AHC: Italian Colonies in Asia/larger Italian colonial empire

So, with a PoD after Italian unification, how can we allow for the Italians to gain territory in the Far East? Or more land in Africa (other than Ethiopia/Somalia)? Bonus points if you can get the two to go together.
 
There were a serius attempt to get New Guinea in the 1870s, but at the last minute London nixed the idea all was abbandoned.
A decade earlier there were some talk to create a protectorate in Aceh and some preliminary move and talk was alredy done.
 

Vitruvius

Donor
The Italians almost gained a concession in China at Sanmen. The intention was to setup something like British Hong Kong or German Qingdao. But the Italians we're a little late to the game and more importantly they completely bungled the effort with a threatening but half hearted ultimatum to the Chinese that they couldn't follow through on and a total failure to cultivate support among other great powers.

I'm not sure that Italian Sanmen would have amounted to much but it's something. There are a few other areas that could be possible, Sabah for example bounced around between some private investors before ending up in British hands.
 
I always love the idea of a more successful (politically; he made enough of a fortune IOTL) Celso Cesare Moreno. Piedmontese, he went in 1856 to Aceh, where he became friend of the sultan, married one of his daughters and became the most trusted advisor. In 1864 he travelled back to Italy where he managed to meet the king and propose an Italian protectorate over Aceh which was threathened by the Dutch. Nothing came out of this visit: the Italian prime minister, Menabrea, was quite a dull figure and there were other worries in the political climate (Rome and Venice to be gained, and the unification of different administrations and cultures to be implemented). So poor Celso went back to Aceh, and then from there he went to the west coast of the USA where he made a second fortune in California.

After the 1866 there was a little more interest in colonies, and Rubattino (a Genoese shipline) was instructed to acquire some coaling bases in the Red Sea (Assab, which lead to the later expansion in Erythrea), and some attempt to penetrate the Far East were started (chiefly among them the Bixio expedition to Aceh (!) in 1873). Nino Bixio was quite a public figure in Italy (1848 and 1859 with Garibaldi; in 1860 he was the second-in-command of the expedition to Sicily; in 1866 he was a general commanding a division at Custoza; was very much into politics and was in Parliament all the decade) and one may think that his appointment to lead a commercial expedition to the Far East was a convenient cover for other and deeper goals. But another piece of bad luck: Bixio died of Cholera at Batavia in the same 1873, and this put once again the Far East on the back burner.

Let's assume that 1866 is a bit more successful for Italy (doesn't take much and I would not go for a string of devastating victories for sure). Just a bit more preparation, and a better strategic vision which would result in Lamarmora just holding the bridges of the Mincio rather than trying to get the Custoza heights and Cialdini moving first across the Po which was undefended and would have allowed him to threathen Austrian supply line (this btw was the recommendation of von Moltke the Older, together with the landing of Garibaldine irregulars in Dalmatia).
Now after the better outcome in the war Italy may be a bit more bold and dust off the Moreno proposition.
Bixio can go to Aceh in 1868, and steal a march on the Dutch (the official reason for the start of the Aceh war - as given by the Dutch - was the negotiations of the sultan with the Italian and American consuls in Aceh). He would also be likely to play a role in the war: insurgencies and guerrilla actions were his forte). When the dust settles, the Dutch got a bloody nose and Italy has a position in Aceh. This might work out well to encourage appetites both in New Guinea and in Kalimantan; if I'd my way, however, should be used as a springboard for a commercial penetration in southern China (and maybe in Indochina too: the French are not yet well rooted there).
 
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