Overview
One of the best features of Napoleon: Total War is the option to liberate nations and make them your protectorates. Empire: Total War does not have that option, but you can still liberate nations, even as they will not become your protectorates automatically. This is a simple guide showing you how you can liberate any nation whether it existed before and another power conquered it or it needs to become a free nation for the first time. It is easier than you might think.
How-To
This is the easiest and perhaps only method to accomplish this.
Send an army, the size depending upon whom you are invading, to the capital of the nation you want to liberate. (This is optional, but it maintains historical accuracy.) If you don’t know which city is the capital, then check out the “Nations & Capitals” section of this guide; I have listed all the nations that can be liberated and their capitals.
Conquer the capital of the nation you want to liberate. Do not keep your army garrisoned, and do not remove your army from that region. Instead, keep it close by. Once you have conquered the region, let its people rebel, which they will do after three turns. On the fourth turn, they should take that region and become an independent nation, and you should get a notification saying that a new nation has been liberated.
Then forge treaties with that nation, the most important being “Peace Treaty” (you will be at war with them, because they were your territory when they rebelled) and “Military Access” (you will need to have a presence in that region so that the power which had conquered it earlier does not attack again). Protect that region until they can protect themselves. And that is it!
I suggest not keeping your army so close to the city of that region that the rebelling army would be afraid to attack; your main goal in keeping your army still in the region is to protect it from attack, so maintain a reasonable distance while still protecting the territory.
How to make your own territories rebel
I have written an in-depth guide about this which is called “Revolutions & Civil Wars.”
Go check it out, read it and then start reading from the line below.
No, seriously, read it; otherwise most of the following will not make any sense.
Okay, so as you read, all you have to do is raise taxes in the theater in which your region is and exempt from taxes all other regions except the one you want to liberate. In that guide, I was talking about capital regions but that strategy works for all regions and there is no difference between a revolution and a civil war [only] in non-capital regions.
A strategy to make those nations become your protectorates
Suggested by Cranialwizard
Once the nation has become independent, lay seige with about half a stack of troops (make sure your force is superior to their army.) Do not attack but continue the seige. When they counter-attack, destroy as much of their troops as you can while still leaving enough so that they would be able to keep their city. (This could take time to master but usually if you go below twenty or fifteen men, the unit is destroyed.) Then, if you have any other troops in that region, unite them with the one laying seige and request the nation to become your protectorate through diplomacy. Nine out of ten times, they’ll accept.
Nations & Capitals
Afghanistan – Kabul, Afghanistan
Gran Colombia – Bogotá, New Grenada
Greece – Athens, Greece
Hessen – Cologne, Rhineland (Capital of Westphalia from the start of the game)
Hungary – Preßburg, Hungary
Ireland – Dublin, Ireland
Mamelukes – Cairo, Egypt
México – México City, New Spain
Naples & Sicily – Naples, Naples
Norway – Christiania, Norway
Punjab – Lahore, Punjab
Québec – Québec, New France
Scotland – Edinburgh, Scotland
United States – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania or Boston, Confederation of New England
More coming soon…