I also wonder about the diseases you say have decimated the A-H colonial forces in Africa; quinine was in use by the time Europeans began to colonise Africa in earnest, and allowed white Europeans to penetrate further into Africa. I still think it's a smarter choice to 'divide and rule' as the Austrians are doing regardless, using native proxies to build their empire, but it's something else to consider if they ever send settlers.
Out of curiosity, will we be hearing about other Europeans and their empires as well as the Austrians, and what other areas will the Austrians be going for? Or are they quite happy with the Congo (itself, if properly exploited, supposedly a decent resource base)? What about Belgium?
And do you plan on addressing the Berlin Conference or an ATL equivalent? Perhaps a 'Vienna Conference', or Leopold decides to go for a 'Brussels Conference' to try and satisfy his ego before all the best bits are taken.
Some of the most profitable parts of Africa have always been the bits where white settlers could emigrate to en masse (even if they didn't in reality), such as South Africa (already British of course) and the East African highlands. Also Togoland was said to be Germany's only OTL colony that turned a decent profit.
One final thing, before you go rushing in (as some are wont to do), is to consider what powers didn't have African colonies and the reasons why. The Dutch, for example, surrendered their Gold Coast holdings to Britain in OTL. This was because the Dutch colonial affair minister at the time realised these holdings were unprofitable yet expensive to maintain, and the Dutch were still busy subjugating parts of the much more lucrative Indonesia and they needed the British to accept the Dutch sphere of influence over Sumatra in its entirety (which the British were resistant to do because obviously they too controlled parts of the Straits of Malacca).
The point is, I can't see the Dutch going for anymore colonies in Africa. They still have Surinam (another treaty at the same time as the ones establishing their dominance over Sumatra and ceding the Gold Coast was to contract workers from the British Raj to work in Surinam, interestingly enough).
For other powers, such as the Danes, Swedes, etc, it's worth considering the reasons why not.
Yeah true I kinda went off on that post my bad
But no worries I know that the idea of eventually giving freedom to the colonies was pie in the sky just trying to figure how AH could control the territory more easily. After all the colony is still about the size of Empire itself more or less. It's practically their own India, with their puppets filling in as Princely states.
We will see more about other colonies in the next few updates. The A-H Congo won't be as large as the DRC IOTL, but will have a larger coastline.
They will also introduce New World crops to try and form a modern society. In regards to Borneo, A-H intends to expand south (with the cooperation of the Ottomans) and could use the Suez Canal to get to Borneo.
Hope that answers your questions.
The next part will be up by 5:30pm GMT.
