The move of Brandenberg into the colonial and trade race was a bold move but a reasoned one. Brandenburg, the most powerful Protestant state on mainland Europe could not challenge the established powers in Europe itself. Wars over religion had died down: the balance of power between the French-dominated Catholic sphere, the Ottoman-dominated Protestant sphere and the Triple Union behemoth saw a Central Europe in a tense and stable peace. With war a somewhat distant possibility, Brandenburg's Hohenzollern rulers neglected their standing army and instead devoted energy to their navy and merchant fleet. An alliance with the Swedes and a war against Denmark in the Baltic saw a temporary chance for complete domination in this region but a threatened Triple Union intevention led to a treaty wherein the Swedes and Brandenburgers were permitted permanent toll-free access through the Song, but Denmark did not lose any territory. For true wealth and power, the Brandenburgers would have to look further afield, to the Asian and African trade.
The Brandenburgers captured the French fort of Saint-Louis (renamed Friedichsburg) and the island of Gorée (which became known simply as Gore), allowing them access to the Senegal river region and it's bountiful markets of slaves. From these bases were constructed fortified factories to handle the exports of slaves, hides, beeswax, ambergris and, later, gum arabic. that were accessible on the mainland The entire region would be soon known as the Großsklavenküste (Great Slave Coast), and would form the basis of the Brandenburger slave trade to the New World, which mostly went to the Dutch colonies, Virginia, Brasil and the Irish Bahamas (in the latter two cases they were often re-sold onto the Spanish colonies). Slaves were exchanged for American goods or bullion which was then transported back to Europe. In the far south, Kapstadt on the Cape of Good Hope served as a re-supply point and way station for vessels passing between Brandenburg and the East and slowly began to develop into a settler colony in it's own right. Designs on the Portugeuse colonies in southeast Africa came to nothing, as a Portugeuse fleet built up through Brasilian gold defeated a Brandenburger expeditionary force.
Brandenburg started off as a small fish in a big and competitive pond when it came to South East Asia. In this area they confronted not only the established Western powers of the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain but also the powerful Asian powers: the Ottoman Empire, the Jinshen and the Cheon. The Brandenbergers, though, possessed access to a key resource that gave them a quick advantage over their competitors: amber. In
Dashi Jiao temples of Jinshen, heated oil of amber was utilized as a fragrance during daily prayer sessions, and as access to Northern European amber increased this usage spread throughout the
Dashi temples throughout Southeast Asia. Brandenbergs position soon allowed them to dominate the supply of amber from Europe and convert this into purchasing power in southeast Asia. It also translated into friendlier relations with the Jinshen and allowed the Brandenbergers access to Jinshen trade routes and connections that had been out of reach for Westerners.
The Brandenbergers targeted the weakest European power in the region: the Dutch. The East India Company having found itself much neglected in favor of it's West Indian counterpart, Dutch possessions in Asia were relatively weakly defended. Brandenberger assaults saw the Dutch lose their territories on Sumatra in 1713 and then finally Batavia itself in 1721. In both circumstances, the Brandenberger attacks were assisted by the cooperation and intelligence provided by
Dashi temples and Jinshen traders in the midst of the Dutch. Batavia was renamed Seigstadt, "Victory City" which was a reference both to the Brandenberger achievement as well as to the city's old Sanskrit name of Jayakarta, meaning "great deed" or "complete victory". This logic was also used by the Jinshen, who dubbed the new city Shengshi (胜市) carrying a similar meaning, and quickly established themselves as a major presence in the city. The pattern of Brandenburger expansion in the region was hand-in-hand with the Jinshen thallasocrats, with Brandenburger ships and ambition meeting with Chinese expertise and local knowledge. Brandenburg and the Jinshen cooperated in a struggle against the alliance of Brunei and Maguindanao, which cowed the former and saw the latter stripped of it's influence in the Visayas and forced into a tributary status with Heijing. Out of that arrangement, Brandenburg recieved the island of Zubu [Cebu] as a trading port.
As the Brandenburgers took over Dutch possessions they were able to diversify into other markets by removing competitors. The Brandenbergers moved quickly into the glass market, a natural complement to the amber trade that further enhanced relations with the Jinshen. Brandenberg replaced the Ottomans as the chief transporter of Bohemian glass to Asia, and also cultivated a domestic glass industry by attracting French glaziers (the Christian Republic opposed the glass trade out of moral and religious reasons, which was the death knell for a French glassmaking industry already damaged from Dutch attacks). Cowed from their defeat in Africa, the Brandenbergers maintained a policy of non-interference with the Portugeuse, and in return the Brandenbergers secured both cooperation in India as well as permission to supply slaves to Brasil.
The ships of Brandenburg