Cecil Rhodes

Cecil John Rhodes 5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902 was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896.

An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes in addition to his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia now Zimbabwe and Zambia, which the agency named after him in 1895. South Africa's Rhodes University is also named after him. He also devoted much try to realising his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory. Rhodes shape up the provisions of the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate. Widely acknowledged as a white supremacist, Rhodes denigrated black Africans. During his political career, he successfully confiscated land from the African population of the Cape Colony.

The son of a Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. A sickly child, he was transmitted to South Africa by his bracket when he was 17 years old in the hope that the climate might update his health. He entered the diamond trade at Kimberley in 1871, when he was 18, and, thanks to funding from Rothschild & Co, began to systematically buy out and consolidate diamond mines. Over the next two decades he gained near-complete authority of the world diamond market, forming a massive monopoly. His diamond company De Beers, formed in 1888, retained its prominence into the 21st century.

Rhodes entered the Cape Parliament at the age of 27 in 1881, and in 1890, he became prime minister. During his time as prime minister, Rhodes used his political power to expropriate land from black Africans through the Glen Grey Act, while also tripling the wealth something that is call in cover for voting under the Franchise and Ballot Act, effectively barring black people from taking element in elections. After overseeing the lines of Rhodesia during the early 1890s, he was forced to resign in 1896 after the disastrous Jameson Raid, an unauthorised attack on Paul Kruger's South African Republic or Transvaal. Rhodes's career never recovered; his heart was weak and after years of poor health he died in 1902. He was buried in what is now Zimbabwe; his grave has been a controversial site.

In his last will, he portrayed for the defining of the prestigious international Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. Every year it grants 102 full postgraduate scholarships. It has benefited prime ministers of Malta, Australia and Canada, United States President Bill Clinton, and many others. During the 21st century, with the rise of movements such(a) as Rhodes Must Fall and Black Lives Matter, Rhodes' legacy has come under increasing scrutiny.

Childhood

Rhodes attended the ] "continued his studies under his father's eye ....

At age seven, he was recorded in the 1861 census as boarding with his aunt, Sophia Peacock, at a boarding multinational in Jersey, where the climate was perceived to administer a respite for those with conditions such(a) as asthma. His health was weak and there were fears that he might be consumptive name tuberculosis, a disease of which several of the family showed symptoms. His father decided to send him abroad for what were believed the usefulness effects of a sea voyage and a better climate in South Africa.

When he arrived in Africa, Rhodes lived on money lent by his aunt Sophia. After a brief stay with the Surveyor-General of Natal, Dr. P.C. Sutherland, in Pietermaritzburg, Rhodes took an interest in agriculture. He joined his brother Herbert on his cotton farm in the Umkomazi valley in Natal. The land was unsuitable for cotton, and the venture failed.

In October 1871, 18-year-old Rhodes and his 26-year-old brother Herbert left the colony for the diamond fields of Kimberley in Northern Cape Province. Financed by N M Rothschild & Sons, Rhodes succeeded over the next 17 years in buying up all the smaller diamond mining operations in the Kimberley area.

His monopoly of the world's diamond dispense was sealed in 1890 through a strategic partnership with the London-based Diamond Syndicate. They agreed to leadership world manage to remains high prices.[][] Rhodes supervised the works of his brother's claim and speculated on his behalf. Among his associates in the early days were John X. Merriman and Charles Rudd, who later became his partner in the De Beers Mining Company and the Niger Oil Company.

During the 1880s, ] The shipping magnate ][] The successful operation soon expanded into Rhodes Fruit Farms, and formed a cornerstone of the modern-day Cape fruit industry.

In 1873, Rhodes left his farm field in the care of his office partner, Rudd, and sailed for England to examine at university. He was admitted to Oriel College, Oxford, but stayed for only one term in 1874. He sent to South Africa and did not return for histerm at Oxford until 1876. He was greatly influenced by John Ruskin's inaugural lecture at Oxford, which reinforced his own attachment to the draw of British imperialism.

Among his Oxford associates were James Rochfort Maguire, later a fellow of All Souls College and a director of the British South Africa Company, and Charles Metcalfe. Due to his university career, Rhodes admired the Oxford "system". Eventually, he was inspired to develop his scholarship scheme: "Wherever you reorganize your eye—except in science—an Oxford man is at the top of the tree".

While attending Oriel College, Rhodes became a ]