So I'm still a bit new to Civ IV (but not to the series). In a recent game as the Americans I engaged in war against Saladin and Arabia. In an effort to expand my empire West I conquered a city that was adjacent to my capital city's cultural border which was (and still is) rather large. I eventually ended the war as other stuff got in the way (thank you Spain for sneak attacking me).
When I originally took over the city my nationality rate was, I believe, in the mid 30s. It got up to the low 40s but has since dropped repeatedly all the way down to its current rate of 28%. During peacetime I garrisoned a bunch of units and built up the city in all facets -- culture, science, commerce, and military as I mentioned. Nothing I do increases my nationality rate of the city.

Sorry I don't have a screenshot but here are some facts (I'm an idiot and don't know how to take an in-game screenshot). Some might not be important as I'm unsure what exactly has an effect on nationality rate.
- I don't own many tiles of the city's big fat cross -- I believe 12 (all West, North, South) are Arabian while all the others but 1 (Spain) are mine. Arabia's adjacent tiles are between 60-70% Arabian. Two of mine are right around 47-53%, all the others are high %s.
-There are 5 total civilizations and I'm 3rd in population, 1st in power, and pretty well cultured.
-Speaking of culture, I'm 2nd behind Arabia, which is what I believe might be making this city a bit of an issue. We are both drastically more cultured than the three others.
-It's been 100s of years since the war ended and two angry faces in the city still "yearn to join the motherland".

I've read once you flip a city it can't be flipped again. Not sure if it matter how the city was flipped (conquered, cultured). By essentially all metrics outside of culture I outlast Arabia. If more info is needed I'd be happy to share.


Thanks in advance.

Thank you for the response. This makes total sense, especially with regards to the revolt %. I was wondering how I was able to get that figure down to zero.
I had a feeling it had to do with culture, but wasn't sure about the specifics. For other reasons I recently got into war with Arabia. I'm personally not a fan of wars in the game (very time consuming and I like building up my city's culture and science, not military), but now I'm invested in expanding my empire. This information helps with my tactical game plan.

Hello,
Just so you know if you start a custom game and you really don't want wars there is an option to choose always peace. That will prevent any wars from happening.

Thank you abbayarra. I know that's an option but I choose to allow wars because it makes the game more "real". I generally try to avoid them but know it's a part of the game (or at least should be).

Also, looking at the bigger picture, it makes the game more interesting and adds more variables to an already complex game, which I like. I love how the creators were able to make the game complex, yet manageable and fun. My current game I went in with the idea that I wasn't going to be "Mr. Diplomat". The current war I'm in wasn't planned, but makes for a better game (IMO). Now I'm forced to change strategy a bit and adjust to my new situation. Short wars I don't mind one bit. It's the long ones that annoy me at times.

Just talking about it gets me fired up. I'm a nerd haha.