DIAMONDS.GOLD.AND BRITISHIMPERIALISM
alliance with Cecil Rhodes, one of the most remarkable products of the
imperial epoch. Rhodes was determined to use the wealth he was ac-
cumulating in the mining industries to promote the expansion of the British
Empire in Africa from its base in the Cape Colony along the road to the
north through the Tswana chiefdoms, the territories of the Shona and the
Ndebele, and onward through the East African highlands to the Nile valley.
This was not an unduly original idea, for social Darwinism and Anglo-
Saxon racism were the main ingredients in the political fantasies of many of
England's ruling classes in the Victorian age, but Rhodes had exceptional
ambition and exceptional means to fulfill it. First, he was rich; second, he
was a persuasive talker and a skillful negotiator.
Rhodes, the British imperialist, and Hofmeyr, the Afrikaner colonialist,
found many points of agreement. Both wished to foster cooperation be-
tween Boer and Briton; to resist British interference in the internal affairs of
South Africa; to prevent Africans from dominating South African political
systems; and to work toward a South African union, with the British link
retained for trade and defense. Based on that alliance, Rhodes, a member