A error ID question from the blue book

fhqwgads2005
Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:57:37 +0000

It’s subjunctive. It’s a hypothetical situation. They aren’t actually going to acquire independence. It is just “if” they do. “would” is subjunctive mood, while “will” is just future tense of the indicative mood. (which would indicate that they were going to get that independence.)