Should Rhode's statue be removed in South Africa and the UK ? 1/7/2024
Rhodes used his fortune to promote his dream of Pax Britannia and to further his quest for personal power. This is a biography not a history of his times.
Professor Arthurs Keppel -Jones was the leading SA historian at the time and wrote Rhodes and Rhodesia 1953.
Rhodes was the man winning Africa for Britain and was Prime Minister of one of Britain's richest colonies. He said that the seniority of Anglo-Saxon Race meant that they had a mission to civilize the world. This crude and arrogant view was written at a time when his knowledge of other races was minimal. He was the personification of all the glories of the British Empire. He believed in the triumph of decent chaps over the loafers. Though back to the glorious days of Disraeli urging the country to greatness. Disraeli pulled a diplomatic coup in the Congress of Vienne in the scramble for African there were Kitchener , Livingstone , Burton . Speke but Rhodes was the most illustrious.
1853 Born in Stortford, Hertfordshire about 30 miles north of London. Except for his time at Oxford Rhodes was never happy in the land of his birth, he was a sickly child and little is known about his formative years. His father was a preacher and his mother had 11 children 9 sons and 2 daughters. Only 2 of the siblings ever married.
Cecil never shook off the influence of his father 's puritanism and later turned his back on the Church and announced his determination early in life never to marry. People interested him little and girls least of all. The siblings never went into the church but became farmers, soldiers and wanderers.
His older brother Herbert emigrated to South African and grew cotton in Natal, Cecil who had (diagnosed nowadays as 'arterial septal defect) was sent to join him there for health reasons in 1870
1869 An 83 and a half carat diamond known as the Star of Africa found near the Orange river.
1870 South Africa was 2 British colonies of the Cape and Natal plus the Boer republics The Orange Free State and the Transvaal.. Rhodes was successful by getting American cotton seed. He was always studying his text books. He managed the plantation on his own. Blacks had to work to pay their annual hut tax, he knew how to works with the Zulu workers.
Everyone was now diamond mad. There were 4 dry digging mines. Vooruitzigt was a farm owned by the de Beer brothers and had 2 mines on it. Bulfontein and Dutoitspan each had a mine.
1871 Rhodes came to the New Rush and before long he had 3 claims worth 5000 pounds, he also could assess the value of a diamond. He did not pin his hopes on a spectacular find. His letters to his parent read like company reports. There were diggers from American , Australia and German speculators.
There are impressions of Rhodes as a nervous exhibitionist. At parties he was the prayer of every wall flower. Charles Rudd also came from England to recuperate from illness had a claim adjoining him and they decided to pool their resources. Together they brought in an ice machine to supply diggers with ice cream and drinks.
John Xavier Merriman was the son of the Archdeacon of Grahamstown and he became a good friend. Leaving Rudd in charge in Kimberley trekked north and bough 3000 acres in the Transvaal. Rudd was a Cambridge man and remained in charge while Rhodes went to Oxford in 1873.Rhodes took 8 years to graduate eventually in 1881. By the time he got this he was a successful mining magnate and budding politician and the degree was superfluous. But it placed him amongst the elite. It is no use having big ideas if you don't have cash to carry them out.
In Oxford he was an acentric and had a habit of showing off a handful of diamonds. It was in Oxford he developed his Imperial philosophy. At the time Poetry of Kipling and adventure books trumpeted the glories of imperialism, also John Ruskin. The worthiest of men should found colonies as far and as fast as possible. The more the world was dominated by Anglo Saxon the better it would be for the human race. 1877 he was inducted into the Masonic Order
Secretary of State for colonies Lord Kimberley insisted that the mining camps be given decent names so it was named Kimberley. The ruling by the old diggers restricted the number of claims that diggers could own. In 1876 no more than 10 claims per digger.
1873 saw a disastrous drought followed by 1874 torrential rains. They were the first to set up a pump till the boiler burst.
There were regular booms and slumps that plagued the diggings till they reached the end of the yellow soil and found hard blue ground that thought was barren. Later it turned out to be better.
Few blacks were allowed to work their own claims and digger were determined to keep blacks out of business.
IBD illicit diamond buying was a problem of stolen diamonds.
Flooding was a problem and Rhodes had a monopoly of the water pumping situation.
When the restriction on how many claims a person could hold it encouraged enterprise and international financiers. Credit became available from banks. The French company was under Jules Yehuda Porges and was the largest diamond concern in the world.
1880 De Beers mining company had capital of 200,000 pounds.1881 became director of Kimberley Tramways company. He and Rudd became directors of the Kimberley Coal Mining Company. The diamond mine was not bottomless but ws deep enough to give substance to his dream.
1877 A bill was passed annexing Kimberley to the Cape. 1880 Sir Bartle Frere announce that the Cape government would administer Griqualand West. Rhodes became the MP for Barkly West till he died.
1889 Renowned writer Sarah Gertrude Millin ne Liebson grew up Barkly West and her father opened the first shop in town.
1880 Rhodes made a complete takeover of De Beers. The new Governor General was Sir Hercules Robinson. Jan Hofmeyer was a Moderate Afrikaner and MP from Stellenbosch in the Afrikaner Bond.
Africans were attracted to work on the digging by the desire to buy firearms but Rhodes and parliament objected to this. Rhodes also wanted Britain to take over Basutoland.
General Charles Gorden visited the Cape to give military advice and was about to set out to Sudan and he wanted Rhodes to join him but Rhodes refused.
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1882 became a member of the Mining commission to improve the diamond industry and control traffic in illicit diamonds. The Diamond Trade Act there was a penalty of 15 years imprisonment or a 1000 pound fine. This was universally unpopular.
Blacks were barred from working and owning claims and were fenced off in compounds with dormitories. This was to simply ensure the servitude of the Africans.
1884 Thomas Scanien offered the post of Treasurer of the Cape to Rhodes. North of the Cape was Bechuanaland and Rhodes wanted to make this a British Colony especially the fertile land on the east of the Transvaal border. Robert Moffat was a trader there and David Livingstone was his son in Law. 2 small Boer Republic Stellaland and Goshen had been established here in 1882.But in 1885 Bechuanaland became a British Protectorate to safeguard it against the Transvaal and the Germans.
1884Bismarck proclaimed a German protectorate over German West African today Namibia.
1885 Sir Charles Warren arrived with 4000 troops and proceeded to Bechuanaland. With Rhodes he met Kruger at fourteen Streams on the Vaal.
Rhodes wanted to unify the Cape , Transvaal, OFS and Natal as a British State. He wanted to amalgamate the different diamond mines and the London Rothschild's sent a Mr. Gansi to investigate. Rhodes had wanted the price of diamonds fixed by a cartel, so as not to flood the market.
1886 Gold is found on the Witwatersrand 30 km south of the Boer Capital Pretoria. JB Robinson borrowed money from Alfred Beit and went to the Witwatersrand. He made a 2nd and larger fortune.
Neville Pickering was Rhodes' closest friend and was dying of weak lungs and Rhodes was distressed, Neville Pickering was engaged to Miss Christian who later married William Solomon who later became a chief justice of SA. A Scotsman Dr. Leander Jameson was a leading doctor on the diamond fields and attended to him.
Sauer was to act as Rhodes agent in the Transvaal and would get 15% in any claims he acquired.
Rhodes, Gordon and Kitchener were all the great sons of the Empire, they were virile men of action and do not fit into the common accepted stereotype.
Barney Barnato managed to get the prestigious Standard Company. A nephew Woolf Joel was put in charge of the company while Barney left for England .Rhodes had been so busy manipulating de Beers that Barney entrench himself without opposition. Rothschild helped Rhodes get 1 .million pounds Barney exchanged shares with the French company and paid out 300,000 pounds. In a dingy sparsely furnished Kimberley Cottage the future of the diamond industry as well as that of the African continent was decided. Kimberley had existed 20 years. In the end Rhodes took over from Barney they together had the majority shares and had no need to consult others £5,338,650 was the cheque given to Barney The new amalgamated De Beers Consolidated Mines under Rhodes control.
Charles Rudd now extended his interests and registered Goldfields of South Africa in London. 1887. Like De Beers it also acted as a political and financial organization.
1986 4000 people rushed to the Transvaal gold fields. The Boers farmers did not take part in the gold rush, they sold their land and moved away. For Paul Kruger the uitlanders were welcome to add to the countries prosperity but not to interfere with the destiny of the Boer Nation. Paul Kruger's government was a threat to the uitlanders but also to Rhodes plans for Southern Africa.
Bechuanaland was firmly in British hands ensuring free access north to Matabeleland the home of the Ndebele. They were a breakaway from the Zulus under Mzilikazi and set themselves up as a tribe north of the Limpopo in about 1840. He had subdued the placid Shona , Tswana and Borotse who appeared to accept their vassalage. In 1870 Lobengula came to power as king of the Ndebele. He had clashed with the Boers and later tried to avoid that. He remained friendly with the missionaries especially the Moffat family. The Portuguese in Mozambique was making inroads on the Moshana territory a vasal of Lobengula. Lobengulu was asked not to sign a treaty with other foreign powers
1888 a treaty of peace and unity was signed with the great white queen of England and Lobengula by Sir Hercules Robinson, Robert Moffat had acted as interpreter and this became known as the Moffat Treaty. Rhodes was using the amalgamated diamond mines to finance his imperial visions.1894. There were other competing companies trying to get concessions from Lobengula. The king was able to control his impis, but wanted guns in exchange for the treaty
An independent black ruler with a thousand Martini Henry rifles was a threat to white supremacy. This was at a time he was trying to woo through alliance Jan Hofmeyr and the Cape Afrikaner Bond. He argued that the tribesmen had little knowledge of a rifle and were more dangerous with assegais. Other traders tried getting concessions and told Lobengulu how Rhodes intended to take over his territories'. Another concession hunter looking for minerals was Alfred Haggard brother of writer Rider Haggard.
Lobengula sent a mission of 2 induanas to London this was encouraged by Lieutenant Maud.
Rhodes tried to get a Royal Charter for the territory north of the Limpopo. He wanted a blessing from the British Government. If not he wanted to buy the property outright, nobody else could compete on this. A letter was sent by Queen Victoria to Lord Knutford. It was worried about the welfare of the conquered races and was bad news for Rhodes.
In UK parliament to get what he wanted his agreement to pass. Charles Stewart Parnell the Irish nationalist was given 5000 pound to support him who had 85 seats in the commons, and a further 5000 pounds to support him the next year.. Many top politician had only the vaguest idea of who Rhodes was. Rhodes outwitted his opponents and got them to his side. He got a charter signed by Victoria in Oct 1989 to expand the empire on the cheap. No mention was made of Lobengula. The British government was now challenging the Portuguese in Africa by this charter. Rhodes could build roads, rails and harbours establish banks and waterworks. The company was obliged to stop slavery and domestic servitude and not sell alcohols to the natives.
Lobenggula had been bamboozled into thinking that Rhodes was seeking mineral rights when the intention was to rob him of his country, all this with stories of bribery and corruption. The charter Rhodes had also had only to do with mining rights.
Pickering died in1886, he was the only person that Rhodes had was emotionally involved. Ideas are no good without money. Lobengula renounced the Rudd concession and when the rifles arrived did not accept then he stored them at Umvutshwa. Advisers who had encouraged support for the for the Rudd concession were murdered with their families about 300 tribal people.
The railway and telegraph lines were extended to the Matabeleland border paid for by Rhodes. Rhodes turned to Dr. Jameson as he needed a firmer hand to deal with Lobengulu. Jameson was not a passive instrument but one quite capable of making his own decisions. He did not expect gold to be found there but wanted Mashonaland.
They now recruited pioneers and were prepared to offer them 3000 acres of farmland and 15 mining claims each.
The new country known as Rhodesia was born. Frank Johnson led the pioneers. In Kimberley there was a slump in diamonds and many young men were available for the pioneers. Years later after Rhodes death he admitted they had an invasion plan, which included capturing the king, this was called off. Fred Selous was hired to find a route to Mashonaland that skirted the Ndebele kraals. Archibald Colquhoun was the first Administrator of the new territory. Fort Salisbury was named after the British Prime Minister.
In the Cape Parliament the Afrikaner Bond was under Jan Hofmeyer, Rhodes recognized that they held a key to Cape politics. Rhodes aged 37 became Cape Prime Minister. Herbert Baker designed Rhodes house Groot Schuur where only male servant were employed.
1991 Rhodes paid a triumphal visit to London and stayed and dined at the Queens Balmoral.
Olive Schreiner was a brilliant novelist who had written "Story of an African farm" in 1883 and did not like the laws part that made blacks just subjects.
Paul Kruger refused to support a rail and customs union that Rhodes wanted to set up. In the Boer Republics and Natal voting was restricted to whites but the Cape you had to have property worth 25 pound and earn 50 pound a year to vote.
1894 election Rhodes won two thirds of the seats.
Instead of approaching via Bechuanaland, Rhodes went by ship to Beira in Portuguese East Africa. There was a damning report on Mashonaland mining potential, but Rhodes purpose was spreading British influence.
1884 Belgium had been recognized as the controlling power in the Congo and was about to pounce on the rich province of Katanga.1890 The African Lakes company. thus Nyasaland. In a Anglo -Portuguese treaty of 1890 Britian secured Mashonaland and Matabeleland and Nyasaland were to be British but Barotseland and most of Manicaland to be Portuguese. Later in 1991 Gazaland was placed under Portugal
1897 a treaty with signed with Borotse Chief Lewanika and Borotseland was added to Rhodesia.
Bringing goods from the Cape overland to Rhodesia cost 45 pound a ton, while shipping goods through the Portuguese territory costs 11pound per ton.
Once it was realized that minerals were not going to yield quick profits there was a need to economize.. The police force of 650 had to be reduced to 150. The Shona depended on the whites to protect them from the Ndebele, who considered them vassals. By 1892 bankers were refusing to honour Chartered Company cheques. Jameson now called for volunteers putting Moshanaland onto a war footing. Jameson insisted on a demarcation between Mashonaland and Matabeleland. There were clashes between Shona from Fort Victoria and Ndebele and now in 1892 Lobegula began to distribute the rifles he had. The whites were armed with Maxims guns and the Ndebele with rifles were ineffective against them.
1893 Major Alan Wilson and 33men of the Shangani Patrol were cut off from their troops and mowed down by the Ndebele. This was called the First Ndebele War a British Custer's Last Stand.
After Lobegula was defeated Bulawayo was marked out as a European City. Disappointment in the Shona area about gold were repeated in Matabeleland. and John Hays Hammond a highly respected expert toured Rhodesia and declared it was not a gold area.
1894 The Glen Grey Act of the parliament of the Cape Colony, instigated by the government of Prime Minister Cecil John Rhodes, which established a system of individual (rather than communal) land tenure, and created a labour tax to force Xhosa men into employment on commercial farms or in industry. This later was the blue print for Apartheid.
1891 Majuba Hill here the Boers had defeated the British at Volksrust in Natal and it was considered the Eerste Vryheids Oorlog. The First Anglo-Boer War can at best be called a temporary setback for the British Empire, which would continue to expand for several decades and eventually recover all territory lost in 1881 during the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902)
1892Swarms of red locust descended on southern Africa leaving the veld bare of crops.
1894 Lobengulu died, or fled his son Nyamanda took over and this was when they started attacking the whites.
1896 Rinderpest outbreak on the cattle killing them and the Ndebele blamed the white overlords for this leading to bitter resentment. The induanas attacked the outlying farms leading to the death of about 200 whites. This was now a full scale uprising and Britain dispatched 200 troops to there and more to the Cape.
Rhodes was more concerned with the wealth that Rhodesia could produce rather then the inhabitants. He openly advocated the extermination or deportation of the Ndebele population. After an impi of over 300 Ndebele were killed the rest fled to the Motopos.
The whites had thought that because they had protected the Moshana from Lobenguluas tyranny that they would show gratitude. They did not anticipate that the Mahona would turn on the whites. Dynamite was used to blast the inaccessible strongholds leading to a slaughter wholesale slaughter. 8
Rhodes decided to change his tactics and became a peacemaker. A blood stained victory would be bad for Rhodes reputation. They discovered the old widow of Mzilakatzi the founder of the Ndebele nation. she as a go between they arranged a meeting and a peace settlement was negotiated. Senior tribesmen were to be employed as salaried officials. Rhodes's attitude was changed and he now took a better concern for the local inhabitants. This was when Rhodes decided to be buried at World View on the Motopos.
Lord Grey was now installed as Administrator of Rhodesia.
The Cape was the only place that Rhodes acknowledged as home and was enthusiastic about the Cape Dutch Architecture and furniture. Rhodes knew that he was sexually maladjusted. He did not like indecisive or effeminate men. He always loved young men around him.
1995 Dec. The Jameson Raid was a botched attempt by Dr. Jameson in the employ of Rhodes to overthrow the Kruger Regime in the Transvaal and to bring it under the British. This was known to the Boers who arrested the raiders at the same time so by this commando being out of Rhodesia it resulted in the 1896 Second Matabele War. This resulted in Rhodes relationship with Jan Hofmyre and the Afrikaner bond ending in the Cape Parliament.
There was an enquiry into the Jameson Raid and Rhodes was let of lightly as national honour was concerned in this.
In an address given in 1879 he assured the crowd he would strive for equal rights for every white man south of the Zambesi.
1897 The railway line from Mafeking reached Bulawayo.
In his will Rhodes would leave Groot Schuur for the people and to become the residence of future Prime Ministers, but today it is a museum He left money to Oriel Collage Oxford to give 60 scholarships a year to student from the colonies as well as the USA.
Empire Builders are egocentric , ruthless manipulators, have an inability to make friends or adjust to the environment. On meeting Kaiser Wilhelm , he instructed that 15 German students would get the scholarship. Since Oxford he had been fascinated by the tyrannical rulers of ancient Rome.
1897 Sir Alfred Milner became British high Commissioner. He met President Paul Kruger in Bloemfontein. In the Transvaal uitlanders outnumbered the Boers. Kruger's attorney General the young Jan Smuts said Milner was more difficult to negotiate with than Rhodes.
When the Boers attacked Kimberley, Rhodes arranged that the weapons there, from the Jameson Raid to be distributed. Kimberley was besieged for 4 months. Rhodes opened the diamond mines to be shelters. It was claimed that Rhodes alone could arrange a peace agreement with the Boers.
Rhodes was one of the first to own a car in South Africa. He died from heart trouble before his 49th birthday saying "So little done so much to do" Kipling wrote a special poem for the occasion of his funeral. Within 50 years of his death the Empire was crumbling.
Northern Rhodesia gained independence in in 1963 and became Zambia. Sothern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1980. Nyasaland became independent Malawi in 1964
| No. | Name | Party | Assumed office | Left office |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sir John Charles Molteno | Independent | 1 December 1872 | 5 February 1878 |
| 2 | Sir John Gordon Sprigg | Independent | 6 February 1878 | 8 May 1881 |
| 3 | Thomas Charles Scanlen | Independent | 9 May 1881 | 12 May 1884 |
| 4 | Thomas Upington | Independent | 13 May 1884 | 24 November 1886 |
| — | Sir John Gordon Sprigg (2nd time) | Independent | 25 November 1886 | 16 July 1890 |
| 5 | Cecil Rhodes | Independent | 17 July 1890 | 3 May 1893 |
| — | Cecil Rhodes (2nd time) | Independent | 4 May 1893 | 12 January 1896 |
| — | Sir John Gordon Sprigg (3rd time) | Independent | 13 January 1896 | 13 October 1898 |
| 6 | William Philip Schreiner | Independent | 13 October 1898 | 17 June 1900 |
| — | Sir John Gordon Sprigg (4th time) | Progressive Party | 18 June 1900 | 21 February 1904 |
| 7 | Leander Starr Jameson | Progressive Party | 22 February 1904 | 2 February 1908 |
| 8 | John Xavier Merriman | South African Party | 3 February 1908 | 31 May 1910 |
William Plomer wrote a biography of Rhodes in 1933 Plomer was a known poet and writer and was also gay.
The World's View. The Story of Southern Rhodesia by Nora S Kane 1954 275pg.
1871 William Sergeant and Paterson planned a trip to the Victoria fall for a pleasure and hunting trip at the same time Sir Bartle Frere wanted them to visit Lobengulo they did this and after wards on their way north wee killed by Matablele. This was the only time Lobengulo had betrayed the white man
1880 Rhodes realized that the area north of the Limpopo river was a place of potential and Britain must get it before the Portuguese or Germans did. He had obtained a concession from Lobengulo to dig for gold. He received a Royal Charter for the British South African Company. The Pioneers set off from Mafeking. The horses had to be "salted" horse sickness and cattle immunized against lung sickness. Accompanied by 400 police set out for Mashona land and covered 40 miles a day. They went on a path with the prior permission of the king and the 80 wagons stretched 2 miles.
Mashonaland was peaceful as they hoped for protection of the whites against the Matabele. who were their overlords. The Pioneers set up a number of forts one at Victoria
Major Frank Johnson set out with a Berthon boat towards Beira on the way they reach the Portuguese settlement of Sarmento were welcomed to stay in a hut. Here there were many Portuguese who had married the natives and integrated into the area. In the hut a candle was knocked over and in sects the hut was alight and the strong wind burned the whole village down. They paid them compensation with the gold coins they had but the bank notes were burned. In Beira they were lucky to meet up with the ship they had arranged . This was the fastest route from Mashonaland.
1880 The Portuguese in London signed a treaty defining the Sabi River as the easterly border of British Influence. thus Gazaland and Manicaland were Portuguese.
1868 the British Empire annexed Basutoland at the request of the King Moshoeshoe and he wanted protection against the Boers.
1977 The British annexation of the Transvaal. Paul Kruger went to London but Lord Canaveron would not agree. Then an incident where a burger's wagon was taken from him to recover taxes, Boers surrounded and this set of the chaos, later 6 British forts were taken over.
1881 The Battle of Majuba Hill was the final and decisive battle of the First Boer War that was a resounding victory for the Boers. British were driven off with 287 casualties compared to 7 Boers. By the convention of Pretoria of 5 April the Transvaal regained its independence. The British still used scarlet uniforms here. Only in 1899 did the start using kaki uniforms.
1885 The British annexed Bechuanaland as the Germans had taken over (Damaaraland and Namaqualand )South West Africa, in 1884.
1891 The Transvaal Boers wanted more land and looked at the good hunting territory north of the Limpopo. Plans for 5000 Boers to march into Banyaland and they would protect the natives from the Matabele. These Boers were prepared to submit to the British authorities with same conditions as those in the Cape Colony. They were granted lot near Chipinga and Melsetter. Afrikaners from the Cape were granted farms at Headlands.
1991 Edward Lippert and his wife Marie Lippert went by ox wagon to tour Matabeleland and she kept a journal in German. few copies of this book remain today and most were burned by the Nazis in Germany. They got a concession from Lobengulo which it was taken over by Rhodes. Edward Lippet was a German Jewish magnate in the Transvaal and in 1890 bough a farm in Braamfontein and build a House Marienhoff named after his wife. He was pro Boer and had the dynamite concession from Kruger. and also helped them get guns. He set up Sachsewald a forest to supply timber to build Johannesburg. When the Boer war started they returned to Germany.
1891 The Matabele attacked the Moshona who were supposed to be under the protection of the Chartered Company. The Matabele never attacked the whites. A piece of telegraph wire was cut and stolen and the Moshona were forced to pay a fine and paid in cattle stolen from Lobengulo kraal. Lobengulo sent a large force to recover the cattle and punish the Mashona.
1896 A force under Captain Lendy fired on the retreating Matabele and this was regarded as a declaration of war. Every white volunteered to join the commando fight this war about 900 .men. When this was put down then the remaining Matabele and Mashona found common cause to attack the Europeans. Reinforcement were sent from the Cape via Beira and the Moshaona did not have the cohesion like the Matabele and they withdrew . The were no pitched battles like with the Matabele.
1898 the railway line from Beira to Umtali was completed and to Salisbury in 1899. There was a scarcity of native labour to build this and indentured Indians were brought.
In Rhodesia there was plentiful hunting in the 1890s framers were leased out of 3000 acres for 5 pounds a year and when farmers could show improvement on the working land were given the deed. Most of the workers on the farms came from the Portuguese territory. The first regular coach system was set up by the Zeederberg Brothers Afrikaners from the Transvaal.
Prospecting and gold was what brought people at the beginning but this was a disappointment.
Rhodes: Colossus of South Africa
1870 He arrived in Durban he was 17. Ill health forced him to join his brother Herbert who was growing cotton in Umkamaas, Natal. He showed his business acumen by investing in a private railway between Durban Point and landing point. The cotton farm had not paid but he researched the details of the business and left it well organized and paying before he followed Herbert to the Diamond Field.
1971 Kimberley was the cradle of his success and here he met Dr Jameson and Alfred Beits who were inspired with his ideals. When he trekked by ox wagon with Herbert to the Gold fields of Northern Transvaal he met Voortrekker Boers and wanted to expand the British Empire from what he saw inspired him.
1873 He left his diamond interest in the hands of his friend CD Rudd and went to Oriel Collage Oxford where he took his masters degree which he finally got in 1881. Here he was both a rich man and an undergraduate.
1881 His political career opened up as he became a member of the Cape Parliament of Barkley West. He allied himself with the Afrikaner Bond a powerful factor in Cape Parliament.
Here he met General Gordon who was sent to solve the Basutoland question. Basutoland first received the protection of Britain in 1868. In 1871, the territory was annexed to the Cape Colony, but in 1884 it was restored to direct control of the British government.
The Transvaal Boers were moving into Bechuanaland and set up the independent states of Stellaland and Goshen. Rhodes encouraged the High Commissioner of the Cape Hercules Robinson to bring this area under the British flag as the Germans were occupying Lüderitz
1884 by the Convention of London the Transvaal borders were fixed and British Bechuanaland became a Crown Colony.
1889 Rhodes set out to join all the diamond mines under a central body called De Beers Diamond Mines in cooperation with Alfred Beit. The other powerful magnet was Barney Barnato who finally sold out.
1886 Gold discovered on the Witwatersrand and Rhodes sent Dr. Hans Sauer to get him options there and consolidated Goldfields was set up.
Rhodes was at odds with Paul Kruger the Transvaal President who represented the Voortrekker Dutch was a Dopper (fundamental Christian) who had trekked away to be independent of the British.
1885 Rhodes with Charles Warren first met Kruger at Fourteen Streams to settle the Transvaal border in this encounter Rhodes won.
1890 Rhodes with Sir Henry Loch met Kruger at Blignauts point on the Vaal tp stop Boers from taking Banyailand across the Limpopo. Kruger wanted to build a railway to Delegoa bay so as to avoid the British but negotiation with the Portuguese took time and the Cape railway line reach the Rand 3 years before that.
This caused a conflict and rates on the Transvaal Railway were raised by Kruger. and his "closing of the drifts" policy.
Joseph Chamberlain the British Colonial secretary threatened this was a cases belli.
Rhodes established a collage in Cape Town to educate all the white races. This became the University of Cape Town while the Afrikaners established a teaching collage in Stellenbosch.
1902 Rhodes died in at his home in Muizenberg and left the Rhodes scholarship.
Rhodes's philosophy was that the English speaking peoples were best suited to spread the doctrine of Justice , Liberty and peace to the world.
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Cecil Rhodes by Andre Maurois 1953 140 pg. 20/10/25 Rhodes grand imperial dream was to unite the British controlled areas in the north to those in southern Africa. First Bechuanaland was secured. 1835 to 1837 the Great Trek had brought the Boers into the Transvaal and they drove the remaining Matabele northwards over the Limpopo 1868 Mosilakatzi who had broken away from the Zulus in Natal set up as the King of the Matabele died and it took 2 years of civil war for his successor Lobenguela to take over. Their capital was Bulawayo. Lobenguela was more of a statesman and knew that it was not worthwhile going to war against the whites. However after the Zulus had been defeated by the British the Matabele was the main warlike tribe. The Boers however sought permission to settle in Matabeleland. The Moffats were Scots who had a missionary station in Kuruman in Bechuanaland and David Livingstone had married their daughter. Robert Moffat was the translator and was told to make sure nobody sighed an agreement with Lobenuguela with out the British. Rudd was also sent to get concessions from the Matabele for mining rights. The offered him a salary of £100 a month and 1000 rifles and 1000,000rounds of ammunition. It was now possible to found the British South African company and Rhodes wanted a Charter from the Queen, before the Germans, Portuguese or Boers took Matabeleland. It took him 6 month in England to get this, and he gave Charles Parnell £10,000 to get the support of Irish Home Rule League. He also offered the Duke of Abercorn and of Fife to serve as directors of the board of this company he was forming. The company floated a million £1 shares with de Beers taking up 200,000 of them. First a telegraph wire was set up from Mafeking to Bulawayo with railway lines to follow. Rhodes was now ruler of an area as large as Germany and France together. Dr. Jameson had become a friend of Lobegulo by treating his gout. Mashonaland north of Matabeleland was territory that paid tribute to Lobengulo. 1890 Pioneers 180 mustered in Mafeking and moved into Mashonaland. Rhodes went through Pretoria to explain to Kruger that he would not encroach on the Transvaal and Boers could get large farms in his territory.. He also planned a foot in Nyasaland where Scottish missionaries had set up. His capital was to be Salisbury with a railway line from the Portuguese port of Beira. Dr. Jameson was the Governor. Lobengulo had given away the mineral rights and discovered the land rights were being taken from him. 1893 Lobengulo knew he could not beat the whites but his young bloods raided whites and Mashona who notified Jameson who called for volunteers to fight. At the end Lobengulo had set Bulawayo alight and fled to the Metopes. The Chartered shares now became valuable as they controlled the Rhodesian Railways. Even though the had not paid dividends it was patriotic to own them, Britain got all this territory without a cost to the tax payer. 1895 Aged 42 he was made a privy councilor and the Postmaster- General approved of the names Southern and Northern Rhodesia. He favored segregation of the less civilized natives. He had young Herbert Baker redesign De Groot Schuur, later this architects designed hundreds of important building in Southern Africa including the Union building in Pretoria that is almost the same as the government building in New Delhi. 1895 Jameson Raid. Paul Kruger in the Transvaal refused to be under British authority and wanted to keep his territory independent. gold had attracted so many foreigners (uitlanders ) that they were a majority but could not get a vote. Rhodes set up an invasion into the Transvaal hoping that with the insurgents of the mostly British miners in Johannesburg they could take over the country. This was illegal but hoping for a fait accompli he could get away with this This seem to have been an open secret and commando from the Transvaal was ready and rounded them up. This resulted in Rhodes resigning as PM of Cape Parliament. Rhodes Time Line for talk on 19/12/24 1787 to 1828 Shaka turns the Zulus into a waring nation 1823 Mzilikazi breaks away from Zululand and sets up the Matabele tribe north of the Limpopo 1853 Rhodes Born in Stortford, Hertfordshire about 30 miles north of London. 1869 An 83 and a half carat diamond known as the Star of Africa found near the Orange river. 1870 Lobengula came to power as king of the Ndebele. 1871 Rhodes came to the Diamond Rush. 1873.Rhodes in Oxford took 8 years to graduate eventually in 1881 1877 A bill was passed annexing Griqualand West including Kimberley to the Cape. 1880 De Beers mining company had capital of £200,000. Rhodes made a complete takeover of De Beers. 1981 Kimberly first stock exchange founded in Africa. 1881 The Battle of Majuba Hill was the final and decisive battle of the First Boer War, the Transvaal became independent again. 1882 The Diamond Trade Act with Rhodes as part of the diamond commission. 1884 Rhodes became Treasurer of the Cape. 1884 Bismarck proclaimed a German protectorate over German West African today Namibia. 1885 Sir Charles Warren arrived with 4000 troops and proceeded to Bechuanaland. With Rhodes he met Kruger at fourteen Streams on the Vaal. 1884 Belgium had been recognized as the controlling power in the Congo 1885. Bechuanaland became a British Protectorate. 1886 Gold is found on the Witwatersrand ( Johannesburg)30 km south of the Boer Capital Pretoria. 1886 Lobengulo signed treaty with Sir Hercules Robinson (Governor of the Cape), Robert Moffat (interpreter) on behalf of the Queen of England. 1889 Rhodes got a charter signed by Queen Victoria to expand the British Empire 1890 Rhodes become Prime Minster of the Cape Colony 1893 Major Alan Wilson and 33 men of the Shangani Patrol killed. (Custer last stand in Rhodesia) 1894 Matabele War and death of Lobengulo from small pox. 1895 The Jameson Raid followed by Rhodes having to resign as PM of the Cape. 1896 Rinderpest outbreak on the cattle. 1897 The railway line from Mafeking reached Bulawayo. 1902 Rhodes died in Muizenberg, Cape Town aged 49. 1953 Non Europeans voters in the Cape disenfranchised as part of Apartheid grand plan. 'Princess Catherine Radziwiłł Polish-Russian Lithuanian aristocrat. (1858 to 1941) and Rhodes. |
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Outline of talk I gave on 19/12/24
Rhodes from when he became wealthy used the money to advance British Colonialism
His father was a preacher and his mother had 11 children 9 sons and 2 daughters. Only 2 of the siblings ever married.
Cecil never shook off the influence of his father 's puritanism and later turned his back on the Church and announced his determination early in life never to marry. The only friend he was emotionally close to was Neville Pickering, who was engaged to marry. Henry Latham C urrey a civil servant in the Cape and worked for Rhodes as a secretary till he announced his engagement. You had many other virile men out in the colonies like Kitchener and Gordon of Kartumn. They were types that were happier in the colonies rather than back home.
1873.Rhodes in Oxford took 8 years to graduate eventually in 1881.Since Oxford he had been fascinated by the tyrannical rulers of ancient Rome. His Oxford degree gave him status to be able to deal with people in power.
1823 Mzilikazi one of the half brothers of Shaka clan breaks away from Zululand and sets up the Matabele tribe north of the Limpopo also displacing the other tribes on the way. This let to the Nation of Basotoland by people sheltering in the Taba Bosia mountains a type of Massada. The Boers came into conflict with the Matabele of Mzilikasi. The Matabele were decisively defeated in 1837 at the battle of Vegkop.
Born 1936 in Mesega, Transvaal Lobengula came to power as king of the Ndebele 1870. He had clashed with the Boers and later tried to avoid that. He ruled the Matabele from Bulawayo but treated the Moshona in the North as his Vassals.
North of the Cape was Bechuanaland and Rhodes wanted to make this a British Colony especially the fertile land on the east of the Transvaal border. Robert Moffat was a trader there and David Livingstone was married to Mary Moffat. The Moffot were Scots that ran a mission station there Became British Protectorate in 1885
1888 Robert Moffat had acted as interpreter and this became known as the Moffat Treaty, giving mining rights.There were many who tried to get concessions from Lobengule including Alfred Haggard brother of writer Rider Haggard. Boers from the Transvaal. Lobengula knew he could not fight the whites and used all his skill to deal with them.
Rhodes got a Royal Charter for the territory north of the Limpopo from the Queen this way it would not cost the British Tax payer for this colonial adventure. UK parliament to get what he wanted his agreement to pass. Charles Stewart Parnell the Irish nationalist was given 5000 pound.
1890 Rhodes become Prime Minster of the Cape Colony.he supported a franchise in the Cape Colony that gave Black African in the Cape Colony the same franchise as Whites based on education and property. He financed a black newspaper. The Glen Grey Act (1894), assigning an area for exclusively African development, was “a Bill for Africa,” as Rhodes proudly called it. In reality it served to enforce segregation of native Africans,
1890 Rhodes recruited pioneers including Afrikaans families from the Boer Republics with offer of land grant and mineral claims. Settlement was mostly in the passive Mashonaland. Lobengulo had not agreed to give away land but only mineral rights. A leading geologist declared that Rhodesia was not a gold territory.
The Jameson Raid resulted in Rhodes having to resign from being PM of the Cape Colony, he had had a very good relationship with Jan Hofmayre of the Afrikanerbond.
Also while these fighters came from Rhodesia the Matabele started attacking white settlers. Lobengulo knew not to attack Europeans but he didn't have control of him generals.
1893 Major Alan Wilson and 33 men of the Shangani Patrol killed.
1894 Lobengulo died his son Nyamanda in 1896 took over and organized attacking the whites.
The Matabele war
The British sent 200 Imperial troops to deal with this and the Matabele fled into the mountains and they were bombing' them. This was finally solved when Rhodes personally went to talk and negotiate peace.
Rhodes's attitude was changed and he now took a better concern for the local inhabitants. Senior tribesmen were to be employed as salaried officials. This was when Rhodes decided to be buried at World View on the Motopos.
In the Cape Colony Rhodes was PM from 1890 The British talked of hierarchy of race. The Dutch press seldom considered the biological concept of race but rather too a paternalist view of caring for faithful servants. So that not too many coloured could vote the franchise qualification was raised, and there was no franchise purely on racial lines. Rhodes felt that non whites who were productive should keep the vote.
Groot Schuur designed by Sir Herbert Baker who in 1910 also build the Union Building and India's government buildings in New Delhi
However a poll tax was put onto the Xhosa men in the reserves to force them to enter the work market.
'Princess Catherine Radziwiłł Polish-Russian Lithuanian aristocrat. (1858 to 1941) long story of her attempt to be involved with Rhodes and forged his signature on IOUs adventurer and writer who said the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a fraud
Jewish Aspect
Rindapest outbreak in 1890s 1896 This did not affect the cattle of Northern Rhodesia and Jewish traders were the people buying up cattle and sending them south.
The Boer War. While the English majority in Johannesburg were demanding political rights in the Transvaal Jew's felt that they had come to a place of religious freedom and were even given land by the state to build their synagogue. Had easily learned Afrikaans from their Yiddish background. A number even fought for the Boers.
In his will Rhodes would leave Groot Schuur for the people and to become the residence of future Prime Ministers. Today it is a museum.
Rhodes left money to Oriel Collage Oxford to give 60 scholarships a year to student from the colonies as well as the USA. Irrespective of race and within 5 years a black man received a scholarship.
Empire Builders are egocentric , ruthless manipulators, have an inability to make friends or adjust to the environment.
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