Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902)

Born 5th. July 1853 Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, England

Died 26th. March 1902 Muizenberg, Cape Colony

Son of a vicar

Went to Grammar School

1870 - went to Natal, South Africa to work on a cotton farm

1871 - moved to Kimberley with brother Herbert to work on diamond mines

1881 - took a degree at Oxford, moving between Oxford and Kimberley

Formed a partnership with C.D. Rudd and formed De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd.

Friendship with Alfred Beit, a German diamond trader

Controlled all De Beers’ claims

1881 - entered South African politics, winning a constituency in Cape Colony thanks to Afrikaner votes. He held this constituency for the rest of his life.

He made friends with Afrikaner politicians

Rhodes’ ambitions were to extend the British empire throughout Africa, to "paint the map red," to build a railway "from the Cape to Cairo" and to recover the American colonies.

1882 - took up the cause of the Black Africans in Basutoland (Lesotho) and Bechuanaland (Botswana) as member of a commission to sort out situation in Basutoland after rebellion which had been quelled pacifically by General Charles Gordon.

Rhodes impressed by Gordon’s negotiating technique with tribal chiefs.

Rhodes intended to use missionary routes through Bechuanaland in order to enter Mashonaland and Matabeleland (Zimbabwe)

1884 - the London Convention - the two small republics of Stellaland and Goshen, located in Bechuanaland, were excluded from the Transvaal and the Cape government financed a protectorate over Bechuanaland.

Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal, declared Goshen a Boer protectorate

1885 (February) Rhodes and Kruger met on Vaal River to settle matter

Kruger forced to give up Goshen

Decision that southern Bechuanaland become crown colony and northern Bechuanaland a protectorate

1885 (March) Rhodes resigned in protest - he wanted both parts to be annexed by the Cape

1887 - bought stake in Transvaal gold mines and formed the Gold Fields of South Africa Company

1887 - set out to buy Kimberley mine

Kruger also wanted to extend his control over Mashonaland and Matabeleland

King Lobengula of the Matabele stood in both Kruger and Rhodes’ way. (Lobengula was the son of Mzilikazi)

1888 (October) - Rhodes used John Moffat, the missionary, to negotiate with Lobengula and obtain mining concession from him

1888 - paid $25,000,000 for Barney Barnato’s holdings

1889 - at Rhodes’ request, the British government granted a charter to the British South Africa Company to exploit the territory

No northern limit on the right to territorial concessions

Rhodes intended to extend the company’s control into Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi), in addition to the Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana)

1890 - Rhodes’ Pioneers entered Matabeleland and then Mashonaland and set up a fort at Salisbury (named after British prime minister), now Harare.

Rhodes’ influence was so strong to the north and south of the Zambezi River that the new territories were named after him, i.e. Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia

1890 - Rhodes became Prime Minister of Cape Colony

1891 - De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. owned 90% of world’s diamond fields

Expansion northwards made possible

1890-1895 - Rhodes frustrated in his expansionist ambitions by Kruger, the Germans, the Belgians and the Portuguese

Kruger persisted in cutting off supply routes from the Cape to the north across the Vaal River

Rhodes, together with high commissioner Sir Herbert Robinson and British colonial secretary Joseph Chamberlain, gave his support to a plan to attack Kruger

1895 (29th. December) - the Jameson Raid, led by Leander Starr Jameson, Rhodes’ Matabeleland administrator, failed

Rhodes resigned all his political and business positions, refusing to denounce Jameson.

Rhodesia and Bechuanaland taken over by British government

The charter was preserved and Rhodes spent rest of his life developing possessions in the north

1896 - Rhodes held a peace conference at the Matopo Hills (outside Bulawayo) to suppress Matabeleland revolt

1901 - involvement with Princess Radziwill caused him to be called to her trial in Cape Town

He supported Milner in suspending the constitution of Cape Colony until the end of the Boer War (1899-1902)

1902 - died of a heart disease, the Boer War still in progress

He left his fortune to the establishment of scholarships "for young men from the colonies, from the United States and Germany" - Rhodes Scholars - to be taken up at the University of Oxford, England.

Part of his fortune was also used to found Rhodes University at Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa.