User:Rexparry sydney/Sandbox
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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 Africa by obtaining mineral concessions from the most powerful chiefs. What mades Rhodes' approach different from competing mineral prospecting companies was the 'imperial factor': he made friendships with British Commissioners and through them persuaded the British Government to agree to set up protectorates over the mineral concession areas via separate but related treaties, guaranteeing the essential security for mining operations. He could then win over more investors — imperial expansion and capital investment went hand in hand.
In this way in 1888, John Moffat, son of the missionary Robert Moffat who was trusted by many African chiefs, pursuaded Lobengula, King of the Ndebele of Matabeleland, to sign an Anglo-Ndebele Treaty (of peace and friendship) and then advise him later in the year to sign the Rudd Concession named after Rhodes' agent Charles Rudd. Lobengula was assured by Rudd that no more than ten white men would mine in Matabeleland, but this was left out of the document. Furthermore it stated that the mining companies could do anything necessary to their operations. When Lobengula discovered later what it really meant, he tried to renounce it, but the British Government ignored him.
Armed with the Rudd Concession, Rhodes obtained a charter in 1889 for the BSAC to rule, police and make new treaties and concessions from the Limpopo River to the great lakes of Central Africa. He obrtained further concessions and treaties north of the Zambezi, such as those in Barotseland (the Lochner Concession with King Lewanika in 1890, wich was similarly deceitful to the Rudd Concession) and the Lake Mweru area (Alfred Sharpe's Kazembe consession). 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 the BSAC to take over administration of the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana) but its King Khama travelled to Britain and won over British public opinion for it to remain governed by London (Rhodes commented that it was 'humiliating' to be defeated by a black). The British Colonial Office also decided to administer British Central Africa (BCA) (Malawi|Nyasaland, today's Malawi) itself owing to the presence there of Scottish missionaries trying to end the slave trade. Rhodes paid much of the cost and collaborated with the BCA British Commissioner, Sir Harry Johnston (and later, Alfred Sharpe) who assisted with security in the BSAC's north-eastern territories and was similarly expansionist. However Johnston and his successors were not as pro-settler as Rhodes and disagreed on dealings with Africans.
Rhodes moved to take possesion of the treaty territories firstly by sending the Pioneer Column to Mashonaland in 1890 consisting of white settlers protected by well-armed British South Africa Police (BSAP), the BSAC's own paramilitary force. The company had hoped to start a "new Rand" from the ancient gold mines of the Shona, but the gold had been largely depleted long before, so many of the settlers became farmers. The BSAC provoked the neighbouring Ndebele into war, and the BSAP defeated them in the two Matabele Wars (1893-94; 1896-97). Shortly after learning of the assassination of the Ndebele prophet, Mlimo, at the hands of the American scout Frederick Russell Burnham, Rhodes showed great courage when he boldly walked unarmed into the Ndebele stronghold in Matobo Hills and persuaded the impi to lay down their arms, thus ending the Second Matabele War.[1]
By the end of 1894, the territories administered by the BSAC, collectively called 'Zambezia' after the Zambezi River flowing through the middle, comprised an area of 1,143,000 km² between the Limpopo River and Lake Tanganyika. In May 1895, the name Zambezia was officially changed to 'Rhodesia', relecting Rhodes' popularity among settlers who had been using the name informally since 1891. The designation Southern Rhodesia was officially adopted in 1898 for the territory which later became known as Rhodesia after UDI in 1965, and the desingations North-Western and North-Eastern Rhodesia were used from 1895 for the terriroty whihc later became Northern Rhodesia then Zambia.
[edit] Rhides death and burial
Rhodes decreed in his will that he was to be buried in Matobo Hills, so when he died in the Cape in 1902 his body came up by train and wagon to Bulawayo. His burial was attended by Ndebele chiefs, who asked that the firing party should not discharge their rifles as this would disturb the spirits. Then, for the first and probably the only time, they gave the white man the Matabele royal salute "Bayete". Rhodes is buried along side both Leander Starr Jameson and the 34 white soldiers killed in the Shangani Patrol.
