page_title: German colonial projects before 1871
section_title: The Hanau-Indies
hierarchical_section_title: German colonial projects before 1871 / Holy Roman Empire (to 1806) / The Hanau-Indies
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe Inv.-Nr. 1164, (nicht druckfähige Version), mit freundlicher Genehmigung. Literatur: Georg Ulrich Großmann (Hrsg.): Von teutscher Not zu höfischer Pracht&#160;: 1648 - 1701. Ausstellungskatalog Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, 2. April - 16. August 1998, Kat-Nr. 102.
context_page_description: When the German Empire came into existence in 1871, none of its constituent states had any overseas colonies. Only after the Berlin Conference in 1884 did Germany begin to acquire new overseas possessions, but it had a much longer relationship with colonialism dating back to the 1520s. Before the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, various German states established chartered companies to set up trading posts; in some instances they also sought direct territorial and administrative control over these. After 1806, attempts at securing possession of territories overseas were abandoned; instead, private trading companies took the lead in the Pacific while joint-stock companies and colonial associations initiated projects elsewhere, although many never progressed beyond the planning stage.
context_section_description: In 1669 the Dutch West India Company and the County of Hanau entered into a contract leasing a territory of around 100,000 square kilometres between the Orinoco and Amazon rivers in Dutch Guiana to Hanau. This territory was many times larger than Hanau itself (which was just under 1,400 square kilometres). The intention was to compensate for the financial hardships of Hanau by achieving a positive trade balance with a colony. The contract secured extensive rights for the Dutch West India Company, including a monopoly on transport with the Hanau-Indies. However, from the outset there was a lack of resources to finance a project in this scale, and a lack of people willing to colonise it. The project ended in a financial fiasco for the county of Hanau. An attempt to sell it to Charles II of England was not successful, and the project finally failed due to the outbreak of the Third Anglo-Dutch War the same year.
caption: Johann David Welcker: Allegory of the acquisition of Surinam by Count Friedrich Casimir, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg 1669. (1676) Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe Inv.-Nr. 1164.
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