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106-573: At the onset of British rule in the Cape Colony, the preexisting population of European origin settled during the Dutch era was universally classified by the new colonial government as "Hollanders" or "Dutch". In 1805, a relative majority still represented old Dutch families brought to the Cape during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; however, close to one-fourth of this demographic group

212-621: A British Empire in new territories to the north by obtaining mineral concessions from 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

318-623: A Dutch periodical, the Nederduitsch Zuid-Afrikaansch Tijdschrift , appeared. A society for the promotion of the community's history and the arts was also established, the Maatschappij ter uitbreiding van Beschaving en Letterkunde . Christoffel Brand , son of a former Dutch colonial official and first Speaker of the Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope , was one of the most outspoken proponents for

424-500: 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 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

530-522: 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 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

636-454: 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 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

742-467: 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 was greatly influenced by John Ruskin 's inaugural lecture at Oxford , which reinforced his own attachment to

848-411: A quarter of the Cape's European population was not ethnically Dutch. Nevertheless, there was a degree of cultural assimilation due to intermarriage, and the almost universal adoption of the Dutch language. Cleavages were likelier to occur along socioeconomic rather than ethnic lines; broadly speaking, the Cape colonists were delineated into Boers , poor farmers who settled directly on the frontier, and

954-647: A result of joining the Boer war effort. Prior to the Second Boer War, the narrow principles of Boer republicanism and the political alignment many Cape Dutch still held with the British Empire undercut any hopes for pan-Afrikaner unity. However, following the dismantling of the Boer republics, the exodus of many impoverished Boers to the cities, and the subsequent establishment of the Union of South Africa ,

1060-774: 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 the UK House of Commons Select Committee of Enquiry into the Jameson Raid. As Rhodes had incriminating telegrams demonstrating

1166-597: 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 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

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1272-620: A sworn determination to stand for "our language, our nation, and our people". This coincided the beginning of a new trend as the Cape Dutch embraced the Afrikaans language for the first time as a symbol of their ethnic and national pride; for example, in 1876, Cape Dutch civic leaders sponsored the publication of the first Afrikaans language newspaper, Die Afrikaanse Patriot . Previously, most Cape Dutch were actually bilingual in both Netherlands Dutch and Afrikaans, although they preferred

1378-428: A unique Afrikaner ethnic consciousness. Brand argued that "England has taken from the old colonists of the Cape everything that was dear to them: their country, their laws, their customs, their slaves, their money, yes even their mother tongue...[they] had done everything to prove that they wanted to be British, while their conquerors had continually worked to remind them they were Hollanders". In 1830, De Zuid-Afrikaan

1484-752: 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 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

1590-649: 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 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

1696-612: 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 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

1802-590: Is located in the Johannesburg Botanical Garden . French Huguenot descendants were also included in the exodus of frontier farmers that was called the Great Trek . Voortrekker surnames who were of French Huguenot ancestry include: (Original French spelling in brackets) There are many families, today mostly Afrikaans-speaking, whose surnames bear witness to their Huguenot ancestry. A comprehensive list of these surnames can be seen on

1908-638: The Cape Colony , but were absorbed into the Afrikaner and Afrikaans -speaking population, because they had religious similarities to the Dutch colonists. Even before the large-scale arrival of the Huguenots at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th century, a small number of individual Huguenot refugees settled there. They included Francois Villion, later known as Viljoen , and the du Toit brothers. In fact,

2014-500: 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 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

2120-817: 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 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

2226-547: 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 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

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2332-520: 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 the early 1890s. The Ndebele and the Shona —the two main, but rival, peoples—took advantage of the absence of most of

2438-760: The Society of Real Afrikaners . The wine industry in South Africa was greatly influenced by the Huguenots, many of whose families had owned vineyards in France. Many of the farms in the Western Cape province in South Africa still bear French names, such as Haute Cabrière , La Petite Provence, La Bourgogne, La Motte, La Bri, La Borie, La Chataigne and La Roche. Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes ( / ˈ s ɛ s əl ˈ r oʊ d z / SES -əl ROHDZ ; 5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902)

2544-821: The Transvaal Republic , because he feared they would compete with the Boers for jobs. Since the Cape Colony's census never differentiated between individual segments of the Dutch- or Afrikaans-speaking white population, the historic size of the Cape Dutch community is almost impossible to accurately calculate. It was estimated at 250,000 people in 1899. Huguenots in South Africa Many people of European heritage in South Africa are descended from Huguenots . Most of these originally settled in

2650-662: The Umkomazi valley in Natal. The land was unsuitable for cotton, and 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

2756-633: 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 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

2862-578: The 1830s a small group of professionals in Cape Town made the first concerted attempt to simulate a sense of cultural identity among white Dutch speakers in the Western Cape, based on a shared language and history. This led to the formation of the first true Cape Dutch social institutions, namely the first Dutch university in the colony, the Zuid-Afrikaansche Athenaeum , and periodicals and societies aimed at Dutch speakers. In 1824,

2968-461: The African continent. In exchange they received plots of thirteen and a half morgen apiece, a twelve-year exemption from property taxes, and loans of seeds and agricultural implements. Reflecting the multi-national character of the company's workforce and overseas settlements, smaller numbers of German and French Huguenot immigrants were also allowed to settle in South Africa, and by 1691 over

3074-583: The Afrikaner community and helped Afrikaans-speaking entrepreneurs secure loans. With the renewed Cape Dutch interest in political affairs, their representation in parliament reached parity with English speakers and the Afrikaner Bond's influence grew. Most of the parliamentarians were merchants or financial middlemen, who won their seats not only on the votes of the Cape Dutch, but also Boers in their outlying constituencies who felt indebted to them. Over

3180-603: 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 a police officer to "kill all you can", even those Ndebele who begged for mercy and threw down their arms. Shortly after learning of

3286-501: 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, 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

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3392-656: 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 the siege of whites there. He remained Managing Director of

3498-662: 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 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

3604-668: The British Parliament . Rhodes explicitly stipulated in his will that all races should be eligible for the scholarships. It 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

3710-712: 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 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

3816-471: The Cape Dutch and Boers increasingly formed a unified political bloc and socioeconomic differences between the two groups gradually diminished. The single most decisive factor in encouraging Cape Dutch and Boer unity in the postwar period appears to have been the preservation and promotion of the Afrikaans language. The creation of a distinct Cape Dutch society was closely linked to the evolution of Cape Dutch group identities and Afrikaner nationalism . During

3922-487: The Cape Dutch began to articulate widespread ethnic sentiments for the first time, and explore political strategies based on ethnic mobilisation. This may be regarded as the beginning of militant Afrikaner nationalism in the Cape, as the previously apolitical community began to form movements to defend its traditional values and dogma from anglicisation. Among these was the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners , established with

4028-536: The Cape Qualified Franchise]," with Rhodes arguing 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 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

4134-643: The Cape after leaving their country as a result of the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685), which revoked the Edict of Nantes (1598) that had granted religious toleration to Protestants . On 31 December 1687 a group of Huguenots fled from France (as a result of the Edict of Fontainebleau). This was part of the first of the large scale emigration of Huguenots to the Cape of Good Hope , which took place during 1688 and 1689. In total some 180 Huguenots from France, and 18 Walloons from present-day Belgium , eventually settled at

4240-466: The Cape commerce, judiciary, and its political affairs made English a prerequisite for most professional careers. However, the Cape Dutch made no significant moves to resist until the British abolished the use of Dutch in public education, around 1865. This provoked a storm of outrage by Cape Dutch journalists, teachers, and clergy and alienated the Dutch-speaking intelligentsia. Shortly afterwards

4346-475: The Cape of Good Hope. A notable example of this is the emigration of Huguenots from La Motte-d'Aigues in Provence, France . After this large scale emigration, individual Huguenot immigrant families arrived at the Cape of Good Hope as late as the first quarter of the 18th century, and the state-subsidised emigration of Huguenots was stopped in 1706. Emigrations took place mainly because of religious persecution by

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4452-594: 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 a member of the Cape Parliament , the chief goal of the assembly

4558-597: The Catholic rulers. This small body of immigrants had a marked influence on the character of the Dutch settlers. They were purposely spread out and given farms amongst the Dutch farmers. Owing to the policy instituted in 1701 of the Dutch East India Company which dictated that schools should teach exclusively in Dutch , that all official correspondence had to be done in Dutch, and strict laws of assembly,

4664-450: 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 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

4770-408: The Empire. He and others felt the best way to "unify the possessions, facilitate governance, enable 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

4876-595: The Huguenot Memorial in the Johannesburg Botanical Garden . Examples of the more common names are Blignaut ( Blignault ), Cronje ( Cronier ), de Klerk ( Le Clercq ), Visagie ( Visage ), de Villiers , du Preez, du Plessis, du Toit, du Randt, Fourie , Fouche, Giliomee ( Guilliaume ), Gous / Gouws ( Gauch ), Hugo, Jacobs, Joubert , Jordaan ( Jourdan ), Labuschagne ( la Buscagne ), Lange, le Roux , Leonard, Lombard, Malan , Michel , Malherbe , Marais, Nel , Nortje (Nourtier), Pienaar , Retief, Rossouw , Roux, Terreblanche, Taljard, Theron and Viljoen ( Villion ). Some of

4982-511: The Huguenots ceased by the middle of the 18th century to maintain a distinct identity, and the knowledge of French diminished and eventually disappeared as a home language. This assimilation into the colonial population was also due to the fact that many Huguenot descendants married individuals from the Dutch population, spurred by the Huguenots and Dutch sharing a common Calvinist religion. Many of these settlers were allocated farms in an area later called Franschhoek , Dutch for "French corner", in

5088-453: The Niger Oil Company. During the 1880s, Cape vineyards had been devastated by 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

5194-412: The Portuguese produced the " Pink Map ", representing their claims to sovereignty in Africa. Ultimately, Belgium and Germany proved to be 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

5300-526: 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 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

5406-409: The adoption of the English language and British customs, aroused resentment. As the Cape Dutch began to embrace their position as a distinct society, concerns mounted that they were becoming estranged from their language and heritage. Opposition mounted toward the perceived campaign to make English the sole official language and give the colony an essentially British identity. The imposition of English in

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5512-426: 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 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

5618-422: 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 was established with funding from N.M. Rothschild & Sons in 1887. In 1880, Rhodes prepared to enter public life at

5724-404: 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 a meeting with the remaining Ndebele chiefs. Rhodes and a few colleagues walked unarmed into the Ndebele stronghold in Matobo Hills . In

5830-502: 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 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

5936-483: 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 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

6042-407: 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 was inspired to develop his scholarship scheme: "Wherever you turn your eye—except in science—an Oxford man

6148-409: The colonial legislature in the Cape Colony at the time, the perceived proliferation of pro-Boer sentiments led to unsuccessful attempts by Governor Lord Milner to disenfranchise them. Milner believed that most Cape Dutch secretly supported the Boer cause, and sought to ensure the local English-speaking population achieved political dominance through excessive gerrymandering . Many of the troops among

6254-464: 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 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

6360-519: The descendants of these original Huguenot families became prominent figures in South African society, most notably F.W. de Klerk , the last State President of apartheid -era South Africa. Some of the original forms of the surnames have been put in brackets. Various French-language first names have also gained popularity amongst Afrikaners, examples being Francois, Jacques, Pierre, Charles, Jean-Pierre, Chantelle and Eugene. Some Afrikaans writers have Huguenot surnames, and were involved in setting up

6466-453: The enlisted and officer ranks in the British Army shared Milner's suspicions, with one soldier writing a letter explicitly detailing the British soldiers' animosity towards Afrikaners at large: "The Cape Dutch and Boers are a dirty treacherous lot and as soon as the Transvaal is subdued and the beggars trek farther out of our way the better. We do hate them down here like poison." Relatively few returning Cape Dutch fighters were disenfranchised as

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6572-456: The establishment of the Dutch East India Company 's initial settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, it became home to a large population of vrijlieden , also known as Free Burghers vrijburgers (free citizens). The earliest free burghers were Company employees who applied for grants of land and permission to retire in South Africa as independent farmers. Most were married Dutch citizens who committed to spend at least twenty years on

6678-480: The eventual unification of South Africa under a unitary state as its core principles. The Bond did succeed in unifying Cape Dutch and Boer political agendas when it became amalgamated with Het Volk and the Oranje Unie , the leading parties in the Transvaal and former Orange Free State, respectively, to form the South African Party in 1910. This became the first ruling party of the Union of South Africa and retained power until 1924. The Cape Dutch population

6784-418: The fifth son of the Reverend Francis William Rhodes (1807–1878) and his wife, Louisa Peacock. Francis 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),

6890-490: The first Huguenot to arrive at the Cape of Good Hope was Maria de la Quellerie , the wife of governor Jan van Riebeeck , who started the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 on behalf of the Dutch East India Company ; however, she and her husband left for Batavia after ten years. After a commissioner was sent out from the Cape Colony in 1685 to attract more settlers, a more dedicated group of immigrants began to arrive. A larger number of French refugees began to arrive in

6996-405: The first established farms—most of which still retain their original farm houses today. A large monument to commemorate the arrival of the Huguenots in South Africa was inaugurated on 17 April 1948 at Franschhoek . A museum dedicated to the Huguenot history in South Africa is located adjacent to the monument. A smaller monument commemorating the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the Huguenots

7102-416: 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 a cottage there. The successful operation soon expanded into Rhodes Fruit Farms , and formed

7208-419: The former. Afrikaans was seen as a language of servants, illiterate Boers, and nonwhites. The wholehearted embrace and promotion of Afrikaans during the late nineteenth century marked a reversal in this respect, although it did meet some resistance. The Dutch Reformed Church continued to uphold Netherlands Dutch as the language of worship, and Cape intellectuals also ridiculed what they saw as an attempt to elevate

7314-429: 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 the hard blue ground that had been exposed after the softer, yellow layer near the surface had been worked out. During this time,

7420-475: The late 1800s smaller numbers found employment in one of the Boer republics, the Orange Free State , where they were in high demand due to their education and technical skills. At one point all the civil servants and teachers residing in the Orange Free State were Dutch expatriates or Cape Dutch. Not all the Boer leaders were receptive to the idea of employing Cape Dutch, whom they regarded as foreigners; for example, Paul Kruger discouraged Cape Dutch immigration to

7526-433: The latter's decision to impose local tariffs on imported wine and other products. For its part the Cape Dutch elite stressed its loyalty to the British Empire and indeed looked for common cause with British immigrants as part of a wider white South African nationality rather than focusing on a narrow Cape colonial identity. Despite this, heavy-handed attempts to assimilate the Cape Dutch into the British way of life, including

7632-490: The legal and constitutional traditions of the colony. Popular affectation for British imperial traditions, culture, and patriotism among the Cape Dutch was rapidly replaced by a more exclusive commitment to a greater Afrikaner nationalism . For his part Rhodes regarded the growth of pan-Afrikaner nationalism as an imminent threat, since a political union between the Boers and Cape Dutch would threaten British primacy in South Africa. He helped perpetuate preexisting rivalries between

7738-563: 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 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

7844-447: The member for Victoria West, who would not give the black man 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

7950-604: 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 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

8056-516: 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 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

8162-528: 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 was left out of the document, known as the Rudd Concession , which Lobengula signed. Furthermore, it stated that

8268-432: The more affluent, predominantly urbanised Cape Dutch . Differences between the Boers and the Cape Dutch increased as a result of the end of Dutch rule and the Great Trek . The Netherlands formally ceded its South African colony to Great Britain around 1815. While most of the Cape Dutch community accepted British rule and embraced the status of British subjects, the Boers remained fiercely independent and felt alienated by

8374-523: 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 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

8480-508: The new colonial administration. This culminated in the Great Trek, a mass migration of between 12,000 and 15,000 Boers deep into South Africa's interior to escape British rule. Four-fifths of the Cape Colony's Dutch-speaking white population at the time did not participate in the trek. The Dutch Reformed Church , to which most of the Cape Dutch and Boers belonged, explicitly refused to endorse the Great Trek as well. Many Cape Dutch regarded

8586-556: The next decade, the Afrikaner Bond successfully lobbied for equal recognition of the Dutch language in courts and schools. The Bond's rhetoric of economic empowerment attracted widespread support from the small but wealthy Cape Dutch landowning gentry, which felt threatened by the growing influence Anglophone farmers were acquiring over aspects of state policy pertaining to agriculture and land use. However, as time went on it focused less on immediate practical concerns such as opposing Anglophone agendas and adopted pan-Afrikaner nationalism and

8692-439: 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 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

8798-492: The outbreak of the Second Boer War . In 1899, Rhodes was sued by a man named Burrows for falsely representing 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

8904-614: The present-day Western Cape province of South Africa. The valley was originally known as Olifantshoek ("Elephant's Corner"), so named because of the vast herds of elephants that roamed the area. The name of the area soon changed to le Coin Français ("the French Corner"), and later to Franschhoek, with many of the settlers naming their new farms after the areas in France from which they came. La Motte, La Cotte, Cabriere, Provence, Chamonix, Dieu Donne and La Dauphine were among some of

9010-469: The status of a "crude patois ". In 1880 Stephanus Jacobus du Toit founded the Afrikaner Bond political party to coordinate activities between the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners and other civic associations. One of the goals of the Afrikaner Bond was to challenge the preponderance of English-speaking settlers in commerce by establishing their own banks, which then set up education funds for

9116-730: 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 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

9222-437: The strengthening of international movements against racism, such as Rhodes Must Fall , Rhodes' legacy 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,

9328-613: The subsequent founding of the Boer republics with suspicion, as they perceived the cause of Boer republican nationalism to be retrogressive. Nevertheless, the Cape Dutch went on to develop their own nationalist movement in the late nineteenth century, which initially promoted cooperation and political alliances with the British. This policy began to dissolve after 1895, when local political leaders sought to distance themselves from Britain's imperial agenda and what they perceived as unwanted interference by English capitalists such as Cecil Rhodes in

9434-403: 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 a mining partner with Rudd and Rhodes. On 13 March 1888, Rhodes and Rudd launched De Beers Consolidated Mines after

9540-499: The term was not actually used by Dutch-speaking whites in the Western Cape to describe themselves, and the idea of a unique Cape Dutch identity did not find widespread expression until the 1870s. The term's explicit connotation to the Netherlands, and the indiscriminate manner in which it was applied by English speakers, also sparked a revival of interest among colonists of German or French origin in their ancestral roots. Following

9646-416: The two groups to circumvent this possibility. The outbreak of hostilities between the British government and the Boer republics during the Second Boer War deeply split Cape Dutch society. Boer victories intensified patriotic pan-Afrikaner sentiments among the Cape Dutch. While many fought on the side of the British, an unknown number also defected to the Boer republics. As the Cape Dutch controlled over half

9752-455: 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 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

9858-578: The world's diamond supply was sealed in 1890 through 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

9964-425: 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 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

10070-511: 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 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

10176-480: 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 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

10282-499: Was of German origin and one-sixth, of French Huguenot descent . Nevertheless, to the British authorities they represented a rather homogeneous bloc which could be easily distinguished by their common use of the Dutch language and shared adherence to the Dutch Reformed Church . Among the colonists themselves there had developed a notion of a Boer people; although the term could denote any Dutch-speaking white settler it

10388-458: Was predominantly urban and concentrated around Cape Town and various settlements in the Western Cape's interior. Cape Dutch settlement and migration patterns in the nineteenth century tended to reflect those of British colonists. Unlike the Boers, Cape Dutch emigrants were most likely to settle in other British territories in southern Africa, namely Southern Rhodesia and the Colony of Natal . During

10494-492: 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 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

10600-452: Was started as a Dutch-language newspaper to counter the dominant influence of English journalism in the Western Cape. In sharp contrast with the independently minded Boers, the Cape Dutch had no initial objection to the imposition of British rule for several decades, or even with the political domination of British colonists at the Cape. They hoped that the British government could grant preferential tariffs on Cape exports and were grateful for

10706-415: 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 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

10812-536: 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 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

10918-614: 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 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

11024-563: Was usually only the impoverished pastoral farmers on the colony's frontier who applied this concept to themselves and formed a unique subgroup accordingly. In response, British immigrants and officials adopted the informal moniker "Cape Dutch" to distinguish between the better educated, wealthier Dutch speakers concentrated in the Western Cape and the self-styled "Boers", whom they considered ignorant, illiterate, and uncouth. "Cape Dutch" may thus be regarded correctly as an English description rather than any sense of self-concept. When first introduced,

11130-672: 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 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

11236-493: 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 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

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