Empire is the first Creative Assembly game set on a truly global scale, with conflict spanning multiple theaters, so it does much to sidestep the perils of realism. A separate campaign, “The Road To Independence,” covers the era spanning the initial colonization of the Americas through the point where the colonies decided they wanted to keep their tea, thankyouverymuch. You’ll flex your military might in three main theaters - Europe, America, and the Near East, each with its own map - but to minimize donkey work, you can choose to set tax rates at the upper level, rather than for individual regions within each theater. Then there are the trade theaters - such as the Caribbean, East Africa, and the East Indies - to which you’re unable to send land forces, and so must dominate by naval power alone. The more ships you send - and the fewer enemy ships cutting your supply lines - the greater your profits. The desired effect is whole-world scale without a whole world of meaningless clicking and map-scrolling.

This is from the games radar hands-on preview, whereupon I would like to draw your attention to the above point:

Does this imply then that there are 3 non-connected maps that we administer with a singular government, i.e all 3 maps are autonomous however the administrative mechanism is unified by utilising a common treasury. So far all evidence Screenshots as well as previews point to my assumption being true, or does anyone have any data to suggest otherwise.