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repeat his claims without exploring them much further, let alone Leopold Amery (1873-1955) later observed, "If the vision was without questioning their accuracy. Australian researcher Rhodes', it was Milner who over some twenty years laid secure- Jeremy Lee, for instance, suggests Tragedy and Hope "exposed ly the foundations of a system whose power...throughout the beyond argument" the existence of the New World Order English-speaking world...would be difficult to exaggerate". ” conspiracy,’ while numerous other researchers continue to place While his claims of the Round Table's power can be forgiven as the Round Table in key positions in wiring diagrams, linking it wishful thinking, Amery by no means overstates the importance to the Council on Foreign Relations and Chatham House as of Rhodes and Milner. though it were still a powerful organisation near or at the top of Cecil Rhodes is better known as the founder and primary the New World Order hierarchy.’ owner of the famous diamond company, De Beers; as creator of It is not the intention of this article to join this consensus the colonies of Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zambia position of uncritically accepting Quigley's account of the and Zimbabwe); and as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from Round Table's power—an acceptance based solely on his still 1890 to 1896.'° Compelled by a life-threatening heart condition unproven claims of special access.'° Nor is it the intention to to leave Britain, Rhodes had travelled in the 1870s to southern embrace Gary Allen's claim that the Round Table was a "secret Africa where he made his fortune in the diamond-mining boom society... dedicated to establishing a world government".'' —_in the Kimberley region. It was there that Rhodes first demon- Equally, this article avoids the habit of more mainstream strated his desire for centralised control. historians of minimising the role of the Round Table and Rhodes believed the intense competition between the hun- relegating it to a mere footnote. Instead, this article endeavours dreds of small mining companies was damaging the viability of to establish that while Quigley's claims contain some elements the diamond industry. His solution was to establish a company of truth, the Round Table's contribution to the New World Order with monopoly control over the supply of diamonds, thus mak- is more complex than is commonly supposed. ing it more profitable in the long term. In 1888 Rhodes realise In fact, the movement is an unlikely participant in the push for his vision, collaborating with share dealer Alfred Beit and the global governance. Founded by advo- London bankers Nathaniel M. cates of Anglo-Saxon racial and polit- Rothschild and Sons to buy out rival ical superiority, their scheme for mining companies throughout the imperial federation originally intend- Kimberley region. The product of ed to consolidate the British Empire The Round Table was the this collusion was a single diamond t tect it from disintegration and . ini > any, De Beers wore umtncraion a! | product of two people: mins nme ae the Round Table, at least initially, Cecil Rhodes (1 853-1 902) gave Rhodes and his backers "contro represented imperialist rather than . of the commanding heights of the internationalist ideals, and Lord Alfred Milner Cape economy" (Thomas) and made Moreover, despite its apparent (1 854-1 925). him, "almost overnight, the most wealth and political connections and powerful man in Africa" (Rotberg)."* an ambitious propaganda program, the As Prime Minister of the Cape Round Table conspicuously failed to Colony, Chairman of De Beers and achieve its goal of imperial federa- one of the richest and most aggressive tion. It also fell short in its attempts to imperialists in southern Africa, remould the League of Nations concept into a form that would Rhodes commanded considerable power and his exploits earned support the Round Table's imperialist ambitions. The movement him the admiring accolade of "the Colossus of Africa". Driven would also be beset by divisions between those who viewed the by an imperialist fervour, the Colossus embarked on a number federation of the British Empire as an end in itself, and those of bold schemes devoted to the expansion and consolidation of who believed imperial federation should be a stepping-stone to British rule in Africa. Some of these plans were partially world government. successful, such as the annexation of Matabeleland and Nevertheless, the movement's vision of a world ruled by an Mashonaland in support of the British South Africa Company's Anglo-American federation represented one of the first attempts goal of controlling all the land in the interior of Africa between in the 20th century by a power-elite clique to bypass democracy the Limpopo and the Nile. Other schemes, such as his attempt in order to achieve its goal of overriding national sovereignty to overthrow the Boer government in the Orange Free State and establishing a supranational form of governance. Yet, as through the Jameson Raid and his plans for a trans-African this article seeks to demonstrate, the Round Table movement's railway stretching from the Cape to Cairo, were for him legacy was not one of success but of failure. Its members’ personally costly and conspicuous failures. efforts to arrest Britain's decline by unifying the Empire soon Yet, in pursuing these various projects, Rhodes was not proved futile, and their dream of ruling the world slipped from enacting his own ideas but using the plans of others to fulfil his their grasp. broader vision. As one historian observed: "Rhodes was not a thinker; he was doer. He appropriated the ideas of others rather CECIL RHODES AND HIS IMPERIAL VISION than conceiving ideas himself."'* Significantly, the only The Round Table was the product of two people: Cecil exception to this rule was his most ambitious grand design of Rhodes (1853-1902) and Lord Alfred Milner (1854-1925). all: imperial federation. This was not to be a living partnership, given Rhodes's untimely This is not an accepted fact in most accounts, including in death well before the Round Table was founded and their limit- Quigley's book where the famous British artist John Ruskin is ed contacts while he was alive, but more of a posthumous asso- cited as the sole source of Rhodes's enthusiasm for imperial ciation in which Milner sought to realise Rhodes's dream of a federation. Rhodes is said to have attended the inaugural lecture unified British Empire. As prominent Round Table member given at Oxford in 1870 by Ruskin, then Professor of Fine Arts, product of two people: Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) and Lord Alfred Milner (1854-1925). CECIL RHODES AND HIS IMPERIAL VISION The Round Table was the product of two people: Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) and Lord Alfred Milner (1854-1925). This was not to be a living partnership, given Rhodes's untimely death well before the Round Table was founded and their limit- ed contacts while he was alive, but more of a posthumous asso- ciation in which Milner sought to realise Rhodes's dream of a unified British Empire. As prominent Round Table member 32 = NEXUS The Round Table was the www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2004 — JANUARY 2005