How do we get the boer states to survive?

ben0628

Banned
Perhaps a different outcome to British elections? Was there an anti-colonialism party at the time?
 
What about the possibility of the Boer states abandoning republicanism and inviting a member of a European royal house to become King? There's certainly precedent for such a practice, but I don't know that there would be many aristocrats who would be keen to abandon their lifestyle in Europe to go rule over a nation in Africa. However, if the Boers could entice someone to take the crown that might provide an additional diplomatic shield against British conquest, particularly if said King is a member of the German or Dutch nobility.
 
One more strategy, just for the hell of it; Waiting. Britain was essentially diplomatically isolated at the start of the Boer war, and despite the strategic urgency many have cited giving cause to the war, the British did have other engagements at the time. The Fashoda incident had brought Britain and France to loggerheads, and there was an historic enmity with Russia in Afghanistan. The hostility the British experienced due to their invasion war in SA, as well as the infamous "Kruger Telegram" caused a diplomatic realignment just in time for ww1.

Also, I've read that had Britain not been at war in SA they very likely would have been invading Ethiopia, and possibly fighting France, due to their national railway project - Addis Ababa-Djibouti - being built by a French company, threatening French influence along Imperial lines of commerce and communication. Again, this fits with the "let Britain attack first" plan, because eventually the British would have acted in their traditional manner to enforce their prerogatives in SA, and the addition of time would only have worsened their position internationally.
 
What about the possibility of the Boer states abandoning republicanism and inviting a member of a European royal house to become King? There's certainly precedent for such a practice, but I don't know that there would be many aristocrats who would be keen to abandon their lifestyle in Europe to go rule over a nation in Africa. However, if the Boers could entice someone to take the crown that might provide an additional diplomatic shield against British conquest, particularly if said King is a member of the German or Dutch nobility.

The Afrikaaners were wildly, fiercely independent. Borderline Anarchist, really. The only monarch they would have been able to accept freely would have been a Dutch one, and the Netherlands at the turn of the 19th century were in no position to threaten Britain, or guard against British interests in the region. Not only would the Dutch have refused out of prudence, if they had accepted the British would almost certainly declare war to keep such a key region from falling under the suzerainty of a country that, at the time, was feared to become a satellite of the German Empire.
 
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