Attaining the Throne: Rise

Disclaimer: This article contains satirical elements for the purpose of entertainment.

Attaining the Throne (I): Growing the Nation

Attaining the Throne (II): Ruthless

Attaining the Throne (III): Blood Sweat and Tears

Recap:

Last week, you gained control of platforms within your nation which you can use to brainwash individuals with, while also cultivating a rising patriotism for your nation. Your economy is bolstered by the continuing development of business and commerce with other nations.

At this point, you are in control of your nation, but here’s the thing: to attain the throne, you must be able to control things outside of your sovereign borders. Today, that is what we are doing.

Step 9: Military & Diplomatic Grasp on Surrounding Trade Routes

Way back in Attaining the Throne: Ruthless, you built a sizable army which can be used to defend your borders, this army consisted mainly of rockets to deter enemy aircraft and heavy artillery used to defend against ground attacks. Also, you managed to secure a few close allies whom you have almost absolute control over, possibly because they are extremely dependent on you for whatever reason. However, if you want to become a global superpower, this is far from enough. Below are some of the most basic requirements for a strong military power.

Firstly, you must be able to carry out offensive operations to sabotage or destroy enemy bases, this means that you need stealth aircraft, as well as an army branch much like the US marines. Without this, you cannot take out any major nation’s military.

Secondly, you must have the capability to invade a city. This means you need tanks, well-equipped foot soldiers, and capability for airstrikes and artillery bombardment. Without this, you cannot assert any military dominance whatsoever.

Thirdly, you must have enough trained soldiers, equipment, and supplies stationed on your nation’s borders to hold off a flat out attack until help (the rest of your military - the artillery, rockets, and armed vehicles) arrives. Without this, you cannot afford to engage in military conflict.

All of this is going to cost a lot of money, and this is where all the entrepreneuring comes in. If you did not have these domestic businesses, it would be very hard to gain any substantial sums of money. Though your citizens pay tax, that’s not enough, you need companies making tens of billions of dollars every year in order to keep up federal spending.

At this point, you can steadily take away the huge incentives given to domestic businesses, and instead start raising corporate taxes. You couldn’t afford to do this in the past because they hadn’t taken root in the market yet, and if tax rates rise, they may not profit as much, which will inhibit its growth. However, that is no longer the case, the domestic market has matured, and it is time to start sucking money out of it.

Moving on, with this newfound source of income, your nation can start heavily investing in the military. However, purely money is not enough, your citizens must be willing to join. Remember the brainwashing platforms you took over last week? Well, you can make the news platforms focus on reporting the acts of other nations which can be interpreted as signs of aggression, and exaggerating these. In addition, you may also educate your new generations about the other forces in the world that are just waiting for the chance to destroy you. In other words, you spread fear. Tell them of the consequences, of how their peaceful, lovely, and prosperous lives will be destroyed if we don’t defend our home well, tell them of the horrors it will bring. Often, fear and a common enemy unites people very well.

With the prerequisites - a population willing to fight and money ready to be spent - met, we can develop the army towards the goals I have mentioned.

Step 10: Making Alliances with those in Control of Quintessential Trade Routes

Having an army, a stable economy is all well and good, but what’s the point if the raw materials needed to fuel the aforementioned two are not obtainable? For example, if fossil fuel lines are cut, how will your tanks be powered? You need to anticipate these obstacles if you want to surpass the most powerful nations. When it comes to it, they will create blockades to halt all imports to you. In these cases, you cannot force open these blockades by raining missiles onto them, because that will just give them an excuse to invade you, which you will struggle to fend off. The better idea is to have the weaker trade route nations prevent this blockage themselves, because that way, whether or not there is armed conflict, it wouldn’t be on your soil.

What you must do here is to gain extremely firm military and economic alliances with those countries. First of all, make them depend on the wellbeing of your economy. With your current economic stature, you should be exporting and importing in enormous quantities, which means that the nations who control the trade routes or sources of trade should already be making a lot of profit off you, but that isn’t enough.

These trade nations must be very developed in terms of communication and transportation in order to function, and you will help them achieve that. Allow them to use your advanced manufacturing facilities and purchase your technology at a large discount, and even help them install key systems. The trade nation would gain huge benefits from this, constantly keeping an edge over its competitors by having low production costs and cheaper, more efficient services courtesy of you.

It doesn’t end here, you can also offer military technology to them, as well as stationing some of your army within their borders for protection against external dangers.

Now, apply this to as many trade nations you can utilise in times of emergency as possible. This way, if some do decide to turn on you, or get involved in conflict, you will not be left without a plan B. However, one thing to note is that the more military you invest in your neighbours, the less you have on your own soil, so be careful not to spread your butter too thin.

At the end of this step, you would have secure trade routes spider-webbing from your nation, giving you access to all that the world has to offer. You would not be extremely dependent on any one of them, because you have others to back your supplies up. In the case of emergency, whether diplomatic or military, you can be sure that the raw materials you need will always be delivered.

It has been four weeks and ten steps since this series has begun, and we are almost ready to usurp the throne. At this point, you possess the capacity to threaten smaller nations with your military, as well as the strength necessary to defend against military superpowers. In addition, the resources necessary for the functioning of your nation cannot be taken away without the enemy suffering huge losses and risks. You are now strong enough to take on the strongest of forces around the world with ease. The one thing standing in your way is your biggest rival, the contender to beat, Country X (a country with the power equivalent of the current United States).

To be continued…