AHC: Foreign Involvement in the Second Boer War

While the Boer republics managed to scrounge up a few foreign arms shipments and volunteer units IOTL, is there any way to drag in some serious foreign intervention on the behalf of the Great Powers? Germany is about the only one that comes to mind (in light of the Kruger telegram), but I'd like to hear what everyone has to say. I know the scenario sounds awfully implausible, but maybe a diplomatic gaffe at the right time and place might escalate into a conflict between the British and some other power?
 

Cook

Banned
Not that implausible.

The biggest mistake of the Boer Republics was striking first. While raids with Commandoes work very well when your opponents are Bantu tribes, it doesn’t work so well when your opponent is the British Empire. Had the republics taken an entirely defensive footing and appealed at the same time to the European public their prospects would have been better. There was a lot of sympathy for the Boers in Europe during the war, not just in Germany. Had independent journalists been allowed to observe the war the treatment of the Boer civilians would have outraged Europe.

Direct intervention is difficult because the Boers have no direct access to the coast. The only way to the ocean that is not controlled by the British is via the Portuguese colony of Mozambique and while the Portuguese allowed some arms imports via their territory prior to the war starting, they were an old British ally with neither the strength nor will to intervene.

I doubt any of the other European powers would have directly intervened but they could have done so indirectly or, more importantly, they could have forced Britain to accept a cease-fire and arbitration with the Boer Republics with would have resulted in them keeping their independence.
 
British Naval Dominance was so, that no other nation had any chance to save the Boers via an expeditionary force or something.

All other nations could have done is to put economic and political pressure on the UK to seek a compromise solution (like: Railway and mining concessions to the British but Boers stay independent).

The USA and France could in theory have tried to increase pressure by military actions against Canada / the British possessions in NW Africa.
But they had no motivation to risk a bigger war with the UK.

Germany couldn't even have done this, as its colonial forces were to weak.
All Germany could have done is attacking France while the UK is distracted, but that would have been done for completly different reasons (and wouldn't have have saved the Boers)
 
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