CECIL RHODES
Cecil John Rhodes was born in 1853 and was elected Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in 1881. He was one of Great Britain’s main empire builders. He was a financier, statesman, and philosopher of mystical imperialism. He had many dreams of imperialism in Africa. He dreamed of a "Cape of Cairo" railroad that would "Paint the Map Red". He wanted to bring all of Africa under British control. Rhodes also tried to bring the Boers and the British under the British flag and recover American colonies for the British Empire. Rhodes went to Africa in 1870 and became a diamond miner. He started a very successful company in 1888 called the De Beers consolidated Mines, Ltd. Economically, the company was very profitable. Amazingly, by 1891, his company owned ninety percent of the worlds diamond mines. Once he was elected to Parliament, he began to pursue his dreams. He wanted the British to control a strip of land down Africa. He ran into trouble accomplishing this because of the Boers but eventually got them to cooperate. Rhodes then received a charter from Queen Victoria for the British South Africa Company, which had no northern limits. In 1890, Rhodes was elected as Prime Minister of the South African Parliament. His life-long dreams of "Painting the Map Red" quickly ended when Germany received a strip of land that closed Britain off from the north. Rhodes resigned after Princess Radziwill brought scandal to his name. He died in 1902 never fulfilling his political visions and dreams.
