When the Crusaders came to Latvian land they had to look for a
suitable place to establish a base of operations. Since the
mouth of river Daugava was a perfect place for merchants and
port making they first landed on the shores of Riga Bay and
sailed in the inner waters of the Daugava. The place around the
mouth of Daugava was perfect because it was located in the
center between territories of four Latvian tribes and could be
supported from Germany by supply ships. The Christian missionary
Meinard came along with merchants who knew the land before and
brought him to the Livonian town of Ikšķile. Ikšķile is located
further from Riga, the German could not get the permission to
establish a trade base there because they had to deal with trade
rivals from the Duchy of Polock. The local Livonians had to pay
fees to Polock or risk bloody attack. This was not a full time
enslavement and the annexation of Livonian lands from Polock. It
was rather close to protection payment as practiced by criminal
gangs to extract mo