Paper short abstract:

I would like to anlyse the activities of the trading company of the Habsburg Empire, founded in 1772. I especially focus on how it changed the constellation of European powers in Asia

Paper long abstract:

As a consequence of the Pragmatica Sanctio and the rise to power of Maria Theresa the Habsburg Empire was unable to use the exit in the Nordic Sea (Ostend) to the international waters. So it had to look for alternatives in the Adriatic. These resulted in the establishment of new colonies and worked very well, and also harmed Portuguese interests in India. This positive turn was due to an extraordinary vacuum situation, the result of the War of Independence of the North American colonies and the Franco-British status quo. Thanks to Alexandre Lobato, we know Austrian activity in Mozambique. This makes necessary to re-evaluate the role of the new agent in the Indian area (whether in Malabar or in Nicobar Islands), as well as the forms of cooperation and friction between Denmark and Portugal that finally disconcerted the ambitions of the Habsburg colonizers. The ad hoc and adventurous nature of these initiatives remains also a question and leads to some considerations about the second wave of European colonial empires. The creation of commercial companies (some of them ephemeral, while others more enduring) followed the Dutch model, and in general the Nordic scheme, a new methodology for colonialist capital investment. The Portuguese reforms are less researched compared with the different parts of the vast empire (Africa, Brazil and India) and especially if they are compared with the Swedish, Danish or German and French and British counterparts.