Religion

[Geoffrey S]

Africa, at the time, wasn't that important to Europe; slave trade, yes, but that was (financially) a relatively minor business. Major colonial possessions there and in most of Asia were gained by European nations in the 19th century; until then, they were mostly limited to the coasts (Africa) or to trading with the natives (Asia).

[Discoman]

Well the game may cover a short period of time but it was a very turbulent one. After all you got several wars in America, Europe, and Imperialism. If the game lasted longer we'd have Italian and German unification.

[Zarky]

Slavery really should be included!
Even if adding it would make all little *bad word* cry.
It´s history we´re talking about and slavery was part of it there´s no way getting around that. So what if Europeans/Americans say they don´t want to be seen as *again bad word* slaverers, they already did it.
Politics seems nice instead of religion... since religion became side fact in warring with other nations. It might affect changes to be influenced by propaganda or something if they add it.

[Geoffrey S]

But how relevant was slavetrade really? It mainly functioned in the trade triangle of Europe-Africa-Americas as a way of balancing the costs, and certainly in this period wasn't a factor of major importance economically or politically. It would be best represented as general trade I think.

[ramela]

3 Continents: Eurasia, America and Africa, leaving Australia and Antarctica out?

At least in my daughter's Geography book, Europe and Asia are considered a single continent, as are North and South America.

[The Wizard]

I would imagine that religion would play a much less significant role in the game than in the medieval setting. Economic activity would be more of a driving force behind the game - e.g. britain didnt invade india in order to spread christianity - it was to make money.

colonialism != crusades.

You forget that a very sizeable part of Africa, and all of Latin America, are bastions of Christianity thanks to colonial activities. Deep into the 20th century it was standard policy for colonial powers to sponsor and protect proselytizing clergy of their national religion.

I wonder if they'll include factors of anti- and atheism into the mix? I doubt it. In fact, I even doubt they'll include religion at all. Doing so certainly wouldn't stroke with popular imagination of the time, and that just ain't what CA does (or ever has).

[Cornwallis]

the slave trade was one of the most important economical factors in the World at the time, and far from "balancing costs", the fruit of the slave's labor contributed to the bulk of some nations' income.

[Geoffrey S]

Far less so in the eighteenth century than the seventeenth. The majority of trade money was made by bringing various finished products to colonies (for instance, in Indonesia or India), selling them for native raw materials such as spices and selling them for a high price in Europe. And even then, intercontinental trade was financially far less important than intracontinental trade; slave trade even less so. A in hindsight morally explosive trade was financially far less important than the disproportionate amount of later literature would imply.

[pevergreen]

Very true.

[Vlad The Impaler]

I agree with some statements that religion should play a lesser role in E:TW.
Why?
1)Because economics and resources were much more important
2)Nationalism appeared
3) I don't remember any significant religious war in that time
4)Western empires used to conscript a lot of muslin or other religion troops (gurkhas, indians or africans) especially for garisson duty but not only for that

[Darkarbiter]

India isn't a continent, it's part of Asia.



Maybe the slave trade is why they don't want to include Africa, though they allowed slavery in RTW.

Oh ffs
I'm guessing that means getting to india will involve going west. Concidering portugal is included thats a bit silly. The only thing they need to do if they mean to not offend people is to not make the AI automaticly go and collect slaves. So long as the human player has the option of never seeing it, it probably wont offend people.

[sirnoob]

It talks in the preview abot french possesions in north africa the only thing is it doesn't mention south africa

[uanime5]

3 Continents: Eurasia, America and Africa, leaving Australia and Antarctica out?

At least in my daughter's Geography book, Europe and Asia are considered a single continent, as are North and South America.

Calling Australia a continent is now outdated, this continent is now called Oceania and covers Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Though 85% of the population of Oceania does live in Australia.

[pevergreen]

Oceania is not a Continent.

A Continent is a landmass

[uanime5]

A contient can include several countries that are not physically part of one land mass. For example Japan and the United Kingdom are parts of Asia and Europe, respectively, even though they are both comprised of islands of the coast of Asia and Europe, respectively.

[Trax]

In my language there is a fine difference between continent and "part of the world"

UK and Japan are not part of the continent Eurasia although they belong to the "parts of the world" Europa and Asia respectively.

Also Australia is a continent while Oceania is a "part of the world".
Is there anything like this in English?

[pevergreen]

No not really.

Continents:

North America (USA,Canada)
South America (Brasil, Argentina, Chile etc)
Europe (England, France, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Part of Russia)
Asia (Part of Russia, China, Japan, Korea etc)
Africa (South Africa, Egypt etc)
Australia (Australia)
Antartica

[Daveybaby]

FYI: there is no single definition of what the continents are.

In some definitions europe and asia are separate continents, in others they are one single continent, eurasia.

In some definitions north and south america are combined.

etc.

However, i dont think india gets counted as a continent anywhere. The phrase 'the indian subcontinent' gets bandied around a lot, usually referrring to most of southern asia.

[Azi Tohak]

If you read at the .com, it says only 3 continents are included. Europe, Americas, and India I would guess.

That is ridiculous. Someone needs to look at a map. During the Age of Sail Europeans were literally touching every country on earth.

You can't have people magically go from North America to India... and that's it.

Maybe they mean 'EurAsia', 'Africa' and the 'Americas' (Australia, Antartica, even Japan don't count by this time period).

[Geoffrey S]

Oceania is not a Continent.

A Continent is a landmass

Not quite. A landmass is very relative, and depends highly on sea levels at a particular time. Remove large amounts of water, and you'll find that Australia, Micronesia and Polynesia are all part of one large continent, namely Oceania.