Historical Figure
Cecil Rhodes
1853–1902
British mining magnate and politician (1853–1902)
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Biography
Cecil John Rhodes was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia, which the company named after him in 1895. He also devoted much effort to realizing his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory. Rhodes set up the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate.
In Their Own Words (5)
Pure philanthropy is very well in its way but philanthropy plus five percent is a good deal better.
Attributed by J. C. Johari, Voices of Indian Freedom Movement (1993), Anmol Publications, , p. 207 , 1993
To and for the establishment, promotion and development of a Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom, and of colonisation by British subjects of all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labour and enterprise, and especially the occupation by British settlers of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire, the inauguration of a system of Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed members of the Empire and, finally, the foundation of so great a Power as to render wars impossible, and promote the best interests of humanity.
1877 will, quoted in Cecil Rhodes by John Flint , 1877
Equal rights for all civilized men south of the Zambesi.
Gordon Le Sueur, Cecil Rhodes the Man and His Work (1913: 2009), pg. 76 , 1913
In order to save the forty million inhabitants of the United Kingdom from a bloody civil war, our colonial statesmen must acquire new lands for settling the surplus population of this country, to provide new markets. ... The Empire, as I have always said, is a bread and butter question.
Quoted in Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.
You are an Englishman, and have subsequently drawn the greatest prize in the lottery of life.
said by Rhodes to Lord Grey.
Timeline
The story of Cecil Rhodes, told in moments.
Arrived at the Kimberley diamond fields at 18. With funding from Rothschild & Co, he began buying out competitors. He would eventually control 90% of the world's diamond production.
Founded De Beers Consolidated Mines, creating a near-monopoly on the global diamond trade. The company still exists.
Became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony at 37. His policies stripped Black Africans of land and tripled the wealth requirement for voting.
Forced to resign after the Jameson Raid, a botched attempt to overthrow the government of the Transvaal. The disaster ended his political career.
Died at 48 in his cottage in Muizenberg, Cape Town. His will established the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford, the first international study award.
Artifacts (1)
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