Civilization at it's finest

Study Blog for a Western Civilization class, featuring Civilization 5.

[thecivtoendallcivs]

Population

Population grows and declines for a variety of reasons, in real life and partially in Civilization 5.

Partially in game because while population increases over time, decrease is more or less impossible save for your cities being destroyed by other civilizations. However, while the population won’t decline, the happiness will. In game, the citizens of cities produce ‘unhappiness’, which means the more people that live in your cities, the more unhappiness there is. If your cities are too unhappy, your growth and production slow down and eventually come to a near halt and can even revolt against you as a leader. As unhappiness gets worse and worse, more of your empire will turn on you. If you can’t keep the population happy, they population will be your downfall.

While not completely accurate to real life, since our population can decline for many reasons, even the revolts are starting to feel far-fetched. Gone are the days that in the United States that rioting was a viable way to pave the way for change. Population fluctuates, and so does our happiness. At this point, we’re told the be the change we want to make in the country, but if we embody that change we so desperately want, we’re shut down and put away. Rather, as a white gay man, my whiteness makes it less likely to get arrested while being gay makes it more likely for me to be shunned or looked down upon.

If life was more like Civilization 5, would we still have a president like we do now in 2019? Or are the naysayers the minority, and would we have someone even more intensely disliked as president now?

Though, one thing is eerily similar between the game and real life. In game, you can make distractions for your citizens. You can add circuses, theatres, art museums, and all sorts of fun buildings that build happiness and cause distraction. If your citizens are distracted, you can more easily carry out dastardly deeds that would normally upset your citizens.

This happens in real life. If the president does something reprehensible-- oh, don’t worry! Look at the funny tweets. Lest we forget:

The internet was in an uproar laughing over this tweet, while another long forgotten negative deed was happening in the background. But it’s okay, right? Since we all got to laugh at ‘covfefe’?

[thecivtoendallcivs]

Religion

Religion is a broad and ever expanding topic around the world, with discussions of faith bringing people together and tearing people apart. Love and peace have been brought through faith, yet wars and destruction have been brought as well. Something that’s supposed to be comfort, to make people feel happy and in their place in the world, can also make people feel alone and deserted.

In Civilization 5, religion can play a key role in world domination and keeping your own civilization afloat. While having a dominant world religion isn’t a victory in itself, it will certainly help toward winning the game. For every four followers of a religion the player has founded, the player will get one gold per turn. If the player is able to spread their religion thoroughly, the gold will add up and make other tasks a breeze. Interestingly enough, if the player suggests making their religion the world religion, the other civilizations will get angry if they don’t share the same belief.

This ties in to the real world as well. The more followers a church has, the more money they’ll receive in offerings. With more offerings, the church can afford to either better the church itself or line their own pockets. Not only that, but the pressure of competing with other religions can be tense. If too many people from a different faith crowd the area of a dominant faith, people get mad.

To put it outright, Christians and Catholics can be very whiny when someone doesn’t believe in the same God as them.

In Civilization 5, civilizations will even go to war if angered enough by religion. Though they aren’t outright called Holy Wars, that may as well be where it starts. This makes it really strange to think about. It’s clearly an exaggeration, right? That’s what I’d like to think, but in reality, people hold religious beliefs so dearly that entire countries go to war over such simple yet fundamental disagreements.

Something tells me the God(s) wouldn’t be too pleased with all the violence, greed, and death.

[thecivtoendallcivs]

Industrialization -- Steam Engine

Industrialization is a key factor of getting ahead in Civilization 5, as access to steam power and more fighting units makes conquering the world an easier task as time goes on. With access to steam power, travelling across the world becomes easier as well. Flight and railroads are now usable, and the naval units/water transportation already in use get bonus speed as they’re updated with the steam engine.

Much like in game, the steam engine did wonders for travel when it first came into creation. The introduction of railroads made extreme economic and social change in the United States along with various other countries such as Great Britain. Trade and travel went from taking long hours and long days to being condensed and shortened to a mere couple of hours instead. Railroads were an important contribution in the industrial era.

However, in Civilization 5, the pacing for the steam engine is what I’d consider wonky. Immediately, all the ships at your disposal are updated with the steam engine, which realistically I’d say should take at least a full turn afterwards based on the years that pass. Not only that, but once railroads are unlocked to construct, it takes a relatively long time to build a useful route with them, when in history railroads were built quickly with the booming revelation of their usefulness. In that sense I find it rather backwards that steam engines are immediately applied to ships but railroads are long and daunting to complete, just as the roads are at the beginning of the game.

Overall, the decision to make the game function this way was probably to make it more fun and challenging for the player, so the inaccuracies are forgivable. Given the context of roads taking a few turns to build, the railroads are a forgivable inaccuracy.

[thecivtoendallcivs]

Alexander The Great

Alexander the Great, one of the greatest conquerors of all time, spending around seventeen years across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Due to being the son of King Phillip the second, Alexander had access to not only the best care, but also the best education. Aristotle was even his tutor. At only age twenty, Alexander became the Macedonian king. Upon becoming king, he had anyone that was potential to the throne murdered.

Along with being lucky to have resources at his disposal, Alexander turned out to be a genius military strategist, often with the odds greatly stacked against him and winning anyway. In seven years, he conquered more than anyone else had before him. When he died, no ordinary man could hold together what Alexander accomplished, and his empire divided into the hands of his generals.

In Civilization 5, Alexander the Great has special units tailored to his strategies, called Hopilites and Companion Calvary. Along with having these two special units, as an opposing force in the game, Alexander tends to be hostile. If the player attempts to ally with city-states that Alexander is allied with, he’ll become aggressive, showing just how territorial he can be. Not only that, but his way of winning is either by domination or being diplomatic.

Those winning styles reflect on the actual Alexander, who was great at domination, and also great at being a diplomat. The aggression also ties in to how Alexander was able to conquer pretty much the entire known world at the time, as Alexander in game will try to defeat just about every civilization he comes into contact with. This helps spread his civilization quickly and strong across the map.

Another tie in with Alexander being diplomatic is that, as a perk, his player character has a slower degrade of relationship with the city-states, and he’s able to recover with them faster as well.

While the aggression may be a little exaggerated, the Alexander portrayed in the game is relatively accurate as far as a game will go.

[historyteacherinfrance]

Quarrying of Stonehenge 'bluestones' dated to 3000 BC

Excavations at two quarries in Wales, known to be the source of the Stonehenge 'bluestones', provide new evidence of megalith quarrying 5,0

[thecivtoendallcivs]

Renaissance

In Civilization 5, the Renaissance Era is the fourth era you can enter in game. Known as the era of exploration, this is when astronomy and ocean travel become possibilities. For me, this is by far the longest era in the game, whether it’s because I just can’t get past it or that the game ends too early.

The European Renaissance was a time of rebirth and rediscovery of classical art, philosophy, and literature, taken place around the fourteenth through the seventeenth century. Many famous works of art came from this era, such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

Just like in actual history, the Renaissance Era in the game is an incredible explosion of science and art. This critical era can pave the way for the player to win with a cultural victory, or maybe even the science victory.

In addition to having similarities with the rapid expansion of art and science, one of the unlocked buildings in the game is the Theatre, which brings happiness to your citizens. Theatre became popular during the Renaissance, with the first permanent ones being built in the sixteenth century. William Shakespeare, who’s known as the greatest writer of the English language, made his works and productions during this time.

Not everything is similar in game, though. From a logical standpoint, it’s a bit absurd.

While certain buildings known as wonders in the game can be built by any civilization so long as no one else has built it yet, these wonders are in very specific places in the real world. Playing as Alexander the Great, I was able to build Stonehenge* in Athens when it’s actually in UK. The Grand Canyon, Taj Mahal, and many other historical buildings and cites can be built anywhere so long as the surroundings are right. Taj Mahal in Athens? Sure, why not!

This shows that the concepts of the Renaissance are similar, going through art, literature, science, and theatre, but that the actual construction of buildings and the like are vastly different.

*Side note, as of writing this, news reports say that the rocks from Stonehenge have been traced to quarries 150-180 miles away! How exciting. x x x

[thecivtoendallcivs]

Enlightenment

Enlightenment in Sid Meier’s Civilization 5 is a gameplay mechanic that can greatly boost your production in game. Not only is it easier to create Great People, your income also offers a boost along with your population.

The Enlightenment in the past is comparably similar.

In Europe hundreds of years ago, the Enlightenment played a large role in not only advancing the civilization artistically, but scientifically as well. The Enlightenment made it easier for men to express their ideas more openly with less consequences from the Church-- this isn’t to say the consequences were all gone. The Church was very much angered at the ideas these enlightened thinkers were throwing out to the masses.

Great People in Civ5 are extremely valuable, as they can help boost you to the ending of your choice. If I were to go for a cultural or scientific way of winning, I would want nothing more than Great Artists or Great Scientists. Great Prophets are also very useful, and I was delighted every time I got one.

Bouncing back to Europe, these great minds helped further the continent as well. From men such as Voltaire, Diderot, and Locke, or from some of the many other men, great ideas were sprung. Art was changed, science was changed, religion was changed. The Enlightenment was a time of growth and change, bringing forth hundreds of thousands of beautiful artworks among great leaps in science, especially in medical and astronomical fields.

I wouldn’t say that the in game Enlightenment is completely realistic, however, it has great resemblances and I enjoy the realism it does hold.