AHC: Prussian Colonial Empire

How plausible is it for the kingdom of prussia, sometime after 1701 to build a colonial empire? What would be the best places for it to begin its overseas expansion?

Assuming their is still a 7 years war like OTL, their empire could surely grow during this period;
how would this effect the maritime powers? could prussia build a fleet that could beat the Portuguese or Dutch?
Maybe by the turn of the century even the french or spanish?
 
It's not very plausible, for a number of reasons. First among them that simply consolidating a unified territorial base to Prussia itself is a major challenge in its own right.
 
Brandenburg had some minor colonies. But the Brandenburgisch-Afrikanische Compagnie suffered from various problems:

The BAC was chronically underfunded.
Corruption of the shareholders/merchants reduced the profit even more.
They had no own plantations in America, therefore no own secure market there.
For colonial goods Brandenburg/Prussia had not yet the capacity to process them nor the market to sell them.

There were other problems like losses to pirates, hostility among the shareholders, a loss of faith in the BAC and of course the dire need for money in the end of Friedrich I. reign. He nationalized it without any opposition and his son liquidated the remaining assets.

Now what can be done differently? Money can´t be produced out of nowhere. A planters colony in America early on would be a great step forward, securing one corner of the triangular trade. Perhaps a different organisation can reduce the corruption. And some merkantilistic tactics as Friedrich Wilhelm used them later could have resulted in an earlier development of the local economy, securing the second corner of the triangular trade.
 

ingemann

Banned
If you want a model for Prussian colonism Sweden's and Denmark's African and Caribbian colonies are the best model. So a very minor colonial empire of a few slave forts and some second rate (soil-wise) Caribbian islands. In fact the Danish colonial empire only really became good source of money after France gave Denmark St. Croix as a bribe. In the same way the only thing Prussia can do is set up the structures with colonial companies and avoid selling the existing colonies and wait until Britain, France or Netherlands give them a first rate island for military support in some war.
 
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