Quote Originally Posted by Zenicetus
Read history, and tell me why the Swiss and the Austrians didn't set up colonies in America, India, Australia, or the South Pacific. Why was it the countries that had deep experience in seafaring? You don't achieve that in just 100 years from scratch.
Well the Swiss haven't fought any aggressive war for their whole existence and Austria did try to engage in the overall colonisatio-thing like France and England, but suceeded only in capturing a port in India for a month.
Plus, Austria was a multi-national empire, much more so than France or the UK. Governing the balkans, the Hungarians, the Romanians, the Czechs and whoever else took the spotlight, not sending somebody overseas to claim, say, Western Africa for His Imperial Majesty.

And third - Austria, for the longest time, struggled against other German powers for dominance in the HRE. When that was settled, all the "good spots" in the world were already taken ;-)