It wasn't the very first (that was either Sokoban or The Games: Winter Challenge), but it was definitely within the first dozen or so games I ever played.

I didn't even understand English for the most part back then, but still somehow steamrolled the whole world with my despotic civilisation (I didn't know you could change governments). I remember half of my cities falling into civil disorder every single turn late game, and all the buildings I made kept getting sold off because I had no money (I had no idea money was a thing in the game). But apparently the easiest difficulty is easy enough to still beat the game like that.