Honestly, Victoria 3 is a genuinely good learning tool. As a long-time leftist, I'm learning a fair bit, both about how economic domination can force other countries into indefinite poverty, but also how and why economy links into and drives military decisions, and how that links solely into capitalist interests. See: all of US's deadly deadly oil excursions.
In addition, one of the most best things the devs did in this case was not make uncolonised areas 'empty wasteland', but just 'decentralised nations' who can and do fight back against colonisation. It makes it suddenly a lot more real that the grab for resources didn't just dehumanise Africans/Australians/etc, but basically made them non-existent in the eyes of the state solely because of the organsation of their societies.
Honestly, Victoria 3 is a genuinely good learning tool. As a long-time leftist, I'm learning a fair bit, both about how economic domination can force other countries into indefinite poverty, but also how and why economy links into and drives military decisions, and how that links solely into capitalist interests. See: all of US's deadly deadly oil excursions.
In addition, one of the most best things the devs did in this case was not make uncolonised areas 'empty wasteland', but just 'decentralised nations' who can and do fight back against colonisation. It makes it suddenly a lot more real that the grab for resources didn't just dehumanise Africans/Australians/etc, but basically made them non-existent in the eyes of the state solely because of the organsation of their societies.