we started the memegame at the very last day of eu(v-1) by missing the crown jewels of the new world: mexico and peru, ripped from our grasp by those pesky independence movements. all that remains loyal are the ever-faithful cubans and... uruguayans. ¡qué vergüenza!
but that's le not even the worst of it.
back in europe, the revolution devours its children, and then points the guillotine at us. france, bloated with liberty and a disgustingly beefy army, rivals us and inflicts a permanent –5 prestige anually, unless we march in and crush their revolutionary dreams. easier said than done when your army is made up of tobacco farmers with pitchforks and three years of unpaid wages. to add salt to our colonial wounds, british privateers are prowling the trade nodes like sharks, leeching off every ducat we try to squeeze from seville. bloody pirates.
but not all is lost. in our darkest hour, two humble coal mines glimmer in the night. the last hope to industrialize our way out of irrelevance. españa, once mistress of the world, now hangs by a thread of soot and smoke.