Unfulfilled Empire: Habsburg Global Ambitions in the 18th Century

In the spring of 1781, the Portuguese Governor of Goa sent a ship from Mumbai to destroy a newly fortified Habsburg settlement in Delagoa Bay, on the eastern coast of Africa. The Portuguese were furious at the Habsburg pretensions to set up a trade outpost in the proximity of the Madagascar island, as part of their ambitious plan to establish trade links with India and China. And even though the Austrian Habsburgs desire for a colonial trans-oceanic empire is today a mere footnote in the historiography of imperialism, things looked differently in the early 1780s.

The early-modern studies of global empires have a strong focus on maritime states. Despite being almost landlocked, the Habsburg Monarchy not only dominated Central Europe, but also took active part in global networks. For example, during the 1720s, the British and the Dutch persistently pursued diplomatic strategies to put an end to Charles VI’s (1711-1740) Ostend Company. This trading initiative was based in the Austrian Netherlands and fostered commercial ties especially with Bengal and China. Although Charles VI’s ambitions proved short-lived, Maria Theresa (1740-1780) and Joseph II (1765-1790) rekindled similar initiatives, from the ports of Ostend and Trieste.

Relying on documents from Vienna and Goa, this paper explores Habsburg attempts in the 1720s and 1770s to set up commercial connections with India and China, by establishing factories in Bengal, a fortified outpost in East Africa and trying to take over the Nicobar Islands.