I remember reading one of his lectures where he was telling the class that now their duty, as wealthy and cultured modernists, was to serve the uncivilized and poor of the world and to bring the luxury and comfort that aristocrats knew to everyone. Rhodes taught altruism and service to the unfortunate and his legacy is many powerful people who worked to better the world, inspired by Rhodes.
Rhodes was not an Empire Builder. He was a company builder. His company was the British South African Company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_South_Africa_Company).
> but his prime motivation was to modernize the world. Rhodesian policy led to the end of the empire, in fact.
His motivation was to make money. You know that he tried to start a war? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jameson_Raid
Which led to two other wars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Matabele_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War
The "British South African Company" that fought in these wars was a paramilitary unit that belonged to his company.
> Rhodes taught altruism and service to the unfortunate and his legacy is many powerful people who worked to better the world, inspired by Rhodes.
Maybe he tried some veneer after he became rich - but he was still a bastard.
(Even his Rhodes scholarship is designed to Anglicise. It is impossible for a person to obtain the Rhodes scholarship unless he studied in English).
Who is teaching you this bullshit history?
Demonizing historical figures instead of studying them in the context of their time is really pathetic.
Maybe you misunderstood me. You say that he was a selfless Empire Builder - i.e. he had some zeal to build the English Empire for the good of the queen and England. Yet his true aim was making money (through the British South African Company).
> Who is teaching you this bullshit history?
> Demonizing historical figures instead of studying them in the context of their time is really pathetic.
Trying to whitewash history and historical figures is quite sad. Admittedly I learnt history from a different perspective than you (i.e. from the side of the oppressed and not the opressee).
Yet even in western countries, colonialism is now seen as a bad thing by the majority of people (a few nationalists and apologists notwithstanding).
This is extremely true! Probably the best example of this is Cecil John Roads (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Rhodes) who was a ruthless businessman who owned countries, started wars and engaged in unsavory business practices.
Yet he is fondly remembered for the Rhodes Scholarship and his donations to the University of Oxford.