Cecil John Rhodes
British businessman, mining magnate and politician in South Africa (1853-1902)
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Cecil John Rhodes was a British businessman and mining magnate who became one of the most powerful and influential figures in South Africa during the late 19th century, amassing enormous wealth through diamond and gold mining. He matters historically because his political actions and colonial ambitions significantly shaped the development of southern Africa, though his legacy remains deeply controversial due to his role in advancing British imperial expansion and the oppression of African populations.
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Article
Cecil John Rhodes (/ˈsɛsəl ˈroʊdz/ SES-əl ROHDZ; 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. He and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia), which the company named after him in 1895. He also devoted much effort to realizing his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory. Rhodes set up the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate.
The son of a vicar, Rhodes was born in Netteswell House, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. At age sixteen, his family sent him to South Africa in the hopes the climate might improve his poor health. At eighteen, he entered the diamond trade at Kimberley in 1871 and with funding from Rothschild & Co, began to systematically buy out and consolidate diamond mines. Over the next two decades, he gained a near-complete monopoly of the world diamond market. In 1888, he founded the diamond company De Beers, which retains its prominence into the 21st century.