I've often been told in my IB history class that Kaiser Wilhelm II looked up to the British, and that the reason for aggravating the Moroccan Crises was to undermine Anglo-French relations, as he felt that Britain was the natural ally of Germany, not France. If this is so, why did he send the Kruger Telegram, which inflamed British sensibilities?
Wilhelm II. was a moody, hotheaded person and even though he was rather pro-british, he sometimes simply didn't think before he acted (or talked).
He was in hefty discussions with Chancellor Hohenlohe about a different matter and was very aggrevated and in a bad mood, when he heard of the situation in Transvaal.
Then Wilhelm angrily and immediately made absurd plans about sending German troops to Transvaal to fight the British and to turn Transvaal into a German protectorate.
To prevent an escalation and to somehow calm Wilhelm down, the secretary of state Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein agreed/gave in to writing and sending the Kruger-Telegram (and to tone it down at least a little) and to leave it at that.
The whole affair just was another chapter of the terrible mess that was German foreign politics back then, which lead to German isolation and - in part - to World War I.
By the way: The German public loved the Kruger-Telegram and congratulated the Kaiser and the government.
(Source: Craig, Gordon A.: Germany 1866 - 1945. 1978)