Austrian colonial policy

Austrian colonial policy consisted of a small number of limited and generally short-lived efforts by the Habsburg monarchy, the Austrian Empire, and later Austria-Hungary to establish overseas commercial and colonial footholds. From the 17th century through the 19th century, Austrian merchants and governments sponsored several ventures aimed at expanding trade, including trading companies and acquiring factories, but none developed into a substantial overseas empire. Compared with other European great powers, Austria and later Austria-Hungary pursued a limited colonial policy. Habsburg priorities were primarily continental. Consequently, overseas ventures such as the Ostend Company, the settlements at Delagoa Bay and the Nicobar Islands, and the Austro-Hungarian concession of Tianjin remained both short-lived and small in scale. The colonial domains of the dual monarchy Austria-Hungary, from 1867 to 1918, are covered in Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Keeping Bosnia and Herzegovina under control was a major factor in the Austro-Hungarian entry into World War I, although the territory was administered as part of the monarchy rather than as an overseas colony.