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