ABSTRACT
Cecil John Rhodes combined a successful diamond and gold mining business and a political career in an effort to create an “English-speaking empire,” transforming society in both southern Africa and in Europe. He was also elected to the British Cape Colony Parliament in 1881, forming an alliance with the Boers at the expense of the indigenous Africans. Rhodes's most important legacy was the expansion of British control over a greater amount of African territory. The colonialists' largely dismissive and exploitative attitude toward black Africans, which Rhodes shared with other Europeans, gave rise to African nationalist liberation movements after World War I. These movements gained momentum after World War II, leading to the independence of nearly every African colony by 1980. Even Rhodes's beloved Cape Colony, which he saw as one of the anchors of Britain's worldwide empire, declared independence as part of the Union of South Africa in 1961.
