CECIL RHODES

Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902), British colonial statesman and financier, one of the main promoters of British rule in southern Africa.

Cecil John Rhodes was born July 5, 1853, in Bishop's Stortford, England. In 1870 he was sent to live with his brother in Africa, in the area now known as South Africa. Diamond fields were discovered at Kimberley in Cape Colony that year, and Rhodes became a diamond prospector. By the time he was 19 years old he had accumulated a large fortune. In 1873 he returned to England to study at the University of Oxford; until 1881, when he received his degree, he divided his time between the university and the diamond fields. His most important achievement during this period was the amalgamation of a large number of diamond-mining claims to form De Beers Mining Company, which he controlled. In 1881 he entered the Cape Colony Parliament and held the seat for the rest of his life. Rhodes was largely responsible for the annexation to the British Empire of Bechuanaland (now Botswana) in 1885. In 1888, with the founding of De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited, Rhodes monopolized the diamond production of Kimberley. In the same year he wrested exclusive mining rights from Lobengula, the ruler of Matabeleland (now in Zimbabwe). In 1889 Rhodes was granted a charter to incorporate the British South Africa Company. Until 1923 it controlled what are now Zimbabwe and Zambia; the area was named Rhodesia in 1894 in honor of Rhodes.

In 1890 Rhodes was made prime minister of Cape Colony. Five years later he supported a conspiracy by British settlers in the South African Republic (see Transvaal), in what is now northeastern South Africa, to overthrow the government of the republic, which was dominated by the Afrikaners, or Boers. The revolt was to be backed by a British South Africa Company force led by Sir Leander Starr Jameson, British administrator of the lands constituting present-day Zimbabwe. On December 29, 1895, Jameson invaded the South African Republic prematurely and unsuccessfully. Rhodes was acquitted of responsibility for the invasion, known as Jameson's Raid, but he was censured for his role in the plot against the government of the South African Republic and was forced to resign his premiership the following month. He then devoted himself to the development of Rhodesia. During the Boer War he was prominent in the defense of Kimberley. He died at Cape Town on March 26, 1902, before the war was over. In his will Rhodes left most of his fortune to the establishment of the Rhodes scholarships.