The startup makes a map with the most part dominated by spain........ where the fast dispersion of spanish players is inmediate......
Add to this, the programmers have linked the amount of IA 3rd rate fleets, and trade IA flotes with the quantity of places each faction has...... So, all the factions have increased xp easy and fast with these spanish IA fleets...... instead the spanish must have loose a lot of time doing missions........ battles with IA fleets is the fast way to increase xp points.....
Also, all nations if they want conquer new citys, the spanish are close to all............. So spain is on war with all other factions..........
All of these factors and more.......... (The most part of the IA fleets are Spanish, so is normal that the most part of the mistakes/problems with ia fleets increase the pirates with spaniards more than with any other faction)..
All of these factors and more have create a faction in regresion, with less xp points by player than the rest of the factions....
You can avoid this problem for new servers with the same quantity of cities for all factions and same quantity of IA fleets for all factions..., but in this server, without a reset of xp points for all, or an increase of xp, spanish faction will be the truly pirates.........