The
British South Africa Company (
BSAC or
BSACo) was established by Cecil Rhodes through the amalgamation of the Central Search Association and the Exploring Company Ltd., receiving a
royal charterA royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
in 1889. Modelling the BSAC on the
British East India CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, Rhodes hoped it would enable colonisation and economic exploitation across much of south-central Africa, as part of the "
Scramble for AfricaThe Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa or Partition of Africa was a process of invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the New Imperialism period, between 1881 and World War I in 1914...
". The company's directors included the
Duke of AbercornJames Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Abercorn KG, CB, PC , styled Viscount Hamilton until 1868 and Marquess of Hamilton from 1868 to 1885, was a British nobleman and diplomat...
, Rhodes himself and the financier
Alfred BeitAlfred Beit was a German, British South African, Jewish gold and diamond magnate, a supporter of British imperialism in Southern Africa and a major donor towards infrastructure development in central and Southern Africa, and to university education and research in several countries.- Life and...
.
The
British South Africa Company (
BSAC or
BSACo) was established by Cecil Rhodes through the amalgamation of the Central Search Association and the Exploring Company Ltd., receiving a
royal charterA royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
in 1889. Modelling the BSAC on the
British East India CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, Rhodes hoped it would enable colonisation and economic exploitation across much of south-central Africa, as part of the "
Scramble for AfricaThe Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa or Partition of Africa was a process of invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the New Imperialism period, between 1881 and World War I in 1914...
". The company's directors included the
Duke of AbercornJames Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Abercorn KG, CB, PC , styled Viscount Hamilton until 1868 and Marquess of Hamilton from 1868 to 1885, was a British nobleman and diplomat...
, Rhodes himself and the financier
Alfred BeitAlfred Beit was a German, British South African, Jewish gold and diamond magnate, a supporter of British imperialism in Southern Africa and a major donor towards infrastructure development in central and Southern Africa, and to university education and research in several countries.- Life and...
.
Trading
The company was empowered to trade with African rulers such as King
LobengulaLobengula Khumalo was the second and last king of the Ndebele people, usually pronounced Matabele in English. Both names, in the Sindebele language, mean "The men of the long shields", a reference to the Matabele warriors' use of the Zulu shield and spear.- Background :The Matabele were related to...
; to form banks; to own, manage and grant or distribute land, and to raise a police force (the
British South Africa PoliceThe British South Africa Police was the police force of the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes which became the national police force of Southern Rhodesia and its successor after 1965, Rhodesia...
). In return, the company agreed to develop the territory it controlled, to respect existing African laws, to allow free trade within its territory and to respect all religions. However, Rhodes and the white settlers attracted to the company's territory set their sights for ever more mineral rights and more territorial concessions from the African peoples, establishing their own governments, and introducing laws with little concern or respect for African law.
Security
The company recruited its own army, which allowed it to defeat and replace the
MatabeleThe Ndebele are a branch of the Zulus who split from King Shaka in the early 1820s under the leadership of Mzilikazi, a former general in Shaka's army....
kingdom and then overcome resistance of the
ShonaShona is the name collectively given to two groups of people in the east and southwest of Zimbabwe, north eastern Botswana and southern Mozambique.-Shona Regional Classification:...
north of the
Limpopo riverThe Limpopo River rises in central southern Africa, and flows generally eastwards to the Indian Ocean. It is around long, with a drainage basin in size. Its mean annual discharge is 170 m³/s at its mouth...
in the
First Matabele WarThe First Matabele War was fought in 1893-1894 between the British South Africa Company military forces and the Ndebele people. Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, avoided outright war with the British settlers because he and his advisors were mindful of the destructive power of the European weapons...
and
Second Matabele WarThe Second Matabele War, also known as the Matabeleland Rebellion and in Zimbabwe as the First Chimurenga, was fought in 1896–97 between the British troops and the Ndebele people....
. It was the first British use of the
Maxim gunThe Maxim gun was the first self-powered machine gun, invented by the American-born British inventor Sir Hiram Maxim in 1884. It has been called "the weapon most associated with [British] imperial conquest".-Functionality:...
in combat (causing five thousand Ndebele casualties). The company carved out and administered a territory which it named
Zambezia, and later,
RhodesiaRhodesia refers primarily to a country formed by two land-locked territories in southern Africa, which are today Zambia and Zimbabwe. British colonisers named this territory after Cecil Rhodes and it was separated by a natural border provided by the Zambezi River. Occasionally they are informally...
, and which now covers the area occupied by the republics of
ZambiaZambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
and
ZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
.
Medal
In 1896, Queen Victoria sanctioned the issue by the British South Africa Company of a medal to troops who had been engaged in the
First Matabele WarThe First Matabele War was fought in 1893-1894 between the British South Africa Company military forces and the Ndebele people. Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, avoided outright war with the British settlers because he and his advisors were mindful of the destructive power of the European weapons...
. In 1897, the Queen sanctioned another medal for those engaged in the two campaigns of the Second Matabele War: Rhodesia (1896) and Mashonaland (1897). The government of
Southern RhodesiaSouthern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
re-issued the medal to commemorate the earlier 1890
Pioneer ColumnThe Pioneer Column was a force raised by Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company in 1890 and used in his efforts to annex the territory of Mashonaland, later part of Southern Rhodesia ....
, in 1927.
Politics
In 1914, the royal charter was renewed, on condition that settlers in Rhodesia were given increased political rights. In 1922, the company entered negotiations with the government of the Union of
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, which was keen to incorporate
Southern RhodesiaSouthern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
- a plan foiled by the colony's settlers, who voted in favour of self-government.
In 1923, the British government chose not to renew the Company's charter, and instead accorded 'self-governing'
colonyIn politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
status to
Southern RhodesiaSouthern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
(present day Zimbabwe) and
protectorateIn history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...
status to
Northern RhodesiaNorthern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
(present day Zambia).
Profits
The BSAC was not able to generate enough profit to pay its shareholders dividends until after it lost direct administrative control over Rhodesia in 1923. In 1933, the BSAC sold its mineral exploration rights south of the Zambezi to the Southern Rhodesian government, but retained rights over Northern Rhodesian mineral rights, as well as the company's vast interests in mining, railways, real estate and agriculture across
southern AfricaSouthern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
.
Merger
In 1964, the company was forced to hand over its mineral rights to the government of Zambia, and the following year, the British South Africa Company merged with the Central Mining & Investment Corporation Ltd and The Consolidated Mines Selection Company Ltd to form a mining and industrial company known as Charter Consolidated Ltd, of which slightly over one-third of the shares were owned by the British/South African mining company Anglo American plc.
See also
- Baron Robins
Baron Robins, of Rhodesia and of Chelsea in the County of London, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 10 July 1958 for Sir Thomas Robins, resident director of the British South Africa Company between 1934 and 1957. The title became extinct on his death on on 21 July...
- Cecil Rhodes
- Chartered companies
- Cape to Cairo
Cape to Cairo may refer to:* the Cape to Cairo Railway* the Cape to Cairo Red Line, the 19th century concept of a British-dominated Africa, promoted by Cecil Rhodes* the Cape to Cairo Road...
- Cape to Cairo Railway
- Cape to Cairo Red Line
- Cape to Cairo Road
The Cape to Cairo Road or 'Pan-African Highway', sometimes called the Great North Road in sub-Saharan Africa, was an imperial dream envisioned by the British Empire that would see a road stretch the length of Africa, from Cape Town to Cairo, similar to the Pan-American Highway...
- Henry Birchenough
Sir John Henry Birchenough, 1st Baronet, GCMG was an English businessman and public servant.-Early life and education:...
- Pioneer Column
The Pioneer Column was a force raised by Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company in 1890 and used in his efforts to annex the territory of Mashonaland, later part of Southern Rhodesia ....
- Shangani Patrol
The Shangani Patrol was a group of white Rhodesian pioneer police officers killed in battle on the Shangani River in Matabeleland in 1893. The incident achieved a lasting, prominent place in Rhodesian colonial history.-Setting and Battle:...
- "Blue & Old Gold - The History of the British South Africa Police 1889-1890" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sqrk8yn9r4