User Guide

56
on spiritual matters diverts a portion of your
budget away from investments into production
and trade technologies. This is reflected in the
Domestic Economy screen by applying a 20%
surcharge to the investment amounts required
to reach the next level of technology in those
two fields. You will also experience an increase
in the revolt risk of any province that does not
share the realm religion.
Once you have declared yourself the De-
fender of the Faith, you will retain the title
until your country either loses a war, or you
fail to win a war that you initiated. Wars can
end when one side surrenders to the other, or
when both sides agree to a cessation of hostili-
ties called a "white peace". If you surrender to
another country you will
cease to hold the De-
fender of the Faith title,
regardless of who started
the war. If you agree to
end a war in a white peace,
you will only lose the ti-
tle if you were the coun-
try that made the initial
declaration of war. If you
went to war as a result
of a request from one of
your allies, you will only
lose the title if your ally is
the country that initiated
the war. As we shall see in
the chapter on diplomacy,
an alliance leader can ar-
range a peace that affects
all of the members of his
alliance. If you are not
the leader in a war, it is
possible that a peace arranged by your alliance
leader could cause you to lose the title unex-
pectedly.
Domestic Government
Earlier, we looked at the way in which your rul-
er and court advisors contribute to your coun-
try. The court represents the ruling elite of the
nation, whereas the Domestic Government
represents the entire bureaucracy and structure
that runs the day-to-day business of the realm.
There are three distinct and important aspects
to your country’s government: the form of gov-
ernment currently used by the nation, the do-
mestic policies that the government has been
instructed to pursue, and any special “national
ideas” that will help to chart the course of the
nation through the decades. All three of these
are controlled from this page of the interface.
Form of Government
Near the top of the screen is a gold button that
indicates your country’s current form of gov-
ernment. There are 17 different types available
in Europa Universalis III,
each of which has its own
special bonuses and limi-
tations that we discuss in
detail in Appendix F. You
can also see the specific
information about your
current form of govern-
ment by hovering your
mouse over the button.
Each form of government
can be generally classi-
fied as being some sort of
variation of either a mon-
archy or a republic. The
important distinction be-
tween the two is whether
the form of government
has an elected or heredi-
tary head of state, which,
in turn, is the second of
two factors that deter-
mine whether a country is able to enter into a
“royal marriage” with another country.
It was common in this era of history for na-
tions to form bonds between one another by
arranging marriages between members of the
royal household. This often helped to improve
the relationship between realms; but could also
lead to a surprising number of issues in future