Habsburg Colonial: Austria-Hungary's Role in European Overseas Expansion Reconsidered

This contribution tries to re-consider theconventional thesisof Austria (-Hungary's)non-involvement in overseas expansion. In essence, three thematic areas are discussed: First, the numerous so-calledexplorersandresearcherswhose relations to political strategies employed by the Habsburg Empire or other European powers have been quite strong. They rendered an important contribution to ‘informal empire’. Secondly, we deal with Austria'sforeign policy paradigmwhich in principle was oriented towardsmultilateralism. Vienna therefore was more active in the multilateral coordination of European colonial policies than in raising her unilateral profile (e. g. by colonial conquest) — at least as long as this was possible given Austria-Hungary's shrinking political weight. Thirdly, even a rough overview nevertheless bringsnumerous colonial projects and initiativesinto focus that were implemented since the early eighteenth century both bystate institutionsand bycivil society. Admittedly, most of them failed or were not pursued thoroughly. Austria-Hungary's temporary restraint during the ‘scramble for Africa’ made the empire a special case in colonial politics.