Cecil Rhodes and De Beers Consolidated
Company.
 April 1867- 2 Boer children playing –bank of orange river found a
 pebble-( Diamond) that transformed S. Africa.
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S. Africa has the richest deposit of diamonds in the world
.
More deposits were found along the orange river and the Vaal river
.
1870- beginning of the mineral revolution in South Africa with more
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discovery of huge deposits of diamonds in modern Kimberley in
1869
Diamond fields were found in north of cape colony in the Boer
Republic of Orange free state.
The people who lived there were Griqua,
Tswana,
and Kora
Mineral Revolution
 With discovery,10,000 of speculators all over the world=Europe,
America & Australia descended on the area.
 1872=miners moved away from the river banks to start digging in
 the open farm fields. Their numbers soon increased to 40,000
 miners whites, colored, and Africans.
 The richest mine was at Colesberg Kopje (Coles berg hill) modern
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Kimberly.
Here the miners dug the worlds largest man –made hole in the
world, The Great hole of Kimberly
People organized themselves into small groups they started to
purchase mineral claims & dominate the mining industry in
South Africa.
Mining Companies
 British manipulated the situation through false
treaties court systems and annexed the area from
its inhabitants and pushed the Boers away. So by
1871 Grigualand was a British colony.
 Initially the mines were dug by individuals using
African labor,
 By late 1870s as water surface increased, individual
diggers gave way to mining companies that had
capital to buy the machinery that could pump
water out .
 Three men that dominated were Barney Barnato
,Alfred Beit & Cecil Rhodes
Formation of De Beers
 Barnato and Rhodes were rivals who formed large
companies by amassing smaller groups.
 Beit was a German buyer who joined forces with Rhodes
and gave Rhodes financial resources of the European
Rothchild family to build the mining industry. This gave
Rhodes an advantage and forced Barnato to join him or
quit.
 Barnato joined Rhodes to survive, and in 1888, they formed
- De Beers Consolidated Company,
 De Beers had monopoly on diamond production in the
region and monopoly of sales in the world.
De Beers Company
 Bought rival companies out. Due to monopoly in mining,
 the company paid very low wages and built labor camps
 where workers were confined for 6 months contract
 without access to family members.
 Mining led to increase of population at Kimberly.
 Led to development of migrant labor from different parts of South Africa.
 People in S. Africa worked in the mines so as to buy guns and
defend their territory from Whiteman's invasion.
 Kimberley led to development of cash economy in South Africa.
Economic Changes
 People took to wage labor
 Others stated intensive farming so as to sell food crops
to laborers
 1886 Another mineral revolution took place in S. Africa
with discovery of huge deposits of gold at
Witwatersrand.