Hello, and happy Thursday. This is Victoria, Narrative Design Lead of Victoria 3, and today I will be covering the improvements made to the Culture system, and to our representation of nationalism. This diary will cover several areas of interest – Citizenship laws, cultures themselves, and the political movements tied to them. All of the features in this diary are included in the free Update 1.10.
Preface
It is the eternal misfortune of the Victoria 3 designer that one may, at any moment, face a task which sweeps one off one’s feet and deposits one in the midst of a centuries-old debate.
Any serious engagement with the topic of nationalism will inevitably force one to confront half a dozen difficult questions. What conditions permitted the rise of nationalism? How does one interpret the numerous premodern phenomena that invoke certain aspects of nationalism? How does one separate the claims nationalism makes about its nature from its actual nature? Why did the premodern mélange of regional, religious, or clan identities homogenise into what we call “national identity”? How does one define a “nation”, and how does one contend with all of the ambiguities which inevitably arise from that definition?
In Update 1.10’s portrayal of nationalism, we make certain abstractions and assumptions for gameplay purposes. Whilst the aforementioned questions were on our minds when developing these systems, we cannot claim to have settled them, nor can we claim to have developed the most accurate possible simulation of reality. The mechanical additions made in this update are limited in scope and developed with the themes of National Awakening in mind. When developing them, we did so with an eye to giving empires something to worry about, and nation-states tools with which to advance their position. Our secondary goals are to improve the strength of cultural movements in general, make nationalism feel like a genuine force in the world, and model the distinction between subjects and citizens.
This update does not seek to implement the National Pride feature from Dev Diary #152. We feel that this feature should be implemented in a later update, when we will be able to provide it the full care and attention that it warrants.
Subjects and Citizens
What is nationalism, really? Nationalism is the ideology that the state should be the political instrument of the nation. A state constituted in this manner is referred to as a nation-state, and its political constituents are referred to as citizens. Nation-states may be contrasted with dynastic states, of which the Austrian Empire is a classical example. A dynastic state is one in which the state derives its legitimacy from its ruling dynasty, rather than from serving as political representative of any particular nation.
The “nation”, as a highly abstract concept, is more difficult to define. In antiquity, the word typically referred to groups of people with common ancestry and language, with the modern conception of the nation emerging only in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries. Definitions of “nation” upheld by nineteenth-century nationalists ranged from the “objective” conception, in which the nation is defined by characteristics inherent to people, such as blood, language, or lineage, to the “subjective” conception, in which the nation is defined by shared history and the voluntary affiliation of its members. Whilst these conceptions are often separated into “ethnic” and “civic” models of nationalism, nationalists of the period typically incorporated elements of both into their narratives. Even in famously “civic-nationalist” France, it is unlikely that the average nationalist ideologue would consider an Algerian to be a truly equal Frenchman.
For the purposes of Victoria 3, nations are synonymous with cultures, which are a property of pops. If a pop assimilates into a different culture, it may be said to have become a part of a different nation. Nation-states are countries with certain Citizenship laws that establish their primary cultures as the nations which serve as the state’s chosen constituency. To represent dynastic states such as Austria or the Qing Empire, we have implemented a new law – Subjecthood.
Under Subjecthood, the Acceptance of a pop is determined largely by where said pop lives. A country with Subjecthood grants pops of all cultures 30 Acceptance if they live on their homelands. Combined with No Colonial Affairs, which now also grants a bonus to Acceptance from homelands, one may increase this value to 40.
Subjecthood is the new default law for unrecognised powers and certain European countries that have not adopted the nation-state model. It is limited to Monarchies and Theocracies, and is strongly opposed by liberal interest groups and political movements. Subjecthood requires that the legitimacy of the state is derived from the sovereign, rather than from the consent of the governed – a notion inimical to liberalism.
The previously-existing Citizenship laws, ranging from Ethnostate to Multiculturalism, have been reframed to represent various definitions of citizenship. A country with a non-Subjecthood Citizenship law can be assumed to recognise the principle of popular sovereignty in some form – whether it be through the monarch claiming status as personification of the nation, or a republic ruled by representatives who claim to serve the popular will. We will take a closer look at the refurbished Citizenship laws when we cover the Cultural Traits Rework.
Cultural Fervour
Cultural Fervour is the measure of the national consciousness of a given culture. To reference Benedict Anderson’s conception of the nation in his Imagined Communities, it is a measure of the degree to which people of a given culture imagine a community shared by all who possess that culture.
Cultures in Victoria 3 are broad abstractions, encompassing thousands of local variations. If, in 1836, two people from Tyrol and Banat – both represented by the “South German” culture – were to meet, they would likely have some difficulty understanding one another, and notice marked differences in each others’ home lives. At a low level of Cultural Fervour, they would likely default to identifying by particular regions or whatever other identifiers they may hold dearest. As Cultural Fervour increases, however, they would be more inclined to refer to themselves as members of a nation, considering regional identity to be secondary to this sense of nationhood. The Tyrolean and the Banater thus become South Germans.
Cultural Fervour – Causes
Fervour is affected by numerous conditions, conveniently listed within the Fervour concept. All Fervour effects are applied based on how many pops of a given culture they apply to. For example, if 10% of South German pops live in a South German country with Ethnostate, and 90% live in a country with Subjecthood, the South German culture will receive +2 Fervour from laws in total. Likewise for literacy rates, the effects of Nationalism technologies, and others.
These conditions serve to abstract trends such as the development of a vernacular literary culture, the national mythologies that emerge around devastating conflicts, efforts by academics and state functionaries to construct a unifying history of a nation, and the role of public school systems in creating an “official” expression of a culture.
One may also note that many of these conditions depend upon the existence of an independent state with a given primary culture. An exclusionary nation-state which defines a clear in-group and out-group is the most powerful tool that a culture has to transform itself into a nation. A freshly independent state may find itself wishing to enact a highly restrictive Citizenship law in order to quickly raise the Fervour of its primary culture, and reap the benefits of a nationalistic populace both within and without its borders. Likewise, an empire which seeks to pacify a large population of a given culture would best keep a close eye on any country which has that primary culture, lest that country contribute to separatism within its borders.
A more complete example: A large number of Irish pops move to the United States, where they become literate and get recruited as Academics by University buildings. The Fervour of the Irish culture thus increases, and Great Britain experiences effects from increased Fervour amongst its Irish population – such as increased pop attraction and Activism from the Irish National Movement.
Cultural Fervour – Effects
The Fervour of a culture has effects on both pops and countries. Pops with high cultural fervour become resistant to Assimilation, and are more inclined to join Cultural Movements – both Majority and Minority. Cultural Minority Movements representing a culture with a high Fervour have bonuses to their baseline Activism. Coupled with the new Obstinance function of movements, this makes unappeased Cultural Minority movements much more impactful upon a country.
A high-Fervour primary culture serves as a boon to a country in times of war, and nudges domestic politics in a nationalistic direction. High Cultural Fervour on a primary culture reduces the rate at which War Support declines, and, under non-Subjecthood Citizenship laws, increases Liberty Desire gain.
Primary-culture Pops with high Cultural Fervour are more inclined to join Cultural Majority Movements – funneling them away from troublesome opposition political movements, pressuring their Interest Groups, and increasing the rate at which Ethno-Nationalist politicians appear. By maintaining discriminatory Citizenship laws, one may render the privileged sections of one’s populace politically inert.
Additionally, AI countries with high-Fervour primary cultures become more bold and aggressive when seeking to capture claims, seek independence from their overlords, or humiliate rivals. On the domestic front, they become more inclined to adopt a nationalist domestic political agenda.
Cultural Traits Rework
In Update 1.10, the discrimination traits possessed by each culture have been standardised. By default, each culture now has two traits – a Language trait and a Heritage trait. These traits are contained within larger Trait Groups. In effect, this means that each culture now has four traits of varying relevance, representing a culture’s closer and more distant relatives.
Cultures may also gain or lose Tradition traits, which represent traditional ties between cultures and provide bonus Acceptance. For example, the new Eastern German culture – representing Baltic and Volga Germans – possesses the Russosphere trait. The Russosphere trait is shared by Russians, Tatars, and others, meaning that Eastern Germans living in Russia will have much higher Acceptance than their North or South German cousins.
Religious traits have been updated to work in a similar way. The Catholic religion, for example, now has the Christian trait, which belongs to the Abrahamic trait group.
This system of traits and trait groups allows for laws to discriminate against cultures and religions incrementally more or less based on their proximity to the state religion or culture. The Citizenship and Church and State laws have been amended to incorporate this broader range of possibilities. In general, cultures with shared traits are more accepted than those with shared trait groups, which are more accepted than those with no commonalities at all.
Pictured: The five Citizenship laws, now refurbished.
Movement Additions
In Update 1.10, we have made several changes to political movements, with a special focus on identity-based movements. Our objective with these changes is to make identity-based movements feel like powerful actors which present a relevant threat to multi-national empires.
Obstinance
Since Update 1.8’s Political Movement rework, we have faced a persistent issue in which political movements have no “intermediate” state between passivity and insurrection. This issue especially affects cultural movements. In Update 1.10, cultural and religious movements will have a new, intermediate state – Obstinance.
Obstinance represents civil disobedience, and the formation of para-state structures amongst excluded communities in certain regions. Obstinance is distinct from Turmoil – radicals of a certain culture may contribute to Activism, but a pop does not need to be radical in order to contribute to Obstinance. The level of Obstinance generated by a movement is tied to its supporters, meaning that the most politically advanced sections of certain cultural or religious groups will tend to become Obstinate first. A culture without a political movement representing its interests is much less able to exert power than a fully organised one.
Any Cultural or Religious Movement that is made insurrectionary will also necessarily be Obstinate, weakening the state in the buildup to insurrection.
Pictured: Great Britain’s actions have angered the Irish National Movement, and they have responded by rendering Ireland ungovernable. Russia has made the same mistake in Poland.
Multiple movements at the same time are capable of causing Obstinance. Here, an Austria which has made several poor decisions is experiencing Obstinance from the Czech, Polish, and Italian national movements, all at the same time.
Historically, in the period following the Austro-Hungarian compromise and prior to the First World War, the Bohemian Diet was frequently gridlocked by conflicts between Czech and German nationalist parties, leading to the rise of para-state institutions. Following the dissolution of the Bohemian Diet by Imperial decree in 1913, these para-state bodies acquired more legitimacy than the Austrian administration in the region, culminating in Czech independence at the hands of the Czech National Committee. In game terms, Bohemia was rendered ungovernable by Obstinance generated by both German and Czech national movements. Similar phenomena repeated across the Austro-Hungarian crown lands, leading to the disintegration of the Empire.
Movement Spillover
Another improvement we have made to movements in Update 1.10 is allowing them to have effects over borders. A movement becoming Insurrectionary causes an uptick in Activism amongst all movements in neighbouring countries of the same type. For example, if a Polish National Movement in Russia becomes Insurrectionary, the Polish National Movements in Austria and Prussia will also see increased Activism.
This effect also applies to ideological movements – if a Communist movement in France becomes insurrectionary, neighbouring Communist movements in Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Germany will escalate their agitation. Additionally, ideological movements have an increased chance of spawning if its creation requirements are fulfilled, and a neighbouring country of higher Prestige also has this movement.
Other Changes
An astute observer may notice that new modifiers are present in the above Citizenship laws – Support Separatism Strength and Support Separatism Resistance. These modifiers pertain to the new Support Separatism diplomatic action.
The Support Separatism interaction is unlocked by researching Nationalism, and increases pop attraction and Activism of Cultural Minority Movements in the target country. The strength of this interaction is scaled by the difference between the Prestige of the initiating country and the target country, and any Support Separatism Strength/Resistance modifiers in play. As one can see above, Ethnostates have bonuses to the strength of Support Separatism, but are vulnerable to it in turn, whilst countries with Multiculturalism are more resilient to separatism at the cost of little ability to promote it in turn.
Support Separatism may be countered by expelling the initiating country’s diplomats, suppressing the affected movement, or enacting laws which reduce the movement’s Activism.
Pictured: Romania, which has enacted Ethnostate, is supporting separatism in Hungary. Its efforts are causing Obstinance amongst Romanian pops in Transylvania
To finish things off for today, we have improved the Promote National Values decree. It is now unlocked by researching the Nationalism technology, and may force pops living on their homelands to assimilate into the primary culture.
Conclusion
Update 1.9 and Charters of Commerce included a selection of features with great interoperability. This style of development, in which each mechanic interacts with every other mechanic, served as our objective for Update 1.10’s gameplay as well. Citizenship feeds into Fervour and Discrimination, which feed into Cultural Movements, which may induce Obstinance or kick off a powerful chain reaction of secessions. An aspiring nation-state is incentivised to increase its Fervour as much as possible, driving cracks into the great Empires through nationalist struggle. An empire finds itself in a careful balancing act, seeking to minimise Fervour and appease its various nationalities enough to avoid its territories being split by civil disobedience or secession.
To present one final example: The Ottoman Empire brings its Protectorate of Serbia into a war, leading to high casualties amongst Serbian pops. These casualties, coupled with the Serbian state’s efforts to educate its populace, raise Serbian Fervour, funneling Serbian pops in both the Ottoman Empire and Serbia into Cultural Movements and increasing the Liberty Desire of Serbia. If Serbia were to act on its increased Liberty Desire and launch an independence war against the Ottoman Empire, it would benefit from lower War Support decay. In between building its Liberty Desire and launching its war, Serbia may also use the Support Separatism action to further increase the Activism and pop attractiveness of the Serbian National Movement in the Ottoman Empire, possibly generating Obstinance in Ottoman territories or causing a Secession it is well-positioned to capitalise upon.
And that is all. Thank you for reading. Next week, I will return alongside the other designers to cover the free narrative content coming in Update 1.10.