AHC: Francis Joseph wants some pie!

Okay, so this has been done to death, but I am a sucker for punishment, I guess. The challenge I present to you, venerable posters of Alternate History, is provide Austria - Hungary with a piece of the colonial pie! Handwavium, the internal political scene is much calmer than it was historically, allowing Austria to have a more vocal international presence.

To begin with, I will suggest that the deal to purchase the Nicobar Islands goes through in this TL, since the Hungarians won't be able to screw it up. Perhaps they could get British Somalia at the Africa Conference if the Brits decide they don't really need or want it? Or perhaps they can be persuaded to sell it afterwards?
 
They had one, a share of Shanghai.

A concession on Tiensin after the Boxer rebellion.

The big problem for an A-H colonial empire is the access to the sealane, as WWI demonstrated the Otranto Strait can be blockaded easily and the only big port is Trieste (two if we count Fiume); so Albania must be controlled or at least be sure that's neutral and good relationships with Italy is very important; not counting the fact that the navy was the stepchild of the A-H armed forces.

For the proper colon, well North Borneo was offered for a buyout but Vienna declined, maybe they can accept and expand on the inland...making Netherland not very happy.
 

katchen

Banned
From Durres, Albania (yes, Austria would need to take over Scutari (Albania) in 1877) Cyrenaica is only a couple hundred miles away. Maybe in 1877, Austria splits Libya with Italy and Italy also gets Tunisia, which Garibaldi wanted but the French did not want him to have. From Benghazi and Tobruk, Austria can build a railroad to Tobruk, Abeche and El Fasher, Darfur, conquering Baguirmi. Railroads are not hard to build over desert. Austria can get direct access and title to a huge chunk of Africa, probably extending all the way to the Congo River, where it bumps into King Leopold's claim, and the Ubangi, where it runs into Italy, which likely will be doing the same thing. As we all know, Central African Republic is rich in diamonds and gold, and Chad has a large enough population to work those mines, so this could mean a workable colony.
Given the low population of Cyrenaica, I would expect the Kanem people of the Sahel to quickly overwhelm the Arab population of Cyrenaica and radically de-Arabize Cyrenaica. Austrians and especially Hungarians, Croats, Bosniaks and Albanians will also migrate to Cyrenaica, turning the place into an imperial polyglot.
Much the same thing will happening in Libya and Tunisia. Italy will soon see how easy it is to build a railroad across the Sahara and scramble to secure it's section of Chad before France gets it. Kanuri and Ubangi people (Ubangi converted to Catholicism) will be migrating to Tripoli and Tunis by the end of the 19th Century. France would quickly follow suit with Trans-Saharan railways, leading to development of French West Africa ITTL and Africans diluting the Arab and Berber populations of Algeria. In all of these cases, maybe only half of these Africans will be Muslim. This means big changes in North Africa west of Egypt ITTL as it is integrated demographically and culturally with Central and West Africa. rather than the Middle East. Only Morocco, remaining independent until the 1900s, might escape somewhat, being overwhelmed by immigration from Africa and France. But it is Austria which has the most reason to get that particular trans-Saharan colonial ball rolling ITTL since Austria needs to access Africa without doing so by sea.
 

rebeu

Banned
I love how discussing colonial powers that weren't just brush aside natives as complacent or "will convert." And yet most the colonial empires sans parts of Africa and the "old colonies" in the New World remain very much "modern" versions of their prior selves: that is Muslim or Hindu, and very much proud. There is a reason colonialism failed even in our time to make the colonized ever feel content under European rule. Military power is one thing, but ideology is much stronger, an enemy almost impossible to beat. Sure A-H and other colonial powers have expensive and effective weaponry, but for an all-out colonial revolt the colonized only need to realize they are treated as inferiors (a byproduct of colonialism impossible to "handwave" away) and a belief that they are equally human and, voilà! A cause they are willing to die for, for their own land and way of life, and eventually the metropoles will realize it is too expensive to continue fighting far off for something that was never rightfully theirs.

Just my two cents.
 
I love how discussing colonial powers that weren't just brush aside natives as complacent or "will convert." And yet most the colonial empires sans parts of Africa and the "old colonies" in the New World remain very much "modern" versions of their prior selves: that is Muslim or Hindu, and very much proud. There is a reason colonialism failed even in our time to make the colonized ever feel content under European rule. Military power is one thing, but ideology is much stronger, an enemy almost impossible to beat. Sure A-H and other colonial powers have expensive and effective weaponry, but for an all-out colonial revolt the colonized only need to realize they are treated as inferiors (a byproduct of colonialism impossible to "handwave" away) and a belief that they are equally human and, voilà! A cause they are willing to die for, for their own land and way of life, and eventually the metropoles will realize it is too expensive to continue fighting far off for something that was never rightfully theirs.

Just my two cents.

And this little tirade concern a discussion regarding the fact that another european nation, you know the little group that basically carved up the world between them in the last century, want join the party at the moment it was very fashionable how?
 

katchen

Banned
And his other European nation is going to have a very interesting time indeed, considering that it is already an empire that hasn't integrated it's own inner European Imperium into an integrated national consciousness. What happens when all of the nationalities that make up Austria get to a place like Cyrenaica or one of the Pacific Islands ? Can they all pull together there in a way they can never accomplish back home?
 

rebeu

Banned
And his other European nation is going to have a very interesting time indeed, considering that it is already an empire that hasn't integrated it's own inner European Imperium into an integrated national consciousness. What happens when all of the nationalities that make up Austria get to a place like Cyrenaica or one of the Pacific Islands ? Can they all pull together there in a way they can never accomplish back home?

Especially in face of a more united native society in places like Libya or some of the Pacific Islands?

THIS is the point I was trying to make earlier, as well as a reminder to not just dismiss natives when discussing colonies that weren't, let alone potential colonies of a multinational empire that couldn't even keep itself together.
 
Especially in face of a more united native society in places like Libya or some of the Pacific Islands?

THIS is the point I was trying to make earlier, as well as a reminder to not just dismiss natives when discussing colonies that weren't, let alone potential colonies of a multinational empire that couldn't even keep itself together.

I agree. You can't just ignore one of if not the biggest factor in colonization, when discussing it!
 
Especially in face of a more united native society in places like Libya or some of the Pacific Islands?

THIS is the point I was trying to make earlier, as well as a reminder to not just dismiss natives when discussing colonies that weren't, let alone potential colonies of a multinational empire that couldn't even keep itself together.

Maybe I'm just tired but I have no idea what you're trying to say.

The problem with British Somalia is that the British wanted it to protect the route to India and so would probably push very hard to keep it.
 

katchen

Banned
On the other hand, you need to remember that for natives, unity dosen't count for much when you're submerged under a sea of alien people so that you're a small minority in your own land even if the majority is not all of one nation and the majority does not get along well together either. Whatever Cyrenaica's identity turns out to finally be, it won't be Arab and probably won't be Muslim if it not only has to deal with a mixture of Germans, Hungarians, Croats, Czechs, Poles and Albanians coming in by sea, but Kanuri, Bambari, Fur Congolese, Tutsi and Hutu, Baganda and Karamoja over the railroad from Africa, many of them newly converted to Catholicism or evangelical Christianity. Remember, Singapore did not stay Malay, and Malaysia had to invite Singapore to secede and be a separate country to gain a Malay majority.
Pacific Islanders may do better simply because they already populate their islands densely enough so that not so many outsiders can fit on the islands.
 
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