Sultan of the Seas (An HPM Sulu AAR): Part 2: The End of the Dark Ages

One day, a new political party is founded in Sulu, the Radical Faction. It promotes the idea of the government just kind of going away and never coming back. Strangely, it does not take off.

The German governess from a fictional city urges Sultan Mohammad Pulalun Kiram to reform the government system. He agrees after some consideration.

The Thais have a bit of a tough break at the hands of the Burmese and the Vietnamese. Good; this will make it that much easier to liberate our Malay brethren from their evil grasps

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One day, a couple of Spanish merchants are overheard discussing world affairs. Of particular note is the fact that Austria is apparently kicking in the teeth of both Prussia and the British. Whoever they are.

The Bielefeld Broad, as she has started to be called throughout the court, is notably distressed over this news.

This event is great, really. You can either get more leadership while pissing off your population...

...or 10 prestige and pacify all soldiers and officers. Since we only have one army led by a capable enough man and there are zero navies worth worrying about in the area, and we're overflowing in leadership regardless, the choice is obvious. This is actually a really good event if you're aiming to reform the Durrani, especially, as it's one of the easiest prestige gains while uncivilised.

As expected, the Dutch come back to finish our work for us.

A result of the educational reform enacted previously is that foreign universities start to become more widespread throughout the Sultanate.

Chinese Jesus is doing his work

And the Qing find themselves slightly outmatched

The British call their war quits quickly, taking the port of Weihaiwei.

The Panthay Rebellion also ends fairly quickly as the Pingnan Guo are let off of the hook. It's pretty readily apparent whom the Qing are focusing on.

Another new political party, the Progressive Faction, is founded. They state that religion is not everything, alienating a good amount of the Muslim population, but they also agree that everything that matters must eventually be Sulu, in an attempt to win them back over.

The Dutch apparently have promised their merchants to conquer us. But since we're both under the Spanish sphere they are powerless.

The Qing may have crushed Chinese Jesus, but there is one civil war they may never hope to win.

One day, everyone in the court suddenly realises simultaneously that it makes no sense that Sulu has foreign universities and an educational reform without even having a basic educational system to reform. This is fixed, and the people responsible for this blunder are probably deported to Iberia or something.

The Japanese Emperor asserts his authority over all of Japan. Just like how the Sulu Sultan will one day assert his authority over everything in his own region.

rip

The Spanish finally get around to doing something useful.

And in response, the economic system of the Sulu Sultanate is revamped.

It is revamped further as the Sultan tells people that tradition is the way of the past. The people respond by politely informing him that they happened to notice, and that they are not quite happy about this. He then tells them that they must work hard in order to bring Sulu to its full potential.

When asked why he didn't, say, suggest they be more loyal to him, or calm down, he simply responded with a "productivity OP".

And indeed it is. The Sultanate's budget hits double-digit figures in weeks, an all-time high for economic growth.

The budget is shifted to fully support education to see how the budget can be made better. The Sultan hopes that the answer is not something stupid like "focus less on education".

It comes to the attention of the higher-ups that the Prussians have managed to unite Germany, and not only that, but they have taken an interest in us. Surely this is because the enlightened minds of Sulu have brought much better treatment to the Bielefeld Broad than German envoys elsewhere have received.

The Dutch may not be able to attack us, but they are reminding us that they are boss around here.

Especially since that's literally all but one regiment of theirs sitting there.

Every day, the Sultan wakes up to discover a message nailed to his door reminding him that the populace is not quite pleased. Every day, he slips it under a book, hoping that ignoring it will make it go away.

The book is roughly at knee-height now.

New weapons are needed so the military can help quash any rebels, and so artillery is introduced.

The problem is when the rebels are part of the military. Which this move certainly did not help out with. Sultan Mohammad Pulalun Kiram is an administrative fellow, not a logician.

Various failed military missions around the nation are put to good use as foreigners are encouraged to train the army on how to properly use anything more threatening than a really pointy stick.

One day, an envoy arrives from the Germans. He requests military access, and is given it posthaste.

When asked what for, he responds by stating that his country is at war with the Spanish. Immediately plotting starts to have the Germans help liberate the Philippines from Spanish rule and place them under vastly-superior Sulu rule.

oh the war's over already. It is assumed by many that the Germans won, simply because our outlook is slightly less bad that way.

It is a well-known and time-honoured tradition across the world to beat up the Chinese whenever possible, and the Sultanate of Sulu is no exception. Unfortunately, it seems that the Westerners do not realise that Lanfang is Chinese, and accuse us of being barbarian warmongerers rather than fellow humans taking part in a beloved hobby.

The invasion begins, nonetheless.

And it ends in just over half of a year.

The Sultan is informed that artillery was actually a pretty terribly idea since now the economy is being driven into the dirt by a single cannon. Too late now

The economy crashes, again. It is assumed that this is due to the cannon but it does not take long to notice that the Spanish have ditched the country entirely. Word soon comes that the Spanish have fallen from relevance to the point where they have no influence over anyone. This delays our research, but only slightly.

Forty-one years, and Sulu has entered the Western World. No longer are we regarded as backwards and probably deserving to end up partitioned between the Spanish and the Dutch.

GLORY AWAITS.