A COMPLEX PERSONALITY Rhodesia and its annexation was but the development of a vast scheme of conquest that had its start in the wonderful brain of the individual who by that time had become to be spoken of as the greatest man South Africa had ever known.

Long before this Cecil Rhodes had entered political life as member of the Cape Parliament.

He stood for the province of Barkly West, and his election, which was violently contested, made him master of this constituency for the whole of his political career.

The entry into politics gave a decided aim to his ambitions and inspired him to a new activity, directing his wonderful organising faculties toward other than financial victories and instilling within him the desire to make for himself a name not solely associated with speculation, but one which would rank with those great Englishmen who had carried far and wide British renown and spread the fame of their Mother Country across the seas.
Rhodes' ambitions were not as unselfish as those of Clive, to mention only that one name.

He thought far more of himself than of his native land in the hours when he meditated on all the advantages which he might obtain from a political career.