Start a city. Build walls and fortify with force large enough to withstand attack. Declare war on another country. After they have attacked and failed several times seek Peace treaty, but demand $999999999 "per turn". They will give it to you (and anything else you want...cities (except their capital), technologies, maps, contacts etc.). After the $$$ is in your treasury (will take at least one turn). Declare war on them again and the $$$ will be yours permanently. Set your Happiness level to 100% and use the $$$ buy technologies from the other countries. Get to Republic or another government that pays it's citizens for hurry up work as quickly as possible (check with other countries often as you can buy "Republic" from them if need be). Use your $$$ to build new improvements/weapons on every turn!

Note: You must vigorously defend all cities from this point forward or when they are routed, your enemies will get mucho dinero depending on how many cities you have and how much is stored in that treasury.

I hope this works for you as well as it does for me...Tom