AHC: Austro-Hungarian Colonies during the New Imperialism Era

Delta Force

Banned
Could Austria-Hungary have managed to acquire overseas colonies during the New Imperialism era? What areas might Austria-Hungary have been able to acquire, and how might they have been administered and developed?
 
I once made a short thread a while back about an Austro-Hungarian North Borneo. Basically, there was an A-H Consul in Hong Kong that — through sheer luck or personal ambition — got the rights to North Borneo, in OTL. However, the Austrian government was not in a colonial mood and so the rights were handed over to the British instead.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Seems like the Med would have been the most likely;

Could Austria-Hungary have managed to acquire overseas colonies during the New Imperialism era? What areas might Austria-Hungary have been able to acquire, and how might they have been administered and developed?

Seems like the Med would have been the most likely; they were already strategic rivals with the Ottomans/Turks, Russians, and Italians in mid ot late Nineteenth Century and afterward...

Send Tegetthoff et al to Libya in the 1860s to steal a march on the Italians?

Some part of Anatolia? The Levant?

Weirder things have happened.

The British idea of Cyprus as something worth grabbing, for example.

Best,
 
Seems like the Med would have been the most likely; they were already strategic rivals with the Ottomans/Turks, Russians, and Italians in mid ot late Nineteenth Century and afterward...

Send Tegetthoff et al to Libya in the 1860s to steal a march on the Italians?
Some part of Anatolia? The Levant?
Weirder things have happened.

The British idea of Cyprus as something worth grabbing, for example.
I support TFSmiths121's ideas
You could have the Austrians take all the Land that OTL British empire aquired. From their ports of Trieste, Pola, Fiume and Ragusa, the navy could land easily on:
- Gibraltar
- Cyprus
- Egypt
- Crimea
The navy could go as far as the West coast of Africa, but any further would in my opinion be trying to hard.
 
I support TFSmiths121's ideas
You could have the Austrians take all the Land that OTL British empire aquired. From their ports of Trieste, Pola, Fiume and Ragusa, the navy could land easily on:
- Gibraltar
- Cyprus
- Egypt
- Crimea
The navy could go as far as the West coast of Africa, but any further would in my opinion be trying to hard.

Gibraltar was already British, and I don't think that Austria-Hungary could ever be in a state to win a naval war against the UK. To get to Crimea the Austrians would have to go via the Bosporus, which means that the Ottomans could basically cut communications whenever they liked.

Cyprus should be doable, though, as should Egypt before the Suez Canal was built. (After the Suez Canal, I can't imagine Britain ever accepting any other power controlling Egypt.)
 
I'm sure Italy would LOVE that idea... :eek:

And even France will be thrilled; seriously the problem with Austria entering the colonial business is that she had only a serious port aka Trieste, the other (Pola, Zadar/Zara, etc.) are too little and need a big expansion and refurbisment before being used in that fashion.
Not counting that, as WWI demonstrated, is not really difficult to cut A-H from any sea lane
 
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