AHC: Austria has colonies in Africa

Sure they could have since they were powerful and on the scene early enough but Austria was always more involved in Continental affairs and as far as I know had never really expressed much interest in obtaining overseas colonies. I think they would have much preferred to capture the Balkans.
 
Karl VI insists on keeping the Ostend Company (Austrian equivalent of British East India Company or Dutch VOC)and develops it.

What that does to the Vienna Treaty is any man's guess.
 
There was a thread that I remember where Austria (more powerful ITTL) takes Libya, while Italy remains politically and socially divided. The name of the thread mentioned escapes me, however.
 
Yes, but i am sure they are other ways that Austria could get colonies.

Agreed. There's no reason that they couldn't have just loaded up a couple of ships with settlers and landed them somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. Unlike Germany, Austria got to the colonization party while there was still lots of unclaimed land.

Like I said earlier the problem in this scenario seems to be more that Austria didn't really want colonies, not that they couldn't get them. Something in Austria needs to change, not something international.
 
Agreed. There's no reason that they couldn't have just loaded up a couple of ships with settlers and landed them somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. Unlike Germany, Austria got to the colonization party while there was still lots of unclaimed land.

Like I said earlier the problem in this scenario seems to be more that Austria didn't really want colonies, not that they couldn't get them. Something in Austria needs to change, not something international.


I suspect the real problem was Franz Josef. He was a complete army man who by some reports didn't even possess a naval uniform, and wasn't into faraway places. Even within his own Empire, he only occasionally left Vienna except to hunting lodges.

Maximilian is your man. He loved exotic places, a taste which OTL would cost him his life. I can easily imagine him wanting colonies. Make him either Emperor od Regent, and I can easily imagine him seeking colonies, perhaps forestalling Leopold in patronising Henry Morton Stanley.
 
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