The history might have been a better place had I been there

Toying around in Civilization V again, and revisiting the idea of bipolar AI. See, in Civ V, you make an empire from the ground up, although instead of seeing Rome built in a day, it's just a single turn. All the diplomacy and direction in which you take your empire is up to the player. My playstyle involves me hiding away until the AI decides I'm a vulnerable target, much like China before Europe decided to take interest in its affairs (Ironically, my favorite civilization is the Chinese).
In one game from a few months ago, playing online with my friend, our empires were on opposite ends of the map. He had his share of AI empires near him, I had mine. Luckily for him, he didn't have Gandhi creeping up on his borders. I played as usual, expanding when appropriate, building up roads with my empire. I had seen a few of Gandhi's scouts earlier in the game, but he didn't worry me. The image of a peaceful protestor ingrained in my memory only caused more anguish as he declared war and proceeded with the invasion of a horde of elephant warriors. They might have been real elephant men hybrids, but I was panicking too much to worry about the details. My friend could only donate so much money, but by the time I had built up a defense, he had already captured most of my peaceful empire.
No screenshot of the invasion (caught up in fighting back the Mûmakil), so here's an old one that I took with a stark backdrop for such a happy camper.

He's peaceful, so friendly that he lives in Mordor. I feel like the right thing to do here would have been to declare war.