Cecil Rhodes and the Election That Caused the Boer War
As mentioned on the Empire podcast, Cecil Rhodes was once described as the single biggest threat to peace in southern Africa. In 1898 a bitter election campaign did little to suggest otherwise.
In 1898 – some 12 years before it was subsumed into the Union of South Africa – the Cape Colony held what would be the most factious and divisive election in its history. What was more, it was an election that saw the mining magnate and self-professed racist Cecil John Rhodes prostrate himself before an entirely black audience, espousing a brand of imperialist politics that would lead, within a year, to the Second Boer War. How this occurred is a highly complex colonial story.
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