Best Case Scenario for the Boer Republics if the British Empire Collapsed

Ellis MacVey

Donor
Okay, so I've been slogging through some overly brief run-downs on extremely complicated South African history and more specifically the history of the Afrikaners/Boers for reasons that elude even me. Mostly brief skims of Wikipedia articles, if we're being honest.

Anyways, the thing I want to know is, assuming the British Empire somehow collapsed in the late 1860s or early 1870s, what would the best case scenario be for the Boers as a people (oh god, that sounds kinda fashy, or maybe I've just been bingeing on too many videos debunking alt-right propaganda) and for the Boer Republics.

You may interpret this request as you will, and there'll probably be a bunch of radically different answers, but I don't fucking know. To be honest, history is really fucking confusing sometimes.

P.S. Sorry if I'm rambling, I didn't get much sleep and I'm high as balls on caffiene (which is a drug, look it up) and just finished a fucking insane Victoria 2 playthrough.
 
Pulmonic_Consonant

Pulmonic_Consonant

Probably the institution of a Boer-unfriendly Cape Colony government which bungles its own series of Boer wars in a fashion similar to the British, but due to being much less able to send a large force than the British Empire, ends up losing entirely and being forced to cede large tracts of land to the various Boer republics, who, in a best case scenario, would be working with the tribes such as the Xhosa and Zulu against the Cape Colony. After a while, with the Boers homesteading further and further into the interior of Africa, and having a very high birthrate, it's not hard to picture a large united Boer confederacy composing most of inland South Africa, Botswana, and if we're being really generous, southern portions of Zimbabwe. The biggest part of this scenario is, of course, the British Empire collapsing, which would have a far, far greater impact on the world and even Africa than the Boer Republics faring well. It would completely alter the nature of the scramble for Africa in ways I can't even remotely predict. Depending on which countries get which parts of Africa, the Boers could either be totally screwed or just continue expanding by homesteading into neighboring farmland.

You'd never have a giant Boer Empire taking up half of Africa or anything like that, if that's what you're wondering. It's most likely they'd never even get a coast, unless they conquered their Xhosa and Zulu allies or something.
 

Ellis MacVey

Donor
Pulmonic_Consonant said:
You'd never have a giant Boer Empire taking up half of Africa or anything like that, if that's what you're wondering. It's most likely they'd never even get a coast, unless they conquered their Xhosa and Zulu allies or something.
Click to expand...

Not gonna lie, the idea of a Boer Empire taking up half of Africa is fucking terrifying
 

Ellis MacVey

Donor
I know it's bad to bump this but I really feel like this has so much potential and I'm sad it hasn't gotten more responses.

I mean, @Pulmonic_Consonant did a pretty good job of explaining his thoughts on what would probably happen, but does anyone else have any ideas on what this would look like?
 

Lampiao

The Boers are semi-nomad fundamentalist Christians. Without the British, there will be no capital to invest on precious metals. Heck, people won't even bother looking for precious metals. Without the Brits, they'll eventually be absorbed by the first African polity that manages to get some rifles from a third party.
 

BigBlueBox

Banned
Pulmonic_Consonant said:
Probably the institution of a Boer-unfriendly Cape Colony government which bungles its own series of Boer wars in a fashion similar to the British, but due to being much less able to send a large force than the British Empire, ends up losing entirely and being forced to cede large tracts of land to the various Boer republics, who, in a best case scenario, would be working with the tribes such as the Xhosa and Zulu against the Cape Colony. After a while, with the Boers homesteading further and further into the interior of Africa, and having a very high birthrate, it's not hard to picture a large united Boer confederacy composing most of inland South Africa, Botswana, and if we're being really generous, southern portions of Zimbabwe. The biggest part of this scenario is, of course, the British Empire collapsing, which would have a far, far greater impact on the world and even Africa than the Boer Republics faring well. It would completely alter the nature of the scramble for Africa in ways I can't even remotely predict. Depending on which countries get which parts of Africa, the Boers could either be totally screwed or just continue expanding by homesteading into neighboring farmland.

You'd never have a giant Boer Empire taking up half of Africa or anything like that, if that's what you're wondering. It's most likely they'd never even get a coast, unless they conquered their Xhosa and Zulu allies or something.
Click to expand...
I am extremely skeptical of any kind of long-term understanding between the Boers and the African tribes that doesn't involve a Boer boot on an African neck or the Boers being driven back to the cape.
 

Kurt_Steiner

If the British Empire falls by the 60s or 70s, perhaps the German Empire is going to expand further inland from Walvis Bay. It would be interesting to see how the Boers cope with that.
 

Ellis MacVey

Donor
BigBlueBox said:
I am extremely skeptical of any kind of long-term understanding between the Boers and the African tribes that doesn't involve a Boer boot on an African neck or the Boers being driven back to the cape.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but to be fair, this is the best case scenario, not the most likely scenario
 
IamtheEmps

IamtheEmps

I am skeptical of the response given here. The Cape is and was majority Afrikaans speaking, and most of the migration waves from England to South Africa come from 1860-90, after that point people start going elsewhere in Africa.

I would hazard that half the reason why the qualified franchise, etc, existed as because of lack of a large supportive majority, for the British.

The Cape Coloured population was historically, and to a certain degree still is, more pro-Afrikaner than it is pro-British, so I find it strange to argue that a Cape Republic would in best case be anti-Boer, DF Malan was a son of Stellenbosch not Johannesburg.

If you want a "best case" its fairly straight forward. The British collapse, a Cape Republic is formed, the Zulus rise up against the government in Natal, said government collapses, this causes the Boer Republics to unite and put down the Rebellion. You then get a confederation or military alliance, they then form OTL Greater South Africa, and have open border immigration to mine Gold and Diamonds, as well as to colonise the north.

Like its fairly straight forward what the best case scenario is, and there are compelling reasons for this, namely historical competition with tribes in Botswana and Zimbabwe, and the relative decline of the Portuguese. If the government of this Afrikaner Confederation is competent there is no reason to presume that they cannot seize control of places with little apparent strategic usefulness to anyone else, i.e. Namibia and Botswana which are deserts, and Zimbabwe which only really has function as a northern river border.
 
IamtheEmps

IamtheEmps

479ae361b13ed9f42ef07ee6a0d46fd0.png

This minus Mozambique
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top