The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

CECIL RHODES

Cecil John Rhodes was a South African statesman. He was born in 1853 at Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire and died in 1902. He went to South Africa and worked at the Kimberley diamond mines. In 1881 he amalgamated a number of Kimberley diamond mines with the De Beers Company, and in the same year started in politics, being elected to the Cape Assembly. He pursued a policy of British expansion in South Africa, in 1884 arranging the acquisition of Bechuanaland, becoming deputy commissioner of the region. Also in 1884 he obtained a considerable increase of territory across the Zulu border. In 1887 he turned his attention to Matabeleland, and in 1888 arranged a treaty to be signed placing the country under British protection, obtaining from the Matabele chief Lobengula a concession of mineral and other rights, the British South Africa Company was subsequently formed in 1889 to work the concession. The territory (now Zimbabwe) came under the control of Rhodes' company.
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