All language subtitles for queen_victorias_empire_scamble_for_africa_part2

Gladstone's fall from power was to have
serious repercussions throughout the

empire, particularly in southern Africa.

The absence of his moral influence
cleared the way for a man who would lead

Victoria's empire down a far more
perilous path.

Cecil John Rhodes had arrived in South
Africa at the age of 17 to work on his

brother's cotton farm.

There was nothing to distinguish Rhodes
from thousands of other British

emigrants who left the mother country to
seek their fortune in the British

colonies.

But this young clergyman's son would
devote most of his life to expanding

British rule and making himself the most
dangerous man in Queen Victoria's

empire.

At first, his ambitions were limited to
being a successful farmer.

He got along well with his African
workers, shared their food and

and respected their values.

Rhodes had an intuitive feeling for the
people of Africa.

He... was fascinated in African society.

He would spend whole nights in kraals.

He wanted to understand how they
operate. He was quick to learn Zulu so

communicate directly.

He also understood the value that
Africans placed on a person's trust.

And he was much mocked by the other
cotton farmers because he used to pay

labor in advance.

And that was seen by the people who
worked for him as a sign of trust.

And, of course, it built up their
loyalty.

But Rhodes was soon lured away from
farming.

His arrival in Africa had coincided with
a fateful discovery 500 miles away on a

remote farmstead known as Colesburg
Kopi.

A Dutch settler noticed his neighbor's
children playing kip -kip, or five

stones.

His eye was caught by a stone that shone
with a particular brightness, and he

went to take a closer look.

An earlier British visitor had written
of this desolate interior, Her Majesty

possesses not in all her empire another
strip of land so unlovely.

But as the world would soon discover,

It contained riches beyond the dreams of
avarice.

The stone that the settler had spotted
would be called the Eureka Stone, and it

led to the richest source of diamonds
ever found.

Rhodes dropped everything, packed his
bags, and joined the diamond rush.

The farm at Carlsberg Kopi soon became
the boomtown of Kimberley.

Roughnecks from the gold fields of
California and Australia rubbed

with veterans from the American Civil
War, English aristocrats and immigrants

from the ghettos of Europe, all drawn to
a hole in the ground, which was growing

bigger every day.

To these men, Kimberley promised instant
riches.

but at a price.

Kimberley was an indescribable place.

The noise, the dust, the heat. If you
can imagine this settlement of 40 ,000

people in the middle of nowhere, you
could see the dust from the diggings

10, 15 miles away.

And as you came nearer, you entered this
awful place.

Huts built out of old packing cases,
littered with dead animals, the

of dead animals, flies, infestations of
flies.

The Wild West was tame compared to
Kimberley.

Here there was a bar for every 16 men,
and shootings were an everyday

occurrence.

But Rhodes thrived as a diamond digger.

Within a year, he wrote to his mother
that he was earning around 100 pounds a

week, enough to make him one of the
richest young men in England.

But in 1872, just a few days after his
19th birthday, Rhodes suffered a heart

attack.

His doctors told him the attack was
mild, but Rhodes knew that from then on,

was engaged in a race with death.

He chose a curious form of
convalescence, an epic trek across the

Some believe that during this journey,
Rhodes developed his great love and his

great plan for Africa.

A lot of commentators have said that
those nine months that Rhodes spent

Africa by ox wagon go right up into war
territory.

had an incredible effect on him.

Rhodes would be continually hearing
stories about the African interior from

wandering hunters.

And I believe that it was on that
journey that he formed his first

nascent idea of an Africa that was
there, ready to be reached, ready to be

taken.

His health restored, Rhodes returned to
the diamond fields.

Most of the diggers thought that the
diamond mine was exhausted and wanted to

sell their claims.

Rhodes took a gamble and bought them.

His hunch was right.

Beneath the first seam of diamonds was
another, even richer.

Rhodes put all the claims under the
control of one company,

De Beers.

Within ten years, it would own 90 % of
the world's diamond production.

Rhodes would use his wealth to finance
his dreams.

Money is power, and what can one
accomplish without power?

Rhodes dreamed of creating a vast
British colony across the length of

achieve this, he planned to build a
railroad from Cape Town to Cairo.

But first he needed to win political
support in South Africa.

He was elected to the Cape Parliament,
where he courted the Afrikanerbond, the

party of the Dutch farmers or Boers who
were consolidating their own power by

taking it from the native Africans.

We're talking at a stage when black
people in the Cape voted, provided they

fulfilled certain property.

They sat on juries where they sat in
judgment over white people.

This was abhorrent to the Afrikaner
bond.

And what Rhodes did was to form a very,
very close alliance with them.

Rhodes, who had once prided himself on
his lack of prejudice, made a speech in

the new Cape Parliament.

Does this house think... that it is
right that men in a state of pure

should have the vote?

Treat the natives as a subject people.

Be the lords over them.

The native is to be treated as a child
and denied the franchise.

Following Rhodes' speech, the law was
changed.

The vote in southern Africa was removed
from all but a handful of native

Africans.

Rhodes, throughout his career, was
continually shifting the pieces on the

Consider the Diamond Lines.

If you go back to the beginning of that
history, black people owned claims.

They were competitors with whites.

What Rhodes' requirements were was to
have a permanent, reliable black labor

force who would be kept within
compounds, unable to...

leave at all, inspected every time they
came out of the mines.

And the need for a controlled labor
force drove Rhodes towards racist

If you try to make any political sense
out of Rhodes' career, it makes

absolutely no sense at all. But if you
look at it in economic terms, it makes

perfect sense.

The alliances that he was making was for
profit and for business, and there's no

argument about it.

The next step in Rhodes' master plan was
to expand British territory northward

into those regions David Livingstone had
explored years before.

But across his route lay the empire of
the Matabele, the people of the Long

Shield, one of the most formidable
warrior nations in Africa.

Their king, Lobengula, known as the
Eater of Men, maintained a reign of

from his capital at Bulawayo, the place
of slaughter.

Gold had been discovered on his land and
several European adventurers were after

it.

But Rhodes was after more than gold.

He wanted Lobengula's country.

The story of Rhodes and Lobengula is
fascinating and it is foul.

The two men never met.

And yet they had an extraordinarily
strong relationship through

Rhodes sent three of his agents to meet
Lobengula.

And in a bid to impress the Matabele
king, he included among them the brother

-in -law of the great David Livingston,
John Moffat.

But Lobengula was in no hurry to see
them.

and the men were forced to stay in an
enclosure where the king kept his goats.

There was a long, long wait for Rhodes's
emissaries.

Rudd particularly writes back about the
appalling conditions, the mud, the

flies, the stench.

the impatience that they had there.

They were kept waiting literally for
months while Lobengula made up his mind.

And finally, after all this waiting,
Lobengula signified that he was willing

to have a grand indaba to discuss
whether they would grant a concession

to Rhodes' consortium.

John Moffat presented Lobengula with a
document that would grant Rhodes

extraordinary powers.

The complete and exclusive charge over
all metals and minerals situated in my

kingdom, principalities and dominions,
together with full power to do all the

things that they may deem necessary to
win and procure the same.

He eventually signed a document on the
understanding...

that he was simply granting prospecting
rights to Rhodes' company for his men to

dig ten holes in his territory.

And what Lobengula had signed, he had
virtually signed away his country.

Armed with that document, Rhodes was
able to go to London seeking a royal

charter.

which would be Britain's endorsement of
his rights to that territory.

Rhodes was now famous.

He was widely admired for his immense
wealth and achievement.

But many distrusted him as a man who
would let nothing, not even the British

government, stand in the way of his
ambition.

The Queen was curious about her
overmighty subject.

She invited Rhodes to stay at Windsor
Castle.

In 1890, when he eventually met Queen
Victoria, he charmed her.

There's a wonderful moment where it's
said that she said to him, Is it true,

Rhodes, that you're a woman -hater?

to which he replied, How could I
possibly hate a sex to which your

belongs?

Rhodes won the queen's approval, and a
royal charter authorizing him to exploit

King Lobengula's concession.

It gave him legal rights to recruit a
company police force and build forts

throughout the region, the powers of an
independent state.

But Rhodes still needed to break the
power of Lobangula.

To achieve this, he called on his
closest friend, Dr. Leander Starr

gambler, an adventurer, and a ruthless
opportunist.

His chance came when Lobangula launched
an attack on a weaker tribe in a dispute

over cattle.

Jamison sent a message to Rhodes.

We have the excuse for a row over
murdered women and children, and the

of Matabele land would give us a
tremendous lift in shares.

Jamison recruited a force of 1 ,400
white mercenaries.

Each man was promised 6 ,000 acres of
Lobangula's land and 15 claims to

for gold.

When Rhodes and Jamison between them
decided that the time was right to take

Matabele land, Key ingredient, the key
weapon for them was the Maxim gun, the

machine gun.

Now, this was a weapon that fired 60
bullets a second.

This had never, never been used in
battle before.

And it's extraordinary that a company, a
corporation, should possess the most

top -secret weapon, as it were, that the
British Army possessed.

But Rhodes had Maxim guns.

The Matabele were mainly armed with
spears and clubs.

The result was devastating.

Rhodes' maxing guns just cut through the
advancing Matabele, again and again and

again. It was like scything grass.

They didn't stand a chance.

The losses were enormous, 3 ,000 on one
day.

It was slaughter.

Lobangula fled Bulawaya with his wives.

A few days later, his abandoned ox cart
was found with the king's body lying

nearby.

According to one of his followers, the
great king of the Matabele had poisoned

himself.

John Moffat, who had persuaded Lobangula
to sign the mining concession, was

stricken by remorse.

The king was a gentleman in his way.

and was foully finned again.

In November 1893, Dr. Jamison hoisted
the company flag over Bulawayo.

Rhodes now had personal control over a
vast territory that was to be called

Rhodesia.

A few days later, he made his triumphant
entry into Lobangula's former capital.

and congratulated his troops on their
destruction of what he called a ruthless

barbarism.

John Moffat now had a complete change of
heart.

The great Rhodes is prancing around.

Everyone here is bowing down and
worshipping him as the wisest of men.

The popular tide is with him.

I suppose there will be a crash some
day.

and men will suddenly recollect that
there is still such a thing as justice,

even to niggers.

Rhodes' reward was to be elected the
Prime Minister of Cape Colony.

He bought a house on the slopes of Table
Mountain overlooking the two oceans,

the Indian and the Atlantic.

Here he surrounded himself with his male
friends and enlightened them with his

religious and racial theories.

Whites have clearly come out on top in
this struggle for existence.

Within the white race, the English
-speaking man has proved himself to be

most likely instrument of the divine
plan to spread justice, liberty, and

over the widest possible area of the
planet.

Therefore, I shall devote the rest of my
life to God's purpose.

and help him to make the world English.

Rhodes was master of all he surveyed,
but he wanted more.

His lust for power would soon plunge
Victoria's empire into its darkest hour.

In 1886, gold was discovered in the
Transvaal, a state established by some

the Boers to escape British rule.

Rhodes feared that the Transvaal Boers,
enriched by revenues from gold mines,

would become an obstacle to his plans.

If they joined forces with German
colonists in the west, they would block

route to the north.

To avoid this, Rhodes formed an alliance
with disgruntled miners in the gold

town of Johannesburg and planned an
uprising to overthrow the Boers.

Jamison assured Rhodes,

Anyone could take the Transvaal with a
dozen revolvers.

So Rhodes devised a plan to take the
Transvaal by force, and these were the

elements. That the people of
Johannesburg would rise up in

They would call for assistance, and
Jamison would respond to that call with

group of mercenaries and Rhodesian
police, and as it were, take the

The promised uprising failed to
materialize, but Jamison continued with

plan. He rode into the Transvaal at the
head of his men.

But the Boers were ready for them. They
let the invaders ride on until they were

surrounded, and then picked them off
with murderous accuracy.

According to the Boer commander, many of
Rhodes' raiders were boys in their late

teens, and many were weeping.

The Jamison raid into the Transvaal was
widely regarded as an unprovoked attack

on an independent state, a naked act of
aggression.

It sent shockwaves around the world.

Rhodes was forced to resign as Prime
Minister of Cape Colony.

and he was summoned to London to answer
to the British Parliament.

But he had nothing to fear.

Public opinion in Britain was
increasingly anti -Boer.

The Queen expressed the popular mood in
a letter to her daughter.

The Boers are a horrid people, cruel and
overbearing.

Rhodes had set Britain on a dangerous
course.

His violent and unscrupulous methods
provoked a reaction that shook the

to its core, and this at a time when the
queen was preparing to celebrate the

glories and triumphs of her reign.

1897 was the year of Victoria's Diamond
Jubilee, 60 years on the throne.

soldiers and colonial leaders from all
over the empire came to London to take

part in a spectacular parade.

It was recorded by the new movie
cameras.

The little old woman under the umbrella
now ruled over a fifth of the population

of the planet.

A never -to -be -forgotten day.

No one ever, I believe, has met with
such an ovation as was given to me.

The cheering was quite deafening.

and every face seemed to be filled with
real joy.

But this joy would soon turn to
disillusionment, as soldiers who had

streets of London were sent to fight a
war in South Africa.

The British dispatched an army to
accomplish what Rhodes had failed to do,

an end to Boer independence.

The Boer War began just a year after the
Queen's Jubilee.

The British believed it would be short
and glorious, but the Boers were well

armed.

One English private wrote in his diary,
As soon as we started to advance, the

bullets began to fly.

All of a sudden, a maxim began to play
upon us.

That stopped the firing line.

her flat on their faces as they fell,
and devil of a move would they make at

all.

The British have gone to war in South
Africa very ill -prepared for this type

warfare.

Most of the generals who fought the
Boers were used to people armed with

and rifles.

Well, it was a shock for them.

There were instances of surrender.

People couldn't take it any longer. They
just threw down their weapons and ran

back. There were cries of cowardice.

Successive defeats shattered the
confidence of the British public.

Even the staunch Victoria was shaken.

No news today.

Only lists of casualties.

The war touched her personally when her
own grandson, Prince Christian Victor,

was numbered among the dead soldiers.

The British stepped up their war effort.

They shipped a quarter of a million
troops to southern Africa.

Slowly the tide turned against the
Boers.

The Boer armies were defeated, but their
young commandos continued a vicious

guerrilla war.

In retaliation, the British commander
-in -chief, General Kitchener, pursued a

war of attrition, burning farmsteads and
rounding up women and children.

He interned them in the world's first
concentration camps.

Large numbers of birth civilians are
exposed to typhus and cholera, and the

result are death camps, which the
British press...

and various British liberals take a
great interest in and expose as

barbaric methods of warfare.

The mood of the Queen and the public
remained stoutly patriotic, but the

disasters of the Boer War fed a growing
disillusionment from which the imperial

ideal would never recover.

Cecil Rhodes, the man who had done more
than any other to start this war, had

one more battle to fight.

His heart condition made it difficult
for him to breathe.

He was carried to his little cottage on
the coast in the hope that the fresh sea

breezes would relieve his anguish.

But here, At the age of 48, he finally
lost his race with death.

He had left orders that he was to be
buried in Rhodesia, at a spot he called

View of the World.

His grave was marked not with a cross,
but with a massive stone.

It was, in the words of a British High
Commissioner, a haunted...

sinister, pagan place.

Many of the attitudes that Rhodes had
embodied were buried with him.

The era of Victoria was over, and with
it the unquestioning imperialism she had

come to represent.

Queen Victoria died in the evening of
January 22nd, 1901.

She was 81 years old.

On her own instructions, she was dressed
in white.

Spring flowers were sprinkled over her
body.

Her face was covered by the veil she had
worn at her wedding with Prince Albert

60 years before.

Queen Victoria's death was seen by many.

as the passing of an era.

But also in 1901, there were fears that
other powers were rising up, which might

start to put pressure on Britain to
yield its primacy in the world.

So that the last days of the Queen's
reign, there were fears and misgivings.

Rhodes had overstretched the empire.

The Boer republics he had driven Britain
to conquer were soon given

independence.

His aggressive spirit was to be replaced
by a Gladstonian liberalism.

Those ideals that Prince Albert had
instilled in Victoria in the early years

her reign proved in the end to be more
enduring than the harsh imperialism of

her final decades.