Overextension can set your empire on fire apparently.

[Jack Lexington]

From a very successful CK3 save, I decided to embark on further little conquests in Africa.

Little did I know this would result in worldwide rebelling in my empire from overextension which lowered my reputation and turbocharged unrest to the point all of my territories formerly loyal for a good few years suddenly want to illegally gain independence.

This is a very politically unrealistic scenario considering this empire has a vast amount of core territory, but for some reason the populous is losing their **** over a little expansion in Africa.

Apparently there’s no overextension with controlling nearly the whole ck3 map, but go for two more African nations and you’ve gone a step too far… right… because taking a little bit of territory after being a gargantuan emprie to begin with is meant to cause worldwide domestic insurrection. Shouldn’t the logic be, if the empire’s economy is stable, most of the people should be content.

Any good workshop mods to stop causing enough rebellions to shake a stick at?

[capercaillie]

learn how to play

[Marquoz]

Over-extension is one of EU4's most important game mechanics. Growing too large too fast is more than your nation's administrative capabilities can handle. It's also one of the two major factors (aggressive expansion being the other) that prevents players from conquering the entire globe within fifty years or so.

You need to realize you aren't playing Crusader Kings anymore. There, the core of the game is managing your dynasty. Conquest and expansion mechanics are deliberately simplistic because they aren't CK's focus. But how you manage the growth of your nation is the focus of EU4, and it's far more complex than Crusader Kings as a result. If you're not willing to deal with it, you might as well download a mod that lets you annex the whole world in one click. Or, more realistically, play something else.

[Kapika96]

Yeah... this is a case of learn to play the game.

I think the tutorial is pretty outdated, but it may still help a bit. Alternatively the wiki is great https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Europa_Universalis_4_Wiki
Or if you're one of those people that has to have everything in video form, youtube I guess?

[Malvastor]

It sounds like you've been conquering without coring your provinces afterwards. This is where overextension comes from- in real world terms, you marched in and annexed that territory and never actually integrated it into your empire's internal structures. You'll get very little benefit out of the new land, and see increasing amounts of unrest everywhere in your empire. You need to make sure that you core every province you conquer, or every campaign you have will wind up exploding in a cascading orgy of rebellions and debt.

A couple specific wiki pages to check out:
https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Core
https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Overextension

[Radene]

"Just a number".

But yes, a number that can set your empire on fire.

[Omniconda]

0-50 over extention your people wont care much
50-100 they might be a little pissed but cores of your accepted cultures and religion wont mind to much.
100.1 + you have gone to far, core it or make a subject asap. this is what allows the +15 sepratism events that screw up your country.

if going to high can be fixed within a year you can just leave the bad events window on screen as it will take 3 months to be auto accepted and cant fire again while its still active.