Headscratchers / Empire: Total War

• How come when Ireland have successful rebellion and gain independence from Britain, the country will be an absolute monarchy instead of a republic?
  • Because Irish revolutionaries weren't predominantly republican until later in history?
• Seeing as how nationalism and independence movement play an important part in the game, why is all of modern day Spain consist of a single unify territory, instead of having Catalonia and the Basque Country as separate territories? (This is not meant to be a Flame Bait, but considering that it is possible for Scotland, Ireland, Quebec, Columbia, the United States, etc to gain independence from their home country as emergent factions, it just seems odd.)
  • Probably to simplify the map and the campaign, since this game has the most expansive one in the series. In general, the game employs some anachronism to accomplish this, making the era perpetually around 1750 or so, to avoid having to create scripted events because Europe changed dramatically in a political sense in the 1710s — Scotland is already part of Great Britain, Spain is both a unitary state and ruled by the Habsburgs, and starts off as France's ally, etc, Catalonia doesn't have an Austro-British garrison, etc, Moscow is capital of Russia and St. Petersburg is a big city in Swedish-controlled Ingria, etc. Definitely a missed opportunity, and fertile ground for a realism mod.