Settlement Survival/Happiness

Happiness is an important value to all settlers in your city. A population with low happiness can quickly turn murderous, resulting in the deaths of other settlers and making the happiness problem even worse.

Improving Happiness
Early game, the best method of combating happiness is to create Spirits. Gather plants in the forest to find Aguave Tequila plants and begin cultivating them as soon as possible. A distillery can combine these with water to produce spirits, which will keep the populace happy.

The distillery is reliant on both water and aguave tequila plants, so ensure you have a source for both as well as storage, lest your production come to a halt.

The other early-game happiness solution is the Chapel, which also helps reduce crime. Build one early on and ensure it is staffed.

Later in the game, building more advanced housing and clothing to drive happiness up further. Note that the later in the game you are, the higher the standards the society has and the easier it will be to get them upset. Rough clothing is effective in the early to mid game with its ease of production, but you will want to adapt to down jackets later on.

Combating Negativity
Negativity can occur at random via a villager event, but it can also be mitigated by hiring certain advisors at the town center.