Holland starts in a Personal Union under Burgundy, which restricts them from making allies and declaring wars. Holland -> Netherlands -> Colonial Powerhouse 1.25.1. If the King of Burgundy Dies! You want to go to war with Spain or Portugal early and seize one of their first colonies when it's nearly completed, giving you a cored colony somewhere outside your colonial range. This item will only be visible in searches to you, your friends, and admins. I took exploration as my first idea. I formed them ~1540. Also, when you increase the tariff rate to 30-50% your colonial nations start really paying off gold wise. However there is a workaround, once you become big enough, as in conquer most of the low countries area, you can rather easily become the Emperor of the HRE. Press J to jump to the feed. You will be bigger than Austria who generally doesn't expand much other than getting PUs, so you can rather easily get support from enough electors to become the Emperor. Matter of fact, I heavily considered taking humanism or innovative first. This allows you to just get into the Carribean. I second the comment of getting forced out of the HRE once you form the Netherlands. when Burgundy is weak) as they are needed for forming the Netherlands and the added trade income is very useful. This is my first game successfully going from Utrecht to the Netherlands. I focussed on Africa and getting all the trade companies. If Burgundy voluntarily releases you, no alliances will be formed. I believe Holland has to wait until [tech 9] (http://www.eu4wiki.com/Technology#Diplomatic_technologies), +75 colonial range (+85 with advisor), until they have the range to explore or colonize the New World. I could explore some of the areas around the Azores but after that it's out of range. So what's the best way to colonize as the Netherlands? A think you -could- try to do is fighting a nation over their lands. The Netherlands has its own special form of republican government it can choose through an event exclusive to them that reflects the historical government of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces. It's not like I don't have anything else going for me since I'm the Holy Roman Emperor so I guess I'll have plenty to keep me busy while I wait :). It is time to actually form it, all you need is admin tech 10 now. If you find a Navigator who is +2 or +3 but you cannot afford that, you can pick him up and dump him the second you have settlers on an island. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Lots of space thanks to the AI not liking to colonise Tropical territory if there's temperate anywhere else they can colonise. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. I'm starting to regret that decision since there weren't any obvious benefits besides better mercs. In case of image is hard to read I own majority of the Caribbean and most of the Easter N.A. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries. For example, as Holland, I now know that I need tech 9 and an advisor to reach the new world. You're right that you get much more gold from erecting a long distance trade route from the Philippines to Antwerp. I've never even touched Africa so I might try that as per your suggestion. I'm making a lot more money on trade. ... From there, you should be able to colonize the Caribbean. I will try using Exploration first though and see how that goes, for all I know it might be way better than what I'm doing.