Background
Cecil Rhodes was born in Hertfordshire, England, on the 5th of July in 1853 to Reverend Francis William Rhodes and his wife Louisa Peacock Rhodes. His father was a vicar in the Church of England.
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Cecil John Rhodes
Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the diamond company De Beers was a prominent South African businessman cum politician of British origin. A strong supporter of British colonialism, he once dreamt of building his own secret society that would bring the entire world under British rule.
Education
The boy was educated at Bishop Stortford grammar school with the intention of preparing for the Church; but at the age of sixteen his health broke down, and in the latter part of 1870 he was sent to join an elder brother, then engaged in farming in Natal.
He determined to return to England, and to complete his education by reading for a degree at Oxford; but before doing so, he spent eight months in a solitary journey through the then little known parts of the country lying to the north of the Orange and Vaal rivers.
He was a member of the Cape ministry when, after a further lapse of years, he kept his last term and took his degree.
He did not read hard at Oxford, and was more than once remonstrated with in the earlier terms for non-attendance at lectures.
But he passed his examinations; and though he was never a student in the university sense of the term, he was to the end of his life a keen devourer of books.
Career
He arrived at South Africa in 1870 and joined his brother on the cotton farm he operated.
During that time, it was newly discovered that diamonds were available in abundant quantities in the Kimberly area. The Rhodes brothers joined the diamond rush in 1871 and worked at open-pit mines. They managed to earn a small fortune and learned a lot about the diamond business.
In 1873, he went to England to complete his studies. He enrolled at Oriel College, Oxford but stayed for only one term before returning to South Africa. He would travel back and forth to Oxford and South Africa before finally earning his B. A. degree in 1881.
He worked hard in the diamond business over the next few years and began buying all the smaller diamond mining operations in Kimberly with financing from N. M. Rothschild & Sons.
He established the De Beers Mining Company in 1880. Along with his brother Frank he also formed the Goldfields of South Africa which consisted of several large mines in the Transvaal.
An ardent supporter of British Imperialism, his dream was to expand the British Empire to cover the whole world. His political interests led to his election as a member of the Cape Parliament in 1880.
One of his biggest rivals in the diamond business was Barnie Barnato with whom he collaborated to form the De Beers Consolidated Mines in 1888.
He formed the British South Africa Company (BSAC) in 1889 and became the Prime Minister of the Cape in 1890.
He obtained a royal charter from the British Empire to occupy Mashonaland and occupied the Matabeleland as well. Soon the BSAC controlled a vast territory of land which was renamed Rhodesia in 1895.
He supported the Jameson Raid—a planned attack on the Transvaal—in December 1895. The attack was a failure and resulted in the capture of Leander Jameson, the administrator of Rhodesia. Rhodes had to resign as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony because of this incident.
The Jameson Raid fiasco ultimately led to outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in 1899. The war ended shortly after his death in 1902.
He founded the De Beers diamond company which markets around 40% of the rough diamonds today. The company dominates the diamond business and is involved in open-pit, underground, coastal and deep sea mining in countries such as South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia.
As a politician, he strived hard to bring as much land as possible under the British Empire. Over his political career he is credited to have brought approximately one million square miles of African land under the British rule.
Achievements
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He was the founder of the diamond company De Beers was a prominent South African businessman and politician.
Connections
He never married. He had a very close relationship with Neville Pickering leading to speculations that he might have been homosexual. Pickering’s death devastated Rhodes further adding to this speculation.
- Father:
- Reverend Francis William Rhodes
- Mother:
- Louisa Peacock Rhodes
- Brother:
- Herbert Rhodes
- Friend:
- Leander Jameson
References
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Born
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Died
March 26, 1902 (aged 48) -
Nationality
British