Thanks for the support!

I do love kingdom builders

_ How to hold a government/faction together (in direct response to the youtube video "The Rules for Rulers" from author of 'Enlightened empire', though some other part he didn't mention below are still valid there) : ----------- || 1) Distribute things of value among the people who guarantee you power, including generals, priests, businessmen (that's the content of the video) --------------------------------------------------------------- 2) However, besides money, there is a good number of other valuables which can be distributed by a ruler. Those can include, but are not limited to: prestige, land (as in european feudalism), education and political power (as in much of ancient china). -------------------------- 3) If you distribute among your entire population, or most of your population, evenly, it means that the ruler won't be dependent on the support from a few individuals. That's the reason for the original creation of bureaucracy and leads to either absolute monarchies or democracies. Both systems are fantastically stable and let the rulers work without outside interference, but only so long as the people of the countries are doing well. As soon as there is some economic trouble you might risk a coup. ----------------------------------------------------------------- This isn't a response to the video directly, but here is a more general way to keep a country stable/avoid revolutions: --------------------------- There are two basic factors to guarantee a country's stability: ------------- 1) Common Goods: A common good is something which costs money to provide and benefits everyone in the country. At the most basic level, that includes external and internal security (army, police and courts) as well as roads and other infrastructure. If a government fails to provide these basic common goods which were provided before, the government is in trouble. ------------------------------------------------- 2) Wealth: If people lose hope, they will start a revolt to improve their lives. This happens if too many people in a population fall below a level of wealth where they can support their basic needs (food, clothes, shelter) and in systems where most people see no hope for an improved life in the future. The second point is more nebulous, so I'll give two examples: In 91 BC, the Roman Empire fought a war on the Italian peninsula against other Italian cities (called the Social War). The reason: The Italians outside of Rome were barely allowed to take part in the spoils from roman conquest. They also wanted to be Roman citizens with the same rights, to get the chance to become senator for example. At the end of the war, Rome allowed their Italian cities roman citizenship and there were no other uprisings like this. This sort of practice actually had a great impact on roman policy, even slaves, or their children, could become free citizens under certain circumstances within the system. It is one of the reasons the giant Roman Empire stayed so stable for so long despite all the different cultures unified in it. Maybe a bit controversial, but the American dream looks very much like this sort of strategy to stabilize a country, especially the repeated assertion that anyone can become rich in America so long as they work hard enough. (credit: Sociable Hermit)

Here is some video name on youtube for more idea about ruling and politic: -------------------------------------------------------------------- _ How To Do Politics ----------------------------------------------------- _ The Problem with Foreign Aid ( Note: a solution near the end, but one factor prevent it) --------------------------------------------------------- _ Alexander the Great: Logistics (Note: a lot of people underestimate the logistics thing here, no army can fight/conquering while they are starving, especially in medieval time, and the video show some good medieval solution for this, some fact still relevant to today)-------------- _ The Art of War - Sun Tzu - An Animated Book Summary (read some comments for more advice, and one good modern strategy comment): -- + There is a lot that can be done militarily before nukes are used Drone assassination, freezing of assets, using tanks and infantry, blocking trade routes with a navy, placing trade embargoes on countries, training and supplying resistance organizations, using soft power to influence the citizens to stop supporting their government. _ I recommend you check the game 'Rebel inc' for more idea in nation building and how to deal the terrorist in newly conquered region here. It pretty realistic enough for lot of idea