Argentina

From VickyWiki

Argentina is a destitute nation with great needs and great potential, and early war against Chile may well make all the difference needed in terms of growth.

The opportunity to claim colonies thus gaining much needed prestige will give an advantage in industrializing which if exploited correctly can give the very real possibility of a top 8 finish.

[edit] Getting immigrants to Argentina

Originally posted at the Paradox forums by Ulyanov

Argentina starts out with a presidential dictatorship, which obviously won't attract many immigrants. The first thing you have to do is to make your country a free democracy, to give the european workers hope of a better life in the new world. In order to do this, you have to make some political reforms: Set Voting Rights to Universal Suffrage and Political Parties to All Allowed (other nations which are absolutist/totalitarian must set Public Meetings to Yes in order to become a democracy if it is pre-set to No). This won't be costly as Argentina starts out with a small population of only 800 000.

Many like to think that the most important thing for immigration is to have a ruling party with Full Citizenship on Minority. This is wrong. There are many things that are important, and all of these has to be present in order to get a steady stream of immigrants to your country. But there is one thing that is an absolute prerequisite to all the others, and that is to have a party with a liberal ideology in office. A conservative party with full citizenship will thus not do.

Back to the Argentinian case! You start with 0 machine parts and 0 factories, so you should right away go for researching the tech called Mechanical Production. This, off course, is to be able to build factories in order to attract clerks and craftsmen which are more likely to emigrate than labourers. (NB: In the beginning of the game you will experience that you get a lot of South German immigrants to the state La Rioja, but this is not related to any political/social reforms the human player has made, it is hardcoded into the game.) This will give you 5 machine parts, of which 3 of them should be used on a Glass Factory (preferrably in the capital state of Buenos Aires).

Before the first election (you should do it as soon as you have turned democratic as the small population before immigration makes it cheaper to make this political reform) you must make sure to do the following: Switch voting rights to According to Wealth, and turn a big POP into clerks (there is one of around 30 000 in Buenos Aires). Since clerks are considered wealthy and they almost always are liberal, this is an effective way in getting the liberal party elected quickly***. There are not many aristocrats or officers (the conservative rich) in Argentina, so this won't give you any problems. This might give you a small dept, but you will be able to pay it off pretty soon. So, let's have a closer look at the liberal party in Argentina in the beginning of the game:

Partido Unitario (exists from 1836 to 1856)

• Economy: Laissez Faire
• Trade: Free Trade
• Religion: Pluralism
• Minority: Full Citizenship
• War: Pro Military

I would say that this is the most immigration-friendly party one can encounter. Every political standpoint is attractive for the immigrants, and the two most decisive aspects are Religion and Minority. It's an absolute necessety to have Pluralism, Moralism won't do. Limited Citizenship will work, but not as good as Full Citizenship.

As soon you have started the construction of the Glass Factory, craftsmen and clerks will arrive in Argentina in a steady flow. After researching Mechanical Production, you should aim for Freedom of Trade to be able to build more factories. You have two machine parts left, and there are four factories to choose from that only require one machine part to construct. These are Steel Factory, Cement Factory, Lumber Mill and Fabric Factory. I won't speculate too much in which two you should build since it has nothing to do with the effect on immigration, but stay clear of Steel Factory for now since the availability of iron on the market is zero this early in the game (and your one iron producing province won't provide you with much).

When you have the money for it, you should also make the rest of the political reforms, which is setting Press Rights to Free Press and Trade Unions to All. This is because political freedom increases conciousness which again affects plurality. High level of plurality is highly desireable if you want to attract immigrants. Therefore, you should research Ideological Thought as soon as possible in order to trigger the events Rationalism, Constitutionalism, Individualism, Secularization and Social Conscience which all give +5% to plurality (25% in total). In terms of this event it is crucial that you always have a liberal ruling party. If you (even for just a brief period) have a conservative ruling party at a point in the game, you will trigger 5 events which have the opposite effect, that is -25% to plurality. You should also make sure that you get the invention State and Government early on, and choose the option Meritocracy in order to trigger two political events that each adds another 5% to plurality.

[Alternatively, there is a strategy to negate the effects of the conservative ideological thought inventions - have them fire first. By taking the plurality hit early, the full plurality drop will not be realized - it can't go below zero. When you switch to liberal, the liberal inventions will fire and their effects will not be negated by a temporary conservative government in the future.]

From 1856 you will get another liberal party instead of Partido Unitario (unfortunately):

Partido Liberal (exists from 1856 to 1920)

• Economy: Laissez Faire
• Trade: Free Trade
• Religion: Moralism
• Minority: Limited Citizenship
• War: Pro Military

There is not much difference from the "ultimate immigration-party" exept the two most important issues which both have dropped down one level This makes it harder to attract so many immigrants as before. But, by now, you have probably researched mostly the industrial and commercial sciences. If you have many clerks in your country, you should have some surplus of research-points, and thus be able to trade with others. Try to improve relations with a big European country with some non-national provinces (such as Austria-Hungary, Russia and Ottoman Empire). I would strongly recommend Austria-Hungary, since this is a catholic country just as Argentina. Trade tech for provinces. In my last game I got the Slovak and Polish provinces and turned all the POPs into craftsmen. As you won't have any factories in your European states, they will look elsewhere in the kingdom for jobs and thus move to a state where they will get one. This is actually a question of migration rather than immigration, but I figured it is somehow relevant in the quest for increasing population in Argentina. Note: craftsmen are more likely to migrate than clerks. Craftsmen will move as soon as they can't cover their need for Subsistence Goods.

One little thing before ending this humble guide: Some say that social reforms is important for immigration, but the gains are less than the loss in doing this (if the liberal parties have laissez faire on economy). You would have to keep the conservative party in office to do so, and you will lose plurality. One could argue that it can be done in the beginning of the game, but I doubt you could afford it at that point. Be welcome to try though No matter if it is feasible or not; the political reforms are more crucial than the social.

***Note: It may take more than converting just this one POP to a clerk. In order to make this strategy consistently, one must convert several POPs in different states. See this link for the full discussion.