Cecil Rhodes

Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902) was a British businessman and politician whose mining empire and colonial policies expanded British power in southern Africa. His will established the Rhodes Scholarships.

Kimberley diamond rush: A late nineteenth-century rush that made Kimberley, South Africa, a major center of diamond mining. Rhodes arrived in Kimberley in 1871 and built his fortune in its diamond fields.
Leander Starr Jameson: A British colonial administrator and physician who led the failed 1895 raid into the South African Republic. Jameson was Rhodes’s close associate, and the raid exposed their attempt to destabilize the Boer republic.
Royal charter: A formal grant issued by a monarch or government that gives an organization defined rights or powers. The British South Africa Company’s charter authorized expansion under a veneer of delegated authority.
Southern Rhodesia: The British self-governing colony established in the territory that became Zimbabwe. The territory was named for Rhodes after his company’s conquest and administration.
De Beers: A diamond company founded in South Africa that grew into a dominant force in the global diamond trade. Rhodes consolidated competing Kimberley claims into De Beers, founded in 1888.
Alfred Beit: A German-born financier and mining magnate who helped build the De Beers diamond empire. Beit financed and partnered with Rhodes in consolidating South African mining interests.
Rudd Concession: An 1888 agreement in which representatives of Lobengula granted mining rights to a British syndicate. Rhodes used this disputed agreement to support his company’s claims to mineral rights.
Northern Rhodesia: A British protectorate in central southern Africa that became the independent state of Zambia in 1964. Rhodes’s company expanded British control into the territory later named for him.
British South Africa Company: A chartered company that administered territories north of the Limpopo River under British authority. Rhodes secured its royal charter in 1889 to advance British influence inland.
Paul Kruger: A Boer political leader who served as president of the South African Republic from 1883 to 1900. Kruger defended Boer self-government against the British expansion Rhodes promoted.

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