finalmente está aquí. La versión beta del escenario " Era victoriana " . El primer lanzamiento de " Dawn of A New Era ". Un escenario en el que perdí su progreso, ya sea parcial o totalmente, al menos dos veces antes, y que ha cambiado bastante durante su desarrollo. 

DESCARGAR AQUÍ (para Android) :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17Ik8gs7n7Xb5j8ApQtrLHaVL162b0Z8_/view?usp=sharing

 

Algunas de las características de esta versión beta : 

-           Un montón de naciones entre las que elegir, con banderas alternativas para la mayoría de ellas.

-           Naciones liberables para diferentes partes del mundo (algunas conocidas, otras menos).

-           Música nueva (no mucha realmente, como 3 pistas, ya que estaba tratando de ver cómo funciona para Android).

-           Algunas nuevas naciones formables, se agregarán más en el futuro. (Publicaría una lista de ellos, pero parece más divertido dejar que los jugadores descubran algunos de los menos conocidos).

-           Se corrigieron algunos errores de bloqueo de la primera beta, la que no estaba disponible para el público (el error típico de tener un escenario en la lista, pero no presente en los archivos del juego).

-           Civilizaciones sugeridas al usar el editor de escenarios.

- Se           eliminaron algunos mapas y escenarios (ya que la versión de Android se estaba volviendo un poco pesada).

Entonces, dado que la descarga está arriba, usaré este espacio a continuación para colocar algunas palabras "cortas", que quería decir:

Bueno, para empezar, necesito afirmar que no me considero un “buen modder”. Dado que este escenario consiste en su mayoría en nuevas banderas, algunas bastante buenas y otras no realmente, con una mezcla de realismo y más que una pizca de "vaya, ¿y si esta nación absolutamente menor tuviera una revolución comunista y cambiara su bandera"? En otras palabras, el mod no es tan elegante como los otros aquí, no tiene nuevas provincias, una nueva interfaz de usuario llamativa, líderes personalizados, ni siquiera eventos ... pero creo que tiene muchos pequeños detalles y cosas únicas. puede descubrir mientras lo juega. Algunas banderas son referencias oscuras a algo, otras son una reconstrucción cuidadosa (de banderas con tan mala calidad en Internet, que solo están disponibles como dos fotos en una página de Facebook ... esto realmente me sucedió con Bilaspur's    bandera ... y lo mismo, aunque esta vez encontré las fotos en Wikipedia , con una de las banderas de Hunza ), algunas banderas tienen símbolos tomados de una fuente local de la zona (muchas banderas alternativas para los estados principescos indios o las primeras naciones de la costa noroeste del Pacífico tienen símbolos basados en escuelas, municipios, servicios de vivienda y universidades de la división administrativa actual de la que forman parte ahora), y algunas banderas son incluso una invención semi-total de mi parte (en nombre de traer opciones y contenido para la mayoría de las naciones).        

Pero al mismo tiempo, he aprendido mucho sobre cómo solucionar algunos de los errores que el juego tiene para ofrecer, y que pueden hacer que uno se sienta muerto por dentro con solo experimentarlos sin ningún conocimiento de cómo resolverlos (desde errores con la versión de Android no se inicia, agrega nuevas civilizaciones que no se registran en el juego, se bloquea de la nada, etc.). Y al mismo tiempo, quiero ser un mejor modder… pero hablaré de eso un poco más al final.

Pasando a otro tema. Quería recomendar que, para esta versión beta, una lista de "naciones divertidas" e ideas para tu canal de juegos:

-           Juega con una nación en la costa de Salish y unifica las tribus bajo un mismo estandarte. 

-           Juega como uno de los estados principescos de  Rajasthan , o si quieres un verdadero desafío; como el pequeño estado principesco de Chamba en Punjab , y embarcarse en el viaje épico de vencer al EIC , formando la máxima nación hindú ...      

-           Formar Abbysinia como una de las señorías que luchan por el trono de la misma, acabando así con Zemene Mesafint.     

-           Unificar las tribus turcomanas en las estepas de Asia central bajo la bandera de Turkmenistán.

-           Lucha por tu independencia como Alto o Bajo Canadá y gana la independencia de la otra nación como tu aliado.

-           Unificar Transvaal como uno de los pequeños estados bóers del sur de África y expulsar a los británicos de Ciudad del Cabo.

-           Juega un juego simple como el Reino Unido.

- ¡           Elige una nación al azar!

Otra recomendación, sería jugar usando la opción "Niebla de guerra" en la configuración de "Descubrimiento" para las civilizaciones que consideres que no has podido conocer sobre el resto del mundo. Si bien lo uso en "Clásico" para naciones como naciones de Europa o las Repúblicas americanas ... aunque recomendaría principalmente ese escenario para civilizaciones que tienen estados vasallos / "colonias" en el extranjero.

Además, intenta encontrar tu bandera favorita en el mod y publícala aquí, ¡o tu nación favorita si quieres también!

… Y finalmente, quería traer un anuncio (aunque si leíste algunas respuestas anteriores en este hilo, era algo obvio): El escenario se convertirá en un MOD completo . Ahora tenemos un equipo que lo desarrollará. ¡Hablaremos más de ello cuando abramos su hilo respectivo en la Sección Mod del Foro ! Tenemos mucho planeado para ello ... que van desde líderes , nuevas ideologías , eventos ... ¡y más! Las cosas pueden incluso meterse un poco en un escenario original de "historia alternativa" . Espero que conozca al equipo pronto, pero estoy seguro de que podrá reconocer a algunos de sus miembros.      

Por otro lado… eso significa que por ahora, es hora de decir adiós a Addon + como base para nuestro trabajo, y por un tiempo a este pequeño escenario en el que también trabajé… guau, es raro decir eso para un proyecto personal jajaja . Pero no te preocupes, seguiré actualizándolo si la gente quiere (principalmente para aquellos que no quieren el otro mod completo, pero una experiencia basada en addon +), aunque de una manera más esporádica.

En algún momento también publicaré el enlace a la discordia del mod  (el servidor todavía está en construcción, aunque es mayormente culpa mía por no prestarle mucha atención),  así que intenta estar atento al hilo durante los próximos días .

¡Y recuerde responder sobre cualquier error en el escenario, o cosas que olvidé / que podría cambiar de una mejor manera!

Bueno, eso es todo por un tiempo… Ahora me acuesto un poco, ya que las vacaciones ya están aquí. Espero que todos ustedes lo pasen muy bien con sus seres queridos, y me despido por ahora (aunque obviamente intentaré responder a cualquier comentario que aparezca). ¡Adiós por ahora, y cuídate durante estas vacaciones!

¿No es irónico que, con este lanzamiento, estemos ahora en el amanecer de una nueva era para este mod? 

Is this version only for android? If so, will a BETA version be released for steam? By the way, I loved how the mod is looking

[Commieslav 192]

12 hours ago, RyanII said:

Well, it fixed itself, in the first day crashing a lot but now i can enjoy it smoothly

Some questions about the mod, you plan on adding events? And how much do you plan on add?

We do plan on having events, mostly for alt-history purposes,but also for the historical scenario. How much? As of right now,not that much,but we're working on new ideas and plans!

[Commieslav 192]

1 hour ago, Duchy of Darkis and Fungus said:

It's really good but you need to change the flags of the nations as many are wrong and a few border inaccuracies as well.

Could you tell me the border and flag inaccuracies (besides NZ and AU)? Commieslav #3098

[St.Chmnd 125]

Hello everyone, I’m back again to answer some comments (while I, as always, apologize for my delayed response). If you want to see some "notes" about the scenarios, go down the responses, until you see the maps

Some short responses:

On 12/27/2020 at 1:26 AM, RyanII said:

Well, it fixed itself, in the first day crashing a lot but now i can enjoy it smoothly

Some questions about the mod, you plan on adding events? And how much do you plan on add?

I'm glad that you now can enjoy the mod without more problems. And to respond to your question below:

• We plan to add events, but not for the scenario version (when the team decides that its the moment to open our thread in the mod section we will explain a bit of this). The mod version will include events that we are currently deciding (as @Commieslav said, for now mostly related to alt history purposes...but it has been a little chaotic with all the ideas, and we strive to reach a balance between Historical and Alternative content. In other words, we will first organize a little better first, before confirming anything).
• In terms of adding things:
  • For the Scenario version: More nations, and a new scenario for 1836 and one for the Crimean War (I want to finish adding all the civs I need before, making it easier for me to add newer scenarios).
  • For the Mod version: New ideologies (with new icons for them), new scenarios, a new icon (a better version of the one in the beta), probably some leaders (the team is recoloring portraits and all), new provinces (fixing some borders, like the disgusting "secret Iceland" in Canada), new event images, and hopefully (this last part I'm not quite sure about) a new UI and map background. Also, the new mod will be based of the "vanilla version" of the game, and will not function in Addon+ like the scenarios (mostly to not feel like we are "stealing content" from the Addon+ team). 

On 12/27/2020 at 1:46 PM, WorldStadiums said:

Is this version only for android? If so, will a BETA version be released for steam? By the way, I loved how the mod is looking

Yes, this BETA is only for android, since I accidently made changes between the two versions. I'll try to release the PC/steam version at some point too. (In other words, its my personal fault the fact that the PC version is still at hold...because I confused some files and accidently erased some things hahaha).

On 12/27/2020 at 12:46 PM, Duchy of Darkis and Fungus said:

It's really good but you need to change the flags of the nations as many are wrong and a few border inaccuracies as well.

On 12/27/2020 at 12:50 PM, Duchy of Darkis and Fungus said:

Also Australia was divided in colonies and not a independent nation. New Zealand was not independent either.

Yes, I know about some of the problems (and thanks for sending some of the ones you found to @Commieslav!). I was aware of some of those, since they were "intentional by design" (either placeholders, or because I was testing some things)...or simply because I forgot about them. For the specific instance of Australia, its mostly related to the difficulty of representing the existing administrative divisions of the colonies at the time (I might as well just anex the provinces to the UK too), and New Zealand should be divided latter into more Maori "clans", but the current civ there was to "technically symbolize" the core territory of the "United Tribes of New Zealand" (1835-1845; brief period before being then part of the colony of New Zealand)...I could also change it to a territory under the Colony of New South Wales, which would be technically correct too (if I later add said civ to the scenario).

Thanks to this comment I decided to create this topic about the things "To-Fix" about the scenario, were I'll talk about different things. Australia and New zealand will get an entry later...

But let’s get into the matter at fact, this long post(s), where I’ll be listing some of the errors that have been found in this beta release, all of this considering an explanation of why it’s there, the solutions, some facts about the things, and plans for the future of the scenario (and related mod).

The one here although is shorter, mostly because of the little time I had this days to write it, but I promise I’ll try to bring a more intricate one soon.

Consider this notes as a sort of Dev-Diary? (Maybe?). Well, anyway…let’s begin:

A.    North America:

Map of most of North America in-game.

Well, let’s see what errors and details we have here.

-          The need of swapping the color of Newfoundland to a one which would look more harmonious next to the rest of the Provinces which are part of present-day Canada. It’s actually a minor change, but I wanted to stipulate the idea, since the area of Canada is mostly finished (it needs some minor changes, but there aren’t a lot. Some could even wait, or haven’t even been noticed).

USA and Mexico in-game.

-          The USA’s flag isn’t the correct one: It should be the one with 24 stars; nicknamed as “The Old Glory”, instead of the one with 50 starts (current design).

This flag was used from 1826 to 1836 (Until Arkansas was given its statehood). I’d consider this mostly an error of maintaining the flag which came originally in the game.

 This flag should be the one for "most" of the initial period of the game (a lot of the ones after this one quite literally were used for around 1~5 years).

-          A lot of Mexico is wrong:

o   The flag is incorrect, since it’s using the current one.

 Again, a matter of little differences, like the design of the eagle in the middle of the coat of arms being different. 

o   The ideology could be changed to “Conservatism”, since it’s during Bustamante’s presidency, and being the “First Mexican Republic”/”Federal-Mexican Republic”. Later the republic would become the “Centralist Republic of Mexico” (considering its ideology as in between Conservatism, to Liberalism and also a sort of Military Dictatorship). In the end, leaving it as a republic would be fine too (it’s technically correct).

o   Texas shouldn’t be independent. From 1824 to 1835 it should be part of “Coahuila y Tejas”/”Sovereign State of Coahuila and Texas” (an administrative division of the First Mexican Republic). Since It was an important federal subject, and because of its future, Texas will be replaced by a mostly weakened “Coahuila y Tejas”, either with having a lot of instability, or by starting at war with a “lesser Texas” (to also symbolize the already existing presence of the “Texan Militia”, The subsequent combat onwards from 1832 and maybe the failed attempts of stablishing an independent state done before by "Anglo settlers" (related with what happened at the “Fredonian Rebellion” of 1826).

o   Add California as a vassal, representing the situation of the “Territory of Alta California” and the “Territory of Baja California” until 1836…Although I may unite them into the administrative division of “Las Californias” (From 1836 onwards). It could symbolize the existing rebellions, and the existing rivalries in-between the governors of the provinces.

o   Reducing the Mexican Territory in present-day southern USA’s provinces; this is tied with the next point (Native American States).

Map of mexico showingcasing some of the things I talked about above, and a little more of others I didn't mention.

 

-          For Native American States, There’s a lot to unpack.

 

A simplified map of the general groups.

o   On one hand, we have the Pacific North West zone, a really nicely finished space, although there’s still room of improvement here of course. Maybe I’ll add more nations what would now be the Oregon State (Those four provinces without civs are bothering me hahaha).

 

 

Maps which includes some groups I forgot. Special attention to the "Molalla" there and some of the other nations "squashed in the middle"

o   We also have Alaska, under the “Russian-American Company”, which could be made smaller (since the territory its controlling in game is nowhere near its actual control over the land at those years). I would also like to add some minor Native American nations to this area and the neighboring territory of “Yukon”.

Area of Alaska and Yukon in the current scenario

 

  

I'm trying to find better maps for the Yukon region, but for now this one will serve as a guide.

o   In the “South-West” region, under Mexican “control” (in game. In real life, they didn’t really have much power there), there’s some things needing correction:

1.      A rework for the Comanche nation, from extending its territories, changing its name to “Comancheria”, adding some ideology flags, and updating their relations with neighboring civs.

Comanche nation's map, with some more info about itself and its sorroundings.

2.      A soft rework for the Apache nation (Apacheria), and doing the same, in a minor scale, with the Caddo, Navajo, and other Native American tribes of the South-West (mostly to represent the different relations of the Comanche nations with this civs, like their alliance with the Kiowa nation, or the rivalry with the Apache).

A lot to unpack here too, huh?

3.      Adding the Texas-Cherokee nation, and some other Native American Tribes; Either as releasable or playable from the start.

A map Showcasing the movements that permited the existance of this Texas-Cherokee nation.

o   The South-East Native Americans will have a rework too, especially considered for the Seminole, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Cherokee nations, with the option of adding some more little tribes here and there (probably as releasable nations). 

 Well, we already know what happened here...

...But the "five civilized tribes" are technically the "tip of the iceberg".

o   The nations of the Great Lakes will have a special focus for the next update, especially considering the fact of the existance of the Michigan Territory, and the border war against the tribes to the west...with the presence of the “British-Band” at battle during the Black Hawk war, and maybe the thought of adding something around the “Illinois Mormon war” in mind too (since this ended up with their exodus to Utah).

o   For the Great Planes Native American nations, there’s a lot of work left to finish, considering some soft remakes too, adding some nations and some changes of positions. Sadly, I don't have much info for this region, so I'll try to investigate more about them.

o   In the present day Sonora State, the Yaqui nation will be added. Considering its conflict with Mexico during the Yaqui Wars. The near nations of Mayo and Pima will probably be added too.

o   The Metis Confederacy (“fictional” nation of Victoria 2; mostly based of the “Metis provisional government” of the Red River Rebellion, lead by Louis Riel), will be added as a releasable inside the territories of the HBC in Canada. There’s the possibility of also adding separate “Metis” civs (representing different groups of Metis, like the ones who were allied to the HBC, in its competition with the NWC and its Metis allies.), which would serve as starting nations, and able to form the confederacy too.

o   Adding “Chan Santa Cruz” (the Maya-Cruzoob rebellion, based around its own religion, “the cult to the talking cross”, which mixed Catholicism and autochthonous Mayan traditions and beliefs. The state was a theocracy, which was lead quite literally by the bidding of the cross, who “talked” to the “maestros cantores”, a sort of priest caste), and maybe some other Mayan-based minor nations as releasable civs to the Yucatan peninsula.

 

A more in depth look to the "Caste War" in the Yucatan penninsula...even the British saw a bit of involvement thanks to Belize.

o   Fixing some ideology problems for the different Native American Nations.

Back to the other topics...

-          Add some more flags to the Republic of Yucatan. Maybe fix some issues around its relationship with Mexico at the time, since it joined the Mexican states as the “Federal Republic of Yucatan”, under the status of a different constitution, quoting it:

“Yucatán swears that recognizes and responds to the government of Mexico, only if it is liberal and representative; and with the condition that: The union of Yucatán is that of a Federated Republic, and not otherwise, and therefore entitled to form their particular Constitution and establish the laws that it deems necessary to its happiness.”

So yeah, that’s the reason that Yucatan starts the game as a vassal in this scenario.

I’ll try to see if I can at least find a different flag for the nation (the one in-game is from 1841. I think I’ve read that there’s one previous coat of arms for the administrative division, but I can’t quite remember where).

-          Adding some more “releasables” and formable nations in general to the area. This will be discussed or revealed later at some point.

-          Maybe add the CSA as a releasable (Not sure about this one).

-          Check if Bermuda has its corresponding flag (probably not, but I haven’t checked really).

So, that’s all for this first session of the “To-Fix” dev diaries hahaha.

Maybe I’m exaggerating, but I like writing this things down, mostly to demonstrate that I actually care about how the scenario represents things…I hope my ramblings are interesting for the people who read this threads too hahaha.

Anyway, hope you all will have some happy holydays, especially considering that 2021 is just around the corner. Thanks to all the activities I wasn’t able to post more issues of this, but they’ll come out eventually.

And so, I say goodbye for now, and hope to write another entry of "To-Fix" soon.

Edited December 31, 2020 by St.Chmnd

[WorldStadiums 65]

I do not want to be annoying, so I will say the small errors that I have seen (More than anything in the area of Argentina), is that I have seen that in the Province of Buenos Aires, the Argentine Confederation is in place, when it was formed In 1831, I think it would be better in that place than Buenos Aires, in addition, the provinces of Entre Rios and Misiones do not have the correct flags (At the end I put the correct flags) and they should also be completely independent and not vassal states.

Entre Rios

Misiones

Oh, and another thing, do you plan to add leaders? If so, could I help with that?

 

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by WorldStadiums

[RyanII 9]

You plan on adding provinces to the map? I saw you'll add a lot to North America and there's also the princely states in India, specially the smaller ones, so there's that

[Commieslav 192]

15 hours ago, RyanII said:

You plan on adding provinces to the map? I saw you'll add a lot to North America and there's also the princely states in India, specially the smaller ones, so there's that

Yes,we will be adding provinces! As of right now, Australian provinces are being reworked to fit the borders of local tribes which existed in that time.

[Spartanus 17]

Sorry if this was asked before, but will there be events? 

Or something like the American Civil War

[Commieslav 192]

On 1/7/2021 at 2:04 AM, Spartanus said:

Sorry if this was asked before, but will there be events? 

Or something like the American Civil War

There will be events,but historical and alternate history (things might get crazy if we manage to put in certain ideologies).

[Spartanus 17]

7 hours ago, Commieslav said:

There will be events,but historical and alternate history (things might get crazy if we manage to put in certain ideologies).

Ok, keep up with the good work, this has been by far the most detailed and fun mod I've played.

[Simon Wilford 696]

On 7/17/2020 at 12:26 PM, St.Chmnd said:

“And so it was the the Dawn of an Era, where as some nations may find their place in the sun, others would simply fall into darkness”

Scenarios and Mods involving the famous 1830~ start date are pretty common, but even so, I wanted to try my hand at it. Being sincere, I’m posting this W.I.P since I’ve already lost all my progress once, and recently half of it too, so for it to not be another dead project, I wanted to at least show it, and search for some help on the forum.

Anyway, getting back on track, one of the objectives of this so called mod was to “cover” the number of uncolonized/neutral provinces that appeared on most Victorian Age scenarios, and so with this, one could prevent the “Implausable colonizers”, (such as having early Qing colonies on the coast of Africa, or vice-versa, provinces that should be colonized being barren of any owner until really late on the game, such as provinces on the middle of North America), but most importantly, to give the possibility to the player to play as obscure but historical states or people’s which weren’t represented already on the game, this counts specially for regions such as Southern Africa, the Patagonian region, the Caucasus, Indonesia, Central Asia, etc.  

So with this in mind, the player has more options on how to play the game, changing a little bit the structure for colonization, etc.

RELEASE: The Released version down here is a Beta of the project. It still has some errors which need correction, but I decided to release it in the hopes of receiving feedback.

ANDROID VERSION: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17Ik8gs7n7Xb5j8ApQtrLHaVL162b0Z8_/view?usp=sharingT

PC VERSION: Soon...

THE WORLD MAP SO FAR:

UPDATED (December 24th 2020-Android Version):

UPDATED (December 3rd 2020):

OLD (July 2020):

*Keep in mind, a lot of things are subject to change*

Miscellaneous Pics: 

(THE IMAGES ABOVE ARE OLD SCREENSHOTS. FOR NEWER ONES, READ THE THREAD. I'LL EVENTUALLY UPDATE SOME  OF THE ABOVE.)

Implemented Features:

• -New flags for various nations

-270+ New Nations (and counting!) -Alternative flags and name for different ideologies of a nation (Example: "Tigray" being "Lordship of Tigray" as a monarchy or the "Tigray People's Democratic Republic" with the socialist ideology). More and revamped formable nations.

Planned Features: 

• More nations (since there's still incomplete parts of the world such as India or Central Africa).

A new type of ideology: "traditional state", specially designed for states which aren't tribal, but still have a chiefdom type of organization. Changes on the name of some things: "Vassal state" to "Satellite State", etc. Change the name of "Diseases", to represent "Situations", depending on the year. (Ex: "minor nationalist uprising" starting on 1844 or  "medium labour strike", etc). More Scenarios [ *Just ideas, probably not all of them* ]: "The revolutions of 1848", "The Crimean War(1853)", "1857", "1860", "Winds of Unification: 1865", " La Belle Époque (1871)", "1879", "The Great Scramble(1884)", "Sino-Japanese war: 1894", "1900", "Administrative divisions of 1900", "Moroccan Crisis: 1905". [There could be scenerios up to 1939, but with this ideas is probably more than enough for now]. New UI. More provinces and , wishfully, a new map background. Events (not for all scenarios though).

Thanks for reading all of this.

PD: If anyone wants to help with this project, contact me through this account.

i know im having unrealistic expectations but can @Kerems2434 or @St.Chmnd port this scenario to conq2? would be really nice if someone did it to project alpha at least

[RyanII 9]

How's the scenario going? Any new updates?

[Commieslav 192]

7 hours ago, RyanII said:

How's the scenario going? Any new updates?

As of right now,Chmnd is working on new provinces for western Australia and doing research about central-American peoples and nations! Soon we plan on opening up a thread for the mod (not just the scenario) and publicizing the Discord server after we polish up some things and prepare it for more members ^^

[Houtmonin225 35]

My favorite scenario mod i really love it keep up your best works!

[St.Chmnd 125]

 Hello, and welcome to the second entry of “To-Fix”, where I explain different aspects of the errors, plans, and some more about this scenario and the future of it as a mod.

A.    Central America and the Caribbean:

 

This part of the Americas is really beautiful place, ain’t it? Although I have to admit that I’m somewhat ignorant of some parts of its history (I have more of a “general view” of somethings, but ignorant of others…so if you know some more, feel free to correct me). But I’ll try my best to address some things here.

-           Belize’s name will be changed to “British Honduras”; the flag will be changed to the one of 1870 too (Blue ensign with the Coat of arms of 1861 in the field).

-          The Jamaican flag in the canton of “Accompong’s” flag will be removed. I’ll try to add some more flags to the Accompong/”Jamaican Maroon” nation too.

-          Some changes to Cuba:

o   Change the flag at the start date and name of Spanish Cuba, since I used the one present already in the game (the blue flag with a Sun and half of the Cross of Burgundy, used by the monarchy ideology). In the case of the name, it would change from Cuba to “Captaincy General of Cuba”. The topic of the flag is more complicated: I’m in between this options:

§  Using the “Autonomist” flag from 1895. Basically the maritime merchant flag of Spain, with the cross of San Andrés (Saint Andrew) over it.

§  One of the “maritime province” flags. Although since Cuba was divided into different maritime provinces (different to the Captaincy General of the Philippines), it had different flags for each maritime province. The options would be to use the flag of the maritime province of “La Habana” (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bSGWCPBUkFY/Sk-oGrUCK2I/AAAAAAAAGrU/gprHwoboukw/s1600-h/1.JPG bottom right); or this supposed flag that was for the whole island as a maritime province, abolished in 1845 http://www.1uptravel.com/flag/images/c/cu_pm.gif  (I’ve only found it here: http://www.1uptravel.com/flag/flags/cu_mar.html ; so it that’s why I’m hesitant to the idea of using it).

§  Either of the flag options above, but with the coat of arms of Spanish Cuba over the cross.

This coat of arms was for the island of Cuba: http://www.hubert-herald.nl/Cuba_bestanden/image003.jpg

 

And this one for La Habana: ).

-          For Puerto Rico, should it stay as annexed, or be a vassal/satellite of Spain at the start date? Well, on one hand, Puerto Rico was the “Captaincy General of Puerto Rico”, although for some time it was a province of Spain (1809 to 1814), and its status after that was flipping between being nearer and further from true autonomy. In any case, if I were to decide to have Spanish Puerto Rico as starting nation (or a releasable, different from Puerto Rico per se), the flag options would be this:

o   Flag of the maritime province of Puerto Rico. The flag appears at the bottom left of this chart: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bSGWCPBUkFY/Sk-opYvmTgI/AAAAAAAAGrc/_2o6WcB-aO0/s1600-h/3.JPG

o   Same, but with this emblem over it:

from here: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/puerto-rico-military-passport-don-1919590030

o   The flag from Puerto Rico under the First Spanish Republic, although this could serve a better purpose as an alternate flag for other ideologies:

Although a version that changes the heraldic elements to some which look more “monarchical” (?) could also be a decent option for the Captaincy (similar to the flag used by movements who call for unification with Spain).

-           Most things related to the dependencies of the Colony of Jamaica (because a lot of islands weren’t exactly crown colonies of the UK, but rather lands administrated by the Governor of Jamaica…but part of the UK. “Learning about colonial administration is fun”), meaning thus:

o   Turks and Caicos: Dependency of the Crown Colony of Jamaica until 1959. The flag is wrong, and the nearest thing to it would be to use a blue ensign from 1875 (previously used, until the creation of the current flag), which included the previous seal of the islands too (from 1889). Then again, annexing it to either Jamaica or the UK would be an option too (To the UK sounds better to me, but I’ll ponder about it).

o   Cayman Islands: Since their arms and flag where officially granted in 1958, searching for a symbol to represent them during its existence in 1830 is most certainly impossible (considering that there isn’t even any archeological evidence of an indigenous presence in the island-Columbus literally discovered them). The options are either to maintain the current flag (ignoring that it didn’t exist at the time), or annexing it to Jamaica/the UK (for this one, I’m more inclined to just annexing it to Jamaica, and leaving the nation as a releasable, but as I said before, I’ll ponder about it some more).

o   British Honduras: Mentioned at the start at the entry, when talking about Belize.

o   The Crown Colony of Jamaica itself will probably have some more optional flags, depending of the ideology. It will also be able to form Jamaica proper (since they‘ll be separate nations, and because a civ can become a formable by gaining independence).

Old Coat of Arms of Jamaica. The difference with the newer one is in the inscription; Where as the original Latin motto says, "Indus Uterque Serviet Uni" (Both Indies Will Serve One Lord), it was changed to one in English: "Out of Many, One People".

-          About the Bahamas: They were a crown colony of the UK since 1717. The Bahamas badge was introduced in 1869 (discontinued in 1973, although some minor changes to it were done in between those years), used over a blue ensign. Since the Bahamas are an important crown colony, it will be present for the start date, but the flag will be changed to the one of 1869. I want to add some content about the “Black Seminoles” (Afro-Seminoles who escaped to the Bahamas during the Seminole Wars), the early 20^th century movement for it to join Canada (same case as Bermuda, Turks and Caicos and Jamaica), and the topics about the relation between the confederacy and the Bahamas (from fear that the slave revolts of the island could serve as inspiration to the slaves, to the confederacy making blockade runs through the island).

-          Trinidad and Tobago was put officially under British suzerainty after the treaty of Amiens (1802). The first flag and seal that the colony used (with Trinidad and Tobago as under the same entity), is from 1889, so it’ll probably keep it. Although, Tobago seems to have an earlier coat of arms, there seems to be a button (from approximately 1835), which includes on its back a seal similar to the one used in the seal of Tobago from 1880 and the 1980 house of assembly of Tobago seal. It’s mostly a decision of which one to use…but the button one needs to be “reconstructed”. Finally to the topic of Tobago, the second problem is that it was part of the Windward Island colony (uniting with Trinidad in 1889…If I’m not remembering wrong).

http://www.hubert-herald.nl/TrinidadTobago_bestanden/image035.jpg - The button.

http://www.hubert-herald.nl/TrinidadTobago_bestanden/image039.jpg - Tobago house of assembly.

1889 flag

 

I could also add content related to the “New Courland” colony of, well, the Duchy of Courland…But it really only works for alt history context, or a really good run with Congress Poland hahaha.

  

Tobago, but Couronian.

-          For the British Windward Islands Colony (consisting of  Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tobago): 

 

First of all, a clarification: Being a confederation of British colonies, the federation had a common governor in-chief, but each of them retained their own institutions, taking which was stipulated then, I will see if they should either be represented as one starting nation/civ, as separate colonies/civs under an alliance or annexed to the UK.

o   Barbados: Seat of the “government” of the federation until it became its own separate colony. Depending if I take the option of having the different colonies as selectable nations, then Barbados would probably use the flag of 1870.

  

o   Grenada: Although it’s first flag is from 1875, the seal that appears over it dates from around the end of the 18^th century (or at least the first version of it). In other words, red/blue ensign, with the previously mentioned seal.

The seal in color (1875 version).

o   Saint Lucia: One of those islands that changed from French to British hands frequently, until finally setting for British suzerainty thanks to the 1814 treaty of Paris. The first badge was adopted in 1889 (if I’m not mistaken), since that (for some reason) the previous French and British periods, didn’t include any symbols for the island.

o   St. Vincent and the Grenadines: Though the emblem of St. Vincent is known from 1871, the year the Federal Colony of the Windward Islands was founded but it may be older. (Since the seal, which was approved in 1877, seems to be based upon the pictorial panel in the public seal which dated from before 1839).

o   Tobago: Explained the decision about it above, when explaining about Trinidad.

o   Dominica: Joined the “Federal Colony of The Windward Islands” in 1940, being previously a member of the “Federal Colony of the Leeward islands”. Since that’s the case, I’ll talk about it below, including it within that group.

 

-          About the British Leeward Islands; another federation of island colonies, just a little bit north of the previously mentioned ones. Not all of this islands are present in the game, since most of them are actually pretty small, but I’ll try my best to mention the ones that have provinces in game:

 

o   Antigua and Barbuda: The first flag for the islands was given to the islands in 1956 (same as their heraldic grants), although a seal of Antigua seems to dates from the time of King Edward (which seems to have predecessors from Victorian times; that last part being relevant to the mod hahaha).

http://www.hubert-herald.nl/Antigua_bestanden/image003.jpg

o   Dominica: Like I mentioned before, the island was part of the Leeward Islands colony until 1940. Its badge was in use over blue ensigns already around 1890 (after leaving the Leeward Islands Colony, it was granted its current arms). In other topics related to Dominica, I would like to somehow represent some of the aspects related to how in 1838, Dominica became the first British Caribbean colony to have a Black-controlled legislature, and the subsequent downfall of said legislature (which ended with the British government making it a crown colony), but I’m not really sure of how could I do it.

o   Anguilla, Montserrat the Virgin Islands, and some others, aren’t present as separate provinces in the game, so their future is uncertain.  The Virgin Islands are an interesting little place though (especially if I wanted to delve into the topic of the “Danish West Indies”), so I’ll see how I can include them (in some way).

  

The British Misquito/Mosquito coast.

-          In relation to the “British Mosquito Coast”, another somewhat forgotten region. The kingdom was a protectorate of the British from 1740, until 1787 (when it passed to Spanish hands), and after some revolts and Latin American wars of independence, the “Misquito Kingdom” was sort of independent (being under British influence of course), until it became a protectorate again in 1844 (which ended after it became an autonomous territory of Honduras in 1860, until it finally was annexed to the nation in 1894). The nation is already present in the start date, as a vassal of the UK, and although it was technically under its “sphere of influence”, it wasn’t really a protectorate in 1830. In the end, I think I’ll leave it the way it is now, but I’ll change its flag to the previous to the current one.

-          “Pseudo-inside” the topic of the Misquito coast…I’ll probably add the option to release the ridiculous nation of Poyais. For those who don’t know what Poyais was; basically a fraudulent from part of Gregor MacGregor, who bought a terrain from the king of the Misquito kingdom, and in 1821 started to sell land grants to people in Britain, promising them that it was a land of opportunity and all. In the end, although the territory was roughly the size of Wales, the earth wasn’t good for agriculture, and the people who went to settle the place almost all died. Somehow MacGregor wasn’t convicted for those deaths, and continued with his scheme for some more years, without much success (for example, this new Poyais scheme changed the name of the country from “Principality of Poyais”, to “Republic of Poyais”). I consider it as, not only a funny, but also interesting part of history, especially considering how much people fell into the financial trap that was the principality. Because of what I mentioned, I think that it would seem interesting to have the country as a releasable nation (thinking of it as “if Poyais had worked” hahaha. But it would probably be more thanks to the settlers rather than “Prince” MacGregor’s actions).

  

"Get your Poyaisian land grant here!"

 "And don't forget those sweet Poyaisian dollars"– Not a scam...probably.

 

-          Finally, and to end this sub-section, a map of the British Colonies in the West Indies; here mostly to illustrate the topics talked above.

Map of the British Islands in the West Indies-1835.

 

-          In regards to the “Federal Republic of Central America” (1824-1839), federal successor to the previous “United Provinces of Central America” (1823-1824). At the start date of the scenario, the United Provinces look as a centralized country, powerful buffer in between Mexico and New Granada, but the first thing isn’t exactly true. The republic was just getting out of a civil war (from 1826-1829), and was now under a “liberal government” (radical in nature, that’s why that is its ideology). The local governments of each state were in the verge of war, and some even had local conflicts within there are between rival governments (generally liberals vs conservatives). The question in the end is how to represent (In some form). A more “in-depth view” for each member will be explained now below:

  

o   Nicaragua: During this period (and beyond), the country’s power struggle laid over the cities of “Granada”, conservative center, and the much more liberal “León”; The rivalry between both cities would literally shape the history of Nicaragua for the rest of the 19^th century. The Jefe Supremo/Supreme Chief (basically governor of Nicaragua under the Federal government) title switched from one person to another (jumping from one “ideology” to another too). Although the civil war already ended before the start date (it went from 1826 to 1829), the country still had some problems. In the end, those conflicts ended up with Nicaragua leaving the Federation, under the third government of José Nuñez (conservative). Some years later, the British wanted to create a canal that connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and since the US was already making its moves around Panama, the UK decided that Nicaragua was a good candidate where to create one too. Another thing I want to implement at some point is the “Nicaraguan National War”; part of the Filibuster War/William Affair (another important event that I would like to explore in the future of the mod).

Proposed Route of the "Nicaragua Canal" .

Flag of William Walker's Nicaragua.

But for simple things, like with most civilizations, a good start for things to change would be to add flags for the liberal and conservative factions.

o   Honduras: Although the state of Honduras, under Francisco Morazán (liberal), was victorious in the First Central American Civil War, the state was still in a similar situation to their neighbors (with a persistent power struggle between liberals and conservatives). During the rest of its period under the federation, after Morazán had to leave its post in Honduras since he was elected president of the whole Central American Republic, Honduras was either under conservative or independent sovereigns; Meaning that the power of the liberals was consolidated in the center of the Central American Republic thanks to Morazán, but funnily enough, Honduras reverted to being a conservative point after he left. Occupying the land in between Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, the country wasn’t in the best position when it gained independence (considering that, they would be always a rival form of government in at least one of its neighbors, where the exiled could plot a way to get in power), and it took more than some tries to stablish a permanent constitution, stablishing the identity of the state of Honduras.

Flag of Honduras (1839-1866). 

o   Costa Rica: During the First Central American Civil War, the state separated itself from the federation “until the constitutional order was restored”. The state was kind of the “role model to follow” in the federation; It was an active member of the Federation respecting the federal laws and electing its representatives to the Federal level. But the sympathy for the federation decreased when Costa Rica didn’t get any help from the federal government during the Colombian occupation of “Bocas del Toro”, and its subsequent annexation. After leaving the Federal republic, during the dissolution of it, Costa Rica first had a period where it was called the “Free State of Costa Rica”, until the proclamation of the “(First) Costa Rican Republic”. While inside the federation, it also went under civil war with the “League War” (again, between conservatives and liberals).

 

Flag of the "Free state of Costa Rica".

o   Guatemala: After the civil war, and the related expulsion of the “Aycinena” clan from the political life of the country (it’s quite difficult to explain the importance of this family in the politics of Guatemala, but for what I understood, they were not only prominent during the conservative period of the republic, but even during the colonial period), Guatemala found itself under a liberal stance. The peace didn’t last long and in 1837 the conservatives, with the support of the Aycinena clan and of the indigenous population (since the liberal government reestablished the “indigenous tax”). This conflict culminated with a now conservative Guatemala (with a brief interlude thanks to a coup by Morazán in 1839), and the separation of the territory from the new state of “Los Altos” (created by the liberal elite of the area, still being part of the federation. It lasted until 1840, with its forceful incorporation back into Guatemala). Guatemala also passed through some border problems with Mexico, thanks to the “Soconusco” region; with military occupation taking place here and there. There was some participation from the part of Guatemala in the “Castes War” (I talked a bit about it during the first “To Fix”, in the Yucatán section), caused by internal tensions coming from the Maya population of the state. There was also a little war with the liberal governments of Honduras and El Salvador in 1851. The 30 year conservative period ended with a liberal revolution. 

 

Coat of Arms of Guatemala from 1825 to 1843.

Flag of Guatemala inside the Federal Republic of Central America.

o   El Salvador: The conflict between liberals and conservatives started mostly after the dissolution of the federation, where each of them ended up falling into “caudillismo” (loosely defined in English as “war-lordism”, with presidential characteristics). Another important even was the rebellion of “Anastasio Aquino”; native Pipil leader, of the Nonualco tribe (he declared himself “King of the Nonualcos”, and in 1833, started a campaign against the state of El Salvador). 

Civil flag of El Salvador, inside the Federation of Central America, and used even after separating itself as an independent state.

Flag adopted in 1865.

o   Los Altos: Already mentioned it within the Guatemala section. Even if it ceased to exist after 1840, the territory itself was a place of conflict considering its border with Mexico.

 

Flag of Los Altos.

 

Flag of Quetzaltenango

Flag of Chiapas

-          I talked about the member states of the Federal Republic of Central America, but (the same way I did with the US and somewhat with Mexico), I can’t simply escape the opportunity of talking about the distinct native nations of the area, or at least about the more prominent, bigger and/or relevant ones:

 A whole lot of different Native Central American nations to go through. In other words, sit down and prepare to read a whole lot.

o   Garifuna: An ethnic group with both African and Native American roots (Arawak and Carib); their politics of diaspora are complex because they have several different homelands and different relationships to them, going from the mainly symbolic relationship to Africa and Saint Vincent, to the closer relationship to various national homelands of Central America. They are an important group, considering the territory they occupy, and their numbers (today around ~600.000 worldwide), even if not strictly a 100% Native American group.  On a non-important side note, I really like their flag’s color scheme. 

Garifuna flag.

History of their “migration” (expulsion), from the island of St. Vincent to Belize, Nicaragua, Guatemala and the Miskito Coast.

o   Xinca: A much less known Amerindian group; its language isn’t related to neither Mayan nor the Aztec groups, having an unknown origin. Living in Guatemala, and part of western El Salvador, they group is undergoing through a sort of “cultural extinction”.

o   “Maya”: There’s a lot of different peoples that could be considered part of the Maya ethnic group, some more distinct and numerous than others. Although this will probably need some more investigation from my part (mostly because we’d have to look for the different symbols which could represent said sub-groups), but in a general view:

A somewhat "general" map for the purpose of understanding the different location of the groups (it's not 100% exact, for example, the Yucatec group shouldn't extend that much, but rather be represented by spots around that general area).

§  K’iche’ (Quiche): A numerous Mayan group (forming 11.2 % of the Guatemalan population), their history is written in the “mythical” Popol Vuh text (a sacred narrative, based around the cosmology of the Mayan people, and the chronicle of the K’iche’ people). They are one of the most obvious additions in this group of peoples; although they’ll probable be included as a releasable nation (consisting of a core), representing that way their status under the state of Central America, and later Guatemala, giving also the possibility to have them revolt.

§  Q’eqchi’ (Kekchi): Most of them inhabit the area of Guatemala, with a significant minority in Belize (which migrated into the country in 1877, when all communal landownership was abolished by the government, edging said minority of the Qʼeqchiʼ to move). Not much is known from their past before the Spanish colonization, but is known that their land was formally known as Tezulutlan or “the land of war” (somewhere present day Baja Verapaz)

§  Kakchiquel: Another big group. During the Spanish conquest of Central America, they helped them conquer the K’iche’ kingdom of Q’Umarkaj, since they were enemies of the later. Their language is still spoken today by around 400.000 people.

§  Mam: Another group that, before and during the Spanish conquest of Central America, was antagonistic to the K’iche’. Most of them live in Guatemala, and a few migrated to the border of Chiapas (México), after the liberal government of Guatemala of Justo Rufino (1871-1885) expropriated the communal lands of the indigenous population.

§  Mopan: Originally from Belize, they were pushed out by the British into Guatemala (settling for San Luis in the Petén department), around the 18^th and early 19^th centuries. In Guatemala they endured forced labor and high taxation. In 1886, an important number of them went back to Belize, in search of better life conditions, settling in San Antonio (Toledo district). There is an absence of written traditions of the Mopan Maya people, so the preservation of their culture relies on oral transmission.

§  Q’anjob’al (Kanjobal): A group who came from the flatlands of present day Chiapas, México, in search for terrains where to settle. They found said place in the Guatemalan mountain range of “Sierra de los Cuchumatanes”, long before the Europeans arrived to America. After contact with the Spanish, along with their friars and Christianity, the cultural identity of the Q’anjob’al went through a drastic change, related to its cosmology, social structure and all aspects of their lives really. There’s a significant minority of them

§  Poqomchi’: Descendent of the “Ni Poqom”/“Poqom Maya”, which split into the aforementioned Poqomchí and the Poqomam. Their culture has survived and prevailed mostly in Alta and Baja Verapaz.

§  Poqomam: Closely related to the Poqomchi. By the XV century, the Poqomam managed to “unificate” into the “Poqoman Confederation”, centered on “Saqik'ajol Nimakaqapek” (better known nowadays as “Mixco Viejo”). During the colonial and post-colonial period, the population numbers decreased and their economy went through a big depression (mostly related to the indigenous lands reforms of the republic of Guatemala). A group of them also resides in El Salvador.

§  Achí: The Achi are a Maya people in Guatemala. Their indigenous language is also called Achi and is closely related to K'iche'. They are better known for their traditional theatrical “epic” play of the “Rabinal Achí”, one of the few surviving performance pieces from before colonization, and was performed from around the 16th century, and it wasn’t recorded until much later, by an anonymous author. This document was found by the French clergyman “Braseur de Bouburg”. Later it was published in Paris (1862).

§  Ixil: A smaller group, who saw their numbers decrease even more during the Guatemalan Genocide, as they were one of the most affected victims. Nowadays the Ixil live in three municipalities centered on the Cuchumatanes mountains in the northern part of the department El Quiché. These municipalities, also known as the “Ixil Triangle”, are Santa Maria Nebaj, San Gaspar Chajul, and San Juan Cotzal.

§  Tz’utuji (Zutuhil): Most of them live around the area of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala. The Tzʼutujil date from the post-classic period (circa 900-1500) of the Maya civilization, inhabiting the southern watershed of Lake Atitlán, in what is now defined as the Solola region of the Guatemalan highlands. The Tzʼutujil are noted for their continuing adherence to traditional cultural and religious practices (although some also practice Evangelical Protestantism and Roman Catholicism).

§  Chuj: The Chuj, and their ancestors, are believed to have lived in the same area for about 4,000 years. They first came into contact with the Spanish in the 1530s; however, they were not finally subdued by their colonial authorities until the 1680s. In the late 19th century the Guatemalan government sanctioned the transfer of Chuj tribal land to powerful agricultural land owners. The process began in 1876, when they were forced to cede land to create the new municipality of Nenton. In the fighting that followed, the Chuj managed to maintain their communal lands in the high mountains, (prompting their modern reputation for rebelliousness). With the loss of much of their land, and the resultant extreme poverty, many of the Chuj were forced to migrate to Guatemala's southern coast. As a people, they were reduced to becoming either peasants or migrant labourers. In the years that followed, the Chuj were involved in frequent uprisings and violent unrest caused by extreme poverty and a sense of grievance because of the loss of their lands.

§  Jakalteko (Jacaltec): A group that has lived in the foothills of the Cuchumatán Mountains (Department of Huehuetenango in northwestern Guatemala), since pre-Columbian times, centered on the town of Jacaltenango. They speak the Jakaltek language (also known as Popti’). Jacaltenango (known in Popti’ as “Xajlaj”), was physically and culturally the most remote from Spanish centers in the country. This relative isolation has resulted in the preservation of many customs in the community which have been lost elsewhere. For example, a few Jakaltek people still use the “blowgun” for hunting small animals and birds.

§  Ch’orti’ (Chortis): A Maya group which resides principally in Guatemala, Honduras, and northern El Salvador. Their ancestors had as their cultural and political center the city of Copán (Known in their language as Oxwitik). During the early 16th century, they were organized under a confederation known as the “Kingdom of Payaquí”. The Chʼortiʼ people, led by the Mayan chief Copán Galel, strongly but unsuccessfully resisted the Spanish conquerors. The current Honduran Chʼortiʼ population estimate is around 4,200~8000, while the Guatemalan Chorti population is estimated to be in between 52,000 and 112,432. They are mostly farmers, and they live nowadays in areas mixed with “mestizos”.

§  Itza’: They historically were an important Mesoamerican people who dominated the Yucatán peninsula in the Post-classic period. They may have originated from the Classic Period city of “Motul de San José” (also known as “Ik”), near lake Peten Itza in Guatemala, migrating to Yucatán during the Maya collapse at the end of the Classic Period. From their capital at Chichén Itzá, they established a trade empire reaching as far south as Naco in Honduras. At some point, a group of them went back to Peten.

The Itza' were the last Maya kingdom to remain independent of the Spanish, and some Spanish priests peacefully visited and preached to the last Itza king as late as 1696. On March 13, 1697, the Itza kingdom finally submitted to Spanish rule, represented by a force led by Martín de Ursua, governor of Yucatán.

I feel that everyone knows Chichén Itzá from photos that look almost exactly like this one.

There’s quite some more groups of Maya people (around 25 distinct divisions), but explaining them all would take probably too much time for what is worth it. But, as I previously stated, I’ll try to represent most of the important ones.

o   Lenca: An important Native Mesoamerican group, considering that they are the largest indigenous group, with an estimated population of 100,000. They are also present in El Salvador, with a population estimated at about 37,000. The pre-Conquest Lenca had frequent contact with various Mayan groups as well as other indigenous peoples of the territory of present-day Mexico and Central America. The origin of the Lenca ethnic group also has been a source of ongoing debate among anthropologists and historians. The name “Lenca” was stablished after the American explorer “E. G. Squier”, who seemingly heard that the natives of “Guajiquiro” used the term when referring to their native tongue.

Lenca people flag.

o   Tolupan (Xicaque, Jicanque): An indigenous group of Honduras, whom fought against the Spanish expansion in Mesoamerica. Their most famous leader was “Cicumba”, who went against the Spanish forces, under Pedro de Alvarado, in 1536. In the 19th century, a Roman Catholic missionary, “Manuel Jesús de Subirian”, encouraged many Jicaque to assimilate into mainstream culture, settle in villages, and grow maize. The other Jicaque who maintained their traditional lifeways lived in Montaña de la Flor, and ultimately the Honduran government granted them a 760-hectare reservation.

o   Pech (Paya): An indigenous ethnic group which has inhabited north-eastern Honduras for more than 3,000 years, as it is believed they settled there coming from Colombia. Around the early 18^th century, the Pech ended up becoming a nomad group, after their expulsion from the Miskito Coast by the Spanish and the Miskito people (which bought fire arms from the British, Dutch and French pirates, to then hunt the Pech and sell them as slaves). At the beginning of 1805, the Pech people were displaced from Cabo Camarón to their current location, along the mouth of the Aguán River. During this period, the Pech people suffered large reductions to their territory. Today, there are less than a dozen Pech communities that remain in Honduras, although the “Federación de Tribus Pech de Honduras”/FETRIPH (Federation of Pech Tribes of Honduras), created in 1986, was created to give them political representation, taking care of land questions and conserving their culture.

o   Mayangnas (Sumo, Sumu): Not to be confused with the Mayans; this group has  inhabited much of the Mosquito Coast in the 16th century. Since then, they have become more marginalized following the emergence of the Miskito as a regional power. After the Miskito kingdom allied itself with the British, the Mayangna people saw themselves beginning to start a steady retreat into the interior, somewhat isolating themselves from the external world (although even the more isolated Mayangna communities formed an integral part of regional trading networks, and through their access to the highest quality tropical hardwoods controlled the production and sale of the canoes that -ironically - were used against them by the Miskitu in their slaving expeditions). The Mayangna population continued to decline after the British gave up their claim to the Mosquito Coast in 1860, due to the combined effects of disease, internecine warfare, and assimilationist pressures from both Miskitu and the new Nicaraguan state. From a possible pre-contact total of more than 30,000; by 1862 only around 5-6,000 remained. The final blow for the Mayangna came with their conversion to Christianity, a task undertaken by missionaries from the Moravian Church, who arrived in the region from Germany in 1847 but only began to make a real impact on the native population after the departure of the British. During the so-called ‘Great Awakening’ of the 1880s much of the Miskitu population converted to the new faith “en masse”, and buoyed by this success the Moravians increasingly turned their attention to the Mayangna.

Low quality version of the Mayangna flag.

§  Tawakha: A subgroup of the Mayangna people. The Tawahka are the smallest of the Honduran indigenous community, with a population of 2,690 people. Although they live in the center of the Miskito region, the Tawahka, like the Mayagna/Sumu in Nicaragua, had less contact with European trading activities and remained marginalized, unlike other groups which were absorbed within the larger Miskito group.

o   Kakawira (Cacaopera): A quite “obscure” group, that doesn’t really get much exposure when people talk about the indigenous people of Central America. They inhabit mostly in the Morazán department, El Salvador, and although their language considered extinct (The last semi-speakers of Cacaopera lived in the 1970s; All native speakers had died before this time.), their culture perseveres. Important pre-Columbian sites related to the Kakawira culture are Xualaka (considered their principal site of power), and the caves of Unama, Yarrawalaje and Siriwal (believed to have been ceremonial sites); the sites contain important cave paintings and is located near the municipality of Cacaopera.

The “main” god of the Kakawira people was “Huates Lan”, which was represented by a rock with an engraved face and sticks which represented radiant rays. Tipped over a mound, which had terraces to the side, so the people could go up and venerate it.

Probably one of the cutest representations I have seen from a god...and I'm not quite sure if it was intentional or not.

o   Chorotega (Cholutega): A group which is believed to have arrived into Central America around 900 a.c.; settling in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. During the Spanish conquest of Central America, the Chorotega fought fiercely against them, until in the 16^th century, a lot of them where taken as slaves to work in the mines of Panama and Perú After some circumstances, they divided themselves into sub groups of peoples, related mostly by the “cacicazgo” they were part of, and the land they inhabited.

§  Dirianes (Dirias): The Chorotegas which were part of the cacicazgo of Niquerao (present day Granada, Nicaragua), because of political reasons and constant inner-warfare, they divided themselves into two groups; the Dirianes and the Nagrandanos.

Dirianes means “men of the highlands”, reflecting their geographical position; they inhabit the areas of present day Diria and Diriomo. One of the most important characters of their history is Diriangen “Lord of the Dirianes”, considered to be behind “The first act of insurrection against the Spanish Conquest”, in what would be later the Province of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Dirianguen remains a popular figure in Nicaraguan nationalism and anti-colonialism.

§  Nagrandanos: Contrary to the Dirianes, the Nagrandano’s name means “men of the low plains”, since they occupied the plains and lacustrine coast of the Cocicolba Lake, being Xalteva their main population point. They were later expulsed from the land by the Dirias, forced into the occidental streams of the Lake Xolotán/Managua. One of their later important settlements was Nagarote “in the trail of the Nagrandanos”, originating from a village funded around the year 1,100, and gradually gaining more prominence in the area.

§  Costa Rican Chorotegas: A more difficult topic since nowadays they are mostly considered just as “Chorotegas” from a distinct region, they actually had more delimited sub divisions, and a pretty rich history in the Pre-Hispanic period. The name of the “sub divisions” they had are mostly based of the names of either the kingdoms they stablished, or the name of the different caciques that reigned over them.

Chorotega ceramic effigy, representing a jaguar.

·         Nicoya: Referring to the Chorotega population settled in present day canton of Nicoya; Stablished in 800 a.c. The Kingdom of Nicoya (name taken from the monarch who ruled this nation at the time of contact with the Europeans. As it happened with most of the cacicazgos in Costa Rican soil, the Spaniards gave the territory the name of their ruler), was not only an important center of power, but also vastly advanced in culture and different technologies. The conquest of Nicoya happened in 1524, with the cacicazgo submitting itself under the Spanish, supposing that this “alliance” would turn favorably for them. Nicoya as a city served itself as an integral center for the Spanish conquest of Costa Rica.

·         Chomes: The name first appeared as the one of a local cacique of the area (being originally “Chomi”). The locality of Chomes itself was put under volunteer submission, under the Spanish, by the chome people, in exchange of ecclesiastical ornaments, around 1555. Chomes slowly faded into obscurity during the first half of the 17^th century, and only regained some prominence in between the 19^th and 20^th century, as a center for some of the most important saltworks of Costa Rica, and the opening of a new canal and port to transport the salt produced in the area.

·         Orotiñas: The name appeared as a designation for the subjects of the cacique “Gurutina” (also spelled as Orotina), an important and rich monarch. The Spanish came in contact with him in 1522, whom then stablished an outpost in the area. Orotina evolved with the years, which’s further “colonization” of the area was mostly done after Costa Rica gained independence.

·         Zapandies: Taking the name of cacique Zapandi (Sabandí), its domains in the mouth of the homonym river (now called “Tempisque”). Finding more info about this subgroup has been pretty hard, and I haven’t really been able to find much symbols or anything to represent them (contrary to all of the ones above, where at least I have one element for each of them), but this is mostly because the “kingdom” itself was rather small and not much information about it is available.

o   BriBri (Bribris): One of the most numerous native groups of Costa Rica. Indigenous to the Talamanca region. Many Bribris are isolated and speak their own language. This has allowed them to maintain their indigenous culture, although it has also resulted in less access to education and health care. Although the group has the lowest income per capita in the country, they are able to fulfill their basic needs by growing their food, finding medicine, and collecting housing materials in the forest. Their cosmology is centered around the concept of sũwõ', a concept which encompasses the way the Bribris interpret reality (The religion itself bases itself in the cult to Sibú, main god of their pantheon; creator and cultural hero). The sũwõ' explains how Sibú’s world interacts with ours. Every object in this world has its opposite in the other, working somewhat as a mirror, though generally said objects are diametrically different in the spirit world (fish fly, Termites are gigantic and called Aksura, etc).

o    Cabécar (Kabekwa): Related culturally and ethnically with the Bribris, the Cabécar are also one of the most numerous native groups in Costa Rica. They distinguished themselves from one another at some point, because of their geographic location, being either at the east or west of the Coén River. In 1576 they stablished, along the Bribri people, the Cacicazgo of Talamanca, a lordship which resisted almost all Spanish attacks (thanks to its decentralized internal organization); it ended up being the most important cacicazgo of the Atlantic side of Costa Rica. Talamanca kept being independent an important center of native rebellion (especially during the 17^th century), and stood as “not quite conquered” site ( having a “de-facto” autonomy) for most of its existence, until 1862, where a Presidential Decree from Costa Rica that recognized the indigenous monarchs of the Cacicazgo of Talamanca as political chiefs of the region, considering the entity now as the “Kingdom of Talamanca”, until its disestablishment in 1910 (with the death of the last king and heir to the throne).

Different "cacicazgos" of Costa Rica during the 16th century. If you squint your eyes, you'll be (barely) able to see its position.

I’m not sure if I’ll represent the cacicazgo as an “independent” nation in the start date, but in a later scenario it might appear as a vassal of Costa Rica. I’m also thinking about making it a formable civilization, which can be stablished by either the Cabecar or Bribri nations (still, this is mostly related with planning and all, but I wanted to state the idea).

o    Boruca (Brunka): The ancestors of the modern Boruca made up a group of chiefdoms that ruled most of Costa Rica's Pacific coast, from Quepos to what is now the Panamanian border, including the Osa Peninsula. Boruca traditionally spoke the Boruca language, which is now nearly extinct.

Like their ancestors the Boruca are known for their art and craftwork, especially weaving and their distinctive painted balsa wood masks, which have become popular decorative items among Costa Ricans and tourists. These masks are important elements in the Borucas' annual Danza de los Diablitos ceremony, celebrated every winter since at least early colonial times. The "Danza" depicts the resistance of the "Diablito", representing the Boruca people, against the Spanish conquistadors. 

Brunka with Ceremonial mask.

o   Terrabas: A really reduced group from Costa Rica, which at some point in the past extended even into Panama (the evidence being the existence of their close relatives, the “Noba”/”Teribe” people in western Panama). Their culture dissipated and ended up almost extinct. They don’t really have much things to what I could cling of to represent them…but I thought it was valid to at least mention them.

o   Maleku (Guatuso): A small indigenous group of northern Costa Rica, the Maleku historically lived in the Río Frío watershed, who somewhat resisted the Spanish conquest thanks the relative isolation of the area. It wasn’t until 1750, with the arrival of Spanish settlers, that the group was “discovered” (accounts of them appear from this date and beyond by Friar Francisco Zepeda and priest Tomás Lopéz). Between 1868 and 1900, Nicaraguan rubber farmers migrated onto Maleku territory, often in armed bands, claiming traditional Maleku territories. The resulting death, enslavement, and dislocation of the Maleku eventually ended due to the influence of Catholic missionaries, in particular Bishop Bernardo Augusto Thiel. Thiel's mission to "civilize" and "Christianize" the Maleku coexisted with a desire to end the enslavement and genocide of such indigenous populations. He provided the Maleku with tools and firearms while encouraging the development of European farming practices and lobbied the government to punish citizens who captured indigenous people. In addition, he assigned people and places Spanish names despite knowing the Maleku terms. As of 1911, there were very few surviving.

o   Rama: The Rama are an indigenous people living on the eastern coast of Nicaragua. Since the start of European colonization, the Rama population has declined as a result of disease, conflict, and loss of territory. In recent years, however, the Rama population has increased to around 2,000 individuals. A majority of the population lives on the island of Rama Cay, which is located in the Bluefields Lagoon. Additional small Rama communities are dispersed on the mainland from Bluefields to Greytown. The Rama are one of three main indigenous groups on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast. According to Rama oral tradition, the Miskito gifted the island of Rama Cay to them in the 18th century in recognition of their help in fighting the Teribe people of Costa Rica.

o   Nahuas (Nahuatlacatl; Mexicas, Nahuatl): As the Maya people, this is also a quite big group of peoples, which includes other sub-groups into it (depending of the area they occupied, the culture they developed, etc). The Nahua population is actually pretty big, with around 2,760,000 in Mexico, 11,000 in Nicaragua, 6300 in Honduras, 4100 in El Salvador, and a 170.000 diaspora in the USA. In the past, Nahuas were also called “Aztecs”, but the Aztec were more like a culture composed mostly by people of Nahua ethnicity (to refer to them, the term Mexicas would be more correct).

Nahua/Mexica flag

Map of the distinct Nahua linguistical groups.

§   Pipil: The Nahuas of El Salvador are known as “Pipiles”. The Pipil arrived in El Salvador around the year 900. City states such as Tehuacán, Chalchuapa and Cihuatán eventually became absorbed into the Cuzcatlan polity confederation. The 13th century the Pipil city states were most likely unified, and by 1400, a hereditary monarchy had been established, thus consolidating their power in the region. The leader of Cuzcatan was the head of state; below him the state elders and priests who advised the ruling family; then a caste of commoners. Upon the death of a Lord, the succession was hereditary starting with the eldest son and so on. In case there were no sons available, the closest male family member was chosen by the counsel of elders and priests.

At the time of the Spanish conquest, Cuzcatan had developed into a powerful state that maintained a strong standing army. It had successfully resisted Mayan invasions and was the strongest military force in the region…although that was not enough to stop the Spaniards. It took three tries to stablish a complete defeat, but after 1528, the resistance of Cuzcatan was finally conquered.

Shield of the Lordship of Cuzcatan

There’s also an important character of Pipil ethnicity that I already mentioned in this “resume” (from a sub-group actually, the Nonualco tribe); Anastasio Aquino, leader of an indigenous rebellion caused by the different land reforms that the Federal Republic of Central America imposed over their terrains and the new tax over the native population. During the revolt (starting in late 1832), he ended up declaring himself “King of the Nonualcos”, (according to popular tradition, Aquino went to the church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar and took the crown from an image of St. Joseph as his), being proclaimed the “General Commandant of the Liberation Army” and proclaiming the famous Declaration of Tepetitán (strict sort of constitution, condemning stealing and murder with drastic consequences, banning “hard” alcohol products, articles about protection of women, among other things). On the morning of February 28 1833, the decisive battle occurred in Santiago Nonualco between the Government’s army and Aquino’s forces. He was executed by firing squad in San Vicente. His head was cut off and displayed in an iron cage with the label "Example for rebels".

Supposed flag of the "Nonualco Kingdom".

Representation of Aquino himself.

§  Nicarao (Niqueranos; Nicaraos): They were the principle Nahua tribe of Nicaragua, during the early 16th century, under cacique “Nicarao” (the cacique's real name was Macuilmiquiztli, which meant "Five Deaths" in the Nahuatl language, rather than Nicarao as the Spaniards called him).

The Nicarao experienced complete demographic collapse within the first century after the Spanish conquest of Nicaragua, from a combination of disease and being sold into slavery. A remnant Nahua-speaking population may have existed as late as the mid-19th century, but the Nicarao are practically extinct.

For a general note, I know that I didn’t talk about the groups of Panama, nor about Panama itself, so I wanted to clarify that I’ll address them when explaining the development of South America (and that’s going to be a whole new monster to take down hahaha). I also didn’t talk about some really small groups, like the Huetar people of Costa Rica. If I forgot any other indigenous group of mainland Central America, please tell me too, and I’ll see if I can do something about it.

 

-          French Possessions in the Caribbean: The French Antilles/French West Indies are somewhat less known than the British ones, but it is still fair to talk about them. I’ll try to mostly talk about their relevant history pertaining the mod’s/scenario’s interests.

The French Antilles (minus the Saint Barthélemy and other really minor islands).

o   Guadeloupe: The Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique settled in Guadeloupe in 1635, under the direction of Charles Liénard de L'Olive and Jean du Plessis d'Ossonville; they formally took possession of the island for France and brought in French farmers to colonise the land. By 1640, however, the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique had gone bankrupt, and they thus sold Guadeloupe to Charles Houël du Petit Pré who began plantation agriculture, with the first African slaves arriving in 1650. During the Seven Years' War, the British captured and occupied the islands until the 1763 Treaty of Paris. While that happened, Pointe-à-Pitre became a major harbour, and markets in Britain's North American colonies were opened to Guadeloupean sugar, which was traded for foodstuffs and timber. The economy expanded quickly, creating vast wealth for the French colonists. So prosperous was Guadeloupe at the time that, under the 1763 Treaty of Paris, France forfeited its Canadian colonies in exchange for the return of Guadeloupe. Coffee planting began in the late 1720s, also worked by slaves and, by 1775, cocoa had become a major export product as well. 1810, the British captured the island again, handing it over to Sweden under the 1813 Treaty of Stockholm.

In the 1814 Treaty of Paris, Sweden ceded Guadeloupe to France, giving rise to the Guadeloupe Fund. In 1815, the Treaty of Vienna acknowledged French control of Guadeloupe. Slavery was abolished in the French Empire in 1848. After 1854, indentured labourers from the French colony of Pondicherry in India were brought in. Emancipated slaves had the vote from 1849, but French nationality and the vote were not granted to Indian citizens until 1923.

I’ll want to change the present flag for a more relevant one of the time, so It will probably be the coat of arms, in its red version (rather than the black one). Although It is not known when the arms of Guadeloupe were adopted, its elements represent the following things: The sun is clearly a reference to Louis XIV, the “Sun King” and first royal owner of the island. The fleurs-de-lys are from his coat of arms. The official flag is the one of France, so maybe a canton could work too? Also, I’ll add more flags for the different ideologies (since vanilla nor addon+ have more flags for the civ).

Coat of arms of Basse-Terre, commonly used to represent the whole island.

 

o   Martinique: On 15 September 1635, Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, French governor of the island of St. Kitts, landed in the harbour of St. Pierre with 80-150 French settlers after being driven off St. Kitts by the English. espite the introduction of successful coffee plantations in the 1720s, with Martinique being the first area in the Western hemisphere where coffee was introduced,[16] as sugar prices declined in the early 1800s, the planter class lost political influence. Slave rebellions in 1789, 1815 and 1822, plus the campaigns of abolitionists such as Cyrille Bissette and Victor Schœlcher, persuaded the French government to end slavery in the French West Indies in 1848.[17][18][7][15] As a result, some plantation owners imported workers from India and China.[7] Despite the abolition of slavery life scarcely improved for most Martinicans; class and racial tensions exploded into rioting in southern Martinique in 1870 following the arrest of Léopold Lubin, a trader of African ancestry who retaliated after he was beaten by a Frenchman. After several deaths the revolt was crushed by French militia. The island isn’t on the vanilla game, nor in addon+, so ill maybe add it into the original mod. Other than that, there isn’t much to say about it really. Also, although it is the generally associated flag of the island, the “Snake Flag” symbol dates from an edict issued 4 August 1766, specifying that vessels of the French colony of Martinique and Saint Lucia should fly a version of the French ensign, which at the time was a white cross on a blue field, with L-shaped (for Lucia) snakes in each quarter of the cross. The same design is used for the lesser coat of arms. Usage is controversial, because of its historical origin: upon adoption, the "snake flag" fluttered on ships engaged in triangular trade—and thus the Atlantic slave trade.

The snake flag is locally considered as an insult and not available for sale or trade locally. Often presented internationally as the Flag of Martinique, or the local flag of Martinique, it is strongly rejected by locals and its use is very discouraged. Deputy Jean-Philippe Nilor demanded its withdrawal from public use, drawing the comparison, “if the swastika representative of Nazism refers to the holocaust, this blue flag with its white cross and its 4 snakes is representative of slavery and the slave trade”…but it would technically be the most “correct” flag for the time period (keep in mind ill add other flags to the civ depending of the ideology).

The aforementioned infamous snake flag.

o   Saint Barthélemy: Saint Barthélemy was for many years a French commune forming part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas region and department of France. In 2003 the island voted in favour of secession from Guadeloupe in order to form a separate overseas collectivity.

By 1648 the island was settled by the French, encouraged by Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, the lieutenant-governor of the French West India Company. Newer arrivals then began cultivating cacao. However, the settlement was attacked by Caribs in 1656 and briefly abandoned.

De Poincy was the dominant administrator in this period and a member of the Order of Saint John. He facilitated the transfer of ownership from the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique to the Hospitaller Order. He continued to rule the island until his death in 1660. Five years later, it was bought by the French West India Company along with the Order's other possessions in the Caribbean. By 1674, the company was dissolved and the islands became part of the French Kingdom and added to the colony of Guadeloupe. The island proved economically unsuccessful, and was subject to the activities of pirates, as well as the British, who attacked the island in 1744. Thus deeming it to be of little worth, King Louis XVI traded the island to Sweden in 1784 in return for trading privileges in Gothenburg. This change of control saw progress and prosperity as the Swedes declared Gustavia (named after the Swedish king Gustav III who ruled at that time) a free port, convenient for trading by the Europeans for goods, including contraband material. Slavery was practiced in St. Barthélemy under the Ordinance concerning the Police of Slaves and free Coloured People of 1787. The last legally owned slaves in the Swedish colony of St. Barthélemy were granted their freedom by the state on 9 October 1847. Since the island was not a plantation area, the freed slaves suffered economic hardships due to lack of opportunities for employment. In 1852, a devastating hurricane hit the island and this was followed by a fire. The economy suffered, and thus Sweden sought to relieve themselves of the island. Following a referendum in 1877, Sweden gave the island back to France in 1878, after which it was administered as part of Guadeloupe (again).

Coat of Arms of the island. One can see all the owners represented in it (Top-France; Middle-Knights Hospitaller; Bottom-Sweden).

Again, another island that doesn’t have its own province. On the other hand, it does have a rather weird colonial past, so it could be rather interesting to include it in the game. The only problems are the flag (mostly because it just has a coat of arms), so making, for example, a republic variant would be difficult.

o   There’s not really much more to say about the French Antilles. I could include French Guiana in this section, but I would prefer to do so when talking about Equatorial/Northern-South America (if one could call it that way?) .

-          Dutch West Indies, another small spot of European settlements in the Caribbean. They can be divided into 2 categories (If one excludes the Colony of Suriname; not considered part of the Dutch Caribbean, although it was on the Caribbean coast of Northeastern South America):

The Dutch West Indies in the Antilles. Not quite as big nor famous as their fellow colonial subject, the Dutch East Indies.

o   The Colony of Curaçao and Dependencies:

From 1815 onwards Curaçao and Dependencies formed a colony of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Slavery was abolished in 1863, and in 1865 a government regulation for Curaçao was enacted that allowed for some very limited autonomy for the colony. Although this regulation was replaced by a constitution (Dutch: Staatsregeling) in 1936, the changes to the government structure remained superficial and Curaçao continued to be ruled as a colony.

The island of Curaçao was hit hard by the abolition of slavery in 1863. Its prosperity (and that of neighboring Aruba) was restored in the early 20th century with the construction of oil refineries to service the newly discovered Venezuelan oil fields.

o   Sint Eustatius and Dependencies: Also known as the SSS islands; Saba, Sint Eustatitus and Sint Maartin. Saint Martin was split between the Netherlands and France in 1648. The Dutch part became a single Dutch colony in 1818 as “Sint Eustatius and Dependencies”, when France returned its possessions after the Napoleonic Wars. This colony was merged in 1828 with the colonies Curaçao and Dependencies and Suriname, with a capital in Paramaribo. When this merge was partly reversed in 1845, the Dutch part of the SSS islands became part of Curaçao and Dependencies with Willemstad as capital. This colony became the Netherlands Antilles in 1952. The Dutch part of the SSS islands initially formed the single "island area" ( the main administrative division of the Netherlands Antilles, governed by an island council); the “Leeward Islands” until 1983.

There’s not many ways to represent the Dutch rule in this islands (The islands aren’t that important to be fair, and they obviously don’t have a province). I’ll see if I can do something with them, but in this case, I cannot promise nothing.

-          For the case of the Swedish and Danish West Indies…Well, I also cannot promise much because of the low importance of this colonies, but I’ll try to at least, include them as a releasable for a neighboring island.

-          At some point I’ll have to deal with adding some Taino or Arawak (Native Caribbean’s in general), but I’m not sure of how to approach said topic, mostly because their low numbers and high admixture with african culture during the “slave trade triangle” existence, creating the “modern” Afro-Caribbean groups; those that are now more akin to have nationalist ideas much more related to their respective countries or African descent, rather than their native Caribbean past. Again, complicated topic, but mostly because of my ignorance and some other things.

-          Finally, the topic of Haiti (and about the island of Hispaniola itself too), a quite distinct independent nation in the midst of all the other Caribbean islands. Previously known as the French colony of “Saint-Domingue”, the Haitian Revolution brought an end to that domain (The revolution represented the largest slave uprising since Spartacus' unsuccessful revolt against the Roman Republic nearly 1,900 years earlier), challenging the long-held European beliefs about alleged black inferiority and about enslaved persons' ability to achieve and maintain their own freedom. The rebels' organizational capacity and tenacity under pressure inspired stories that shocked and frightened slave owners in the hemisphere (this would become more relevant for the USA during the troubles that ended up playing as factors to influence the start of the American Civil War).

But going back on track, On 1 January 1804, from the city of Gonaïves, Dessalines officially declared the former colony's independence, renaming it "Haiti" after the indigenous Arawak name. Although he lasted from 1804 to 1806, several changes began taking place in Haiti. The independence of Haiti was a major blow to France and its colonial empire, but the French state would take several decades to recognize the loss of the colony. Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world, and the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion, but the country was damaged from years of war, its agriculture devastated, its formal commerce nonexistent. Being first the Empire of Haiti (1804-1806), after the assassination of Dessalines (Emperor Jacques I), the two main conspirators divided the country in two rival regimes; Henri Christophe created the authoritarian “State of Haiti” in the north, and the “Gens de couleur” (Free person of color) Alexandre Pétion established the “Republic of Haiti” in the south (which although being de facto a dictatorship, it produced one of the most liberal and tolerant Haitian governments ever). In 1811, Henri Christophe proclaimed himself King Henri I of the “Kingdom of Haiti in the North”. He even created a nobility class in the fashion of European monarchies. Yet in 1820, weakened by illness and with decreasing support for his authoritarian regime, he killed himself with a silver bullet rather than face a coup d'état. Immediately after, Pétion's successor, Boyer, reunited Haiti through diplomatic tactics and ruled as president until his overthrow in 1843.

 

The strange possition of the island of Hispaniola after Dessalines assasination.

On the other side of the island of Hispaniola (the Spanish side), things also got a little messy. The “Spanish Captaincy of Santo Domingo” was ceded to France in 1795, invaded by the British in 1796, occupied by the rebelling black slaves of Saint-Domingue in 1801, occupied by the French in 1802 (although the Napoleonic forces lost against the former French slaves, who proclaimed then the Empire of Haiti in 1804), again invaded by Haitian forces in 1805, and then yet again by the British in 1809. The Spanish were given back the island later that year, but the colony was in economic and demographic ruin. Spain's hold over Santo Domingo remained precarious. The arrival of the fugitive Simón Bolívar and his followers in Haiti in 1815 alarmed the Spanish authorities in Santo Domingo. Following the rebellion of the Army in Spain during 1820, which restored the liberal constitution, some of the colonial administrators in Santo Domingo broke with the mother country; and on December 1, 1821, the Spanish Lieutenant Governor, José Núñez de Cáceres, proclaimed the independence of "Spanish Haiti".

Flag of "Spanish Haiti" when it was about to join Gran Colombia.

Dominican leaders (recognizing their vulnerability both to Spanish and to Haitian attack and also seeking to maintain their slaves as property), attempted to annex themselves to Gran Colombia. While this request was in transit, Jean-Pierre Boyer, the ruler of Haiti, invaded Santo Domingo on February 9 with a 10,000-man army, culminating thus the “Unification of Hispaniola”. The entire island remained under Haitian rule until 1844, when in the east a nationalist group called “La Trinitaria” led a revolt that started the Domincan War of Independence, which lasted from 1844 to 1855, and saw around 3,000 battle deaths from the Haitian forces, against the estimated less than 20 from the Dominican rebells. The island was partitioned so into Haiti on the west and Dominican Republic on the east, based on what would appear to be a riverine territorial 'divide' from the pre-contact period.

Haitian military attack routes. The gray lines indicate the routes they weren't able to use because of their defeats in the battles of Azua and Santiago.

In August 26, 1849 Haiti saw itself into its phase of the “Second Empire of Haiti”, after Faustin Solouque, at the time president, declared himself “Emperor Faustin I”. Faustin's unsuccessful invasions (in part due to the diplomatic interference of the United States and Spain) in an attempt to reconquer the Dominican Republic (in 1849, 1850, 1855 and 1856), undermined his government, and led to the revolution of 1858, led by General Fabre Geffrard, Duke of Tabara. In December of that year, Geffrard defeated the Imperial Army and seized control of most of the country, thus restoring the “Republic of Haiti”, which in turn would last until 1957, when Duvalier ascended into power. The US would also come to occupy Haiti from 1915 to 1934.

Coat of arms of the Second Empire.

Things in the Dominican side weren’t going that good either. The presidency of Buenaventura Báez (known for attempting to annex the Dominican Republic to other countries on several occasions, and amassing a massive external debt), left Pedro Santana with a bankrupt government on the brink of collapse. Having failed in his initial bids to secure annexation by the U.S. or France, Santana initiated negotiations with Queen Isabella II of Spain and the Captain-General of Cuba to have the island reconverted into a Spanish colony. The American Civil War rendered the United States incapable of enforcing the Monroe Doctrine. Santana initially was named Capitan-General of the new Spanish province, but it soon became obvious that Spanish authorities planned to deprive him of his power, leading him to resign in 1862. Restrictions on trade, discrimination against the mulatto majority, and an unpopular campaign by the new Spanish Archbishop, against extramarital unions (which were widespread after decades of abandonment by the Catholic Church), all fed resentment of Spanish rule. On August 16, 1863, a national war of restoration began in Santiago, where the rebels established a provisional government. Dominicans were divided. Some fought for the reserve forces alongside Spanish troops. Santana thus returned to lead them.

The “Dominican Restoration War” then was a guerrilla war between 1863 and 1865 in the Dominican Republic side of the Hispaniola island, between nationalists and Spain (who had recolonized the country 17 years after its independence). The war resulted in the restoration of Dominican sovereignty, the withdrawal of Spanish forces, the separation of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo from Spain, and the establishment of a second republic in the Dominican Republic (lasting from 1865 to 1916).

I’ll probably change some things here and there with the starting flag for the Dominican Republic’s releasable; with Haiti, I’ll also add some things too related to that topic.

 

-          Well, I think that should be all for now. I know that this was longer than probably anybody expected (I went a tad bit overboard with somethings hahaha), but to be fair, this notes are here mostly to explain some of the procedures that we’ll follow in the future in regards to development (and serve also as good “notes” for me to save info somewhere), so I think it’s worth It to include them here. There’s somethings to discuss about the later development too, specially about the discord and the so called “mod thread” that we still haven’t opened, but ironically, my best answer would be to say “coming soon”, since there’s some things that still need polishing there (being somewhat of “perfectionist” is one of my faults, same as being overtly “apologetic” and “deferential”) . I have to also apologize for taking too much time with somethings, but I really want this scenario/mod to be special (and fun to play).

We also have some future plans that I can’t reveal much about just yet (mostly related to releasing some things and modifying others, plus, a little “surprise” related to other mod).

I’ll now answer the questions posted before. For the ones already answered by @Commieslav (main "spokesperson" of our modding group), I'll try to go a little in depth too:

On 1/2/2021 at 12:24 AM, RyanII said:

You plan on adding provinces to the map? I saw you'll add a lot to North America and there's also the princely states in India, specially the smaller ones, so there's that

Yes, as @Commieslav said:

On 1/2/2021 at 4:11 PM, Commieslav said:

Yes,we will be adding provinces! As of right now, Australian provinces are being reworked to fit the borders of local tribes which existed in that time.

Although, I'm not quite sure if I'll add all the provinces of the different princely states (some of them are way too bordergory for my liking), but I'll try to do at least the most important ones. On the side of the North American provinces, I would say (mostly as a personal idea), that I'd like to firstly add the proper administrative divisions of Canada (those straight lines are better, and much more historically accurate than the secret Iceland provinces present in vanilla).

Another thing I'd like to state about provinces, is that I will try to focus more on the ones that aren't really present in other mods. Mostly to not think that I'm trying to copy someone, and so the distinct mods in the forum can then feel different from each other, without overlaping themselves (I hope this point can be understood, since I'm not sure if I'm expressing it correctly). I'll be open to suggestions for provinces too!

On 1/6/2021 at 10:04 PM, Spartanus said:

Sorry if this was asked before, but will there be events? 

Or something like the American Civil War

Yes, but not for all scenarios; for example, the 1836 scenario (standard campaign), won't probably (keyword, since we are still deciding some things about it) have them, but other scenarios will.

On 1/8/2021 at 7:20 AM, Commieslav said:

There will be events,but historical and alternate history (things might get crazy if we manage to put in certain ideologies).

To complement this, we are still plannig the content we want to launch first. It is quite possible that the first version of the mod doesn't include all of the things we want to include, but we will try to include scenarios with events.

On the topic of the American civil war...that's a big kind of content that we want to bring in the mod, but for now, there's nothing officialy written about it (we have gone from the idea of having the different states in an alliance, or using the vanilla scenario of just the 2 civs fighting; including the natives in the middle; using events or not using them; ways of evading the start of the war; etc).

On 1/17/2021 at 8:35 AM, RyanII said:

How's the scenario going? Any new updates?

It's going fine, but as I said above, there's still a lot work to go through (that was even one of the reasons to release the beta, so people could play that version, instead of waiting for the full version...since it seems that it is actually taking a lot of time to finish polishing some things hahaha).

On 1/17/2021 at 4:02 PM, Commieslav said:

As of right now,Chmnd is working on new provinces for western Australia and doing research about central-American peoples and nations! Soon we plan on opening up a thread for the mod (not just the scenario) and publicizing the Discord server after we polish up some things and prepare it for more members ^^

Also, this above. We are still polishing the discord, and the mod thread will probably (again, keyword for "not sure about, but it is possible) be open during this week and the next (I'm still finishing with my university exams and stuff, so please, I ask for your patience while we are still developing it).

On 1/1/2021 at 2:59 PM, WorldStadiums said:

I do not want to be annoying, so I will say the small errors that I have seen (More than anything in the area of Argentina), is that I have seen that in the Province of Buenos Aires, the Argentine Confederation is in place, when it was formed In 1831, I think it would be better in that place than Buenos Aires, in addition, the provinces of Entre Rios and Misiones do not have the correct flags (At the end I put the correct flags) and they should also be completely independent and not vassal states.

Entre Rios

Misiones

Oh, and another thing, do you plan to add leaders? If so, could I help with that?

 

 

Don't worry about seeming annoying, everyone's help is accepted hahaha.

Yes, I forgot about the thing of replacing the Confederation with Buenos Aires in the map (basically, this was my fault). On the topic of the flags, I actually remember searching for a source that told that the ones I'm using where the correct ones, although I can't seem to find it now. Although I recognize the Artigas flag that you posted (for Entre Rios), although I think that Entre Rios didn't have an official flag since 1822 until 1833 (when General Pascual Echague adopted it), being that the one I decided to use.

On the other hand, isn't the difference of the flags for Misiones just the shade of blue? (I'll change it to the one you posted since I think It looks better too).

And yes, we plan to try to add leaders (I say try because, while the PC version doesn't have much problems with them, there's an strange bug that I know of, where too much content in the a.p.p. makes it not work properly; this is the reasson for why the version of addon+ I used removed the leaders). Also, someone in the team is in charge of coloring some leader portraits.

And yes, as I said before, you can help if you want to! Since I'm not always able to respond to things, It is preferable to send things to @Commieslav, so if you want to, contact him hahaha.

(De todas formas, también hablo español, así que si prefieres, también puedo recibir información escrita en este idioma jajaja).

On 1/10/2021 at 9:40 AM, Simon Wilford said:

i know im having unrealistic expectations but can @Kerems2434 or @St.Chmnd port this scenario to conq2? would be really nice if someone did it to project alpha at least

Maybe... 👀 

Let's just say that "negotiations" have already been made hahaha.

6 hours ago, Houtmonin225 said:

My favorite scenario mod i really love it keep up your best works!

On 1/8/2021 at 2:34 PM, Spartanus said:

Ok, keep up with the good work, this has been by far the most detailed and fun mod I've played.

Thanks for supporting this mod! Comments like this make us feel like our hard work is worth it hahaha.

We will try hard to bring even more content to the community, so stay" tuned" and try to give this thread a look once in a while for more new announcements and stuff.

And so, we will aim to bring some things not present in other mods (things that are possible to us...don't expect big breakthroughs like changing java or those things. We aren't that experienced in modding), not trying to turn things into a competition, but rather to inspire other people and all.

Anyway, I say goodbye for now. I'll try to read this thread more often in case questions appear, and I'll try to work quicker this time for the next "To Fix" region (it should be South America now...So that's going to be a difficult task too). Finally, thanks for reading this far.

[Simon Wilford 696]

7 hours ago, St.Chmnd said:

 Hello, and welcome to the second entry of “To-Fix”, where I explain different aspects of the errors, plans, and some more about this scenario and the future of it as a mod.

A.    Central America and the Caribbean:

 

This part of the Americas is really beautiful place, ain’t it? Although I have to admit that I’m somewhat ignorant of some parts of its history (I have more of a “general view” of somethings, but ignorant of others…so if you know some more, feel free to correct me). But I’ll try my best to address some things here.

-           Belize’s name will be changed to “British Honduras”; the flag will be changed to the one of 1870 too (Blue ensign with the Coat of arms of 1861 in the field).

-          The Jamaican flag in the canton of “Accompong’s” flag will be removed. I’ll try to add some more flags to the Accompong/”Jamaican Maroon” nation too.

-          Some changes to Cuba:

o   Change the flag at the start date and name of Spanish Cuba, since I used the one present already in the game (the blue flag with a Sun and half of the Cross of Burgundy, used by the monarchy ideology). In the case of the name, it would change from Cuba to “Captaincy General of Cuba”. The topic of the flag is more complicated: I’m in between this options:

§  Using the “Autonomist” flag from 1895. Basically the maritime merchant flag of Spain, with the cross of San Andrés (Saint Andrew) over it.

§  One of the “maritime province” flags. Although since Cuba was divided into different maritime provinces (different to the Captaincy General of the Philippines), it had different flags for each maritime province. The options would be to use the flag of the maritime province of “La Habana” (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bSGWCPBUkFY/Sk-oGrUCK2I/AAAAAAAAGrU/gprHwoboukw/s1600-h/1.JPG bottom right); or this supposed flag that was for the whole island as a maritime province, abolished in 1845 http://www.1uptravel.com/flag/images/c/cu_pm.gif  (I’ve only found it here: http://www.1uptravel.com/flag/flags/cu_mar.html ; so it that’s why I’m hesitant to the idea of using it).

§  Either of the flag options above, but with the coat of arms of Spanish Cuba over the cross.

This coat of arms was for the island of Cuba: http://www.hubert-herald.nl/Cuba_bestanden/image003.jpg

 

And this one for La Habana: ).

-          For Puerto Rico, should it stay as annexed, or be a vassal/satellite of Spain at the start date? Well, on one hand, Puerto Rico was the “Captaincy General of Puerto Rico”, although for some time it was a province of Spain (1809 to 1814), and its status after that was flipping between being nearer and further from true autonomy. In any case, if I were to decide to have Spanish Puerto Rico as starting nation (or a releasable, different from Puerto Rico per se), the flag options would be this:

o   Flag of the maritime province of Puerto Rico. The flag appears at the bottom left of this chart: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bSGWCPBUkFY/Sk-opYvmTgI/AAAAAAAAGrc/_2o6WcB-aO0/s1600-h/3.JPG

o   Same, but with this emblem over it:

from here: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/puerto-rico-military-passport-don-1919590030

o   The flag from Puerto Rico under the First Spanish Republic, although this could serve a better purpose as an alternate flag for other ideologies:

Although a version that changes the heraldic elements to some which look more “monarchical” (?) could also be a decent option for the Captaincy (similar to the flag used by movements who call for unification with Spain).

-           Most things related to the dependencies of the Colony of Jamaica (because a lot of islands weren’t exactly crown colonies of the UK, but rather lands administrated by the Governor of Jamaica…but part of the UK. “Learning about colonial administration is fun”), meaning thus:

o   Turks and Caicos: Dependency of the Crown Colony of Jamaica until 1959. The flag is wrong, and the nearest thing to it would be to use a blue ensign from 1875 (previously used, until the creation of the current flag), which included the previous seal of the islands too (from 1889). Then again, annexing it to either Jamaica or the UK would be an option too (To the UK sounds better to me, but I’ll ponder about it).

o   Cayman Islands: Since their arms and flag where officially granted in 1958, searching for a symbol to represent them during its existence in 1830 is most certainly impossible (considering that there isn’t even any archeological evidence of an indigenous presence in the island-Columbus literally discovered them). The options are either to maintain the current flag (ignoring that it didn’t exist at the time), or annexing it to Jamaica/the UK (for this one, I’m more inclined to just annexing it to Jamaica, and leaving the nation as a releasable, but as I said before, I’ll ponder about it some more).

o   British Honduras: Mentioned at the start at the entry, when talking about Belize.

o   The Crown Colony of Jamaica itself will probably have some more optional flags, depending of the ideology. It will also be able to form Jamaica proper (since they‘ll be separate nations, and because a civ can become a formable by gaining independence).

Old Coat of Arms of Jamaica. The difference with the newer one is in the inscription; Where as the original Latin motto says, "Indus Uterque Serviet Uni" (Both Indies Will Serve One Lord), it was changed to one in English: "Out of Many, One People".

-          About the Bahamas: They were a crown colony of the UK since 1717. The Bahamas badge was introduced in 1869 (discontinued in 1973, although some minor changes to it were done in between those years), used over a blue ensign. Since the Bahamas are an important crown colony, it will be present for the start date, but the flag will be changed to the one of 1869. I want to add some content about the “Black Seminoles” (Afro-Seminoles who escaped to the Bahamas during the Seminole Wars), the early 20^th century movement for it to join Canada (same case as Bermuda, Turks and Caicos and Jamaica), and the topics about the relation between the confederacy and the Bahamas (from fear that the slave revolts of the island could serve as inspiration to the slaves, to the confederacy making blockade runs through the island).

-          Trinidad and Tobago was put officially under British suzerainty after the treaty of Amiens (1802). The first flag and seal that the colony used (with Trinidad and Tobago as under the same entity), is from 1889, so it’ll probably keep it. Although, Tobago seems to have an earlier coat of arms, there seems to be a button (from approximately 1835), which includes on its back a seal similar to the one used in the seal of Tobago from 1880 and the 1980 house of assembly of Tobago seal. It’s mostly a decision of which one to use…but the button one needs to be “reconstructed”. Finally to the topic of Tobago, the second problem is that it was part of the Windward Island colony (uniting with Trinidad in 1889…If I’m not remembering wrong).

http://www.hubert-herald.nl/TrinidadTobago_bestanden/image035.jpg - The button.

http://www.hubert-herald.nl/TrinidadTobago_bestanden/image039.jpg - Tobago house of assembly.

1889 flag

 

I could also add content related to the “New Courland” colony of, well, the Duchy of Courland…But it really only works for alt history context, or a really good run with Congress Poland hahaha.

  

Tobago, but Couronian.

-          For the British Windward Islands Colony (consisting of  Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tobago): 

 

First of all, a clarification: Being a confederation of British colonies, the federation had a common governor in-chief, but each of them retained their own institutions, taking which was stipulated then, I will see if they should either be represented as one starting nation/civ, as separate colonies/civs under an alliance or annexed to the UK.

o   Barbados: Seat of the “government” of the federation until it became its own separate colony. Depending if I take the option of having the different colonies as selectable nations, then Barbados would probably use the flag of 1870.

  

o   Grenada: Although it’s first flag is from 1875, the seal that appears over it dates from around the end of the 18^th century (or at least the first version of it). In other words, red/blue ensign, with the previously mentioned seal.

The seal in color (1875 version).

o   Saint Lucia: One of those islands that changed from French to British hands frequently, until finally setting for British suzerainty thanks to the 1814 treaty of Paris. The first badge was adopted in 1889 (if I’m not mistaken), since that (for some reason) the previous French and British periods, didn’t include any symbols for the island.

o   St. Vincent and the Grenadines: Though the emblem of St. Vincent is known from 1871, the year the Federal Colony of the Windward Islands was founded but it may be older. (Since the seal, which was approved in 1877, seems to be based upon the pictorial panel in the public seal which dated from before 1839).

o   Tobago: Explained the decision about it above, when explaining about Trinidad.

o   Dominica: Joined the “Federal Colony of The Windward Islands” in 1940, being previously a member of the “Federal Colony of the Leeward islands”. Since that’s the case, I’ll talk about it below, including it within that group.

 

-          About the British Leeward Islands; another federation of island colonies, just a little bit north of the previously mentioned ones. Not all of this islands are present in the game, since most of them are actually pretty small, but I’ll try my best to mention the ones that have provinces in game:

 

o   Antigua and Barbuda: The first flag for the islands was given to the islands in 1956 (same as their heraldic grants), although a seal of Antigua seems to dates from the time of King Edward (which seems to have predecessors from Victorian times; that last part being relevant to the mod hahaha).

http://www.hubert-herald.nl/Antigua_bestanden/image003.jpg

o   Dominica: Like I mentioned before, the island was part of the Leeward Islands colony until 1940. Its badge was in use over blue ensigns already around 1890 (after leaving the Leeward Islands Colony, it was granted its current arms). In other topics related to Dominica, I would like to somehow represent some of the aspects related to how in 1838, Dominica became the first British Caribbean colony to have a Black-controlled legislature, and the subsequent downfall of said legislature (which ended with the British government making it a crown colony), but I’m not really sure of how could I do it.

o   Anguilla, Montserrat the Virgin Islands, and some others, aren’t present as separate provinces in the game, so their future is uncertain.  The Virgin Islands are an interesting little place though (especially if I wanted to delve into the topic of the “Danish West Indies”), so I’ll see how I can include them (in some way).

  

The British Misquito/Mosquito coast.

-          In relation to the “British Mosquito Coast”, another somewhat forgotten region. The kingdom was a protectorate of the British from 1740, until 1787 (when it passed to Spanish hands), and after some revolts and Latin American wars of independence, the “Misquito Kingdom” was sort of independent (being under British influence of course), until it became a protectorate again in 1844 (which ended after it became an autonomous territory of Honduras in 1860, until it finally was annexed to the nation in 1894). The nation is already present in the start date, as a vassal of the UK, and although it was technically under its “sphere of influence”, it wasn’t really a protectorate in 1830. In the end, I think I’ll leave it the way it is now, but I’ll change its flag to the previous to the current one.

-          “Pseudo-inside” the topic of the Misquito coast…I’ll probably add the option to release the ridiculous nation of Poyais. For those who don’t know what Poyais was; basically a fraudulent from part of Gregor MacGregor, who bought a terrain from the king of the Misquito kingdom, and in 1821 started to sell land grants to people in Britain, promising them that it was a land of opportunity and all. In the end, although the territory was roughly the size of Wales, the earth wasn’t good for agriculture, and the people who went to settle the place almost all died. Somehow MacGregor wasn’t convicted for those deaths, and continued with his scheme for some more years, without much success (for example, this new Poyais scheme changed the name of the country from “Principality of Poyais”, to “Republic of Poyais”). I consider it as, not only a funny, but also interesting part of history, especially considering how much people fell into the financial trap that was the principality. Because of what I mentioned, I think that it would seem interesting to have the country as a releasable nation (thinking of it as “if Poyais had worked” hahaha. But it would probably be more thanks to the settlers rather than “Prince” MacGregor’s actions).

  

"Get your Poyaisian land grant here!"

 "And don't forget those sweet Poyaisian dollars"– Not a scam...probably.

 

-          Finally, and to end this sub-section, a map of the British Colonies in the West Indies; here mostly to illustrate the topics talked above.

Map of the British Islands in the West Indies-1835.

 

-          In regards to the “Federal Republic of Central America” (1824-1839), federal successor to the previous “United Provinces of Central America” (1823-1824). At the start date of the scenario, the United Provinces look as a centralized country, powerful buffer in between Mexico and New Granada, but the first thing isn’t exactly true. The republic was just getting out of a civil war (from 1826-1829), and was now under a “liberal government” (radical in nature, that’s why that is its ideology). The local governments of each state were in the verge of war, and some even had local conflicts within there are between rival governments (generally liberals vs conservatives). The question in the end is how to represent (In some form). A more “in-depth view” for each member will be explained now below:

  

o   Nicaragua: During this period (and beyond), the country’s power struggle laid over the cities of “Granada”, conservative center, and the much more liberal “León”; The rivalry between both cities would literally shape the history of Nicaragua for the rest of the 19^th century. The Jefe Supremo/Supreme Chief (basically governor of Nicaragua under the Federal government) title switched from one person to another (jumping from one “ideology” to another too). Although the civil war already ended before the start date (it went from 1826 to 1829), the country still had some problems. In the end, those conflicts ended up with Nicaragua leaving the Federation, under the third government of José Nuñez (conservative). Some years later, the British wanted to create a canal that connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and since the US was already making its moves around Panama, the UK decided that Nicaragua was a good candidate where to create one too. Another thing I want to implement at some point is the “Nicaraguan National War”; part of the Filibuster War/William Affair (another important event that I would like to explore in the future of the mod).

Proposed Route of the "Nicaragua Canal" .

Flag of William Walker's Nicaragua.

But for simple things, like with most civilizations, a good start for things to change would be to add flags for the liberal and conservative factions.

o   Honduras: Although the state of Honduras, under Francisco Morazán (liberal), was victorious in the First Central American Civil War, the state was still in a similar situation to their neighbors (with a persistent power struggle between liberals and conservatives). During the rest of its period under the federation, after Morazán had to leave its post in Honduras since he was elected president of the whole Central American Republic, Honduras was either under conservative or independent sovereigns; Meaning that the power of the liberals was consolidated in the center of the Central American Republic thanks to Morazán, but funnily enough, Honduras reverted to being a conservative point after he left. Occupying the land in between Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, the country wasn’t in the best position when it gained independence (considering that, they would be always a rival form of government in at least one of its neighbors, where the exiled could plot a way to get in power), and it took more than some tries to stablish a permanent constitution, stablishing the identity of the state of Honduras.

Flag of Honduras (1839-1866). 

o   Costa Rica: During the First Central American Civil War, the state separated itself from the federation “until the constitutional order was restored”. The state was kind of the “role model to follow” in the federation; It was an active member of the Federation respecting the federal laws and electing its representatives to the Federal level. But the sympathy for the federation decreased when Costa Rica didn’t get any help from the federal government during the Colombian occupation of “Bocas del Toro”, and its subsequent annexation. After leaving the Federal republic, during the dissolution of it, Costa Rica first had a period where it was called the “Free State of Costa Rica”, until the proclamation of the “(First) Costa Rican Republic”. While inside the federation, it also went under civil war with the “League War” (again, between conservatives and liberals).

 

Flag of the "Free state of Costa Rica".

o   Guatemala: After the civil war, and the related expulsion of the “Aycinena” clan from the political life of the country (it’s quite difficult to explain the importance of this family in the politics of Guatemala, but for what I understood, they were not only prominent during the conservative period of the republic, but even during the colonial period), Guatemala found itself under a liberal stance. The peace didn’t last long and in 1837 the conservatives, with the support of the Aycinena clan and of the indigenous population (since the liberal government reestablished the “indigenous tax”). This conflict culminated with a now conservative Guatemala (with a brief interlude thanks to a coup by Morazán in 1839), and the separation of the territory from the new state of “Los Altos” (created by the liberal elite of the area, still being part of the federation. It lasted until 1840, with its forceful incorporation back into Guatemala). Guatemala also passed through some border problems with Mexico, thanks to the “Soconusco” region; with military occupation taking place here and there. There was some participation from the part of Guatemala in the “Castes War” (I talked a bit about it during the first “To Fix”, in the Yucatán section), caused by internal tensions coming from the Maya population of the state. There was also a little war with the liberal governments of Honduras and El Salvador in 1851. The 30 year conservative period ended with a liberal revolution. 

 

Coat of Arms of Guatemala from 1825 to 1843.

Flag of Guatemala inside the Federal Republic of Central America.

o   El Salvador: The conflict between liberals and conservatives started mostly after the dissolution of the federation, where each of them ended up falling into “caudillismo” (loosely defined in English as “war-lordism”, with presidential characteristics). Another important even was the rebellion of “Anastasio Aquino”; native Pipil leader, of the Nonualco tribe (he declared himself “King of the Nonualcos”, and in 1833, started a campaign against the state of El Salvador). 

Civil flag of El Salvador, inside the Federation of Central America, and used even after separating itself as an independent state.

Flag adopted in 1865.

o   Los Altos: Already mentioned it within the Guatemala section. Even if it ceased to exist after 1840, the territory itself was a place of conflict considering its border with Mexico.

 

Flag of Los Altos.

 

Flag of Quetzaltenango

Flag of Chiapas

-          I talked about the member states of the Federal Republic of Central America, but (the same way I did with the US and somewhat with Mexico), I can’t simply escape the opportunity of talking about the distinct native nations of the area, or at least about the more prominent, bigger and/or relevant ones:

 A whole lot of different Native Central American nations to go through. In other words, sit down and prepare to read a whole lot.

o   Garifuna: An ethnic group with both African and Native American roots (Arawak and Carib); their politics of diaspora are complex because they have several different homelands and different relationships to them, going from the mainly symbolic relationship to Africa and Saint Vincent, to the closer relationship to various national homelands of Central America. They are an important group, considering the territory they occupy, and their numbers (today around ~600.000 worldwide), even if not strictly a 100% Native American group.  On a non-important side note, I really like their flag’s color scheme. 

Garifuna flag.

History of their “migration” (expulsion), from the island of St. Vincent to Belize, Nicaragua, Guatemala and the Miskito Coast.

o   Xinca: A much less known Amerindian group; its language isn’t related to neither Mayan nor the Aztec groups, having an unknown origin. Living in Guatemala, and part of western El Salvador, they group is undergoing through a sort of “cultural extinction”.

o   “Maya”: There’s a lot of different peoples that could be considered part of the Maya ethnic group, some more distinct and numerous than others. Although this will probably need some more investigation from my part (mostly because we’d have to look for the different symbols which could represent said sub-groups), but in a general view:

A somewhat "general" map for the purpose of understanding the different location of the groups (it's not 100% exact, for example, the Yucatec group shouldn't extend that much, but rather be represented by spots around that general area).

§  K’iche’ (Quiche): A numerous Mayan group (forming 11.2 % of the Guatemalan population), their history is written in the “mythical” Popol Vuh text (a sacred narrative, based around the cosmology of the Mayan people, and the chronicle of the K’iche’ people). They are one of the most obvious additions in this group of peoples; although they’ll probable be included as a releasable nation (consisting of a core), representing that way their status under the state of Central America, and later Guatemala, giving also the possibility to have them revolt.

§  Q’eqchi’ (Kekchi): Most of them inhabit the area of Guatemala, with a significant minority in Belize (which migrated into the country in 1877, when all communal landownership was abolished by the government, edging said minority of the Qʼeqchiʼ to move). Not much is known from their past before the Spanish colonization, but is known that their land was formally known as Tezulutlan or “the land of war” (somewhere present day Baja Verapaz)

§  Kakchiquel: Another big group. During the Spanish conquest of Central America, they helped them conquer the K’iche’ kingdom of Q’Umarkaj, since they were enemies of the later. Their language is still spoken today by around 400.000 people.

§  Mam: Another group that, before and during the Spanish conquest of Central America, was antagonistic to the K’iche’. Most of them live in Guatemala, and a few migrated to the border of Chiapas (México), after the liberal government of Guatemala of Justo Rufino (1871-1885) expropriated the communal lands of the indigenous population.

§  Mopan: Originally from Belize, they were pushed out by the British into Guatemala (settling for San Luis in the Petén department), around the 18^th and early 19^th centuries. In Guatemala they endured forced labor and high taxation. In 1886, an important number of them went back to Belize, in search of better life conditions, settling in San Antonio (Toledo district). There is an absence of written traditions of the Mopan Maya people, so the preservation of their culture relies on oral transmission.

§  Q’anjob’al (Kanjobal): A group who came from the flatlands of present day Chiapas, México, in search for terrains where to settle. They found said place in the Guatemalan mountain range of “Sierra de los Cuchumatanes”, long before the Europeans arrived to America. After contact with the Spanish, along with their friars and Christianity, the cultural identity of the Q’anjob’al went through a drastic change, related to its cosmology, social structure and all aspects of their lives really. There’s a significant minority of them

§  Poqomchi’: Descendent of the “Ni Poqom”/“Poqom Maya”, which split into the aforementioned Poqomchí and the Poqomam. Their culture has survived and prevailed mostly in Alta and Baja Verapaz.

§  Poqomam: Closely related to the Poqomchi. By the XV century, the Poqomam managed to “unificate” into the “Poqoman Confederation”, centered on “Saqik'ajol Nimakaqapek” (better known nowadays as “Mixco Viejo”). During the colonial and post-colonial period, the population numbers decreased and their economy went through a big depression (mostly related to the indigenous lands reforms of the republic of Guatemala). A group of them also resides in El Salvador.

§  Achí: The Achi are a Maya people in Guatemala. Their indigenous language is also called Achi and is closely related to K'iche'. They are better known for their traditional theatrical “epic” play of the “Rabinal Achí”, one of the few surviving performance pieces from before colonization, and was performed from around the 16th century, and it wasn’t recorded until much later, by an anonymous author. This document was found by the French clergyman “Braseur de Bouburg”. Later it was published in Paris (1862).

§  Ixil: A smaller group, who saw their numbers decrease even more during the Guatemalan Genocide, as they were one of the most affected victims. Nowadays the Ixil live in three municipalities centered on the Cuchumatanes mountains in the northern part of the department El Quiché. These municipalities, also known as the “Ixil Triangle”, are Santa Maria Nebaj, San Gaspar Chajul, and San Juan Cotzal.

§  Tz’utuji (Zutuhil): Most of them live around the area of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala. The Tzʼutujil date from the post-classic period (circa 900-1500) of the Maya civilization, inhabiting the southern watershed of Lake Atitlán, in what is now defined as the Solola region of the Guatemalan highlands. The Tzʼutujil are noted for their continuing adherence to traditional cultural and religious practices (although some also practice Evangelical Protestantism and Roman Catholicism).

§  Chuj: The Chuj, and their ancestors, are believed to have lived in the same area for about 4,000 years. They first came into contact with the Spanish in the 1530s; however, they were not finally subdued by their colonial authorities until the 1680s. In the late 19th century the Guatemalan government sanctioned the transfer of Chuj tribal land to powerful agricultural land owners. The process began in 1876, when they were forced to cede land to create the new municipality of Nenton. In the fighting that followed, the Chuj managed to maintain their communal lands in the high mountains, (prompting their modern reputation for rebelliousness). With the loss of much of their land, and the resultant extreme poverty, many of the Chuj were forced to migrate to Guatemala's southern coast. As a people, they were reduced to becoming either peasants or migrant labourers. In the years that followed, the Chuj were involved in frequent uprisings and violent unrest caused by extreme poverty and a sense of grievance because of the loss of their lands.

§  Jakalteko (Jacaltec): A group that has lived in the foothills of the Cuchumatán Mountains (Department of Huehuetenango in northwestern Guatemala), since pre-Columbian times, centered on the town of Jacaltenango. They speak the Jakaltek language (also known as Popti’). Jacaltenango (known in Popti’ as “Xajlaj”), was physically and culturally the most remote from Spanish centers in the country. This relative isolation has resulted in the preservation of many customs in the community which have been lost elsewhere. For example, a few Jakaltek people still use the “blowgun” for hunting small animals and birds.

§  Ch’orti’ (Chortis): A Maya group which resides principally in Guatemala, Honduras, and northern El Salvador. Their ancestors had as their cultural and political center the city of Copán (Known in their language as Oxwitik). During the early 16th century, they were organized under a confederation known as the “Kingdom of Payaquí”. The Chʼortiʼ people, led by the Mayan chief Copán Galel, strongly but unsuccessfully resisted the Spanish conquerors. The current Honduran Chʼortiʼ population estimate is around 4,200~8000, while the Guatemalan Chorti population is estimated to be in between 52,000 and 112,432. They are mostly farmers, and they live nowadays in areas mixed with “mestizos”.

§  Itza’: They historically were an important Mesoamerican people who dominated the Yucatán peninsula in the Post-classic period. They may have originated from the Classic Period city of “Motul de San José” (also known as “Ik”), near lake Peten Itza in Guatemala, migrating to Yucatán during the Maya collapse at the end of the Classic Period. From their capital at Chichén Itzá, they established a trade empire reaching as far south as Naco in Honduras. At some point, a group of them went back to Peten.

The Itza' were the last Maya kingdom to remain independent of the Spanish, and some Spanish priests peacefully visited and preached to the last Itza king as late as 1696. On March 13, 1697, the Itza kingdom finally submitted to Spanish rule, represented by a force led by Martín de Ursua, governor of Yucatán.

I feel that everyone knows Chichén Itzá from photos that look almost exactly like this one.

There’s quite some more groups of Maya people (around 25 distinct divisions), but explaining them all would take probably too much time for what is worth it. But, as I previously stated, I’ll try to represent most of the important ones.

o   Lenca: An important Native Mesoamerican group, considering that they are the largest indigenous group, with an estimated population of 100,000. They are also present in El Salvador, with a population estimated at about 37,000. The pre-Conquest Lenca had frequent contact with various Mayan groups as well as other indigenous peoples of the territory of present-day Mexico and Central America. The origin of the Lenca ethnic group also has been a source of ongoing debate among anthropologists and historians. The name “Lenca” was stablished after the American explorer “E. G. Squier”, who seemingly heard that the natives of “Guajiquiro” used the term when referring to their native tongue.

Lenca people flag.

o   Tolupan (Xicaque, Jicanque): An indigenous group of Honduras, whom fought against the Spanish expansion in Mesoamerica. Their most famous leader was “Cicumba”, who went against the Spanish forces, under Pedro de Alvarado, in 1536. In the 19th century, a Roman Catholic missionary, “Manuel Jesús de Subirian”, encouraged many Jicaque to assimilate into mainstream culture, settle in villages, and grow maize. The other Jicaque who maintained their traditional lifeways lived in Montaña de la Flor, and ultimately the Honduran government granted them a 760-hectare reservation.

o   Pech (Paya): An indigenous ethnic group which has inhabited north-eastern Honduras for more than 3,000 years, as it is believed they settled there coming from Colombia. Around the early 18^th century, the Pech ended up becoming a nomad group, after their expulsion from the Miskito Coast by the Spanish and the Miskito people (which bought fire arms from the British, Dutch and French pirates, to then hunt the Pech and sell them as slaves). At the beginning of 1805, the Pech people were displaced from Cabo Camarón to their current location, along the mouth of the Aguán River. During this period, the Pech people suffered large reductions to their territory. Today, there are less than a dozen Pech communities that remain in Honduras, although the “Federación de Tribus Pech de Honduras”/FETRIPH (Federation of Pech Tribes of Honduras), created in 1986, was created to give them political representation, taking care of land questions and conserving their culture.

o   Mayangnas (Sumo, Sumu): Not to be confused with the Mayans; this group has  inhabited much of the Mosquito Coast in the 16th century. Since then, they have become more marginalized following the emergence of the Miskito as a regional power. After the Miskito kingdom allied itself with the British, the Mayangna people saw themselves beginning to start a steady retreat into the interior, somewhat isolating themselves from the external world (although even the more isolated Mayangna communities formed an integral part of regional trading networks, and through their access to the highest quality tropical hardwoods controlled the production and sale of the canoes that -ironically - were used against them by the Miskitu in their slaving expeditions). The Mayangna population continued to decline after the British gave up their claim to the Mosquito Coast in 1860, due to the combined effects of disease, internecine warfare, and assimilationist pressures from both Miskitu and the new Nicaraguan state. From a possible pre-contact total of more than 30,000; by 1862 only around 5-6,000 remained. The final blow for the Mayangna came with their conversion to Christianity, a task undertaken by missionaries from the Moravian Church, who arrived in the region from Germany in 1847 but only began to make a real impact on the native population after the departure of the British. During the so-called ‘Great Awakening’ of the 1880s much of the Miskitu population converted to the new faith “en masse”, and buoyed by this success the Moravians increasingly turned their attention to the Mayangna.

Low quality version of the Mayangna flag.

§  Tawakha: A subgroup of the Mayangna people. The Tawahka are the smallest of the Honduran indigenous community, with a population of 2,690 people. Although they live in the center of the Miskito region, the Tawahka, like the Mayagna/Sumu in Nicaragua, had less contact with European trading activities and remained marginalized, unlike other groups which were absorbed within the larger Miskito group.

o   Kakawira (Cacaopera): A quite “obscure” group, that doesn’t really get much exposure when people talk about the indigenous people of Central America. They inhabit mostly in the Morazán department, El Salvador, and although their language considered extinct (The last semi-speakers of Cacaopera lived in the 1970s; All native speakers had died before this time.), their culture perseveres. Important pre-Columbian sites related to the Kakawira culture are Xualaka (considered their principal site of power), and the caves of Unama, Yarrawalaje and Siriwal (believed to have been ceremonial sites); the sites contain important cave paintings and is located near the municipality of Cacaopera.

The “main” god of the Kakawira people was “Huates Lan”, which was represented by a rock with an engraved face and sticks which represented radiant rays. Tipped over a mound, which had terraces to the side, so the people could go up and venerate it.

Probably one of the cutest representations I have seen from a god...and I'm not quite sure if it was intentional or not.

o   Chorotega (Cholutega): A group which is believed to have arrived into Central America around 900 a.c.; settling in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. During the Spanish conquest of Central America, the Chorotega fought fiercely against them, until in the 16^th century, a lot of them where taken as slaves to work in the mines of Panama and Perú After some circumstances, they divided themselves into sub groups of peoples, related mostly by the “cacicazgo” they were part of, and the land they inhabited.

§  Dirianes (Dirias): The Chorotegas which were part of the cacicazgo of Niquerao (present day Granada, Nicaragua), because of political reasons and constant inner-warfare, they divided themselves into two groups; the Dirianes and the Nagrandanos.

Dirianes means “men of the highlands”, reflecting their geographical position; they inhabit the areas of present day Diria and Diriomo. One of the most important characters of their history is Diriangen “Lord of the Dirianes”, considered to be behind “The first act of insurrection against the Spanish Conquest”, in what would be later the Province of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Dirianguen remains a popular figure in Nicaraguan nationalism and anti-colonialism.

§  Nagrandanos: Contrary to the Dirianes, the Nagrandano’s name means “men of the low plains”, since they occupied the plains and lacustrine coast of the Cocicolba Lake, being Xalteva their main population point. They were later expulsed from the land by the Dirias, forced into the occidental streams of the Lake Xolotán/Managua. One of their later important settlements was Nagarote “in the trail of the Nagrandanos”, originating from a village funded around the year 1,100, and gradually gaining more prominence in the area.

§  Costa Rican Chorotegas: A more difficult topic since nowadays they are mostly considered just as “Chorotegas” from a distinct region, they actually had more delimited sub divisions, and a pretty rich history in the Pre-Hispanic period. The name of the “sub divisions” they had are mostly based of the names of either the kingdoms they stablished, or the name of the different caciques that reigned over them.

Chorotega ceramic effigy, representing a jaguar.

·         Nicoya: Referring to the Chorotega population settled in present day canton of Nicoya; Stablished in 800 a.c. The Kingdom of Nicoya (name taken from the monarch who ruled this nation at the time of contact with the Europeans. As it happened with most of the cacicazgos in Costa Rican soil, the Spaniards gave the territory the name of their ruler), was not only an important center of power, but also vastly advanced in culture and different technologies. The conquest of Nicoya happened in 1524, with the cacicazgo submitting itself under the Spanish, supposing that this “alliance” would turn favorably for them. Nicoya as a city served itself as an integral center for the Spanish conquest of Costa Rica.

·         Chomes: The name first appeared as the one of a local cacique of the area (being originally “Chomi”). The locality of Chomes itself was put under volunteer submission, under the Spanish, by the chome people, in exchange of ecclesiastical ornaments, around 1555. Chomes slowly faded into obscurity during the first half of the 17^th century, and only regained some prominence in between the 19^th and 20^th century, as a center for some of the most important saltworks of Costa Rica, and the opening of a new canal and port to transport the salt produced in the area.

·         Orotiñas: The name appeared as a designation for the subjects of the cacique “Gurutina” (also spelled as Orotina), an important and rich monarch. The Spanish came in contact with him in 1522, whom then stablished an outpost in the area. Orotina evolved with the years, which’s further “colonization” of the area was mostly done after Costa Rica gained independence.

·         Zapandies: Taking the name of cacique Zapandi (Sabandí), its domains in the mouth of the homonym river (now called “Tempisque”). Finding more info about this subgroup has been pretty hard, and I haven’t really been able to find much symbols or anything to represent them (contrary to all of the ones above, where at least I have one element for each of them), but this is mostly because the “kingdom” itself was rather small and not much information about it is available.

o   BriBri (Bribris): One of the most numerous native groups of Costa Rica. Indigenous to the Talamanca region. Many Bribris are isolated and speak their own language. This has allowed them to maintain their indigenous culture, although it has also resulted in less access to education and health care. Although the group has the lowest income per capita in the country, they are able to fulfill their basic needs by growing their food, finding medicine, and collecting housing materials in the forest. Their cosmology is centered around the concept of sũwõ', a concept which encompasses the way the Bribris interpret reality (The religion itself bases itself in the cult to Sibú, main god of their pantheon; creator and cultural hero). The sũwõ' explains how Sibú’s world interacts with ours. Every object in this world has its opposite in the other, working somewhat as a mirror, though generally said objects are diametrically different in the spirit world (fish fly, Termites are gigantic and called Aksura, etc).

o    Cabécar (Kabekwa): Related culturally and ethnically with the Bribris, the Cabécar are also one of the most numerous native groups in Costa Rica. They distinguished themselves from one another at some point, because of their geographic location, being either at the east or west of the Coén River. In 1576 they stablished, along the Bribri people, the Cacicazgo of Talamanca, a lordship which resisted almost all Spanish attacks (thanks to its decentralized internal organization); it ended up being the most important cacicazgo of the Atlantic side of Costa Rica. Talamanca kept being independent an important center of native rebellion (especially during the 17^th century), and stood as “not quite conquered” site ( having a “de-facto” autonomy) for most of its existence, until 1862, where a Presidential Decree from Costa Rica that recognized the indigenous monarchs of the Cacicazgo of Talamanca as political chiefs of the region, considering the entity now as the “Kingdom of Talamanca”, until its disestablishment in 1910 (with the death of the last king and heir to the throne).

Different "cacicazgos" of Costa Rica during the 16th century. If you squint your eyes, you'll be (barely) able to see its position.

I’m not sure if I’ll represent the cacicazgo as an “independent” nation in the start date, but in a later scenario it might appear as a vassal of Costa Rica. I’m also thinking about making it a formable civilization, which can be stablished by either the Cabecar or Bribri nations (still, this is mostly related with planning and all, but I wanted to state the idea).

o    Boruca (Brunka): The ancestors of the modern Boruca made up a group of chiefdoms that ruled most of Costa Rica's Pacific coast, from Quepos to what is now the Panamanian border, including the Osa Peninsula. Boruca traditionally spoke the Boruca language, which is now nearly extinct.

Like their ancestors the Boruca are known for their art and craftwork, especially weaving and their distinctive painted balsa wood masks, which have become popular decorative items among Costa Ricans and tourists. These masks are important elements in the Borucas' annual Danza de los Diablitos ceremony, celebrated every winter since at least early colonial times. The "Danza" depicts the resistance of the "Diablito", representing the Boruca people, against the Spanish conquistadors. 

Brunka with Ceremonial mask.

o   Terrabas: A really reduced group from Costa Rica, which at some point in the past extended even into Panama (the evidence being the existence of their close relatives, the “Noba”/”Teribe” people in western Panama). Their culture dissipated and ended up almost extinct. They don’t really have much things to what I could cling of to represent them…but I thought it was valid to at least mention them.

o   Maleku (Guatuso): A small indigenous group of northern Costa Rica, the Maleku historically lived in the Río Frío watershed, who somewhat resisted the Spanish conquest thanks the relative isolation of the area. It wasn’t until 1750, with the arrival of Spanish settlers, that the group was “discovered” (accounts of them appear from this date and beyond by Friar Francisco Zepeda and priest Tomás Lopéz). Between 1868 and 1900, Nicaraguan rubber farmers migrated onto Maleku territory, often in armed bands, claiming traditional Maleku territories. The resulting death, enslavement, and dislocation of the Maleku eventually ended due to the influence of Catholic missionaries, in particular Bishop Bernardo Augusto Thiel. Thiel's mission to "civilize" and "Christianize" the Maleku coexisted with a desire to end the enslavement and genocide of such indigenous populations. He provided the Maleku with tools and firearms while encouraging the development of European farming practices and lobbied the government to punish citizens who captured indigenous people. In addition, he assigned people and places Spanish names despite knowing the Maleku terms. As of 1911, there were very few surviving.

o   Rama: The Rama are an indigenous people living on the eastern coast of Nicaragua. Since the start of European colonization, the Rama population has declined as a result of disease, conflict, and loss of territory. In recent years, however, the Rama population has increased to around 2,000 individuals. A majority of the population lives on the island of Rama Cay, which is located in the Bluefields Lagoon. Additional small Rama communities are dispersed on the mainland from Bluefields to Greytown. The Rama are one of three main indigenous groups on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast. According to Rama oral tradition, the Miskito gifted the island of Rama Cay to them in the 18th century in recognition of their help in fighting the Teribe people of Costa Rica.

o   Nahuas (Nahuatlacatl; Mexicas, Nahuatl): As the Maya people, this is also a quite big group of peoples, which includes other sub-groups into it (depending of the area they occupied, the culture they developed, etc). The Nahua population is actually pretty big, with around 2,760,000 in Mexico, 11,000 in Nicaragua, 6300 in Honduras, 4100 in El Salvador, and a 170.000 diaspora in the USA. In the past, Nahuas were also called “Aztecs”, but the Aztec were more like a culture composed mostly by people of Nahua ethnicity (to refer to them, the term Mexicas would be more correct).

Nahua/Mexica flag

Map of the distinct Nahua linguistical groups.

§   Pipil: The Nahuas of El Salvador are known as “Pipiles”. The Pipil arrived in El Salvador around the year 900. City states such as Tehuacán, Chalchuapa and Cihuatán eventually became absorbed into the Cuzcatlan polity confederation. The 13th century the Pipil city states were most likely unified, and by 1400, a hereditary monarchy had been established, thus consolidating their power in the region. The leader of Cuzcatan was the head of state; below him the state elders and priests who advised the ruling family; then a caste of commoners. Upon the death of a Lord, the succession was hereditary starting with the eldest son and so on. In case there were no sons available, the closest male family member was chosen by the counsel of elders and priests.

At the time of the Spanish conquest, Cuzcatan had developed into a powerful state that maintained a strong standing army. It had successfully resisted Mayan invasions and was the strongest military force in the region…although that was not enough to stop the Spaniards. It took three tries to stablish a complete defeat, but after 1528, the resistance of Cuzcatan was finally conquered.

Shield of the Lordship of Cuzcatan

There’s also an important character of Pipil ethnicity that I already mentioned in this “resume” (from a sub-group actually, the Nonualco tribe); Anastasio Aquino, leader of an indigenous rebellion caused by the different land reforms that the Federal Republic of Central America imposed over their terrains and the new tax over the native population. During the revolt (starting in late 1832), he ended up declaring himself “King of the Nonualcos”, (according to popular tradition, Aquino went to the church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar and took the crown from an image of St. Joseph as his), being proclaimed the “General Commandant of the Liberation Army” and proclaiming the famous Declaration of Tepetitán (strict sort of constitution, condemning stealing and murder with drastic consequences, banning “hard” alcohol products, articles about protection of women, among other things). On the morning of February 28 1833, the decisive battle occurred in Santiago Nonualco between the Government’s army and Aquino’s forces. He was executed by firing squad in San Vicente. His head was cut off and displayed in an iron cage with the label "Example for rebels".

Supposed flag of the "Nonualco Kingdom".

Representation of Aquino himself.

§  Nicarao (Niqueranos; Nicaraos): They were the principle Nahua tribe of Nicaragua, during the early 16th century, under cacique “Nicarao” (the cacique's real name was Macuilmiquiztli, which meant "Five Deaths" in the Nahuatl language, rather than Nicarao as the Spaniards called him).

The Nicarao experienced complete demographic collapse within the first century after the Spanish conquest of Nicaragua, from a combination of disease and being sold into slavery. A remnant Nahua-speaking population may have existed as late as the mid-19th century, but the Nicarao are practically extinct.

For a general note, I know that I didn’t talk about the groups of Panama, nor about Panama itself, so I wanted to clarify that I’ll address them when explaining the development of South America (and that’s going to be a whole new monster to take down hahaha). I also didn’t talk about some really small groups, like the Huetar people of Costa Rica. If I forgot any other indigenous group of mainland Central America, please tell me too, and I’ll see if I can do something about it.

 

-          French Possessions in the Caribbean: The French Antilles/French West Indies are somewhat less known than the British ones, but it is still fair to talk about them. I’ll try to mostly talk about their relevant history pertaining the mod’s/scenario’s interests.

The French Antilles (minus the Saint Barthélemy and other really minor islands).

o   Guadeloupe: The Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique settled in Guadeloupe in 1635, under the direction of Charles Liénard de L'Olive and Jean du Plessis d'Ossonville; they formally took possession of the island for France and brought in French farmers to colonise the land. By 1640, however, the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique had gone bankrupt, and they thus sold Guadeloupe to Charles Houël du Petit Pré who began plantation agriculture, with the first African slaves arriving in 1650. During the Seven Years' War, the British captured and occupied the islands until the 1763 Treaty of Paris. While that happened, Pointe-à-Pitre became a major harbour, and markets in Britain's North American colonies were opened to Guadeloupean sugar, which was traded for foodstuffs and timber. The economy expanded quickly, creating vast wealth for the French colonists. So prosperous was Guadeloupe at the time that, under the 1763 Treaty of Paris, France forfeited its Canadian colonies in exchange for the return of Guadeloupe. Coffee planting began in the late 1720s, also worked by slaves and, by 1775, cocoa had become a major export product as well. 1810, the British captured the island again, handing it over to Sweden under the 1813 Treaty of Stockholm.

In the 1814 Treaty of Paris, Sweden ceded Guadeloupe to France, giving rise to the Guadeloupe Fund. In 1815, the Treaty of Vienna acknowledged French control of Guadeloupe. Slavery was abolished in the French Empire in 1848. After 1854, indentured labourers from the French colony of Pondicherry in India were brought in. Emancipated slaves had the vote from 1849, but French nationality and the vote were not granted to Indian citizens until 1923.

I’ll want to change the present flag for a more relevant one of the time, so It will probably be the coat of arms, in its red version (rather than the black one). Although It is not known when the arms of Guadeloupe were adopted, its elements represent the following things: The sun is clearly a reference to Louis XIV, the “Sun King” and first royal owner of the island. The fleurs-de-lys are from his coat of arms. The official flag is the one of France, so maybe a canton could work too? Also, I’ll add more flags for the different ideologies (since vanilla nor addon+ have more flags for the civ).

Coat of arms of Basse-Terre, commonly used to represent the whole island.

 

o   Martinique: On 15 September 1635, Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, French governor of the island of St. Kitts, landed in the harbour of St. Pierre with 80-150 French settlers after being driven off St. Kitts by the English. espite the introduction of successful coffee plantations in the 1720s, with Martinique being the first area in the Western hemisphere where coffee was introduced,[16] as sugar prices declined in the early 1800s, the planter class lost political influence. Slave rebellions in 1789, 1815 and 1822, plus the campaigns of abolitionists such as Cyrille Bissette and Victor Schœlcher, persuaded the French government to end slavery in the French West Indies in 1848.[17][18][7][15] As a result, some plantation owners imported workers from India and China.[7] Despite the abolition of slavery life scarcely improved for most Martinicans; class and racial tensions exploded into rioting in southern Martinique in 1870 following the arrest of Léopold Lubin, a trader of African ancestry who retaliated after he was beaten by a Frenchman. After several deaths the revolt was crushed by French militia. The island isn’t on the vanilla game, nor in addon+, so ill maybe add it into the original mod. Other than that, there isn’t much to say about it really. Also, although it is the generally associated flag of the island, the “Snake Flag” symbol dates from an edict issued 4 August 1766, specifying that vessels of the French colony of Martinique and Saint Lucia should fly a version of the French ensign, which at the time was a white cross on a blue field, with L-shaped (for Lucia) snakes in each quarter of the cross. The same design is used for the lesser coat of arms. Usage is controversial, because of its historical origin: upon adoption, the "snake flag" fluttered on ships engaged in triangular trade—and thus the Atlantic slave trade.

The snake flag is locally considered as an insult and not available for sale or trade locally. Often presented internationally as the Flag of Martinique, or the local flag of Martinique, it is strongly rejected by locals and its use is very discouraged. Deputy Jean-Philippe Nilor demanded its withdrawal from public use, drawing the comparison, “if the swastika representative of Nazism refers to the holocaust, this blue flag with its white cross and its 4 snakes is representative of slavery and the slave trade”…but it would technically be the most “correct” flag for the time period (keep in mind ill add other flags to the civ depending of the ideology).

The aforementioned infamous snake flag.

o   Saint Barthélemy: Saint Barthélemy was for many years a French commune forming part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas region and department of France. In 2003 the island voted in favour of secession from Guadeloupe in order to form a separate overseas collectivity.

By 1648 the island was settled by the French, encouraged by Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, the lieutenant-governor of the French West India Company. Newer arrivals then began cultivating cacao. However, the settlement was attacked by Caribs in 1656 and briefly abandoned.

De Poincy was the dominant administrator in this period and a member of the Order of Saint John. He facilitated the transfer of ownership from the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique to the Hospitaller Order. He continued to rule the island until his death in 1660. Five years later, it was bought by the French West India Company along with the Order's other possessions in the Caribbean. By 1674, the company was dissolved and the islands became part of the French Kingdom and added to the colony of Guadeloupe. The island proved economically unsuccessful, and was subject to the activities of pirates, as well as the British, who attacked the island in 1744. Thus deeming it to be of little worth, King Louis XVI traded the island to Sweden in 1784 in return for trading privileges in Gothenburg. This change of control saw progress and prosperity as the Swedes declared Gustavia (named after the Swedish king Gustav III who ruled at that time) a free port, convenient for trading by the Europeans for goods, including contraband material. Slavery was practiced in St. Barthélemy under the Ordinance concerning the Police of Slaves and free Coloured People of 1787. The last legally owned slaves in the Swedish colony of St. Barthélemy were granted their freedom by the state on 9 October 1847. Since the island was not a plantation area, the freed slaves suffered economic hardships due to lack of opportunities for employment. In 1852, a devastating hurricane hit the island and this was followed by a fire. The economy suffered, and thus Sweden sought to relieve themselves of the island. Following a referendum in 1877, Sweden gave the island back to France in 1878, after which it was administered as part of Guadeloupe (again).

Coat of Arms of the island. One can see all the owners represented in it (Top-France; Middle-Knights Hospitaller; Bottom-Sweden).

Again, another island that doesn’t have its own province. On the other hand, it does have a rather weird colonial past, so it could be rather interesting to include it in the game. The only problems are the flag (mostly because it just has a coat of arms), so making, for example, a republic variant would be difficult.

o   There’s not really much more to say about the French Antilles. I could include French Guiana in this section, but I would prefer to do so when talking about Equatorial/Northern-South America (if one could call it that way?) .

-          Dutch West Indies, another small spot of European settlements in the Caribbean. They can be divided into 2 categories (If one excludes the Colony of Suriname; not considered part of the Dutch Caribbean, although it was on the Caribbean coast of Northeastern South America):

The Dutch West Indies in the Antilles. Not quite as big nor famous as their fellow colonial subject, the Dutch East Indies.

o   The Colony of Curaçao and Dependencies:

From 1815 onwards Curaçao and Dependencies formed a colony of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Slavery was abolished in 1863, and in 1865 a government regulation for Curaçao was enacted that allowed for some very limited autonomy for the colony. Although this regulation was replaced by a constitution (Dutch: Staatsregeling) in 1936, the changes to the government structure remained superficial and Curaçao continued to be ruled as a colony.

The island of Curaçao was hit hard by the abolition of slavery in 1863. Its prosperity (and that of neighboring Aruba) was restored in the early 20th century with the construction of oil refineries to service the newly discovered Venezuelan oil fields.

o   Sint Eustatius and Dependencies: Also known as the SSS islands; Saba, Sint Eustatitus and Sint Maartin. Saint Martin was split between the Netherlands and France in 1648. The Dutch part became a single Dutch colony in 1818 as “Sint Eustatius and Dependencies”, when France returned its possessions after the Napoleonic Wars. This colony was merged in 1828 with the colonies Curaçao and Dependencies and Suriname, with a capital in Paramaribo. When this merge was partly reversed in 1845, the Dutch part of the SSS islands became part of Curaçao and Dependencies with Willemstad as capital. This colony became the Netherlands Antilles in 1952. The Dutch part of the SSS islands initially formed the single "island area" ( the main administrative division of the Netherlands Antilles, governed by an island council); the “Leeward Islands” until 1983.

There’s not many ways to represent the Dutch rule in this islands (The islands aren’t that important to be fair, and they obviously don’t have a province). I’ll see if I can do something with them, but in this case, I cannot promise nothing.

-          For the case of the Swedish and Danish West Indies…Well, I also cannot promise much because of the low importance of this colonies, but I’ll try to at least, include them as a releasable for a neighboring island.

-          At some point I’ll have to deal with adding some Taino or Arawak (Native Caribbean’s in general), but I’m not sure of how to approach said topic, mostly because their low numbers and high admixture with african culture during the “slave trade triangle” existence, creating the “modern” Afro-Caribbean groups; those that are now more akin to have nationalist ideas much more related to their respective countries or African descent, rather than their native Caribbean past. Again, complicated topic, but mostly because of my ignorance and some other things.

-          Finally, the topic of Haiti (and about the island of Hispaniola itself too), a quite distinct independent nation in the midst of all the other Caribbean islands. Previously known as the French colony of “Saint-Domingue”, the Haitian Revolution brought an end to that domain (The revolution represented the largest slave uprising since Spartacus' unsuccessful revolt against the Roman Republic nearly 1,900 years earlier), challenging the long-held European beliefs about alleged black inferiority and about enslaved persons' ability to achieve and maintain their own freedom. The rebels' organizational capacity and tenacity under pressure inspired stories that shocked and frightened slave owners in the hemisphere (this would become more relevant for the USA during the troubles that ended up playing as factors to influence the start of the American Civil War).

But going back on track, On 1 January 1804, from the city of Gonaïves, Dessalines officially declared the former colony's independence, renaming it "Haiti" after the indigenous Arawak name. Although he lasted from 1804 to 1806, several changes began taking place in Haiti. The independence of Haiti was a major blow to France and its colonial empire, but the French state would take several decades to recognize the loss of the colony. Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world, and the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion, but the country was damaged from years of war, its agriculture devastated, its formal commerce nonexistent. Being first the Empire of Haiti (1804-1806), after the assassination of Dessalines (Emperor Jacques I), the two main conspirators divided the country in two rival regimes; Henri Christophe created the authoritarian “State of Haiti” in the north, and the “Gens de couleur” (Free person of color) Alexandre Pétion established the “Republic of Haiti” in the south (which although being de facto a dictatorship, it produced one of the most liberal and tolerant Haitian governments ever). In 1811, Henri Christophe proclaimed himself King Henri I of the “Kingdom of Haiti in the North”. He even created a nobility class in the fashion of European monarchies. Yet in 1820, weakened by illness and with decreasing support for his authoritarian regime, he killed himself with a silver bullet rather than face a coup d'état. Immediately after, Pétion's successor, Boyer, reunited Haiti through diplomatic tactics and ruled as president until his overthrow in 1843.

 

The strange possition of the island of Hispaniola after Dessalines assasination.

On the other side of the island of Hispaniola (the Spanish side), things also got a little messy. The “Spanish Captaincy of Santo Domingo” was ceded to France in 1795, invaded by the British in 1796, occupied by the rebelling black slaves of Saint-Domingue in 1801, occupied by the French in 1802 (although the Napoleonic forces lost against the former French slaves, who proclaimed then the Empire of Haiti in 1804), again invaded by Haitian forces in 1805, and then yet again by the British in 1809. The Spanish were given back the island later that year, but the colony was in economic and demographic ruin. Spain's hold over Santo Domingo remained precarious. The arrival of the fugitive Simón Bolívar and his followers in Haiti in 1815 alarmed the Spanish authorities in Santo Domingo. Following the rebellion of the Army in Spain during 1820, which restored the liberal constitution, some of the colonial administrators in Santo Domingo broke with the mother country; and on December 1, 1821, the Spanish Lieutenant Governor, José Núñez de Cáceres, proclaimed the independence of "Spanish Haiti".

Flag of "Spanish Haiti" when it was about to join Gran Colombia.

Dominican leaders (recognizing their vulnerability both to Spanish and to Haitian attack and also seeking to maintain their slaves as property), attempted to annex themselves to Gran Colombia. While this request was in transit, Jean-Pierre Boyer, the ruler of Haiti, invaded Santo Domingo on February 9 with a 10,000-man army, culminating thus the “Unification of Hispaniola”. The entire island remained under Haitian rule until 1844, when in the east a nationalist group called “La Trinitaria” led a revolt that started the Domincan War of Independence, which lasted from 1844 to 1855, and saw around 3,000 battle deaths from the Haitian forces, against the estimated less than 20 from the Dominican rebells. The island was partitioned so into Haiti on the west and Dominican Republic on the east, based on what would appear to be a riverine territorial 'divide' from the pre-contact period.

Haitian military attack routes. The gray lines indicate the routes they weren't able to use because of their defeats in the battles of Azua and Santiago.

In August 26, 1849 Haiti saw itself into its phase of the “Second Empire of Haiti”, after Faustin Solouque, at the time president, declared himself “Emperor Faustin I”. Faustin's unsuccessful invasions (in part due to the diplomatic interference of the United States and Spain) in an attempt to reconquer the Dominican Republic (in 1849, 1850, 1855 and 1856), undermined his government, and led to the revolution of 1858, led by General Fabre Geffrard, Duke of Tabara. In December of that year, Geffrard defeated the Imperial Army and seized control of most of the country, thus restoring the “Republic of Haiti”, which in turn would last until 1957, when Duvalier ascended into power. The US would also come to occupy Haiti from 1915 to 1934.

Coat of arms of the Second Empire.

Things in the Dominican side weren’t going that good either. The presidency of Buenaventura Báez (known for attempting to annex the Dominican Republic to other countries on several occasions, and amassing a massive external debt), left Pedro Santana with a bankrupt government on the brink of collapse. Having failed in his initial bids to secure annexation by the U.S. or France, Santana initiated negotiations with Queen Isabella II of Spain and the Captain-General of Cuba to have the island reconverted into a Spanish colony. The American Civil War rendered the United States incapable of enforcing the Monroe Doctrine. Santana initially was named Capitan-General of the new Spanish province, but it soon became obvious that Spanish authorities planned to deprive him of his power, leading him to resign in 1862. Restrictions on trade, discrimination against the mulatto majority, and an unpopular campaign by the new Spanish Archbishop, against extramarital unions (which were widespread after decades of abandonment by the Catholic Church), all fed resentment of Spanish rule. On August 16, 1863, a national war of restoration began in Santiago, where the rebels established a provisional government. Dominicans were divided. Some fought for the reserve forces alongside Spanish troops. Santana thus returned to lead them.

The “Dominican Restoration War” then was a guerrilla war between 1863 and 1865 in the Dominican Republic side of the Hispaniola island, between nationalists and Spain (who had recolonized the country 17 years after its independence). The war resulted in the restoration of Dominican sovereignty, the withdrawal of Spanish forces, the separation of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo from Spain, and the establishment of a second republic in the Dominican Republic (lasting from 1865 to 1916).

I’ll probably change some things here and there with the starting flag for the Dominican Republic’s releasable; with Haiti, I’ll also add some things too related to that topic.

 

-          Well, I think that should be all for now. I know that this was longer than probably anybody expected (I went a tad bit overboard with somethings hahaha), but to be fair, this notes are here mostly to explain some of the procedures that we’ll follow in the future in regards to development (and serve also as good “notes” for me to save info somewhere), so I think it’s worth It to include them here. There’s somethings to discuss about the later development too, specially about the discord and the so called “mod thread” that we still haven’t opened, but ironically, my best answer would be to say “coming soon”, since there’s some things that still need polishing there (being somewhat of “perfectionist” is one of my faults, same as being overtly “apologetic” and “deferential”) . I have to also apologize for taking too much time with somethings, but I really want this scenario/mod to be special (and fun to play).

We also have some future plans that I can’t reveal much about just yet (mostly related to releasing some things and modifying others, plus, a little “surprise” related to other mod).

I’ll now answer the questions posted before. For the ones already answered by @Commieslav (main "spokesperson" of our modding group), I'll try to go a little in depth too:

Yes, as @Commieslav said:

Although, I'm not quite sure if I'll add all the provinces of the different princely states (some of them are way too bordergory for my liking), but I'll try to do at least the most important ones. On the side of the North American provinces, I would say (mostly as a personal idea), that I'd like to firstly add the proper administrative divisions of Canada (those straight lines are better, and much more historically accurate than the secret Iceland provinces present in vanilla).

Another thing I'd like to state about provinces, is that I will try to focus more on the ones that aren't really present in other mods. Mostly to not think that I'm trying to copy someone, and so the distinct mods in the forum can then feel different from each other, without overlaping themselves (I hope this point can be understood, since I'm not sure if I'm expressing it correctly). I'll be open to suggestions for provinces too!

Yes, but not for all scenarios; for example, the 1836 scenario (standard campaign), won't probably (keyword, since we are still deciding some things about it) have them, but other scenarios will.

To complement this, we are still plannig the content we want to launch first. It is quite possible that the first version of the mod doesn't include all of the things we want to include, but we will try to include scenarios with events.

On the topic of the American civil war...that's a big kind of content that we want to bring in the mod, but for now, there's nothing officialy written about it (we have gone from the idea of having the different states in an alliance, or using the vanilla scenario of just the 2 civs fighting; including the natives in the middle; using events or not using them; ways of evading the start of the war; etc).

It's going fine, but as I said above, there's still a lot work to go through (that was even one of the reasons to release the beta, so people could play that version, instead of waiting for the full version...since it seems that it is actually taking a lot of time to finish polishing some things hahaha).

Also, this above. We are still polishing the discord, and the mod thread will probably (again, keyword for "not sure about, but it is possible) be open during this week and the next (I'm still finishing with my university exams and stuff, so please, I ask for your patience while we are still developing it).

Don't worry about seeming annoying, everyone's help is accepted hahaha.

Yes, I forgot about the thing of replacing the Confederation with Buenos Aires in the map (basically, this was my fault). On the topic of the flags, I actually remember searching for a source that told that the ones I'm using where the correct ones, although I can't seem to find it now. Although I recognize the Artigas flag that you posted (for Entre Rios), although I think that Entre Rios didn't have an official flag since 1822 until 1833 (when General Pascual Echague adopted it), being that the one I decided to use.

On the other hand, isn't the difference of the flags for Misiones just the shade of blue? (I'll change it to the one you posted since I think It looks better too).

And yes, we plan to try to add leaders (I say try because, while the PC version doesn't have much problems with them, there's an strange bug that I know of, where too much content in the a.p.p. makes it not work properly; this is the reasson for why the version of addon+ I used removed the leaders). Also, someone in the team is in charge of coloring some leader portraits.

And yes, as I said before, you can help if you want to! Since I'm not always able to respond to things, It is preferable to send things to @Commieslav, so if you want to, contact him hahaha.

(De todas formas, también hablo español, así que si prefieres, también puedo recibir información escrita en este idioma jajaja).

Maybe... 👀 

Let's just say that "negotiations" have already been made hahaha.

Thanks for supporting this mod! Comments like this make us feel like our hard work is worth it hahaha.

We will try hard to bring even more content to the community, so stay" tuned" and try to give this thread a look once in a while for more new announcements and stuff.

And so, we will aim to bring some things not present in other mods (things that are possible to us...don't expect big breakthroughs like changing java or those things. We aren't that experienced in modding), not trying to turn things into a competition, but rather to inspire other people and all.

Anyway, I say goodbye for now. I'll try to read this thread more often in case questions appear, and I'll try to work quicker this time for the next "To Fix" region (it should be South America now...So that's going to be a difficult task too). Finally, thanks for reading this far.

I didn't read most of it but still I know you'll do great