Prussia: A colonial power?

We all know Germany snapped up a few colonies here and there between its unification under Prussia in 1871 and the establishment of the Weimar Republic in 1918. However, could Prussia have tried to establish foreign colonies between its establishment as a great European power in 1815, but before its unification with the rest of Germany later on that century?
 
Post 1815, the Question is where?
Western Hemisphere is off-limits, Africa is all kinds of trouble for the next 50 years, India and Australia are strictly British, taking big parts of China is troublesome. The Netherlands have the East Indies covered.
New Zealand has a window before Waitangi (is that right?) but that would face stern British opposition.
The Far East is Russian, Prussia has no access to central asia etc.
Where are they going to go?
 
I suppose that the Pacific is really the only answer. Micronesia and Polynesia have plenty of open spots. I suppose Indochina or Siam could be a possibility, but I'm not sure.

Has Japan opened and industrialized yet? It would probably be troublesome like China, but maybe they can split the island chain with other powers? Hokkaido to Russia, Honshu to Prussia, and the other islands to the British?

Just throwing ideas out there for you.
 
Has Japan opened and industrialized yet? It would probably be troublesome like China, but maybe they can split the island chain with other powers? Hokkaido to Russia, Honshu to Prussia, and the other islands to the British?

Not sure about this. Though clearly Japan wasn't treated as a western nation, even in its isolationist period, Japan was treated as an advanced nation. Europeans - and the USA - treated with Japan by sending diplomatic missions, trying to open it up to trade. Deciding on the spur of the moment to attack it would be a serious faux pas. It would be used as a sign of untrustworthiness by other European countries, it would destroy Prussia's foreign policy as Europe would instantly take steps away from them, and it would invite other European colonial powers to step in to help the Japanese, knowing that by helping them stay independent the Japanese would then owe their helpers a huge favour, meaning Most Favoured Nation status, huge trade concessions, thus huge profits, a lot of curried favour diplomatically, etc. Remember that the UK and (to a lesser extent) France were trading nations. Their prime interest was in making profits by trade. Also, Prussia had virtually no naval ability, so its ability to invade Japan would be nearly nonexistant. Japan really isn't a very likely target imo. Indochina is somewhat more likely, though, if they can find a way to transport troops.
 
Not sure about this. Though clearly Japan wasn't treated as a western nation, even in its isolationist period, Japan was treated as an advanced nation. Europeans - and the USA - treated with Japan by sending diplomatic missions, trying to open it up to trade. Deciding on the spur of the moment to attack it would be a serious faux pas. It would be used as a sign of untrustworthiness by other European countries, it would destroy Prussia's foreign policy as Europe would instantly take steps away from them, and it would invite other European colonial powers to step in to help the Japanese, knowing that by helping them stay independent the Japanese would then owe their helpers a huge favour, meaning Most Favoured Nation status, huge trade concessions, thus huge profits, a lot of curried favour diplomatically, etc. Remember that the UK and (to a lesser extent) France were trading nations. Their prime interest was in making profits by trade. Also, Prussia had virtually no naval ability, so its ability to invade Japan would be nearly nonexistant. Japan really isn't a very likely target imo. Indochina is somewhat more likely, though, if they can find a way to transport troops.
Sorry, I don't know too much about Japan prior to WWII though, I did say it would be troublesome like trying to colonize China.
 
Well, let's see what's available for the taking...

They could probably snap up something in West Africa... Maybe a port or two on the OTL area of Western Sahara?

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There was some talk of Prussia annexing Formosa, this was before the Franco-Prussian War since they had spoken with Napoleon III about it.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
What about winning something off of the Dutch? Did they ever have conflict?

A Prussian governorship in Java...that would be very interesting.

Someone could write a story about the German colonial response to the eruption of Krakatoa, and use that as the bedrock for the story of the colony.
 

Valdemar II

Banned
I must admit I have a hard time seing Prussia build a colonial empire earlier, they have enough to do with stabilising the territories they got, if they also need to invest in a navy and colonial armies, I thinks they will be in trouble.
 
Do you have any further details on this?

Preparing for Weltpolitik: German Sea Power before the Tirpitz Era by Lawrence Sondhaus.

pg: 67-68 [May 1862]

The expedition left Prussia's colonial ambitions unfulfilled. Before departing for the Far East, Count Eulenburg visited Paris and received Napleon III's blessing for a Prussian annexation of Taiwan. In March 1860 the prince regent authorized the acquisition of colonies, and aftward the Prussian press speculated that Sundewall and his squadron would claim Taiwan. The officers on the mission recognized the impossibility of securing an island of that size with the resources at their disposal. Eulenburg abandoned the project after concluding the trade treaty with China, on the gounds that an attempt to annex Taiwan woud jeopardize Prusso-Chinese relations.

Fascinating book that shows the desire to build a blue water navy predated the appointment of Tirpitz. Most importantly that a large navy was promoted both Kaiser Wilhelm I and later Frederick III.
 

Deleted member 1487

The Congo was a good bet if the Prussians had gotten their act together. It wasn't colonized until the 1880's which leaves plenty of time for Germany to do it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Congo
It was a lucrative colony that could have sated Germany's hunger for resource colonies, but not settler colonies, which was also a hope of Imperial Germany. That colony could not be had after the British had taken all the places Europeans could settle that were profitable.
 
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