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With a point of divergence no earlier than the end of the First Boer War, how could either or both the Orange Free State or Transvaal Republic remain extant into the 1900's as independent entities, and thereon develop culturally and economically?

In terms of military tactics and application, the Boer states appear to have maintained their advantages over the British (camouflaged uniforms and guerilla tactics versus regimental structure and organized conflict) into the Second Boer War, but it seems hard to find a scenario wherein the allure of the gold deposits there would not end up provoking a second, far more invested conflict as in OTL. Given that we have the Second Boer War as a relative example of an all-out conflict, it is apparent that either Britain must be weakened or else the Boer states will need to have vested foreign support in order to remain extant.

To this end, what outside power would be liable to provide a potent enough diplomatic buffer against annexation by Britain? In going off historical precedents, the two most culpable candidates are Germany (Sudwestafrika being right next door to the Cape Colony, plus vocal support from Wilhelm II during the Second Boer War) and France (one of the most powerful colonial and geopolitical enemies of Britain at the time, peaking in the 1898 Fashoda Incident). Alternatively, what internal or general geopolitical forces within reason would discourage these actions?

There is also the question of cultural and economic development. Sitting on substantial reserves of gold and coal (as well as chrome and diamonds) there is obviously grounds for a very lucrative mineral economy, though also the comparative difficulties in marketing such goods as a landlocked nation. Finally there is the matter of cultural development - while the rapid increases in segregation leading to the apartheid system observed following the creation of the Union of South Africa would not be present, the two republics nonetheless maintained very strong racial hierarchy and nativist tendencies during their periods of independence. How might this develop in time to the present?
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