The South African Republic and the Orange Free State,Joined the German Empire in 1897 r

To begin with, the Boers were not German and never identified as German. They saw the Kaiser as a potential friend and ally, but at no point did they ever consider joining the Empire and they never would.
Paul Kruger believed the South African Republic was divinely ordained and he had a duty to protect its independence. He was never going to give it up. Boer identity, in fact, was in large part based on stubborn refusal to cede independence no matter what outside powers did.
Also- the Boer Republics were separate countries. What on earth is going to convince the senior leadership of both countries to plunge themselves into national crisis, in a cause with no popular support, at exactly the same time?
Furthermore, even if the Boer leadership decided to become German they would have had to win their public over. They couldn't unilaterally call for annexation. In that event, it's likely the uitlanders would rise up in precisely the manner they didn't during the Jameson raid- the British and American miners would probably seize Johannesburg, and at that point it's civil war.


Finally: let's say the South African Republic and the Orange Free State both decide to give up the independence they've stubbornly clung to all century and that they've fought for repeatedly. They somehow convince their populace to with this. They put down the rich, well armed and foreign backed uitlanders and petition Berlin for annexation.

They're landlocked.

Britain announces that since it doesn't recognize the full independence of the Boer Republics, they cannot legally petition Germany for annexation, and marches north.

At this point, Germany can start a war for two territories it can't supply, against the most powerful navy in the world, one that it cannot bring any meaningful force to bear against; or it can issue a strongly worded note.


What do you think will happen?
 
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