Cecil John Rhodes Biography

Cecil John Rhodes Biography

Full Name: Mr. Cecil John Rhodes
Date of Birth: July 5, 1853
Place of Birth: Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England
Died: March 26, 1902
Place of Death: Muizenberg, South Africa
Classification: Builders & Titans

Known as one of the staunchest British Imperialists of his era, Cecil John Rhodes would work his way to become one of the richest men in the world. He founded the British South Africa Company and would later leave the Rhodes scholarship as a foundation in his own memory.

Born to a parish vicar meant that Cecil’s family was on a fixed income in Hertfordshire. In school, the young John Rhodes’ health began to fail, something that would plaque him the rest of his life. After his studies, he went to South Africa to work with his brother in order to claim a stake in the diamond fields being exploited. Over the next ten years, Cecil formed the De Beers Mining Company with the De Beers brothers. It was around this time that the overworked and stressed Rhodes suffered his first heart attack.

By the early 1880s, Cecil attained his university degree and continued vying in the diamond market. His only rival was Barnie Barnato, who he eventually bought out to form the De Beers Consolidated Mines, which worked with the precedent that it should spread the British Empire as far as possible in other areas of South Africa. Through the company, Cecil John Rhodes was also able to form a country named after him – Rhodesia, or what is today Zambia and Zimbabwe. He acquired the land for his country by dealing with the King of the Ndebele.

Rhodes popularity grew and he eventually became a member of parliament in South Africa. He was also able to get the British to back the formation of what became the South Africa Company, whose goal was to put British citizens in different, albeit the farthest-flung territories. Eventually, the Ndebele fought back, but were nearly wiped out in the war of 1893. Through his policies, the Afrikaners were nearly helpless to the whims of the overseeing British flag. However, all of this was too slow going for Cecil John Rhodes whose health was failing worse than it ever had. In an attempt to see his dream realized before his death, he planned a coup d’etat against the Boer government. His attempts failed and he was removed from office. In his last days, he sought greater glory for Rhodesia, but not much came of his plans. Upon his death, he left money to Britain to form a secret imperialist society. But, the majority of it he left to Oxford in order that foreign students