RHODES 



6593 



CECIL JOHN RHODES 



Ian D. Colvin, Author of South 

 Africa, The Germans in England, etc. 



For fuller information see the articles South Africa ; South African 



War ; Transvaal ; also British S. Africa Co. ; Rand. See further 



Groote Schuur ; Imperialism; Kruger ; Jameson Raid; Matoppo 



Hills ; also the articles following on Rhodesia and Rhodes Trust 



Cecil John Rhodes was a son of 

 the vicar of Bishop's Stortford, 

 Hertfordshire, where he was born 

 July5,1853. He was educated at the 

 grammar school of his native town. 

 At the age of 17 he went to Natal, 

 where his eldest brother, Herbert, 

 was planting cotton. Herbert was 

 : one of Captain Rolleston's party 

 I which discovered diamonds on the 

 banks of the Vaal river in Jan., 

 1870, and Cecil joined the diamond 

 diggers after winding up the cotton 

 plantation. The diggers gradually 

 developed two separate mines or 

 pipes the De Beers and the Kim- 

 berley which were in the early 

 years a maze of individual claims. 

 The necessity of amalgamating 

 these claims brought Cecil Rhodes 

 to the front, and after a long 

 financial conflict with Barney 

 Barnato, he amalgamated the two 

 mines under the name of De Beers 

 in Jan., 1889. 



In his first years at Kimberley 

 Rhodes found time to keep his 

 terms at Oriel College, Oxford, 

 graduating in Dec., 1881. In the 

 same year he joined the Cape Par- 

 liament as one of the two members 

 for Kimberley. He entered Parlia- 

 ment, as there is excellent evidence 

 for saying, with ends already 

 formed in his mind, ends no less 

 than the creation of a British 

 Africa from the Cape to the Zam- 

 bezi. In his first session Rhodes 

 engineered the defeat of Sir Gordon 

 Sprigg, and under the Scanlen 

 ministry obtained power which he 

 used to secure for the Cape Colony 

 control of Bechuanaland. This 

 effected by a series of masterly 

 negotiations, Rhodes was in 

 position to make use of the conces- 

 sions which he had secured from 

 Lobengula, the chief of the Mata- 

 bele. In 1889 he obtained from 

 the Imperial Government a royal 

 charter for the British South 

 Africa Company, and he then 

 pushed forward the well-organized 

 expedition which took peaceful 

 possession of Mashonaland. 



In 1893, raids by the Matabele 

 on the Mashona brought about a 

 war, in which the great tribe was 

 defeated and a territory as large 

 as France and Germany combined 

 came under the administration of 

 the company. President Kruger 

 was now surrounded by British 

 territory except for Delagoa Bay, 

 which Rhodes had tried, but failed, 

 to purchase from the Portuguese. 

 At the same time Rhodes was 



pressing the Cape Colony to ex- 

 tend its rly. system to Pretoria, 

 and to effect a railway and customs 

 union with the Transvaal. How- 

 ever, the Cape Parliament refused 

 to accept this policy, and the 

 wealth of the newly discovered 

 goldfields enabled Kruger to build 

 his line to Delagoa Bay and 

 strengthen enormously the Repub- 

 lican system. Kruger was now in a 

 position to punish the Colony for 

 its exorbitant customs policy ; 

 but he carried matters too far 

 when he " closed the drifts " to 

 Cape merchandise and produce. 



This action ranged the Cape 

 Colony behind Rhodes, now prime 

 minister. Rhodes had wrung 



W. & D. Downey 



Bechuanaland from Kruger in 

 1886, partly by means of the 

 Warren expedition, which without 

 actual fighting threatened Kruger 

 on his weak western frontier. No 

 doubt with this bloodless success 

 in mind, Rhodes concentrated the 

 Rhodesian police near the Trans- 

 vaal frontier. By a stroke of policy 

 Kruger gave way on the Drifts 

 question, but refused any conces- 

 sions to the Outlanders. Jameson 

 thought he saw a chance of settling 

 the whole matter at one stroke, 

 and led his 500 troopers in a dash 

 for Johannesburg. He was stopped 

 after a ride of 190 miles by a 

 burgher force within some 20 milea 

 of Johannesburg, and he and his 

 followers were made prisoners. 



RHODES 



On the evening of Jan. 2, 1896, 

 the day of Jameson's surrender, 

 Rhodes tendered his resignation as 

 prime minister, and shortly after- 

 wards resigned his managing direc- 

 torship of the Chartered Company. 

 He found immediate workand solace 

 in the task of quelling the Mata- 

 bele rebellion, which had broken 

 out upon the news of Jameson's 

 defeat. With no authority except 

 that of his name and moral power, 

 he went to the Matoppos and nego- 

 tiated a peace with the chiefs. 



In the early part of 1897 he 

 made out his. case before the Select 

 Committee, justifying his policy 

 on the ground that Kruger had 

 denied the majority of the popu- 

 lation any share in the govern- 

 ment of the country. But this 

 great question, which Rhodes had 

 failed to settle by diplomacy, had 

 to be settled by arms. Rhodes 

 took a place of duty and of danger 

 at Kimberley, where he helped to 

 organize the defence. The troubles 

 of these latter years helped to break 

 down his strength, and after a 

 painful illness he died in a cottage 

 on the seashore about 20 m. from 

 Cape Town,, March 26, 1902. He 

 was buried in the Matoppo Hills. 

 See Political Life and Speeches, 

 1881-1900, Vindex, 1900; Lives, 

 L. Michell, 1910; T. E. Fuller, 

 1910; P. Jourdan, 1911; G. Le 

 Sueur, 1913; B. Williams, 1920. 



Rhodes, JAMES FORD (b. 1848). 

 American historian. Born at Cleve- 

 land, Ohio, May 1, 1848, he was 

 educated at the universities of New 

 York and Chicago, and in Paris. 

 For some time he was Paris corre- 

 spondent of The Chicago Times, but 

 he gave up this post to enter the 

 iron and steel business. He re- 

 mained therein until 1885, when he 

 was able to devote himself to the 

 study of history. He worked on a 



Cecil Rhodes. House at Bishop's 



Stortford where the Colonial 



pioneer was born 



x a 



