Cecil Rhodes
Cecil Rhodes, (1853-1902). British statesman and financier in South Africa. Rhodes first went to South Africa for his health at the age of 16 and worked with his brother on a cotton plantation. He subsequently made his fortune from diamond and gold mines. He was largely responsible for the British annexation of Bechuanaland (1884) and as prime minister of the Cape Colony (1890-96) he extended British territory north-wards and gained mineral rights in an area which be-came known as Southern Rhodesia (1898). In 1896 Rhodes was implicated in the unsuccessful Jameson Raid on the Transvaal and was forced to resign froth Parliament. He founded the Rhodes scholarships to Ox-ford and Cambridge for students from the Common-wealth, the US, and Germany.
