Role and influence of Cecil Rhodes
Personal Background
Views on Empire
Aim for Africa
Legacy
Actions in Africa
Rhodes and Jameson devised a plan to seize the Transvaal in 1895. However the Ndebele tribe revolted, took the British by surprise and killed; 127 men, 10 women and 3 children.
Just like the Indian Mutiny's reaction. The British were extremely angered by this revolt. Rhodes himself was quoted saying "Wipe them all out... everything black". Previously before the revolt, Missionaries had tried to convert these indigenous tribes but had no luck which led to Britain being cautious about their safety.
These Ndebele and Shona revolts carried on through 1896-1897 and were met by the British brutality of slaughter and the wrath of Cecil Rhodes. This led to British occupation in the Transvaal.
One of the main reasons why the Ndebele revolted was because of the adoption of Labour in the Matabeleland police service who used this to tyrannise the local people. Another problem that caused the revolt was the British South African Company taking the people's cattle as loot for themselves. This obviously angered the Ndebele because they need that cattle to survive.
Cecil Rhodes was much in favour of imperialism. It allowed him to become a ruler with an iron fist. One of the Liberal chancellors of the exchequer remarked him as "a great jingo, but he is a cheap jingo". This quote is the view of a liberal, liberal beliefs were anti-imperialist and normally very pacifistic in nature. So someone like Cecil Rhodes was seen as a cheap jingo because of all the blood shed he would cause to acquire power.
Even though Cecil Rhodes had been quoted for saying very jingoistic impressions especially towards black people. He insisted that "don't infer from these remarks that I am a regular nigger-hater for I am not".
Cecil Rhodes was born on the 5th of july 1853. Ever since he was a boy, he enjoyed reading about history especially towards the Roman Empire written by Edward Gibbon.
Cecil Rhodes at a young age was very ill, so his father thought he should visit his brother in Natal. At the age of 17, in Durban, in 1870 his aunt had leant him 3000 pounds in which he invested into Kimberley diamond mining.
He travelled to find his brother in Natal, it turned out that his brother had travelled north to Kimberly to work in diamond mining. For a year Rhodes tended his brother's farm but diamonds was his main goal, so he followed his brother to Kimberly.
In 1872, Cecil Rhodes suffered a slight heart attack.
In 1873, Rhodes went back to England to go back to his studies. He studied at Oriel College Oxford. He only did one term and then came back to do the second in 1876.
He believed that it was his 'God-given' task to expand the Empire as he believed that British people were the most superior.
In 1877, written in Oxford Rhodes conveyed his opinions on other races even more by calling people such as the African people "the most despicable specimens of human beings". This is just a clear point of how jingoistic Rhodes was.
Rhodes wanted to rule over the indigenous people because they were inferior and didn't understand the intelligence of governing themselves. He wanted the British Empire to expand and rid the world of native peoples ways of life.
At the end of the day, Rhodes was a business man. And a business man has one goal in life was to make money. He invested a lot of money and time into diamond mining and was nicknamed 'the king of diamonds'.
Rhodes died on the 26th of march 1902, in Cape town. Apparently his last words were "so little done, so much to do"
He left 6 million pounds, which was mostly inherited into Oxford University. This helped create the Rhodes scholarship which gave scholarships to students in British colonies, United states and Germany.
In 1890, Rhoddes became prime minister of Cape Colony. Which he mainly won the vote by bribing white settlers and non-white settlers with shares of the South African Company.