Editing Cecil Rhodes (section)

== Political views ==
<span id="Racism"></span>
<div style="float:right;clear:right">[[File:CecilRhodes.jpg|upright|thumb|right|Cecil Rhodes]]</div>
Rhodes wanted to expand the British Empire because he believed that the [[Anglo-Saxon]] [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]] was destined to greatness.<ref name=sahistory.org.za /> In what he described as "a draft of some of my ideas" written in 1877 while a student at Oxford, Rhodes said of the English, "I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. I contend that every acre added to our territory means the birth of more of the English race who otherwise would not be brought into existence."{{sfn|Rhodes|1902|p=58}} Rhodes bemoaned that there was little land left to conquer and said "to think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far".{{sfn|Bell|2022|p=131}}

Furthermore Rhodes saw imperialism as a way to alleviate domestic social problems - "In order to save the 40,000,000 inhabitants of the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] from a bloody civil war, we colonial statesmen must acquire new lands to settle the surplus population, to provide new markets for the goods produced in the factories and mines. The Empire, as I have always said, is a bread and butter question. If you want to avoid civil war, you must become imperialists".{{sfn|Parry|1983}}

Rhodes wanted to develop a Commonwealth in which all of the British-dominated countries in the empire would be [[Imperial Federation|represented in the British Parliament]].{{sfn|Rotberg|1988|p=150}} Rhodes explicitly stipulated in his will that all races should be eligible for the scholarships.{{sfn|Biggar|2016}} It is said that he wanted to develop an American elite of [[philosopher-kings]] who would have the United States rejoin the British Empire. As Rhodes also respected and admired the Germans and their [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Kaiser]], he allowed German students to be included in the Rhodes scholarships. He believed that eventually the United Kingdom (including Ireland), the US, and Germany together would dominate the world and ensure perpetual peace.{{sfn|Flint|2009|p=}}{{page needed|date=December 2016}}

Rhodes's views on race have been debated; he supported the rights of indigenous Africans to vote,{{sfn|Magubane|1996|p=109}} but critics have labelled him as an "architect of [[apartheid]]"{{sfn|Castle|2016}} and a "[[white supremacy|white supremacist]]", particularly since 2015.<ref name=coloniallegacymustfallnothisstatue>{{cite news
|title='Cecil Rhodes' colonial legacy must fall – not his statue'
|first=Siya
|last=Mnyanda
|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/25/south-africa-rhodesmustfall-statue
|work=The Guardian
|location=London
|date=25 March 2015
|access-date=15 January 2016}}</ref><ref name=wilsonrhodesmustfall>{{cite news
|title=Woodrow Wilson and Cecil Rhodes must fall
|author=Karen Attiah
|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/11/25/woodrow-wilson-and-cecil-rhodes-must-fall/
|newspaper=The Washington Post
|location=Washington, D.C.
|date=25 November 2015
|access-date=15 January 2016|author-link=Karen Attiah
}}</ref><ref name=rhodestogandhi>{{cite news
|title=From Cecil Rhodes to Mahatma Gandhi: why is South Africa tearing its statues down?
|first=Martin
|last=Plaut
|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2015/04/cecil-rhodes-mahatma-gandhi-why-south-africa-tearing-its-statues-down
|work=New Statesman
|location=London
|date=16 April 2015
|access-date=15 January 2016}}</ref> According to Magubane, Rhodes was "unhappy that in many Cape Constituencies, Africans could be decisive if more of them exercised this right to vote under current law [referring to the Cape Qualified Franchise]," with Rhodes arguing that "the native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism, such as works in India, in our relations with the barbarism of South Africa".{{sfn|Magubane|1996|p=108}} Rhodes advocated the governance of indigenous Africans living in the Cape Colony "in a state of barbarism and communal tenure" as "a subject race. I do not go so far as the member for Victoria West, who would not give the black man a vote.&nbsp;... If the whites maintain their position as the supreme race, the day may come when we shall be thankful that we have the natives with us in their proper position."{{sfn|Magubane|1996|p=109}} 

He once stated "I prefer land to niggers" and referred to the 'Anglo-Saxon race' as "the best, most human, most honourable race the world possesses".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Phillip |first1=Riley |title=Language, Culture and Identity: An Ethnolinguistic Perspective |date=2007 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |page=29}}</ref> He thought that those lands which were occupied by the "most despicable specimens of human beings" should be inhabited by Anglo-Saxons.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Robert I. |first1=Rotberg |last2=Shore |first2=Miles F. |title=The Founder Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power |date=1990 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=100}}</ref>

<div style="float:right;clear:right">[[File:Mortimer Menpes, Cecil Rhodes 1901.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Rhodes by [[Mortimer Menpes]], 1901]]</div>
However others have disputed these views. For example, historian Raymond C. Mensing notes that Rhodes has the reputation as the most flamboyant exemplar of the British imperial spirit, and always believed that British institutions were the best. Mensing argues that Rhodes quietly developed a more nuanced concept of imperial federation in Africa, and that his mature views were more balanced and realistic. According to Mensing, "Rhodes was not a [[Scientific racism|biological or maximal racist]]. Despite his support for what became the basis for the apartheid system, he is best seen as a [[Cultural racism|cultural or minimal racist]]".<ref>{{harvnb|Mensing|1986|pp=99–106}}</ref> In a 2016 opinion piece for ''[[The Times]]'', [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]] professor [[Nigel Biggar]] argued that although Rhodes was a committed [[Imperialism|imperialist]], the charges of racism against him are unfounded.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Moyse |first=Ashley |date=2016 |title=The Controversial Legacy of Cecil Rhodes |url=https://www.mcdonaldcentre.org.uk/news/controversial-legacy-cecil-rhodes |access-date= |website=[[McDonald Centre]]}}</ref> In a 2021 article, Biggar further argued that:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Biggar |first=Nigel |date=12 August 2021 |title=Cecil Rhodes and the Abuse of History |url=https://historyreclaimed.co.uk/cecil-rhodes-and-the-abuse-of-history/ |access-date= |website=History Reclaimed |language=en-GB}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=If Rhodes was a racist, he would not have enjoyed cordial relations with individual Africans, he would not have regarded them as capable of civilisation, and he would not have supported their right to vote at all. Nor would he have stipulated in his final will of July 1899 that the scholarships that would famously bear his name should be awarded without regard for "race". And yet he did all these things.}}

On domestic politics within Britain, Rhodes was a supporter of the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]].{{sfn|Pinney|1995|p=72}} Rhodes' only major impact was his large-scale support of the Irish nationalist party, led by [[Charles Stewart Parnell]] (1846–1891).{{sfn|McCracken|2003|pp=22–24}}

Rhodes worked well with the Afrikaners in the Cape Colony; he supported teaching Dutch as well as English in public schools. While Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, he helped to remove most of their legal disabilities.{{sfn|Flint|2009}} He was a friend of [[Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (Onze Jan)|Jan Hofmeyr]], leader of the [[Afrikaner Bond]], and it was largely because of Afrikaner support that he became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony.{{sfn|Rotberg|1988|pp=131–33}} Rhodes advocated greater self-government for the Cape Colony, in line with his preference for the empire to be controlled by local settlers and politicians rather than by London.

Scholar and Zimbabwean author [[Peter Godwin]], whilst critical of Rhodes, writes that he needs to be viewed via the prisms and cultural and social perspective of his epoch, positing that Rhodes "was no 19th-century Hitler. He wasn't so much a freak as a man of his time...Rhodes and the white pioneers in southern Africa did behave despicably by today's standards, but no worse than the white settlers in North America, South America, and Australia; and in some senses better, considering that the genocide of natives in Africa was less complete. For all the former African colonies are now ruled by indigenous peoples, unlike the Americas and the Antipodes, most of whose aboriginal natives were all but exterminated."

Godwin goes on to say "Rhodes and his cronies fit in perfectly with their surroundings and conformed to the morality (or lack of it) of the day. As is so often the case, history simply followed the gravitational pull of superior firepower."