Magyar protokoloniális kaland a századfordulós Albániában
Hungarian Proto-Colonial Adventure in Albania at the Turn of the Century

Summary/Abstract: Until recently, research of the Austro-Hungarian colonial past was almost a taboo subject for Austrian and Hungarian historiography. It did not fit into the former self-image of the Dual Monarchy to present itself as a colonial power. After 1918, the national historiographies and political elites of the successor states of the Danube Empire denied the possibility of a colonial past even more vehemently than the former Kakanian propaganda. Present study reconstructs the conditions under which Count Imre Keglevich rented and cultivated thousands of hectares of land in the first half of the 1890s on the Eastern coast of the Adriatic, in the areas of the Ottoman Empire populated by Albanians. In addition to Keglevich's ambitions, I also present the history of the Albanian landowner Vlora family, who leased their land, and who later became allies of Austro-Hungarian foreign policy. I analyze the Albanian adventures of György Berzeviczy, a Hungarian nobleman who visited Keglevich, and I finally give a colonial interpretation of this series of events explored from three perspectives based on international parallels and archival sources. The adventure of Keglevich was a typical proto-colonial story with indirect colonial consequences. The research of the so-called proto-colonial histories is an integral part of international colonialism research. The scrutiny of the proto-colonial aspirations and activities is also unavoidable in the case of Austria-Hungary. Present study is a contribution to this research field.

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