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79-403: Since the discovery of gold, in 1886, and the establishment of the first hotel at Ferreirasdorp , the city’s infrastructure has benefited from investments associated with the mining industry . Under apartheid, aided by cheap labour, Johannesburg became the city of gold, a regional powerhouse and experienced enormous economic and spatial growth. Post-democracy corruption has meant that many parts of

158-506: A Crown colony . Rhodes returned to Mashonaland, further overseeing the suppression of the uprising there into 1897. The scandal attached to his name did not prevent him rejoining the board of the BSAC in 1898. He remained an MP in the Cape Parliament and a Privy Councillor. By the end of 1894, the territories over which the BSAC had concessions or treaties, collectively called "Zambesia" after

237-801: A phylloxera epidemic. The diseased vineyards were dug up and replanted, and farmers were looking for alternatives to wine. In 1892, Rhodes financed The Pioneer Fruit Growing Company at Nooitgedacht , a venture created by Harry Pickstone, an Englishman who had experience with fruit-growing in California. The shipping magnate Percy Molteno had just undertaken the first successful refrigerated export to Europe. In 1896, after consulting with Molteno, Rhodes began to pay more attention to export fruit farming and bought farms in Groot Drakenstein, Wellington and Stellenbosch. A year later, he bought Rhone and Boschendal and commissioned Sir Herbert Baker to build him

316-454: A cottage there. 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 business partner, Rudd, and sailed for England to study at university. He was admitted to Oriel College, Oxford , but stayed for only one term in 1874. He returned to South Africa and did not return for his second term at Oxford until 1876. He

395-520: A large coloured community, and in 1898 a site was set aside for a church ( St. Alban’s Anglican Mission Church ) to service the coloured Anglican community. In 1925, the Communist Party of South Africa opened a school offering night classes to blacks, but it was closed during the party purges of the 1930s. In the 1960s, under the Group Areas Act , the coloured community was forcibly moved. In

474-748: A meeting with the remaining Ndebele chiefs. Rhodes and a few colleagues walked unarmed into the Ndebele stronghold in Matobo Hills . In a series of meetings between August and October, he persuaded the Impi to lay down their arms, thus ending the Second Matabele War. In the aftermath of the war in Matabeleland, but whilst the uprising in Mashonaland was being suppressed, Rhodes returned to London to give evidence to

553-576: A member of the Cape Parliament , the chief goal of the assembly was to help decide the future of Basutoland . The ministry of Sir Gordon Sprigg was trying to restore order after the 1880 rebellion known as the Gun War . The Sprigg ministry had precipitated the revolt by applying its policy of disarming all native Africans to those of the Basotho nation, who resisted. In 1890, Rhodes became Prime Minister of

632-419: A mining partner with Rudd and Rhodes. On 13 March 1888, Rhodes and Rudd launched De Beers Consolidated Mines after the amalgamation of a number of individual claims. With £200,000 of capital, the company, of which Rhodes was secretary, owned the largest interest in the mine (£200,000 in 1880 = £22.5m in 2020 = $ 28.5m USD). Rhodes was named the chairman of De Beers at the company's founding in 1888. De Beers

711-450: A police officer to "kill all you can", even those Ndebele who begged for mercy and threw down their arms. Shortly after learning of the assassination of the Ndebele spiritual leader, Mlimo, by the American scout Frederick Russell Burnham , and after participating in the cavalry charge at one of the last pitched battles of this phase of the war, Rhodes' associate Johan Colenbrander arranged for

790-645: A strategic partnership with the London-based Diamond Syndicate. They agreed to control world supply to maintain high prices. Rhodes supervised the working of his brother's claim and speculated on his behalf. Among his associates in the early days were John X. Merriman and Charles Rudd . Rudd later became his partner in the De Beers Mining Company and the Niger Oil Company. During the 1880s, Cape vineyards had been devastated by

869-578: A vote. ... If the whites maintain their position as the supreme race, the day may come when we shall be thankful that we have the natives with us in their proper position." He once stated "I prefer land to niggers" and referred to the 'Anglo-Saxon race' as "the best, most human, most honourable race the world possesses". He thought that those lands which were occupied by the "most despicable specimens of human beings" should be inhabited by Anglo-Saxons. However others have disputed these views. For example, historian Raymond C. Mensing notes that Rhodes has

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948-463: Is James Rhodes ( fl. 1660) of Snape Green, Whitmore, Staffordshire . Cecil's siblings included Frank Rhodes , a British Army officer. Rhodes attended the Bishop's Stortford Grammar School from the age of nine, but, as a sickly, asthmatic adolescent, he was taken out of grammar school in 1869 and, according to Basil Williams , "continued his studies under his father's eye ..." At age seven, he

1027-566: Is a matter of debate to this day. Critics cite his confiscation of land from the black indigenous population of the Cape Colony , and false claims that southern African archeological sites such as Great Zimbabwe were built by European civilisations. Rhodes was born in 1853 in Bishop's Stortford , Hertfordshire, England, the fifth son of the Reverend Francis William Rhodes (1807–1878) and his wife, Louisa Peacock. Francis

1106-542: Is an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg , South Africa located in Region F of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality . First known as Ferreira's Camp ( Afrikaans : Ferreiraskamp ) and later Ferreira's Township , it is the oldest part of Johannesburg. Sometimes referred to as the "cradle of Johannesburg", it is where the first gold diggings started, and where the first diggers initially settled. The city grew around

1185-456: Is named after Colonel Ignatius Ferreira , leader of the original group of diggers who settled in this area in 1886. The suburb's origins lie in the Turffontein farm set up by Colonel Ignatius Ferreira, a Boer adventurer from Cape Colony . Ferreira had acquired a dozen claims in the vicinity and opened the reef in a cutting. The ore from both sides had a high gold content. The first tent on

1264-796: Is said that he wanted to develop an American elite of philosopher-kings who would have the United States rejoin the British Empire. As Rhodes also respected and admired the Germans and their Kaiser , he allowed German students to be included in the Rhodes scholarships. He believed that eventually the United Kingdom (including Ireland), the US, and Germany together would dominate the world and ensure perpetual peace. Rhodes's views on race have been debated; he supported

1343-503: Is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism, such as works in India, in our relations with the barbarism of South Africa". Rhodes advocated the governance of indigenous Africans living in the Cape Colony "in a state of barbarism and communal tenure" as "a subject race. I do not go so far as the member for Victoria West, who would not give the black man

1422-610: The British South Africa Police , which was used to control Matabeleland and Mashonaland , in present-day Zimbabwe . The company had hoped to start a "new Rand " from the ancient gold mines of the Shona . Because gold deposits weren't as plentiful as they had hoped, many of the white settlers who accompanied the BSAC to Mashonaland became farmers rather than miners. White settlers and their locally-employed Native Police engaged in widespread indiscriminate rape of Ndebele women in

1501-537: 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 requirement for voting under the Franchise and Ballot Act , effectively barring black people from taking part in elections. After overseeing the formation of Rhodesia during

1580-641: The Diamond Fields Advertiser was already reporting that the population of Ferreira's Town was 300 persons. Gold was discovered in September 1886. On September 8, 1886, Landrost Carl von Brandis read President Paul Kruger ’s proclamation, confirming the gold fields of the Rand as public diggings. When, in November 1886, a portion of the farm Randjeslaagte had been laid out as a village and named Johannesburg,

1659-605: The East African Arab-Swahili slave trade . Rhodes paid much of the cost so that the British Central Africa Commissioner Sir Harry Johnston , and his successor Alfred Sharpe , would assist with security for Rhodes in the BSAC's north-eastern territories. Johnston shared Rhodes's expansionist views, but he and his successors were not as pro-settler as Rhodes, and disagreed on dealings with Africans. The BSAC had its own police force,

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1738-485: The Glen Grey Act of 1894, Rhodes further disenfranchised the black population. To quote Richard Dowden , most would now "find it almost impossible to get back on the list because of the legal limit on the amount of land they could hold". In addition, Rhodes was an early architect of the Natives Land Act, 1913 , which would limit the areas of the country where black Africans were allowed to settle to less than 10%. At

1817-505: The Johannesburg Central Police Station is now located, had developed a reputation for its brothels and the gangs that controlled them. The name Ferreirasdorp itself ultimately became "synonymous with practically everything that is vile and violent" about Johannesburg. By the turn of the century, many contemporary sources referred to the western part of Ferreirasdorp as the 'Cantonese quarter'. The area became home to

1896-590: The Zambezi River flowing through the middle, comprised an area of 1,143,000 km between the Limpopo River and Lake Tanganyika . In May 1895, its name was officially changed to "Rhodesia", reflecting Rhodes's popularity among settlers who had been using the name informally since 1891. The designation Southern Rhodesia was officially adopted in 1898 for the part south of the Zambezi, which later became Zimbabwe; and

1975-545: The BSAC administration, who asked that the firing party should not discharge their rifles as this would disturb the spirits. Then, for the first time, they gave a white man the Matabele royal salute, Bayete. Rhodes is buried alongside Leander Starr Jameson and 34 British soldiers killed in the Shangani Patrol . Despite occasional efforts to return his body to the United Kingdom, his grave remains there still, "part and parcel of

2054-526: The BSAC charter. But three Tswana kings, including Khama III , travelled to Britain and won over British public opinion for it to remain governed by the British Colonial Office in London. Rhodes commented: "It is humiliating to be utterly beaten by these niggers." The British Colonial Office also decided to administer British Central Africa owing to the activism of David Livingstone trying to end

2133-403: The Cape Colony. He introduced various Acts of Parliament to push black people from their lands and make way for industrial development. Rhodes's view was that black people needed to be driven off their land to "stimulate them to labour" and to change their habits. "It must be brought home to them", Rhodes said, "that in future nine-tenths of them will have to spend their lives in manual labour, and

2212-580: The Colonies Joseph Chamberlain . The raid was a catastrophic failure. It forced Cecil Rhodes to resign as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, sent his oldest brother Col. Frank Rhodes to jail in Transvaal convicted of high treason and nearly sentenced to death, and contributed to the outbreak of the Second Boer War . In 1899, Rhodes was sued by a man named Burrows for falsely representing

2291-522: The English, "I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. I contend that every acre added to our territory means the birth of more of the English race who otherwise would not be brought into existence." Rhodes bemoaned that there was little land left to conquer and said "to think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex

2370-708: The Government took over Ferreira's camp and had it properly surveyed and named Ferreira's Township. The first building to go up in Johannesburg, the Central Hotel, was located in Ferreira’s Camp. The first barber shop in Johannesburg, the first bar, the first pub and the first brothel were all opened in Ferreira's Camp. So were the first circus, Fillis's Circus (in September 1886); the first café, Café Francais (in 1886), and

2449-540: The Johannesburg City library. The foundation offers access to many heritage resources, through tours, research and education. Its focus is on retaining Johannesburg’s existing cultural heritage for generations to come. It grew from the Parktown & Westcliff Heritage Trust, an organization that wished to support the heritage of Parktown Mansions and other suburbs. The foundation recognized that heritage extended beyond

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2528-681: The Johannesburg Heritage Foundation. The JHF Heritage Weekend Big Book Sale is often held at grand houses or heritage buildings. The sale is an important fund raiser for the JHF, and the 2024 Sale is held at the Sisonke Hall at Holy Family College . This South Africa-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This architecture -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ferreirasdorp Ferreirasdorp (or Ferreirastown )

2607-588: The Randlords mansions could be found across the greater metropolis. The City of Johannesburg, Department of Arts, Culture and Joburg Heritage Foundation collaborate on placing a round plaques in publicly visible locations. These blue plaques might commemorate a famous person or event, while raising public awareness about heritage, foster citizen pride. The plaques are installed in publicly visible locations and are intended to protect and preserve historical landmarks. JHF’s Book collection drives are run to raise funds for

2686-688: The Rudd Concession, in 1889 Rhodes obtained a charter from the British Government for his British South Africa Company (BSAC) to rule, police, and make new treaties and concessions from the Limpopo River to the great lakes of Central Africa. He obtained further concessions and treaties north of the Zambezi , such as those in Barotseland (the Lochner Concession with King Lewanika in 1890, which

2765-665: The Rudd and Lochner Concessions. Rhodes had already tried and failed to get a mining concession from Lobengula , King of the Ndebele of Matabeleland . In 1888 he tried again. He sent John Smith Moffat , son of the missionary Robert Moffat , who was trusted by Lobengula, to persuade the latter to sign a treaty of friendship with Britain, and to look favourably on Rhodes's proposals. His associate Charles Rudd, together with Francis Thompson and Rochfort Maguire, assured Lobengula that no more than ten white men would mine in Matabeleland. This limitation

2844-777: The UK House of Commons Select Committee of Enquiry into the Jameson Raid. As Rhodes had incriminating telegrams demonstrating the complicity and foreknowledge of the Raid by Joseph Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, he and his solicitor were able to blackmail Chamberlain into retaining the BSAC Charter, leaving the Company in charge of administering the territory north of the Limpopo even as it became

2923-585: The Witwatersrand, Rhodes and Rudd set off for Ferreira's camp. Already at the time of Rhodes' visit, a little crowd of diggers were at work, and in the week that had passed since Sauer had been away, an Englishwoman had run up a reed and mud building called Walker's Hotel. Within a fortnight of Rhodes' arrival in July 1886, Ferreira's camp was crowded with tents and wagons from across southern Africa. The tent town eventually became known as Ferreira’s Camp. In July,

3002-440: The area: Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes ( / ˈ s ɛ s əl ˈ r oʊ d z / SES -əl ROHDZ ; 5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was an English 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

3081-616: The coming years through what has been described as a " suppressio veri  ... which must be regarded as one of Rhodes's least creditable actions". Contrary to what the British government and the public had been allowed to think, the Rudd Concession was not vested in the British South Africa Company , but in a short-lived ancillary concern of Rhodes, Rudd and a few others called the Central Search Association , which

3160-464: The company named after him in 1895. He also devoted much effort to realising 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 at Netteswell House , Bishop's Stortford , Hertfordshire . A sickly child, he was sent to South Africa by his family when he was 17 years old in

3239-600: The cost of administering the territories to the north of South Africa against his future mining profits. The Colonial Office did not have enough funding for this. Rhodes promoted his business interests as in the strategic interest of Britain: preventing the Portuguese , the Germans or the Boers from moving into south-central Africa. Rhodes's companies and agents cemented these advantages by obtaining many mining concessions, as exemplified by

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3318-601: The designations North-Western and North-Eastern Rhodesia were used from 1895 for the territory which later became Northern Rhodesia , then Zambia . He built a house for himself in 1897 in Bulawayo. Rhodes decreed in his will that he was to be buried in Matopos Hills (now Matobo Hills). After his death in the Cape in 1902, his body was transported by train to Bulawayo . His burial was attended by Ndebele chiefs, now paid agents of

3397-405: 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 ill 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 provided for the establishment of

3476-697: The early 1890s. The Ndebele and the Shona —the two main, but rival, peoples—took advantage of the absence of most of the BSAP for the Jameson Raid in January 1896; they separately rebelled against the coming of the European settlers, and the BSAC defeated them in the Second Matabele War . Rhodes went to Matabeleland after his resignation as Cape Colony Premier, and appointed himself Colonel in his own column of irregular troops moving from Salisbury to Bulawayo to relieve

3555-532: The factories and mines. The Empire, as I have always said, is a bread and butter question. If you want to avoid civil war, you must become imperialists". Rhodes wanted to develop a Commonwealth in which all of the British-dominated countries in the empire would be represented in the British Parliament . Rhodes explicitly stipulated in his will that all races should be eligible for the scholarships. It

3634-690: The farm. After purchasing the land in 1839 from David Danser, a Koranna chief in the area, David Stephanus Fourie, forebear of Claudine Fourie-Grosvenor, had allowed the de Beers and various other Afrikaner families to cultivate the land. The region extended from the Modder River via the Vet River up to the Vaal River . In 1874 and 1875, the diamond fields were in the grip of depression, but Rhodes and Rudd were among those who stayed to consolidate their interests. They believed that diamonds would be numerous in

3713-412: The first school (in November 1886). It was also the location of the first bank branch on the Witwatersrand gold fields, when Standard Bank started doing business in a tent in Ferreira's Camp, in 1886. On 11 October 1887, Ferreirasdorp was incorporated into Johannesburg. As the city expanded, Ferreirasdorp quickly degenerated into a slum. By the 1890s, the western side of Commissioner street, where

3792-401: The goal of bringing the entire world under British rule. During his years at Oxford, Rhodes continued to prosper in Kimberley . Before his departure for Oxford, he and C.D. Rudd had moved from the Kimberley Mine to invest in the more costly claims of what was known as old De Beers ( Vooruitzicht ). It was named after Johannes Nicolaas de Beer and his brother, Diederik Arnoldus, who occupied

3871-410: The good 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 , 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

3950-443: The greater metropolis have been neglected and lost their shine. Foundation members are committed to the whole city, providing a balanced representation of the city’s heritage, raising awareness of architecture and buildings and commemorating a diverse culture with blue plaques. The foundation has had a significant impact, and has earned its reputation as a defender to the city’s diverse heritage and cultural public infrastructure, such as

4029-414: The hard blue ground that had been exposed after the softer, yellow layer near the surface had been worked out. During this time, the technical problem of clearing out the water that was flooding the mines became serious. Rhodes and Rudd obtained the contract for pumping water out of the three main mines. After Rhodes returned from his first term at Oxford, he lived with Robert Dundas Graham, who later became

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4108-400: The history of Zimbabwe" and attracts thousands of visitors each year. One of Rhodes's dreams was for a "red line" on the map from the Cape to Cairo (on geo-political maps, British dominions were always denoted in red or pink). Rhodes had been instrumental in securing southern African states for the Empire. He and others felt the best way to "unify the possessions, facilitate governance, enable

4187-429: The hope that the climate might improve his health. He entered the diamond trade at Kimberley in 1871, when he was 18, 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. His diamond company De Beers , formed in 1888, retains its prominence into the 21st century. Rhodes entered

4266-408: The independent Boer Republic of the Transvaal . He often disagreed with the Transvaal government's policies, which he considered unsupportive of mine-owners' interests. In 1895, believing he could use his influence to overthrow the Boer government, Rhodes supported the Jameson Raid , an unsuccessful attempt to create an uprising in the Transvaal that had the tacit approval of Secretary of State for

4345-403: The international Rhodes Scholarship at University of Oxford , 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. With the strengthening of international movements against racism, such as Rhodes Must Fall , Rhodes' legacy

4424-414: The late nineteenth century, a significant number of Eastern European Jewish immigrants settled in the area and neighbouring Marshalltown. The community was mostly impoverished and the Adath Ysroel Orthodox Synagogue was built to meet the spiritual needs of the burgeoning community in the district. It was uncommon for the district's Jewish residents to work as miners, but most provided goods and services to

4503-409: The main obstacles to the British objective until the United Kingdom conquered and seized Tanganyika from the Germans as a League of Nations mandate in World War I . Rhodes wanted to expand the British Empire because he believed that the Anglo-Saxon race was destined to greatness. In what he described as "a draft of some of my ideas" written in 1877 while a student at Oxford, Rhodes said of

4582-451: The military to move quickly to hot spots or conduct war, help settlement, and foster trade" would be to build the "Cape to Cairo Railway". This enterprise was not without its problems. France had a conflicting strategy in the late 1890s to link its colonies from west to east across the continent and the Portuguese produced the " Pink Map ", representing their claims to sovereignty in Africa. Ultimately, Belgium and Germany proved to be

4661-461: The mining camp in the Ferreirasdorp area, and Johannesburg’s Main Street developed from a rough track where the present Albert Street led off towards Ferreira’s Camp. The area, together with Marshalltown was previously home to a large concentration of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. As the community's economic position improved, they mostly migrated to more middle-class Jewish areas such as Doornfontein , Hillbrow and Yeoville . The suburb

4740-649: The most powerful indigenous chiefs . Rhodes' competitive advantage over other mineral prospecting companies was his combination of wealth and astute political instincts, also called the "imperial factor," as he often collaborated with the British Government. He befriended its local representatives, the British Commissioners , and through them organized British protectorates over the mineral concession areas via separate but related treaties. In this way he obtained both legality and security for mining operations. He could then attract more investors. Imperial expansion and capital investment went hand in hand. The imperial factor

4819-480: The nearby mines. The district was also a point of interaction between the impoverished Jewish immigrants and the poverty-stricken black mine-workers. The economic situation of much of the Jewish residents improved, as they became shopkeepers and artisans. This allowed these residents to leave the poor conditions of the district and migrate to middle-class Jewish areas such as Doornfontein , Hillbrow and Yeoville . A number of cultural heritage sites are present in

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4898-409: The planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far". Furthermore Rhodes saw imperialism as a way to alleviate domestic social problems - "In order to save the 40,000,000 inhabitants of the United Kingdom from a bloody civil war, we colonial statesmen must acquire new lands to settle the surplus population, to provide new markets for the goods produced in

4977-405: The purpose of the raid and thereby convincing him to participate in the raid. Burrows was severely wounded and had to have his leg amputated. His suit for £3,000 in damages was successful. Rhodes used his wealth and that of his business partner Alfred Beit and other investors to pursue his dream of creating a British Empire in new territories to the north by obtaining mineral concessions from

5056-409: The reputation as the most flamboyant exemplar of the British imperial spirit, and always believed that British institutions were the best. Mensing argues that Rhodes quietly developed a more nuanced concept of imperial federation in Africa, and that his mature views were more balanced and realistic. According to Mensing, "Rhodes was not a biological or maximal racist . Despite his support for what became

5135-414: The rights of indigenous Africans to vote, but critics have labelled him as an "architect of apartheid " and a " white supremacist ", particularly since 2015. According to Magubane, Rhodes was "unhappy that in many Cape Constituencies, Africans could be decisive if more of them exercised this right to vote under current law [referring to the Cape Qualified Franchise]," with Rhodes arguing that "the native

5214-424: The siege of whites there. He remained Managing Director of the BSAC (with power of attorney to take decisions without reference back to the Board in London) until June 1896, defying Chamberlain's calls to resign, and he gave instructions that no mercy be shown in putting down the rebellion, telling officers that "Your instructions are" he told a major, to "do the most harm you can to the natives around you." He ordered

5293-424: The site was erected in 1886, two months before gold digging started in earnest. In 1886 Hans Sauer , who combined a medical practice with prospecting on Cecil Rhodes ’s behalf, was guided from Ferreira’s Camp to the main group of gold reefs by a son of the widow Petronella Oosthuizen, the owner of a farm at Langlaagte, on which the main gold reefs had first been discovered. Following reports of new gold finds in

5372-456: The sooner that is brought home to them the better." In 1892, Rhodes's Franchise and Ballot Act raised the property requirements from a relatively low £25 to a significantly higher £75 which had a disproportionate effect on the previously growing number of enfranchised black people in the Cape under the Cape Qualified Franchise that had been in force since 1853. By limiting the amount of land which black Africans were legally allowed to hold in

5451-455: The time, Rhodes would argue that "the native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism, such as works in India , in our relations with the barbarism of South Africa." Rhodes also introduced educational reform to the area. His policies were instrumental in the development of British imperial policies in South Africa, such as the Hut tax . Rhodes did not, however, have direct political power over

5530-405: 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 supply was sealed in 1890 through

5609-524: Was a Church of England clergyman who served as perpetual curate of Brentwood, Essex (1834–1843), and then as vicar of nearby Bishop's Stortford (1849–1876), where he was well known for never having preached a sermon longer than ten minutes. Francis was the eldest son of William Rhodes (1774–1855), a brick manufacturer from Hackney, Middlesex . The family owned significant estates in London's Hackney and Dalston which Cecil would later inherit. The earliest traceable direct ancestor of Cecil Rhodes

5688-622: Was a double-edged sword: Rhodes did not want the bureaucrats of the Colonial Office in London to interfere in the Empire in Africa. He wanted British settlers and local politicians and governors to run it. This put him on a collision course with many in Britain, as well as with British missionaries , who favoured what they saw as the more ethical direct rule from London. Rhodes prevailed because he would pay

5767-574: Was established with funding from N.M. Rothschild & Sons in 1887. In 1880, Rhodes prepared to enter public life at the Cape. With the earlier incorporation of Griqualand West into the Cape Colony under the Molteno Ministry in 1877, the area had obtained six seats in the Cape House of Assembly . Rhodes chose the rural and predominately Boer constituency of Barkly West , which would remain loyal to Rhodes until his death. When Rhodes became

5846-460: Was greatly influenced by John Ruskin 's inaugural lecture at Oxford , which reinforced his own attachment to the cause 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 tutorial system. Eventually, he

5925-589: Was inspired to develop his scholarship scheme: "Wherever you turn your eye—except in science—an Oxford man is at the top of the tree". While attending Oriel College, Rhodes became a Freemason in the Apollo University Lodge . Although initially he did not approve of the organisation, he continued to be a South African Freemason until his death in 1902. The shortcomings of the Freemasons, in his opinion, later caused him to envisage his own secret society with

6004-516: Was left out of the document, known as the Rudd Concession , which Lobengula signed. Furthermore, it stated that the mining companies could do anything necessary to their operations. When Lobengula discovered later the true effects of the concession, he tried to renounce it, but the British Government ignored him. During the company's early days, Rhodes and his associates set themselves up to make millions (hundreds of millions in current pounds) over

6083-609: Was quietly formed in London in 1889. This entity renamed itself the United Concessions Company in 1890, and soon after sold the Rudd Concession to the Chartered Company for 1,000,000 shares. When Colonial Office functionaries discovered this chicanery in 1891, they advised Secretary of State for the Colonies Viscount Knutsford to consider revoking the concession, but no action was taken. Armed with

6162-465: Was recorded in the 1861 census as boarding with his aunt, Sophia Peacock, at a boarding house in Jersey , where the climate was perceived to provide a respite for those with conditions such as asthma . His health was weak and there were fears that he might be consumptive (have tuberculosis), a disease of which several of the family showed symptoms. His father decided to send him abroad for what were believed

6241-545: Was similar to the Rudd Concession); and in the Lake Mweru area ( Alfred Sharpe 's 1890 Kazembe concession). Rhodes also sent Sharpe to get a concession over mineral-rich Katanga , but met his match in ruthlessness: when Sharpe was rebuffed by its ruler Msiri , King Leopold II of Belgium obtained a concession over Msiri's dead body for his Congo Free State . Rhodes also wanted Bechuanaland Protectorate incorporated in

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