Plan for Zanj

[Incompetent]

I don't think anyone else has taken this up, so I'll write down some of my ideas. Zanj won't be a 'major', but it ought to be interesting to play in SP.

The word 'Swahili' comes from Arabic, meaning 'people of the coast', and it's an apt description. The Swahili culture and language emerged among trading towns along the East African coast, and even today most Swahilis live within a few miles of the Indian Ocean. From the start therefore, this is a culture which is unusually urban, coastal and trade-oriented. Swahilis are well-travelled by 1419, with merchants as far afield as China, and even those who haven't left Africa will probably have met someone who has.

In 1419, there is no Swahili country, but rather a collection of independent Sultanates. But these rarely fight each other, given the effect the resulting blockades would have on trade. (Hence the various sultanates will be abstracted as a single state, to prevent fighting.) Instead, the Swahilis have decided what is best for business is neutrality and non-interference in the matters of kings, and this has allowed them access to many ports where merchants of more aggressive states are not welcome.


Early history

As I say, Zanj is not really a state in 1419. As such, any control the player has is as the 'spirit of the Swahilis', and events will generally be flavour. There'll be a generic monarch, with decent ADM but DIP and MIL, and no leaders. Zanj will start with:
- Fairly good maps, allowing them to trade in several Indian Ocean COTs, and to TP up and down the coast and a few islands. At any rate Zanj will NOT suffer an isolation penalty as it does in vanilla.
- Muslim tech
- Sunni religion and provinces (maybe not all the Swahilis were Muslim by 1419, but the rulers certainly would have been)
- A 'capital' and COT in Kilwa

Initial slider positions:
Fully Decentralised (and early on, this will be enforced!)
Moderately Aristocratic (but not as much as most countries)
Fully Naval
Moderately Innovative
Quite Defensive
Low Quality
...


Europeans arrive

Historically, the Swahilis were conquered by the Portuguese in 1509. The Europeans may come later, but at any rate they're going to find a poorly-defended collection of trading ports a juicy target. There'll be several copies of this event sequence, one for each likely European invader.

Through a mixture of bullying and bribery, the Europeans secure control of one of the Sultanates, and then proceed to try to subvert the rest one by one. When a city doesn't succumb to such means, they send in the troops. As Zanj is not a single state, this doesn't stop until the different cities are forced to make a united stand, which leads to war with the European power.

The Swahili are neither numerous nor warlike, and their forces ought to be dwarfed by the Europeans. This is supposed to be a difficult fight (though I'm sure European AIs will mess up here). If they lose badly, Zanj will be vassalised, and the COT transferred to the European-owned province.

If however the Swahilis win and drive out the Europeans, they will still have learnt a harsh lesson. To protect against outside threats, they must work together. A great assembly is organised in Kilwa, the sultanate whose resistance led to the war and which played the biggest part in winning it, and the delegates agree to coordinate on various matters, from combatting piracy to setting up missions abroad. In this way they take the first steps towards a single state.


Mutazelism

Mutazelite missionaries are bound to arrive in Zanj sooner or later. Mutazelism fits well into pragmatic and innovative Swahili culture, and by default the Zanj convert relatively quickly to the new sect.

Following the arrival of Islam in Zanj, the madrassa became an extremely popular institution, and the merchants and nobles were highly educated by the standards of the day, even within the Muslim world. But the madrassas were rather small, and were not well equipped for advanced study. With the conversion to Mutazelism, the thirst for knowledge was greater than ever, and so Swahili scholars from along the coast gather in Kilwa to found a great University (Fine Arts Academy), the first in sub-Saharan Africa. (It should probably have a snazzy Arabic name of some sort.) Over time the University becomes one of the most important in the Muslim world, attracting scholars from as far afield as al-Andalus.

(What do Mutazelites think of slavery? Does it depend on whether the slaves are Muslim? This may be an issue late in the game.)

Expansion into the interior

The provinces 'behind' the Swahili coast aren't really ruled by Zanj, they just have TPs to represent trade in Africa. But this may change as Zanj's population grows. The people further inland are not Swahili, generally not Muslim, and often a lot more warlike than the Swahili. Conflicts with these people could be represented by revolts and RR, but if they are assimilated they could be a useful supply of manpower to Zanj.

 

[MattyG]

First, an excellent write-up, Incompetant. I wish all contributors began with this kind of approach. (That goes for me too, I guess). You are your eloquent, balanced self throughout.

In 1419, there is no Swahili country, but rather a collection of independent Sultanates. But these rarely fight each other, given the effect the resulting blockades would have on trade. (Hence the various sultanates will be abstracted as a single state, to prevent fighting.) Instead, the Swahilis have decided what is best for business is neutrality and non-interference in the matters of kings, and this has allowed them access to many ports where merchants of more aggressive states are not welcome.


Early history

As I say, Zanj is not really a state in 1419. As such, any control the player has is as the 'spirit of the Swahilis', and events will generally be flavour. There'll be a generic monarch, with decent ADM but DIP and MIL, and no leaders. Zanj will start with:
- Fairly good maps, allowing them to trade in several Indian Ocean COTs, and to TP up and down the coast and a few islands. At any rate Zanj will NOT suffer an isolation penalty as it does in vanilla.
- Muslim tech
- Sunni religion and provinces (maybe not all the Swahilis were Muslim by 1419, but the rulers certainly would have been)
- A 'capital' and COT in Kilwa

Looks like they ought to commence with Trade level 2 as well. And probably also Naval at maybe 4 or above. Their Muslim tech group will prevent them have Man o Wars too early, but the higher naval will be appropriate for an ocean-travelling culture. Otherwise their traders will know about China, but their ships won't make it past the coast .

Initial slider positions:
Fully Decentralised (and early on, this will be enforced!)
Moderately Aristocratic (but not as much as most countries)
Fully Naval
Moderately Innovative
Quite Defensive
Low Quality

Forcing the Decentralized is a simple matter of events triggering of the centralization level, of course. But because of the deterministic nature of this, we'll probably want a Jan 1st note to the player about how the Zanj political reality is modelled in the limited tools of EU2 and what this means for them as a player. Basically wanring them agains wasting their DP sliders on too many shifts toward centralized and away from Naval.

Europeans arrive

Historically, the Swahilis were conquered by the Portuguese in 1509. The Europeans may come later, but at any rate they're going to find a poorly-defended collection of trading ports a juicy target. There'll be several copies of this event sequence, one for each likely European invader.

Through a mixture of bullying and bribery, the Europeans secure control of one of the Sultanates, and then proceed to try to subvert the rest one by one. When a city doesn't succumb to such means, they send in the troops. As Zanj is not a single state, this doesn't stop until the different cities are forced to make a united stand, which leads to war with the European power.

The Swahili are neither numerous nor warlike, and their forces ought to be dwarfed by the Europeans. This is supposed to be a difficult fight (though I'm sure European AIs will mess up here). If they lose badly, Zanj will be vassalised, and the COT transferred to the European-owned province.

This will require some very nifty coding if it's going to play out like that. Have you had a look at the Kucth Company file? (Has anyone ... )The Companies of Trade concept could work here, because it makes some of the benefits of the non-traditional approach (attack, conquer) more explicit.

If however the Swahilis win and drive out the Europeans, they will still have learnt a harsh lesson. To protect against outside threats, they must work together. A great assembly is organised in Kilwa, the sultanate whose resistance led to the war and which played the biggest part in winning it, and the delegates agree to coordinate on various matters, from combatting piracy to setting up missions abroad. In this way they take the first steps towards a single state.

A common (and inevitable) theme when we aberrate the colonized parts of the world. The cultures that will survive the European onslaught must learn lessons that, in the Real World History, the effectively did not. (Not criticizing any culture here ...).

One thing you might want to consider, Incompetant, is building in a little variety. Perhaps there can be two potential Zanjs. The one you describe, a vanilla version I guess, and one where the player and (12% of the time) the AI takes Zanj down a different route early on. One wherein a significant figure centralizes them more early on and brings earlier dramatic change to the political landscape. Resulting in a more organised, less defensive, Zanj by the time the Europeans arrive. There would be a price, of course, such as a slower increate to the orthodox tech group that a vanilla Zanj might earn. Or losing the opportunity to go Mutazelite (whose logical nature might be the precursor to gaining orthodox tech).

Mutazelism

Mutazelite missionaries are bound to arrive in Zanj sooner or later. Mutazelism fits well into pragmatic and innovative Swahili culture, and by default the Zanj convert relatively quickly to the new sect.

At the moment, Cordoba is the key to Mutazelism and if it gets rejected there (12% chance through three successive events, I think) then it basically dies throughout the Islamic world. We would model that, if Mutazelism succeeds in Cordoba, they arrive by the 1520s or so. But, if Cordoba rejects Mutazelism, some of the imams and scholars make their way into exile to Zanj, and it can actually occur there EARLIER. Thoughts, Calipah?[/QUOTE]

Following the arrival of Islam in Zanj, the madrassa became an extremely popular institution, and the merchants and nobles were highly educated by the standards of the day, even within the Muslim world. But the madrassas were rather small, and were not well equipped for advanced study. With the conversion to Mutazelism, the thirst for knowledge was greater than ever, and so Swahili scholars from along the coast gather in Kilwa to found a great University (Fine Arts Academy), the first in sub-Saharan Africa. (It should probably have a snazzy Arabic name of some sort.) Over time the University becomes one of the most important in the Muslim world, attracting scholars from as far afield as al-Andalus.

And if they survive the Europeans, they advance to the orthodox tech group by, say 1600?

Expansion into the interior

The provinces 'behind' the Swahili coast aren't really ruled by Zanj, they just have TPs to represent trade in Africa. But this may change as Zanj's population grows. The people further inland are not Swahili, generally not Muslim, and often a lot more warlike than the Swahili. Conflicts with these people could be represented by revolts and RR, but if they are assimilated they could be a useful supply of manpower to Zanj.

And, sadly, nothing will stop players or the ai from turning those TPs into colonies, but, we could model it with events, again. Such that, if province xxx is owned by Zanj, it changes culture to (non-Swahili). The trick is getting said events to not fire until those provinces are cities, otherwise the very next colonist will change it back to Swahili again. Damn, I wish the provinceculture trigger actually worked ....



Great stuff, Incompetant.

 

[Incompetent]

Looks like they ought to commence with Trade level 2 as well. And probably also Naval at maybe 4 or above. Their Muslim tech group will prevent them have Man o Wars too early, but the higher naval will be appropriate for an ocean-travelling culture. Otherwise their traders will know about China, but their ships won't make it past the coast .

That depends on how much we're moving techs around generally. I'd be in favour of moving a lot of starting land/naval techs up to model the real technology gaps that were already present in 1419.

But because of the deterministic nature of this, we'll probably want a Jan 1st note to the player about how the Zanj political reality is modelled in the limited tools of EU2 and what this means for them as a player. Basically wanring them agains wasting their DP sliders on too many shifts toward centralized and away from Naval.

Yep.

This will require some very nifty coding if it's going to play out like that. Have you had a look at the Kucth Company file? (Has anyone ... )The Companies of Trade concept could work here, because it makes some of the benefits of the non-traditional approach (attack, conquer) more explicit.

If you know which European power is involved, it's quite easy. The difficulties are having to make lots of duplicate event series, and also how you determine the point at which Europeans arrive. How does 'discovered' work?

A common (and inevitable) theme when we aberrate the colonized parts of the world. The cultures that will survive the European onslaught must learn lessons that, in the Real World History, the effectively did not. (Not criticizing any culture here ...).

In Zanj's case, there probably wasn't much they could do even if they had learnt the lessons of history. The Swahilis weren't that numerous (indeed, thre are only a few hundred thousand of them around today), and their coastal position meant they were doomed as soon as the mighty Portuguese fleet showed up. I'm going to help the Europeans a fair amount if they're AI, because it really should be an easy fight for them. But who knows what could happen in the EU2 engine?

One thing you might want to consider, Incompetant, is building in a little variety. Perhaps there can be two potential Zanjs. The one you describe, a vanilla version I guess, and one where the player and (12% of the time) the AI takes Zanj down a different route early on. One wherein a significant figure centralizes them more early on and brings earlier dramatic change to the political landscape. Resulting in a more organised, less defensive, Zanj by the time the Europeans arrive. There would be a price, of course, such as a slower increate to the orthodox tech group that a vanilla Zanj might earn. Or losing the opportunity to go Mutazelite (whose logical nature might be the precursor to gaining orthodox tech).

Maybe, but with the Zanj as they are it's not very likely. A powerful leader could emerge who conquers or co-opts the other Sultanates, but the resulting state would be much more 'conventional' and less interesting to Aberrate.

Not everyone has to make a key decision in the 15th century. As I see it, Zanj will already have some 'pivotal' events later on:
- whether to convert to Mutazelism
- whether to continue to focus on trade, or settle further inland and shift to agriculture and mining
- what to do about the non-Swahilis in their midst: slaves, hostile tribes, etc

There's another possibility, and while it's not the 'A choice' it's pretty likely under AI control: Zanj loses to the Europeans. This is a terrible blow, but it isn't the end of the Swahili story, as they'd be vassalised, not annexed (if nothing else, a Christian player would balk at the stab costs of absorbing all of Zanj). The Swahilis find common cause with others who have lost out to the Europeans in the Indian Ocean trade, such as Lanka and the Caliphate. If Zanj throws off the occupation with foreign help, they may still unify, but they'll have debts of loyalty to other powers that may be repaid later. For example, if the Caliphate is instrumental in Zanj's freedom, they're going to lean on the Zanj states to outlaw Mutazelism. Lanka would be a more equal partner to Zanj, and the two could form a pact to keep Europeans out of the Indian Ocean. The Buddhists and the Muslims might influence each other religiously as well, especially if Zanj is Mutazelite.

At the moment, Cordoba is the key to Mutazelism and if it gets rejected there (12% chance through three successive events, I think) then it basically dies throughout the Islamic world. We would model that, if Mutazelism succeeds in Cordoba, they arrive by the 1520s or so. But, if Cordoba rejects Mutazelism, some of the imams and scholars make their way into exile to Zanj, and it can actually occur there EARLIER. Thoughts, Calipah?

The Mutazelites could end up in Zanj if Cordoba kicks them out. But I think Zanj is too weak to try to become the world's only Mutazelite country, so the default in this case would be to keep Sunni as the state religion.

And if they survive the Europeans, they advance to the orthodox tech group by, say 1600?

Yep. We need to look at the tech paradigm generally of Latin-tech Europeans and Muslim or lower-tech Africans and Asians, and there should probably be global tech-shifting as well as in specific countries.

And, sadly, nothing will stop players or the ai from turning those TPs into colonies, but, we could model it with events, again. Such that, if province xxx is owned by Zanj, it changes culture to (non-Swahili). The trick is getting said events to not fire until those provinces are cities, otherwise the very next colonist will change it back to Swahili again. Damn, I wish the provinceculture trigger actually worked ....

Province RR will do nicely. It'll only have any effect if there are cities there But there is a wider question of linking inland expansion with events. Probably the best we can do is to make these provinces more desirable if the player chooses to develop the interior in events, and/or make them cities by adding population. If the player puts cities there but doesn't pursue the interior development events, the resulting cities will be revolt-prone, of relatively little value, and they'll have been a lot of work to colonise thanks to bad CDMs.

 

[TheArchduke]

Nice idea about Zanj.

But, I don´t see a need for events to show the conquest by the Europeans.

Either they do it through the game mechanics or they don´t. There should be no event creation for the sake of doing events except for some flavour and some very basic story.

 

[unmerged(31994)]

(Fine Arts Academy), the first in sub-Saharan Africa. (It should probably have a snazzy Arabic name of some sort.) Over time the University becomes one of the most important in the Muslim world, attracting scholars from as far afield as al-Andalus.

(What do Mutazelites think of slavery? Does it depend on whether the slaves are Muslim? This may be an issue late in the game.)

Salamallah would be a good name for a university meaning "Peace of God".

Mutazelites historically were aloaf and elitist in nature, so all their writings are mostly directed on attacking theologies and scientific treatise.Honestly, we dont know their views on slavery, but I can however tell you that most of them kept Roman Slaves (not because they were Christians, but because they were educated) and most of those Rum slaves were eventually freed by their masters.

I assume there would be trouble regarding this issue in al-Andalus too.It's something which slipped my mind!Andalusian nobles and even middle class folks needed slaves to attend to well...everything.I would say under the Shepered King some sort of decree banning slavery could occur?Revolts and anger from Muslim nobles and at the same time, slight increases in populace in several regions (to represent freed slaves).This may have similar effects throughout the Islamic world?

 

[MattyG]

Salamallah would be a good name for a university meaning "Peace of God".

Mutazelites historically were aloaf and elitist in nature, so all their writings are mostly directed on attacking theologies and scientific treatise.Honestly, we dont know their views on slavery, but I can however tell you that most of them kept Roman Slaves (not because they were Christians, but because they were educated) and most of those Rum slaves were eventually freed by their masters.

I assume there would be trouble regarding this issue in al-Andalus too.It's something which slipped my mind!Andalusian nobles and even middle class folks needed slaves to attend to well...everything.I would say under the Shepered King some sort of decree banning slavery could occur?Revolts and anger from Muslim nobles and at the same time, slight increases in populace in several regions (to represent freed slaves).This may have similar effects throughout the Islamic world?

Well, those are some great ideas about Cordoba. It's also an issue that needs to be tackled more broadly in Aberration II and in EU2 generally. It needs its own thread and someone to come up with an Aberrated history of Slavery. Tough stuff. Gulp.