"I suppose, the Spanish Embassy is anxious because of all the diplomatic thunder and lightning that was occassioned by our ongoing negotiations into obtaining a lease on Walfisch Bay from the Germans in their Southwest Africa colony. They likely expect a similar uproar from the other Great Powers with an interest in the West African situation as it currently stands. Then there is the Moroccan side of it. How will the Sultan Hassan react?"
"Yes, Franz?"
"The former Ifni Protectorate consul-general and senior military officer has just arrived, Your Excellency do you want to see him immediately?"
"Yes, Franz, send him in immediately."
Haymerle, gave his side whiskers another absentminded but thoughtful tug, as he turned the matter over again in his mind. Compared to most of the Great Powers, Austria-Hungary's colonial possessions were fairly minor. They amounted to a handful of colonies, protectorates and trade concessions scattered around the world; just enough to give the Empire a certain amount of prestige amoungst it's peers. They were also quietly prosperous and internally peaceful enough on their own merits that they did not cost the k.u.k. government too much to protect, police or administer to. The flip side of that agreeable equilibrium was that said colonies, protectorates and concessions were sufficiently profitable and so placed that they inevitablely irked someone else in the region or found themselves being entertained in some other powers's expansionistic designs.
Haymerle, snorted to himself quietly, in thoughtful exasperation and sarcasm.
The bulk of the colonial trade concessions that the Austro-hungarian Empire possessed rested in Asia. In particular, the two trade concessions in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Tientsin respectively. The other two Asian concessions were in India, Cabelon on the Coromandel Coast and Banquibazar on the Hooghli River, upstream from Calcutta in Bengal. These concessions were almost exclusively concerned with trade and travel and thus were largely run by the k.u.k. Consular Service, although the Ministry of the Marine and Colonies was in charge of their security and overall management. The last of the Austro-Hungarian trade concessions was located in Delagoa Bay, in Portuguese East Africa. It had been established by the Austrian East India Company in the 1776-81 period and had sufficiently annoyed the Portuguese into attempting by force to evict the trade concession from an area they considered theirs.
Their response had been to send a battalion of 500 men and a 40-gun frigate from Portuguese Goa in India to drive the Austrians enscounced at the trade fortresses of St Joseph and St Maria. The Austrian East India Company had been warned that the attempt was coming and had taken precautions including assembling a small fleet of a half dozen warships or heavily armed east indianman merchantile vessels and reinforced the fortresses with several hundred men and a hundred artillery pieces of various sizes. To the Portuguese commander's credit he did make a serious effort to carry out his orders but after being defeated by William Bolts, the Portugese authorities thought better of the effort and concentrated on other more profitable projects.
The Austro-Hungarian colonies proper could be considered to start with North Borneo in the East Indies, this area had been acquired semi-privately in the 1866, 1876 and 1879 by the Torrey-Dent-Overbeck Colonial Trade Company before becoming a formal Austrian possession in 1881. Moving westward towards Europe came the Nicobar islands, in eastern part of the India Ocean. These islands had been originally claimed by the Austrian East India Company as far back as 1778. The Austrians had stubbornly held onto them despite various attempts by both the Danish and the English to dislodge them at various times, sometimes by force. Next came the Austro-Hungarian Diu Enclave in western India, which actually included Diu island and a sizeable portion of the adjacent shore.
No comments:
Post a Comment