The making of colonial Zimbabwe: Speculation and violence 1890-1902

Abstract

The immediate genesis of colonial Zimbabwe grew out of the discovery of the main gold reef on the Witwatersrand in 1886. When news of the find reached the diamond mining centre of Kimberley, reaction was mixed. Some entrepreneurs, particularly those bruised in the on-going fight to amalgamate the diamond industry, made their way as fast as possible to the Rand. Others, with much less reason to gamble, like Cecil Rhodes, held back. Rhodes' scepticism, rooted in the recent failure of the Barberton goldfield and the crash of its stock exchange, was confirmed by the professional opinion of his mining expert.