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Why Austro-Hungarian Empire didn't have any overseas colonies? -…
Why Austro-Hungarian Empire didn't have any overseas colonies?
we all know something about the
austro-hungarian Empire
we know that Franz Joseph was its Kaiser
it like to eat Balkan countries and that
he broke up after the first world war it
was a great power throughout its entire
existence and so one of the great
questions surrounding it is often being
why didn't it have overseas territories
like the other great powers first of all
it did just no large ones and we'll get
to that later but as for why
austria-hungary never had any major
colonies the reason is very simple
it couldn't this was mostly down to a
lack of capacity the austro-hungarian
Navy wasn't very formidable let alone
capable of defending a vast colonial
empire another reason was that for those
at the top of the austro-hungarian
government they already had an empire
you see the Habsburg monarchy had
something the other great powers didn't
room to expand next door because the
Balkans were fair game the Habsburg
monarchy did join the rest of the great
powers for the 1884 Berlin conference
here the famous Scramble for Africa was
planned which divided up the continent
amongst the European powers
austria-hungary took no african colonies
for itself during this because again it
had its own problems that's not to say
that the austro-hungarians took zero
interest in overseas activities though
many private citizens and businesses
urged the government to build an
overseas Empire the most notable being
the austro-hungarian colonial society
scientists explorers and merchants from
the Habsburg monarchy were very active
in East Africa it was proposed that the
austro-hungarian Empire attempt to take
these lands in order to gain a port in
the Indian Ocean and also because Empire
austria-hungary's motivations here were
primarily economic and again this went
nowhere mostly because it would be
expensive there was no guarantee it
would succeed and also of the European
powers were interested in the region so
for the austro-hungarian Empire
imperialism was viewed almost entirely
as an economic venture because it didn't
have much money to spare no real
attempts were made for example there
were talks to buy this territory from
Spain as well as conquer Morocco but
there was never really any benefit to
doing so nor much willpower to even try
part of this came from the Hungarian
half of the Empire who did not wish to
spend money on something it felt would
disproportionately benefit the Austrian
half another factor in why
austria-hungary didn't build a colonial
empire is the man at the top Emperor
Franz Josef the Emperor wanted nothing
to do with colonialism in general and
was much more concerned with keeping the
empire together the lack of progress on
building an empire did in fact lead to
many austro-hungarian explorers adding
other imperial powers there was one
the austro-hungarian Empire did obtain
what's called a concession in the
Chinese city of Tianjin this came after
they as part of the eight-nation
alliance helped to put down the Boxer
Rebellion a concession was basically a
street and this in its entirety
represents the peak of the
austro-hungarian overseas expansion so
to conclude the reason why
austria-hungary didn't build a colonial
empire is a simple if not anticlimactic
one it couldn't if they had taken their
explorers advice and taken part in the
Scramble for Africa their empire could
have looked like this but then again the
Dual Monarchy was under great strain
already perhaps it was prudent then that
Franz Joseph not complicate things