alternatehistory.com

From digging through a few articles, it seems that Sabah/North Borneo had quite a journey before it ended up as a British possession. After exchanging hands a few times, the rights to North Borneo were eventually sold to Gustav von Overbeck, the Austro-Hungarian Consul to Hong Kong. The Sultan of Brunei even awarded Overbeck the title "Maharaja of Sabah".

(note: Malay kingdoms give titles away as freely as candy back in those days, and in Brunei the highest authority is given by the Sultan; a maharajah is subservient to him unless he would break away his territory like the Brookes did).

He tried to gain the Austro-Hungarian government's support for the colony, but failed and eventually sold it to his British partner.

Given the state of A-H during the 1870s, it's clear that the government wasn't in good shape to start any sort of colony. So here's the challenge: make Austria(-Hungary) strong enough to actually go for Sabah.
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