79
record scratch you're probably wondering how I got here
(hexbear.net)
spoiler
i took texas as a beachhead to invade the U.S. to force recognition as a great power, which I'll do as soon as I get my munitions plants up and running :^]
and the very first thing I did was build a university there to educate the savages
You just gotta build factories and shit to get more of your population to become machinists and stuff like that to increase the relative clout of the industrialists and trade unions. It takes a while.
Also Persia seems to be in a really shitty starting position, i like to play as the sikh empire and vassalize them asap because the Sikhs start with line infantry (but you need to take Afghanistan for their iron)