The Need for Expantion

For my first play through, my desire was not to go in depth into interacting with other civilizations around me but to explore the basics of growing a civilization without having to deal with the given world around me. Thus the reason I chose Japan as my starting point for it is very much isolated from the rest of the world.

I was happy where I was and I planned to stay idle for I had no "need" in exploring and interacting with the world around me for this first play through. However, as my civilization kept growing, I found myself exploring the depths of the world and thus even interacting with other civilizations I come across. But why is that so? If I had no need for such things in the first place, why did I find it to be such an important aspect to my own civilization later on in the game?

The answers to this question can be found in the statement, "invention is often the mother of necessity, rather than vice versa" (Diamond, pg. 243). Diamond argues that technology for the most part tends to be most useful after it has been invented in which people become so used to the inventions that they end up not knowing how they ever did without them. Like for example, with the inventions of cars, there is a way in which it can be used. As time passes, the use of cars becomes a necessity and if all cars where to disappear there would be chaos for a lot of things today depend on the transportation of cars.

Thus as I was playing my game, I came across numerous inventions. One of those was a transportation ship. With this ship I found a way to use it by exploring the world around me and carring settlers to other lands beyond the horizon. Thus with these uses, I found myself expanding my empire in which it ends up falling into conflict with other civilizations. No longer was I growing a civilization on an isolated island. I was expanding, dominating, and reach out to other civilization in the desperate need for trade of greater goods, the need for me land, and the my curiosity of the world around me. All this thanks to the invention of that transportation ship.

Therefore, the very statement "invention is often the mother of necessity", as Diamond puts it, stays true for my first play through of Civilization IV. Despite the fact that I found no need to explore and interact with the world around me, that "need" quickly aroused out of me after the invention of transportation ships for I was curious of what kind of use I could put this new invention in, and thus the need to use it aroused.