Originally Posted by
Forsta
I'm not sure about that one. I've never explicitly looked at it. I guess it depends mostly on two things: the time and the city.
Time: If you push early on, you can conquer a whole country and most others don't bother for the most part. In the later game, even taking a few cities from someone makes others skeptical.
City: It seems big cities give a bigger warmongering "bonus" than small ones, with capitals being ahead. It would be realistic: A small village being sacked is small news compared to the occupation of a metropole.
But, as said, those are only guesses.