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Chapter 1369 Weimar
In the 17th century, the west coast of Africa was a hunting ground for European countries. Lured by gold, ivory, and slaves, many European countries, led by Portugal, established colonies in West Africa.

Not all of West Africa was favored by European colonists. In fact, most of the West African coastline was barren, with only two small sections being relatively lively, known as the Gold Coast and the Slave Coast.

The Gold Coast, as its name suggests, is a gold-producing region. Its general location corresponds to the coastal area of ​​what is now the Republic of Ghana. Along its coastline of less than 500 kilometers, there are more than a dozen large and small military fortresses and trading posts belonging to European countries.

For example, Fort Elmina, which was built by the Portuguese and later captured by the Dutch West India Company; and Port Accra, which became the capital of the later Republic of Ghana and was originally built by the Dutch.

The Slave Coast is a general term that actually includes the Gold Coast, plus the coastal areas of later Benin, Togo, and western Nigeria. Apart from Ghana, which has gold mines, the rest of the area was used for capturing, temporarily imprisoning, and transporting enslaved people onto transoceanic slave ships.

Europeans called it a trading post because enslaved Africans could be exchanged for large sums of gold and silver after being sent to the Americas. It was indeed trade, and a very profitable one at that!
Looking at the map reveals a rather illogical problem. Geographically speaking, North Africa is closer to Europe, while the Slave Coast is much farther away. Why did European slave traders flock to the Gulf of Guinea to compete for food, instead of going to North Africa, Central Africa, or South Africa to showcase their abilities?
In reality, this situation was not something Europeans actively chose; it was more of a forced choice. Most of North Africa is predominantly Muslim, and regardless of its conflicts with Christianity, it is still considered part of the civilized world, governed by various large and small governments, and possesses considerable fighting power, making it difficult to take action against.

Furthermore, long-term practical experience has proven that West African blacks are stronger, better adapted to life on sugarcane plantations in the New World, and have stronger natural resistance to malaria. Blacks further south of Congo have a clear physical disadvantage and are less popular.

In fact, apart from natural and religious factors, the main reason why the Slave Coast became the largest exporter of slaves was that its related industrial chain was particularly well-developed, which saved a lot of costs.

From the time the Portuguese first discovered and established trading posts, European colonists continued to build in the area for over a century, forming a complete industrial chain of arrest, transportation, imprisonment, and auction, with even the local Black community actively participating.

Most of the slaves in the interior were not captured by white people themselves, but were captured by local black people like hunters and kept in slave camps by the sea, waiting for slave ships to arrive with goods such as weapons and cloth to exchange for them.

If you were to start a business in central and southern Africa, you wouldn't find such convenient and thoughtful services for at least the first ten years or so. You would have to start from scratch, which would be more costly and riskier.

However, there are always exceptions. With so many countries vying for a piece of the pie, conflict is inevitable. Portugal, as an early arrival, had the advantage of being there first, but lacked staying power.

To avoid fierce competition with European countries, starting in the late 16th century, Portugal shifted its focus of development in Africa southward to the port of Luanda, south of the Congo River. The new policy involved capturing slaves from Luanda and transporting them to Brazil, and building massive fortresses for defense.

In the first half of the 17th century, European colonists' reach basically stopped at Luanda, because further south was not only all desert, Gobi, and plateau, but also sparsely populated, too far from Europe, and the northward ocean currents made travel inconvenient.

However, as the Dutch prospered in Asia, with a large number of merchant ships traveling between Eurasia around the Cape of Good Hope every year, the East India Company gradually began to focus on the development and construction of seaports in southern Africa.

However, given the precedent of the Battle of the Cape of Good Hope, and not daring to get too close to Enni Port, they had no choice but to settle for searching northwards from Cape Town. In the end, they upheld the principle of "if you can't find it, plunder it," and stabbed their old rival, the Portuguese, in the back once again.

The Dutch discovered a non-permanent supply depot in a vast desert, originally found and built by the Portuguese. They seized it, expanded it, and renamed it Walvis Harbor, which translates to Whale Harbor in Chinese. However, Whale Harbor is located in what is now central Namibia, 1400 kilometers from Cape Town and over 2000 kilometers from Ngörn Harbor. It was quite far, both by land and sea, making it unsuitable as a forward base for the European coalition forces.

Thus, the Dutch East India Company fully utilized its advantage of frequently traveling to and from the southern waters of Africa, racking its brains to finally find a small bay that was more suitable as a forward base and less likely to be discovered by the fleet stationed at Enni Port.

It is located at the mouth of a river more than 700 kilometers south of Whale Harbor. Although the terrain and water depth along the coast are not very suitable for use as a large port, it has unique natural conditions and abundant fresh water.

There are only two reasons why Europeans have not expanded into the southwestern coastal areas of Africa for more than two hundred years: no profit and the natural conditions are too poor.

The entire coastal region of Namibia is almost entirely desert and semi-desert, while further south in western South Africa, it is an arid plateau with a sparse population and poor resources.

Compared to the Gold Coast and the Slave Coast, it had nothing. The colonists were not pioneers; they needed readily available profits, so they never had any interest in this region.

But now we need a port that can house a large army, is not too far from Enbird Port, and is relatively safe. That's why we have to choose the best of a bad bunch and intensify our exploration in the barren coastal area.

After searching for a location for about half a year, the site was finally decided on on the south bank of the river's estuary. The river was named the Orange River, and the newly built dock was called Orangemond.

The European coalition amassed 4 elite troops and over 200 ships in Orangemond, launching a surprise attack on Enbird Port and Enbird City using a combined land and sea offensive. If they could capture the port in one fell swoop, they would still be invincible even if the other three offensive routes suffered heavy losses.

The chief architect of this plan was Bernhard von Saxe-Weimar, a 35-year-old French Field Marshal. Despite his young age, his resume was in no way inferior to that of veteran generals; he was a true military genius who rose through the ranks from the ground up based on his combat achievements.

He was born into the Saxon-Weimar family in Germany. Don't misunderstand, the Weimar family here has no direct connection to the later Weimar Republic.

The Saxe-Weimar family was an important duchy during the Holy Roman Empire, which can also be understood as a principality.

The Weimar Republic was a republic established after the November Revolution in Germany overthrew monarchies such as the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar.

It was named Weimar because the Constituent Assembly was held in Weimar.

(End of this chapter)