noun
British colonial financier and statesman in South Africa; made a fortune in gold and diamond mining; helped colonize the territory now known as Zimbabwe; he endowed annual fellowships for British Commonwealth and United States students to study at Oxford University (1853-1902)
• Syn: ↑Rhodes, ↑Cecil J. Rhodes, ↑Cecil John Rhodes
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(1853–1902) a British politician and ↑businessman. He went to South Africa in 1870 and made a lot of money from diamond and gold ↑mining, forming the De Beers Mining Company in 1880. His ambition was to bring the whole of Africa under British control, and he took an active part in opposing Britain’s rivals in South Africa, the Boers. In 1889 he formed the British South Africa Company, which owned land later known as Rhodesia (now ↑Zimbabwe and ↑Zambia), and became the President of Cape Colony in 1890.
Useful english dictionary. 2012.