CECIL RHODES: BIOGRAPHY - HISTORY - 2025

Cecil Rhodes was a British businessman, mining magnate and politician who served as Prime Minister of the Cape colony in South Africa from 1890 to 1896. He supported British imperialism throughout his life and his company even named one of the colonized regions in South Africa as Rhodesia, in honor of Rhodes.

In addition, after his death much of the money generated by his company was used to establish the Rhodes Scholarship, a postgraduate award given to students at the University of Oxford. Their main beliefs revolved around the superiorities of the Anglo-Saxon race compared to the rest of the people.

Biography

the beginning

Cecil John Rhodes was born on July 5, 1853, in England. He was one of the nine sons of his father, who was a priest. The beginnings of his life were a bit turbulent: the health problems that he had did not allow him to go to school normally and he had to be educated in an institution close to his home.

When he turned 16 he decided not to go to college. Instead, he went to South Africa to work alongside one of his brothers on a cotton plantation.

He was an ambitious person with a mentality to progress; He soon realized that cotton was not the best way to make money.

The rise of the worldwide diamond rush made him head to the Kimberley mining camp - also in South Africa - and work there with his brother.

The work environment in this field was much more hostile than that of the cotton plantation, but Rhodes's hard work quickly paid off. He supervised all the employees and even worked the diamonds himself.

Soon after, he invested his small fortune in mining projects that were highly successful, multiplying his income.

Studies and ideas

After working in South Africa, he returned to England to study at the University of Oxford. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in 1881, but did not have many friends while he was studying.

After finishing his university degree he returned to South Africa. He spent six months on his own in the Transvaal Republic, one of the Boer colonies in southern Africa. It was at this time that he developed the belief that the Saxon (white) race should prevail over the rest throughout the world.

In fact, Rhodes believed that Africa should be controlled entirely by whites, and even a part of the Holy Land in the Arab zone as well.

His goal was to reconcile the Boers and the British in southern Africa under the English flag. She never saw money as her main goal, but rather as a tool to achieve her goal.

African politics

Rhodes' development in politics was marked by his tendency to favor the British presence in the south of the continent, as well as by supporting the expansion of the colony further north.

In 1882 he was appointed as part of a commission that aimed to pacify an active conflict with a tribe located north of the Cape colony. There he met General Charles Gordon, who resolved the conflict without resorting to arms, earning the admiration of Rhodes.

He remained politically active for the next several years in the English colony of South Africa. His ideas clashed with those of other European powers such as the Germans and Belgians, as he believed that the English should expand further north.

However, that territory that it wanted to colonize was also in the crosshairs of other powers of the time, which generated border tensions.

In addition, he thought that the British government could not fully understand the ideas he had, considering that they were too far from Africa to correctly evaluate everything.

However, Rhodes won the trust of the British government representatives in Africa, which eventually landed him the post of Prime Minister.

Prime Minister of the English Colony

In 1890 Rhodes became the Prime Minister of the Cape Colony after the support he received from the English and Boers who inhabited the area.

His goal as the voice in command of the English colony was to create a South African Federation under the British flag. He even won the support of the Boers by restricting access to education for local Africans.

However, his leadership took a catastrophic turn in 1895. He knew that his health was in rather precarious condition, which made him think that he would not be able to unify southern Africa in life. This caused him to create a plot against the Transvaal Republic to promote a civil war in the nation.

The plan went so wrong that the general in charge of the mission was captured and the Dutch living in the Transvaal realized that the English had been behind the attack. For this, Rhdoes had to leave his post in January 1896.

Last years

After leaving the post of prime minister, he dedicated himself to work in the region known as "Rhodesia", which had been taken a few years earlier by his mining company and named in his honor. His goal became to establish a railway system from the English region to Egypt.

When the war between the English and the Boers broke out in Africa, he was forced to flee to Kimberley. However, the Boers invaded the region and remained in their control for almost a year. During this time Rhodes's health deteriorated significantly.

He died in the Cape Colony on March 26, 1902. He left behind a fortune that he conferred on the University of Oxford, with which the famous Rhodes Scholarship was established, awarded to English, American and German students. He also left land for the eventual creation of Rhodes University in Africa.

References

1. Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of Cape Colony, CM Woodhouse, March 19, 2018. From Britannica.com
2. Rhodes, Cecil; UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2003. Taken from encyclopedia.com
3. Cecil John Rhodes, South African History Online, (nd). Taken from sahistory.org.sa
4. Cecil Rhodes, British Empire Online, (nd). Taken from britishempire.co.uk
5. Cecil Rhodes, Wikipedia in English, April 5, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org