Diplomacy is the one thing that has been troubling me for a while and the purpose of this post is to seek some advice. I find it to be incredibly easy to make every other faction despise you to the point where often I'm not even really sure where I am going wrong by them. Basically what I would like to know is...

1. Are there strategies for keeping good relations with other sovereigns.

and

2. Are there good ways to improve upon relations under the circumstances where they have already gotten bad.

I recently read that building the Tower of the Witch tends to make everyone hate you regardless of whether or not you allow spell of making victory, which I will keep in mind from now on. Are there other things that tend to make all of the other factions dislike you? Any and all opinions/strategies are welcome. And thanks ahead of time.