Balkan Colonial Empires?

hey, all. one thing i've been mulling over for my ASB ATL is the possibility of one or more of the Balkan states gaining just enough influence to have a small colonial empire (probably on the level of OTL Austria) and either holding onto this territory until the decolonization period or perhaps losing it to civil war

one possibility that came to me just now is one of the Balkan powers getting OTL Papua New Guinea as part of the winning conditions of TTL's version of World War I, only to lose it within the next century (perhaps civil war not from the natives but from European settlers who refuse to accept foreign rulers, something of a twist on traditional colonialism)

what does everyone think of this basic idea and which Balkan states would be the most likely to establish or be granted colonies for whatever reason. this can require whatever POD one wants as long as its within the 19th or 20th centuries (hence the pre-1900 designation)
 
New Guinea? No. The only way I can see a colonial 'empire' is Courland style: Some small, insignificant island. And the only ones I can see doing this are either the Greeks (unlikely, why expend energy on that when the Turks are threatening you) or the Croats as part of the Kingdom of Hungary. So in effect, a Habsburg colony, populated by Croats. I don't see Montenegro having the money or population for this, and the reason there were no colonial empires from the Balkans is because they're in the Mediterranean. Inland seas tend to stymie colonisation, partially because ships are made for the calm Mediterranean, not the high seas, and partially because strategically, the connections to the colonies are threatened by whoever owns Gibraltar. Any polity in Bulgaria has this issue two-fold, with both the Dardanelles and Gibraltar.
 
A few years ago I was told at a lecture that the Republic of Ragusa was negotiating with Spain to purchase a piece or even the whole of Cuba prior to the great earthquake of 1667.
 
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