Civil disorder:

Learn how to handle civil disorder in Sid Meier's Civilization VII. Keep your citizens happy to avoid corruption and maintain city growth.

Alright, so sometimes the music in your city takes a nosedive into something really sad. That's your cue: your city is in civil disorder. Don't panic, though! It's all about keeping your citizens happy. If a city keeps getting unhappy, it can spiral into corruption and even become an enemy city, which is the last thing you want. The main goal here is to keep a good balance of happy versus unhappy citizens. If you have more unhappy folks than happy ones, you're headed for civil disorder.

You might also see an ugly face pop up over your city when it's in disorder. Interestingly, this face can show up on enemy cities too. If it appears while you're attacking a city's defenses, it might mean the enemy is in despotism. If the face shows up when you've got troops gathered but aren't attacking, they might be under monarchy. It's not a hard rule, but it seems like cities with no defenders can get unhappy people easily, especially under despotism.

Now, let's talk about the flip side: the Thanksgiving festival! When you hear a happy fanfare, it means your city is celebrating. This happens when at least half your citizens are happy and none are unhappy. Festivals are super important for making your cities grow like crazy.

If you're playing with Democracy or Republic governments and a city gets a Thanksgiving festival, it'll start growing bigger every turn. It only stops if the city runs out of food to store or if fewer than half the citizens are happy. But here's the kicker: if a city is already using 57 or more food points, the festival basically never stops! Even if bad stuff like famine or flooding hits, the growth will bounce back in a few turns. Cities can grow this big, up to level 28, which is the maximum.

Getting half your citizens happy isn't too tough. You'll want a good amount of trade points and at least 30% luxury goods. If you push your luxury goods to 100% for a few turns (by setting distribution to 10.0.0), almost all your cities will join the Thanksgiving Festival and grow incredibly fast. Sometimes, you'll see population numbers jump dramatically, like going from 10 million to 30 million people in just one turn! This is sometimes called a 'President Day Sale' in other guides, but honestly, 'Thanksgiving Festival' feels more fitting for how powerful it is for city growth.