What in your view was the short-term significance of Cecil Rhodes from 1882 to 1902? Cecil Rhodes was one of the most important figures concerning British Expansion in South Africa during the years of 1882 to 1902. By becoming the prime minister of Cape Colony in 1890 and being one of the founding members of the De Beers company which dominated the world market for diamonds at that time, he played a controversial role in British history. Rhode’s fierce support for British Imperialism can clearly be seen as he envisaged bringing not only of the whole African continent under British Domination but the ultimate recovery of the United States of America to the British Empire. There were literally no limits to Rhode’s ambitions. He was a megalomaniac and this can be seen by his dream of creating the ultimate imperial railway from Cape to Cairo which would bring together all the British colonies in Africa. Firstly Rhode’s was responsible for expanding the British Colony of South Africa northwards from the cape. He was able to conquer many areas mainly using the BSAC (given to him in 1899). What is more Cecil Rhodes was the main catalyst towars many wars and conflicts such as the Battle of Shangani River of 1893 and the catastrophic for the British Second Boer War (also known as the South African war of 1899-1903). Last but not least another short- term significance of Rhodes was the deterioration of the lives of the native Africans through the racist attitudes he cemented during his terms as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. To begin with, it is almost certain that the most significant short-term consequence of Cecil Rhodes during the years of 1882-1902 was that he was able to expand the British Empire towards the north of Africa. According to Niall Ferguson: “he dreamt of becoming an empire builder” and indeed he succeeded of becoming one partly due to his position as a Prime Minister of the South African colony and also due to the BSAC. This was a “charter given to Rhodes’s company right to conquer areas in 1889”, the BSAC functioned like an independent colonising organisation. Rhodes was able to “acquire land from settlers” through a private invasion of the British colony. It all began in 1884 when Bechuanaland was named as a British protectorate after pressures exercised by Rhodes himself, according to him: “I look upon Bechuanaland territory as the Suez canal of this country, the key of its road to the interior...”, and his claim is supported by all the other sources showing that his intentions of expanding the empire where not limited only towards Bechuanaland but the territory was only a passage as according to him “it was the key of its road to the interior”. Then another area that Rhode’s thought to be key and therefore should be annexed was the Matabele Land. After negotiations with Matabele Chief Lobengula, Rhodes’s intents were clearly anything but friendly again according to Niall Ferguson. After the use of violence and force by the Chartered Company’s Volunteers the Matabele Land was indeed taken over. This point was also further supported by Sarah Stockwell in Appendix 1. Later Bechuanaland and the Matabele land were to be renamed as Southern and Northern Rhodesia after Rhodes himself, clearly showing what an autocratic figure he was. What is more, another indisputable short-term significance of Cecil Rhodes was the creation of various conflicts. Cecil Rhodes was one of the main drivers behind many conflicts of the English colonists in South Africa. Sometimes he acted on his own but other times he had the backing of very notable figures. To begin with, these claims can be proved by Niall Ferguson referring to the Battle of Shangani river in 1893(also known as the Matabele War) which was supported by the South African Company owned by Cecil Rhodes. As seen in Appendix 2 the cruelty of the Shangani Patrol (a group of white Rhodesian pioneer police officers) brought the death of all of the Matabele warriors. These facts can be further proven when referring to Sarah Stockwell. The author of “The British Empire” refers to the 1888 treaty signed between Lobengula the paramount chief of the Ndebele and Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes tricked Lobengula into signing a treaty which surrendered territorial control over part of modern Zimbabwe to Rhode’s British South African Company and this lead rapidly to war. All of this claims are supported by Rhode’s himself when he claimed that “a native power in the North had been dealt with” . Even though this claim may seem to be misleading in the nature of the conflict all the other sources clearly show that Rhodes was the one that dealt with the “native power”. In addition as we look Rhode’s reaction to some of the opinions of other Englishmen who referred to Rhodes’ army as “freebooting marauders, bloodthirsty murderers” , Rhodes instead of trying to defend himself claimed that these reactions “ alienate colonists from the mother country, in the same spirit it was that the mother country lost America”clearly showing he cannot be trusted and that he had absolutely no regret for causing this conflict and no regret for the Matabele warriors who died during it. However the most significant conflict in which Rhodes played a paramount role was the Second Boer War 1899-1902. According to the President of Transvaal Paul Kruger “This man was the curse for South Africa” referring to Cecil Rhodes and also claimed that “That young man, is going to cause me trouble” again talking about Rhodes. Of course when considering that Kruger and Rhodes were enemies we may be able to say that Kruger was only trying to accuse and criticise Rhodes for his role in the Boer war. Moreover when examining Rhodes’ own words “Are we to allow Transvaal and its allies to acquire the whole of the interior?” Therefore the tentions between we clear and augmenting. However when looking at the article found in the independent , we can understand that Rhodes was closely linked with the Jameson Raid and therefore President Kruger’s claims can be trusted. “A disastrous and illegal attempt to annex Transvaal” and therefore was a principle cause for the South African war 1899-1903. In addition when looking at the article written in Appendix 3 we can understand that with the “blessing” of Joseph Chamberlain the colonial secretary, Cecil Rhodes conspired and supported the raid with the aim to conquer the Transvaal. However, the Jaimson raid did not turned out as expected. This can be seen in Martin Meredith’s research where she claims that the conflict “culminated in the costliest bloodiest and most humiliating war that Britain had waged in nearly a century”. Last but not least another short-term significance of Cecil Rhodes was the deterioration of the native African lives . Firstly Cecil Rhodes did express various and continuous racist ideas and attitudes towards the Native Africans. Some of his own quotes can be very enlightening, “barbarians of South Africa” or even “I prefer land to nigger”. Even though these claims may seem harsher than they actually are, they present the full beliefs of Rhodes. According to Dr Jameson however Rhodes was friendly towards the natives “His favourite Sunday pastime was to go into the De Beers native compound, where he had built them a fine swimming bath, and throw in shillings for the natives to dive for” , Dr Jameson cannot be trusted as an essential source as he was a life-long friend of Cecil Rhodes and this may have influenced his judgement. To begin with, the deterioration of the native lives’ can be seen in Sarah Gertrude Millin research where she suggests that Rhode’s intentions were to limit the native vote by raising, generally, the property qualifications and adding an educational test. This can also be proved by Rhodes himself when he claimed that: “"the native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise.” Moreover another point which clearly show how excessively the lives of the native Africans were affected by Rhodes’ actions can be found in Appendix 4. By reading the appendix we can understand how the Stripping Clause humiliated the black natives while at the same time made the white workers feel more significant than the black ones. This attitude was also expressed by Rhodes when he claimed “We are to be lords over them”. Another “tactic” Rhodes employed was slave labour. This may sound a bit farfetched especially when considering that the British had abolished slavery in the early 1800’s. However Rhodes himself admits this fact in one of his own quotes found in Appendix 5, where he clearly refers to slave labour. His attitude can be supported when looking Sarah Stockwell’s The British Empire in Appendix 6. Therefore we can understand that Rhodes had no moral restrains in using the Native blacks as a tool for making even more money, and therefore no problem in downgrading their lives. In Conclusion we can clearly understand what a controversial figure Cecil Rhodes was for the history of British African Colonial history. The most certain fact about him was that he was a fully committed nationalist who love his country. He himself claimed: “Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life.” All of his accomplishments including the annexation of all those territories were handed over to Britain according to his will, when he died. However his actions had also the effect of deteriorating the native lives and all of his actions produced a legacy of hatred and bitterness amongst Afrikaner that endured for generations.

Word Count: 1820

Appendix

Appendix 1:The LMS helped broker the 1888 treaty and mineral concessions Lobengula, the paramount Chief of the Ndebele, surrendered territorial control over part of modern Zimbabwe to Cecil Rhodes’s British South African Company.

Appendix 2: The battle of Shangani River 1893, also known as the Matabele War.

Appendix 3 : Reffering to the Jameson Raid the article states “ Led by Dr Leander Starr Jameson, the British South Africa Company's representative in Rhodesia, to rescue English women and children persecuted by a wicked Boer government in the Transvaal. It turned out, however, to be a sordid conspiracy by Cecil Rhodes, almost certainly with the British colonial secretary Joseph Chamberlain's prior knowledge, to seize the Transvaal for the British empire.”

Appendix 4 : The Diamond Trade Act of 1882(vigorously supported by Rhodes) contained the Stripping Clause : All workers below the rank of manager were required to pass through search houses on entering the mines and leaving them. Separate search houses were set up for black and white workers. Blacks were ordered to strip naked and were subjected to degrading body searches. Whites did not have to take off their clothes and underwent only a limited visual inspection.

Appendix 5: Cecil Rhodes : “We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labour that is available from the natives of the colonies. The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories.”

Appendix 6: In Southern Rhodesia, controlled by Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company until 1923, a plethora of legislation sought to secure a plentiful supply of cheap labour for the colony’s struggling gold-mining industry. Africans were forced into employment by taxation. The industry also formed the Rhodesian Native Labour Board which used a host of practises to obtain labour on cheap long-term contracts: a system nicknamed Chibaro (meaning slavery) by its victims.

Bibliography

* Ferguson Niall, Empire How Britain made the world * Aldred John, British Imperial and Foreign Policy 1846-1980 * www.independent.co.uk A bad man for Africa * * Meredith Martin, Diamonds Gold and War The Making of South Africa * Stockwell Sarah, The British Empire * Millin Gertrude Sarah, Cecil Rhodes * http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Jameson_Raid_1895-1896.aspx

* http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/cecil_rhodes.html

* Porter Bernard, The Lion’s Share , A short history of British Imperialism 1850-2004

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[ 1 ]. Ferguson Niall, Empire How Britain made the world pg 223
[ 2 ]. Aldred John, British Imperial and Foreign Policy 1846-1980 pg 53
[ 3 ]. www.independent.co.uk A bad man for Africa
[ 4 ]. Meredith Martin, Diamonds Gold and War The Making of South Africa pg 138
[ 5 ]. Ferguson Niall, Empire How Britain made the world pg 224
[ 6 ]. Stockwell Sarah, The British Empire pg 145
[ 7 ]. Ferguson Niall, Empire How Britain made the world pg 224
[ 8 ]. Stockwell Sarah, The British Empire pg 145
[ 9 ]. Millin Gertrude Sarah, Cecil Rhodes pg pog 261
[ 10 ]. Millin Gertrude Sarah, Cecil Rhodes pg 225
[ 11 ]. Millin Gertrude Sarah, Cecil Rhodes pg 225
[ 12 ]. Millin Gertrude Sarah, Cecil Rhodes pg 77
[ 13 ]. Millin Gertrude Sarah, Cecil Rhodes pg 83
[ 14 ]. Meredith Martin, Diamonds Gold and War The Making of South Africa pg 141
[ 15 ]. www.independent.co.uk A bad man for Africa
[ 16 ]. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Jameson_Raid_1895-1896.aspx
[ 17 ]. Meredith Martin, Diamonds Gold and War The Making of South Africa pg 9
[ 18 ]. www.independent.co.uk A bad man for Africa
[ 19 ]. www.independent.co.uk A bad man for Africa
[ 20 ]. www.independent.co.uk A bad man for Africa
[ 21 ]. Millin Gertrude Sarah, Cecil Rhodes pg 259
[ 22 ]. www.independent.co.uk A bad man for Africa
[ 23 ]. Meredith Martin, Diamonds Gold and War The Making of South Africa pg 117
[ 24 ]. Millin Gertrude Sarah, Cecil Rhodes pg72
[ 25 ]. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/cecil_rhodes.html
[ 26 ]. Stockwell Sarah, The British Empire pg 112-113