The new development diary this week mentions that Feudal Theocracies (in practice, mainly the Persians) will get a new action “Invite Minorities from Abroad”. To recap, this is:
50 DIP - Invite Minorities from Abroad: Gain -20% development cost and +1 random development in your Capital Area.
Now I should say at the outset that I’m not a specialist on Persian history, but when I read that, it felt like historical whitewashing that made me rather uncomfortable. My assumption is that that action is supposed to be a sort of representation of the important Armenian community, particularly in New Julfa, and the Georgian community, who became important administrators and soldiers in the Persians’ armies. The only other possibility I could think of off-hand for what the action could represent is the English advisors that came to Persia but I’d have thought in the game that would count as gaining advisors, not development, so I presume it’s not that.
The reason that this makes me uncomfortable is that “Invite” massively whitewashes what went on to get all those Armenians and Georgians to settle in Persia. In short, the Persians committed what would be modern-day war crimes: forced resettlement and often huge massacres. The resettlement of the Armenians at New Julfa entailed the complete destruction and abandonment of the Armenian city of Old Julfa, and the forced march of more than 200,000 Armenians, many of whom died on the journey. Similarly, the Georgian presence in Persia dates from the forced resettlement of Georgians from Kartli and Kakheti and the massacre of tens of thousands of Georgians, in several waves, beginning with Shah Tahmasp, who marched 30,000 Kartlians to Karabagh (which was Persian territory at the time), many to become slaves, and later Shah Abbas’s awful massacres and deportations in the early 1600s.(Edge of Empires by Donald Rayfield). Even if we restrict the Georgian resettlers to just the elite, such as the Undiladze family who played such a large role in Persian administration, the founder of the Undiladze dynasty in Persia, Alaverdi Khan, was captured by the Persians and forced to convert to Islam – he wasn’t “invited”! Similarly, Giorgi Saakadze fled to Persia as a result of being accused of wanting to depose the King of Kartli – he didn’t leave by choice.
So what should be done then? First, I request that the button be renamed to something more befitting of the immense violence involved in the process, say “Forcibly resettle minorities from abroad”. Furthermore, I suggest that doing this action should produce devastation in the province where the people were taken from and a permanent loss of development. Ideally it would also result in a large loss in relations between any remaining states of that culture – e.g. if you conquer the province of Tbilisi, but the Kingdom of Kartli still exists as an independent state (or ideally any of the Georgian states), they should get a large opinion malus towards you. Finally, the icon used for the decision does give a bit of a suggestion of people moving involuntarily (at least in my opinion) but it might be good if that was made more explicit - perhaps with some destruction in the background behind the migrants.
For another suggestion of how to programme this process (which was very important – I’m glad it’s being represented!), I’d like to draw your attention to the proposal I made on the Georgia thread, which I’ll reproduce below:
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Persia event:
Forced Resettlement of the Georgians
Triggers:
Persia owns but has not cored Tbilisi, Kartli and/or Kakheti province.
Tbilisi, Kartli and/or Kakheti province culture = Georgian.
Persian ruler has trait “malevolent” and/or “cruel”.
“We have had enough of these rebellious Georgians. It is time to end their resistance once and for all.”
We will lay the land waste and force them to resettle far from their homeland.
>Tbilisi, Kartli and/or Kakheti province receives Scorched Earth modifier, gain 90% Devastation. Tbilisi, Kartli and/or Kakheti lose 3/3/3 development per province permanently. Tbilisi, Kartli and/or Kakheti -9 unrest.
>Gain 10% manpower permanently. All generals from now on get +1 shock, +1 manoeuvre. +1 advisor permanently. A random province cored by Persia gains 2/2/2 development per Georgian province affected (i.e. if done to three provinces three random provinces gain 2/2/2 development.)
And for the Armenians:
Forced Resettlement of the Armenians to New Julfa
Triggers:
Persia owns but has not cored Nakhchivan province.
Nakhchivan province has culture = Armenian.
Persian ruler has trait “malevolent” and/or “cruel”.
Persian capital = Isfahan(?)
“We have had enough of these rebellious Armenians. It is time to end their resistance once and for all.”
We will lay the land waste and force them to resettle in a new suburb of our capital.
>Nakhchivan province loses 3/3/3 development. Receives Scorched Earth modifier, gains 100% devastation. -10 unrest in Nakhchivan.
>Gain +1 merchant. +3/3/0 development in Isfahan province. Isfahan gains “Inland Centre of Trade” modifier until the end of the game.
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If I’ve got the wrong end of the stick, please can the devs let me know.
50 DIP - Invite Minorities from Abroad: Gain -20% development cost and +1 random development in your Capital Area.
Now I should say at the outset that I’m not a specialist on Persian history, but when I read that, it felt like historical whitewashing that made me rather uncomfortable. My assumption is that that action is supposed to be a sort of representation of the important Armenian community, particularly in New Julfa, and the Georgian community, who became important administrators and soldiers in the Persians’ armies. The only other possibility I could think of off-hand for what the action could represent is the English advisors that came to Persia but I’d have thought in the game that would count as gaining advisors, not development, so I presume it’s not that.
The reason that this makes me uncomfortable is that “Invite” massively whitewashes what went on to get all those Armenians and Georgians to settle in Persia. In short, the Persians committed what would be modern-day war crimes: forced resettlement and often huge massacres. The resettlement of the Armenians at New Julfa entailed the complete destruction and abandonment of the Armenian city of Old Julfa, and the forced march of more than 200,000 Armenians, many of whom died on the journey. Similarly, the Georgian presence in Persia dates from the forced resettlement of Georgians from Kartli and Kakheti and the massacre of tens of thousands of Georgians, in several waves, beginning with Shah Tahmasp, who marched 30,000 Kartlians to Karabagh (which was Persian territory at the time), many to become slaves, and later Shah Abbas’s awful massacres and deportations in the early 1600s.(Edge of Empires by Donald Rayfield). Even if we restrict the Georgian resettlers to just the elite, such as the Undiladze family who played such a large role in Persian administration, the founder of the Undiladze dynasty in Persia, Alaverdi Khan, was captured by the Persians and forced to convert to Islam – he wasn’t “invited”! Similarly, Giorgi Saakadze fled to Persia as a result of being accused of wanting to depose the King of Kartli – he didn’t leave by choice.
So what should be done then? First, I request that the button be renamed to something more befitting of the immense violence involved in the process, say “Forcibly resettle minorities from abroad”. Furthermore, I suggest that doing this action should produce devastation in the province where the people were taken from and a permanent loss of development. Ideally it would also result in a large loss in relations between any remaining states of that culture – e.g. if you conquer the province of Tbilisi, but the Kingdom of Kartli still exists as an independent state (or ideally any of the Georgian states), they should get a large opinion malus towards you. Finally, the icon used for the decision does give a bit of a suggestion of people moving involuntarily (at least in my opinion) but it might be good if that was made more explicit - perhaps with some destruction in the background behind the migrants.
For another suggestion of how to programme this process (which was very important – I’m glad it’s being represented!), I’d like to draw your attention to the proposal I made on the Georgia thread, which I’ll reproduce below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Persia event:
Forced Resettlement of the Georgians
Triggers:
Persia owns but has not cored Tbilisi, Kartli and/or Kakheti province.
Tbilisi, Kartli and/or Kakheti province culture = Georgian.
Persian ruler has trait “malevolent” and/or “cruel”.
“We have had enough of these rebellious Georgians. It is time to end their resistance once and for all.”
We will lay the land waste and force them to resettle far from their homeland.
>Tbilisi, Kartli and/or Kakheti province receives Scorched Earth modifier, gain 90% Devastation. Tbilisi, Kartli and/or Kakheti lose 3/3/3 development per province permanently. Tbilisi, Kartli and/or Kakheti -9 unrest.
>Gain 10% manpower permanently. All generals from now on get +1 shock, +1 manoeuvre. +1 advisor permanently. A random province cored by Persia gains 2/2/2 development per Georgian province affected (i.e. if done to three provinces three random provinces gain 2/2/2 development.)
And for the Armenians:
Forced Resettlement of the Armenians to New Julfa
Triggers:
Persia owns but has not cored Nakhchivan province.
Nakhchivan province has culture = Armenian.
Persian ruler has trait “malevolent” and/or “cruel”.
Persian capital = Isfahan(?)
“We have had enough of these rebellious Armenians. It is time to end their resistance once and for all.”
We will lay the land waste and force them to resettle in a new suburb of our capital.
>Nakhchivan province loses 3/3/3 development. Receives Scorched Earth modifier, gains 100% devastation. -10 unrest in Nakhchivan.
>Gain +1 merchant. +3/3/0 development in Isfahan province. Isfahan gains “Inland Centre of Trade” modifier until the end of the game.
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If I’ve got the wrong end of the stick, please can the devs let me know.
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