Your mission if you choose to accept it is to find a way to maintain the independence of one of the Boer states, or if possible both of them.
AHC: Independent Boer State(s)
- Thread starter Etruscan-enthusiast35
- Start date
Orangecar
Banned
No South African war in 1898 would help. Basically kill off Rhodes and his supporters and London is unlikely to back aggression against the South African Republic. Basically just have London be Satisfied with a South African economic union and have the South African Republic relalize the benefits of a closer economic ties to Britian and the other states
Results? A better off Cape which becomes a dominion with an Equal spread of Coloured, black and white population. Decent Rugby and Cricket teams. Kimberley probably becomes a bigger city.
The Natal Colony develops simiarly to Kenya except with a much larger Indian and white population and a very monolithic Zulu population could develop rather interestingly(Indpendent Zululand perhaps later down the line). Decent cricket team and a crappy Rugby team, decent soccer team too
The Boer republics will be pretty dystopian if they continue however, they will bascially be apartheid states without the fake and stupid ideological justification(the races need to be seperate to live in Harmony,lol) instead you will get states that just outright say this is a white mans country and everyone else can fuck off, even though the majority of the population will be black. One issue that will come up is the issue of land. IE poor white farmers will take issue with large land owners who used black tenant farmers earlier, so something similar to the 1913 land act in OTL South Africa will be implemented( which reswrved 87% of land to whites vs 13% to blacks) except it will somehow be worse as we from the example of the Free State who essentially only gave the tiny district of Qwa Qwa to the black population, so it will be even worse. They will have bizzare Christian fundementalist style constitutions, in certian cases the bible will be used to interpret the law.
There will probably be some kind of loose South African Union linking thr economies of the CGH, Natal, ZAR, Free State and the various African dependemcies. Though political tensions may continue between the various states.
Results? A better off Cape which becomes a dominion with an Equal spread of Coloured, black and white population. Decent Rugby and Cricket teams. Kimberley probably becomes a bigger city.
The Natal Colony develops simiarly to Kenya except with a much larger Indian and white population and a very monolithic Zulu population could develop rather interestingly(Indpendent Zululand perhaps later down the line). Decent cricket team and a crappy Rugby team, decent soccer team too
The Boer republics will be pretty dystopian if they continue however, they will bascially be apartheid states without the fake and stupid ideological justification(the races need to be seperate to live in Harmony,lol) instead you will get states that just outright say this is a white mans country and everyone else can fuck off, even though the majority of the population will be black. One issue that will come up is the issue of land. IE poor white farmers will take issue with large land owners who used black tenant farmers earlier, so something similar to the 1913 land act in OTL South Africa will be implemented( which reswrved 87% of land to whites vs 13% to blacks) except it will somehow be worse as we from the example of the Free State who essentially only gave the tiny district of Qwa Qwa to the black population, so it will be even worse. They will have bizzare Christian fundementalist style constitutions, in certian cases the bible will be used to interpret the law.
There will probably be some kind of loose South African Union linking thr economies of the CGH, Natal, ZAR, Free State and the various African dependemcies. Though political tensions may continue between the various states.
Granting the Boer states some sort of secure access to world markets other than through British territory might also help in securing their independence. I'd suggest having Britain and Portugal agree to give the disputed Delagoa Bay to Transvaal in 1872 as a sort of compromise.
Orangecar
Banned
The issue I take with the whole railway to delago bay is that at the end of the day Britian is still one of the biggest and most influencial markets in the world and in the case of the ZAR the British market is right on its doorstep. Market forces would push them toward Britain eventually, too many people in the ZAR have economic ties to the Cape and the other colonies and vice versa for them not to be big trading partners. Anti British nationalism in the ZAR was not economicallt rational and in the case of the Free State they are far more economicallu dependent on the Cape
I'm aware the British Cape was far too important for the ZAR to antagonize directly. The reason i brought up the possibility of a sea port under direct Boer control is that it might give the ZAR some more leverage, whatever it can get, to keep Britain at arm's length.
Making diplomatic overtures to Germany, France, and other possible opponents of Britain might also be useful for securing autonomy, though i'm afraid it wouldn't be enough unless whatever protector the ZAR manages to get is willing to go to war for them. Perhaps giving Botswanna to Germany through Namibia could help the case?
Most of them were small, and didn't last all that long.
Depending on the PoD, I suspect that at least some of them will either get absorbed into the larger ones, or seek British protection to prevent that from happening.