Why is that while England, Holland, France, Spain, and Portugal set out and
established colonies from one end of the world to the other, countries such
as Germany, Italy, and Greece – all of which clearly had ocean access –
did not embark on any such explorations?
Thanks for any info.
I’m going out on a limb here, as IANAH and I’m not checking references, but I don’t think Germany, Italy, and Greece were what you’d call countries during the “Age of Colonization.” Weren’t they still pretty well split up into city-states, duchies, or some such?
Nametag has it.
Germany - Non-existant as a cohesive state. A very divided and weak Holy Roman Empire.
Italy - Non-existant as a cohesive state, without even the symbolic unity of the HRE.
Greece - Non-existant, period. Mostly part of the Ottoman Empire, with a few islands held by the Venetians ( at least until the 17th century ).
As it happens, unified Italy ( Italian Somaliland, Eritrea, Libya et al ) and Prussia/Germany ( Cameroon, Namibia, Tanzania et al ) did acquire some fairly insignificant colonial possesions in the late 19th century, but they were very, very late to the game.
I will note, however, that Venice invested a lot of capital in early European ventures, as the Egyptian/overland Asian trade route, their primary concern, slowly strangled.
As for the Ottomans, in the west they were hemmed into the Eastern Mediterranean by and large ( especially after, though not solely because of, Lepanto in 1571 ), and in the east the seaways of the Arabian Sea/Red Sea/Indian Ocean was not even of tertiary importance to them as a theatre of operations, though they did spar occasionally with the Portuguese in the 16th century and intermittently dominated the Gulf region.
The Omani Arabs were more of a colonial threat, eventually driving the Portuguese from East Africa north of Mozambique, creating the later Sultanate of Zanzibar .
Italy was not united until 1861. Germany was not united until 1871. Greece was not independent of the Ottoman Empire until 1830, and took a long while to recover from its bitter war of independence. Besdies, the Germans did establish colonies (in Papua, German East Africa, etc.), and the Italians had a colony of sorts in Somalia.
For Nametag’s information, ‘Germany’ consisted of about 365 independent states (nominally subject to a moribund “Holy Roman Empire”, and ruled variously by electors, dukes, princes, counts and free knights, and as free cities) until Napoléon conquered it. And from 1815 to 1871 it consisted of 5 kingdoms (Hanover, Saxony, Wurttemburg, Bavaria, and Prussia), one electoral duchy (Hesse), seven grand duchies (Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Luxemburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg, and Saxony-Weimar), seven duchies (Brunswick, Holstein, Nassau, Saxony-Altenburg, Saxony-Hildburghausen, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Anhalt-Dessau, Anhalt Köthen, and Anhalt-Bernburg), 14 principalities, and four free cities (Lübeck, Hamburg, Oldenburg, and Bremen). In addition to all of which, the Empire of Austria-Hungary was also a member of the German Confederation.
Italy I am not so sure about, but it certainly included the Kingdom of Sardinia (including the Piedmont), the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the papal State, Parma, Modena, Tuscany, Venetia (subject to Austria-Hungary), and Benevento. And perhaps others.
Regards,
Agback
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I was thinking; I can’t believe I forgot about the Ottoman Empire, though.
bodrika - This is pretty off-topic, but if you are interested in this period and like games then Europa Universalis II (EU II) might work for you.
Of course, once Italy and Germany did become cohesive states they wanted to catch up with everybody else and do what all self respecting nations of the time did - set up colonies abroad. The first and second world wars duly followed.
Both Italy and Germany had problems projecting power over long distances, Italy was bottled in the medeteranian sea and Germany was hemmed in by the all powerful Royal Navy. Both looked nearer to home for their empire building, Italy looked to North Africa and Germany to her European neighbours.
At the time, I am sure that the national ambitions of these countries made good sense to their citizens - they were of course just trying to catch up. Had geography been different, I am sure that history would have been very different too.
Very enlightening, everyone. Thanks for your replies.
Bodrika