Rhodes

3987

Rhodesia

ruined the city, in 157 A.D. Rhodes became
the capital of the insular province under the
Roman emperors, and suffered invasions from
the Saracens under the Byzantine Empire. It
was besieged by the Turks in 1480, and again
in 1522, when they captured it. After re-
maining under Turkish rule for nearly four
hundred years, the island was seized by an
Italian force en May 4, 1912, in the course of
the war between Turkey and Italy. It was
ceded to Italy in 1924 and renamed Rodi.

Rhodes, Cecil John (1853-1902), British
colonial statesman, and for nearly a quarter
of a century the dominating personality on
the imperial side in South African politics,
was born in Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire.
He went to Natal in 1870; and on the discov-
ery of diamonds proceeded to Kimberly, where
he laid the foundations of his great wealth.
The territory which ultimately came under
the control of the company, of which Rhodes
was one of the directors, is now known as
Rhodesia. One of the projects promoted by
him was the Cape-to-Cairo Railway. From
1890-6, Rhodes filled the office of premier of
Cape Colony. He resigned after the Jame-
son Raid, for which he held himself 'morally
culpable.' When the South African War
broke out (1899), he took part in the de-
fence of Kimberley. By his will Rhodes be-
queathed practically the whole of his fortune
and possessions, valued at about $30,000,000
to the public service. To his old college, Oriel,
at Oxford, he bequeathed $500,000 for a sys-
tem of free scholarships (see RHODES SCHOL-
ARSHIPS). Consult Hensman's Cecil Rhodes
(1902); Fuller's Cecil Rhodes (1910); Fort's
Alfred Beit (1932).

Rhodes, James Ford (1848-1927), Amer-
ican historian, was born in Cleveland, Ohio.
He entered business in his native town in
1870, and retired in 1885, thereafter devoting
himself to the task of writing a History of
the United Stales jrom the Compromise of
1850. This work, in seven volumes, gives an
account of political, economic, social, and in-
tellectual conditions during the period of
1850-77. He was president of the American
Historical Association in 1899.

Rhodes, Colossus of. See Colossus.

Rhodesia, territory, British South Africa,
having an area of 436,950 sq. m. Tht coun-
try is divided by the Zambezi River into
Northern (area, 287,950 sq, m.) and South-
ern (area 149,000 sq. m.) Rhodesia, In
Southern Rhodesia is a plateau 3,500 to 6,000
ft. in height. In Northern Rhodesia are the

table lands of the Matoka and Tanganyika
plateaus, the latter of which forms the water-
shed between the Congo and Zambezi Rivers;
and the Muchinga Highlands (4,000 to 5,000
feet). The climate on the plateau is bracing
and suitable for European settlement. Indige-
nous vegetation includes a wide variety of
tropical flowers and grass, palms, mimosa,
and banana, rubber, Rhodesian teak, cedar,
fig, and Kaffir plum trees. Among the fauna
are the elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros,
lion, leopard, several species of antelopes,
mongoose, wolf, ant-eater, python and cobra,
crocodile, ostrich, crane, and numerous other
varieties of birds. Gold, silver, copper, dia-
monds, coal, led, zinc, tin, chromite, tung-
sten, wolfram, scheelite, and asbestos are
found. Great deposits of rich copper ore
have recently been discovered in Northern
Rhodesia and working has commenced. The
acreage under crops is small, but is being ex-
tended. Maize, wheat and oats, sweet pota-
toes, cassava, ground-nuts, castor seed, rice,
and fruits are grown; while the cultivation
of tobacco and cotton has made considerable
progress. Ranching on a large scale is being
extended and, encouraged by a Government
bounty. The population of Rhodesia in 1941
was 69,013 Europeans and 1,379,382 natives,
in Southern Rhodesia, and 15,188 Europeans

Copyright De La Mare

Rhododendron DeUcatissima.

and 1,372,235 natives, in Northern Rhodesia.
Until 1923 the country was administered
by the British South Africa Company (char-
tered in 1889), as prescribed by the Orders in
Council of the British Government, but in