However, when Cecil arrived at Durban in January 1871 his brother was missing, as he had gone to seek his fortune on the newly discovered diamond fields of Griqualand West. Cecil started growing cotton, but by October he too had decided that diamonds were a far more profitable venture, and set off inland. Within two weeks of finding his brother, the latter was off again, leaving Cecil in charge of his claims, where he soon proved that he could hold his own in the dangerous pioneer country around Kimberley.
Within two years, Cecil had amassed a fortune of £10,000, which he used to fund a long-cherished ambition, namely to go to Oxford University. However, he only lasted a term before ill health and the lure of Africa took him back to the diamond fields.
Diamond mining in Kimberley was to go through a series of crises, involving such issues as the claims of white miners against black, and small claims-holders against larger ones, as well as technical problems caused when opencast mining was forced to give way to deep mining. Many miners gave up, but Rhodes stayed put and, together with his partner Charles Rudd, became the owner of one of the largest concerns in the region.
There was, however, a controversy over Rhodes’s dealings concerning pumping equipment, and in 1876 he returned to Oxford to complete his degree and qualify as a barrister.
His time at Oxford served to reinforce his imperialist views, and his conviction that the “Anglo-Saxon” race was inherently superior to any other, especially in Africa. He even went so far as to develop a grandiose scheme for an Anglo-Saxon empire that would comprise Great Britain dominating all other nations and races.
On returning to Kimberley in 1878, he set about consolidating his power and accumulating greater wealth. Through his control of the De Beers Mining Company, Rhodes, with his colleagues, became the dominant force in the region, bringing other companies into the De Beers empire and exercising considerable political power at the same time.
Rhodes’s management style included practices that reflected his imperialist attitudes and laid the foundations for 20th century apartheid. For example, black workers were forced to live in closed compounds and were searched every time they entered and left. White workers were treated far less harshly.
Rhodes became a politician by being elected to the parliament of Cape Colony, a position which he used to further his interests as a diamond miner and trader. One of his first actions was to sponsor a law that bore down harshly on diamond smugglers. He showed interest in a peaceful outcome to the dispute with Basutoland, but this was largely out of self-interest because the Basuto people provided food and labour for his mining empire.
Likewise, Rhodes was keen to see the Afrikaners (settlers of Dutch extraction) kept in check, partly from imperialist motives, but mainly so that he could extend his control over the diamond mines in the territories they controlled, particularly in Bechuanaland (modern-day Botswana) to the west of Griqualand West. The situation was complicated by the arrival of Germany as a colonial power, taking control of the region that became South West Africa.
By means of persuading the South African government to take military action, Rhodes was able to gain most of what he wanted, with northern Bechuanaland becoming a British protectorate and the Afrikaners kept as potential allies rather than enemies. Above all, his commercial interests were secured.
In 1886, gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand, which led in turn to further European expansion in southern Africa and the annexation of virtually all the land as far north as the Congo.
Rhodes was rather slow to get into gold mining, and his acquisitions on the Rand were not particularly profitable. He therefore set his sights further north, and particularly in the lands of Lobengula, the king of the Matabele, whom Rhodes was able to outmanoeuvre in gaining mining concessions.
Rhodes also worked with, and eventually gained control over, the British South Africa Company, to acquire interests over vast swathes of Africa, with treaties being signed that would establish British rule over much of the continent.
Things did not always go smoothly for Rhodes and his agents and partners. This was in part because of the imperialist interests of the other European great powers who sought their share of the African carve-up, notably Belgium and Portugal. However, Rhodes was able to colonise the lands north of the Limpopo that were later to be known as Rhodesia, although their promises of mineral wealth were not realised to the extent that was hoped for. His methods of acquiring territory were often dubious, to say the least.
In 1890, Rhodes became Prime Minister of Cape Colony, with the unlikely support both of liberals and Afrikaners. He proved to have astute political skills in being able to please all the disparate elements of his administration by, for example, supporting agricultural interests. However, the liberals were less happy with his attitude towards African labour, and did not form part of Rhodes’s second administration in 1894.
Trouble flared in 1895 when rivalries with the neighbouring Transvaal, peopled by Afrikaner Boers, nearly led to war. The dispute was over tariffs and rail communications. It is notable that Rhodes was able to retain the support of his own Afrikaners throughout the crisis.
However, things went disastrously wrong when the “Jameson Raid” into the Transvaal failed in its aim to overthrow the Boer republic, and Rhodes’s refusal to repudiate the raid forced his resignation as Prime Minister. Rhodes’s “fingerprints” were soon found to be on the plot, with the result that Afrikaner support was lost and the Cape electorate started to split along ethnic lines.
In 1896, the Ndebele and Shona in what is now Zimbabwe rebelled against the colonists. Rhodes took personal charge of the campaign to quell the rebellion in his private colony, but realised that negotiation was better than conquest. He used much of his own money to resettle the rebels in new territory and to pacify the settlers.
Rhodes continued to be a powerful influence in Cape politics, although he never regained the Premiership. He was also prominent in efforts to promote a railway link from “Cairo to the Cape”.
Throughout his life Rhodes had been conscious of his mortality, and he wrote a number of very different wills at various times. His eighth and last will, written in 1899, provided for 52 annual Oxford scholarships for men from the colonies (which included the United States!), the aim being to strengthen the ties of empire by ensuring the education of future imperial leaders. Bill Clinton was a notable Rhodes Scholar at a much later date.
Rhodes’s last years were spent in defending his reputation, particularly as regarded his actions over the Jameson Raid, and overseeing progress in Rhodesia. He also spent four months trapped in Kimberley in 1899 during the First Boer War.
His health, which was never robust, eventually deteriorated, and he died on 26th March 1902 at his home near Cape Town. He was buried, at his request, in the hill country of Southern Rhodesia. He left behind a strong imperialist mentality in the leaders of southern Africa, the seeds of apartheid, and a powerful mining company in De Beers that continues to dominate the diamond trade to this day.
© John Welford
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