Developer Diary | Philippines: Pearl of the Orient

As always, everything we discuss here is work in progress, so things can change, especially values and layouts. With that out of the way, let’s get started!

Where are the Philippines in 1936?

The Philippines gained their independence from Spain in 1898 following a War of Independence led by Andrés Bonifacio and later Emilio Aguinaldo. This effectively merged into the Spanish-American war through an American intervention in the archipelago. The resultant Treaty of Paris awarded the Philippines to the United States. The revolutionaries struggled on against their new overlords, but were eventually defeated in 1902 and the Philippines became an American colony.

Throughout the early part of the 20th Century, the Philippines remained under American rule. developing their economy primarily through agricultural goods, and continual negotiation with the American government about gaining more autonomy and eventual independence. This culminated in 1935 with an agreement to transition towards independence over the course of 10 years, leading to the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. During this period, the Philippines enjoyed a time of good prosperity, bolstered particularly by healthy sugar exports; they found themselves second only to Japan in the region in terms of wealth (but not industrialization).

It's The Economy Stupid

And so we join the Hearts of Iron timeline, in 1936. The Great Depression is still crippling the economy of the United States and to a slightly lesser extent, the Philippines who still enjoy some competitive advantages in trade.

Yikes, that’s crippling! Yes, it is, but there are solutions to this problem.

Introducing the economic tree, roughly divided into 5 tiers;

• The Great Depression (Red): Mostly to reduce the most serious negative modifiers, and allow the economy to start working again.

• Shaken Economy (Orange): Reaching and in some cases surpassing the pre-depression economy, and the early rumblings of the Hearts of Iron snowball.

• Recovering Economy (Yellow): More specialization of the economy, and modifiers turning increasingly green.

• Economic Growth (Blue): Post-independence super charging of the economy.

• Pearl of the Orient (Green): Proving why the Philippines have a lot of economic potential.

Before the recovery can begin, however, you’ll need to make a decision whether to align yourself with the USA or with Japan, and each offers advantages over the other. As a minor nation stuck between majors, it's basically your job to play them off against each other and maximize your gains from each! Furthermore, your choice will unlock MIOs from either nation, and also change your equipment representation to be either American or Japanese.

Once you’ve aligned yourself with one side or the other, you’re free to start actually altering your economy. You do this by progressing through the aforementioned tiers. Within each tier, you have the central, generic economic and political choices available to all paths (the red square). You need to take 5 of these in order to complete the tier, and thereby gain access to the “milestone” (in green). You will also have some special benefits depending on whether you previously went on the left side or the