"Africa - the dark continent of the early explorers - became the stage for the final act in the story of Queen Victoria's empire." "In the footsteps of missionaries like David Livingstone, the powers of Europe conducted a brutal race for colonies - a race that would become known as "the scramble for Africa"." "øDRAMATIC MUSIC" "In Britain, this last burst of expansion was inspired by two men, whose stories would bring the British people to a climax of imperialistic fervour." "The first, General Charles Gordon." "Sent on a diplomatic mission to a poor Arab country, he launched a personal crusade to free an oppressed people." "His defiant stand would draw his queen and her empire into a holy war, and lead them on a romantic but violent quest to impose a new world order." "The second, Cecil John Rhodes, started out as a simple cotton farmer..." "..and he became the greatest empire-builder of his generation." "To fund his dreams of conquest, he embarked on a ruthless pursuit of diamonds, gold and power, that made him the most formidable and the most hated man in Africa." "Between them, Cecil Rhodes and Charles Gordon exemplified the virtues and the vices of their age." "They would lead the British to new heights of glory, and they would expose the dark underside ofVictoria's empire." "At the age of 60, Queen Victoria still wore the black satin and lace she had donned in mourning for her beloved husband, Prince Albert, who had died 20 years before." "To her 350 million subjects across the world, she was the god-like symbol of British power and prestige." "But in the winter of 1884, her empire faced a serious threat from one of the poorest and most obscure regions on earth, the Sudan." "øWIND HOWLS" "There is this saying among the Arabs " ""When Allah made the Sudan, he laughed."" "In Queen Victoria's time, most of its nine million people were nomads, roaming a wilderness as large as Western Europe." "The Sudan had no roads, no railways, and most of it was unmapped." "Out of this wilderness came a prophet - an Islamic preacher who became known to the Arabs and then to the world as the Mahdi, the Expected One." "The Mahdi inspired the warlike tribes of the Sudan to rise up against their corrupt rulers." "His army swept through the country like the simoon itself, the notorious wind of the desert." "Many in England soon feared that a jihad - or holy war - would sweep northward into Egypt and threaten the lifeline of the British Empire, the Suez Canal." "Three-quarters of the ships using the canal were British, and it formed a vital link to Victoria's richest possessions in India and the East." "For this reason, British troops were stationed in Egypt to protect it." "Now, the Queen urged her prime minister, Gladstone, to use those troops against the Mahdi." "WOMAN: "The Queen feels very strongly about the Sudan and Egypt,"" ""and she must say she thinks a blow must be struck."" ""These are wild Arabs,"" ""and they would not stand against regular troops at all."" ""We must make a demonstration of strength."" "Gladstone did his level best to treat the Queen with courtesy, but he did not place great value on her judgment." "MAN: "Quite worthless."" "William Ewart Gladstone - he was one of the greatest statesmen of the Victorian Age, a man of immense moral and physical strength." "In his 70s, he relaxed by chopping down trees on his country estate." "He believed that the strength of Britain's economy, and the force of its liberal ideals, could lead the world." "He was a champion of human rights and he believed in opposing tyranny." "He was against the use of British troops to suppress what he saw as a popular uprising in the Sudan, but the press and public were of the Queen's opinion." "They wanted action." "Gladstone's government decided to play for time." "They proposed sending a top army officer to the Sudan to report on the situation." "For this mission, they chose one of the most popular heroes of the Victorian Age " "General Charles George Gordon." "Gordon had made his name in China, where he had been sent to help defend British traders from the horrors of the Civil War." "He took command of a small force of peasants and adventurers, known as the Ever Victorious Army." "MAN:" "He was relentlessly brave, and he led the Ever Victorious Army to victory like a medieval knight." "He would charge against hordes of the enemy, just carrying his officer's cane." "He called it his "wand of victory", and in a lightning campaign of about 18 months, he destroyed the Tai Ping rebellion and restored peace to the country." "And Gordon became a hero." "When he returned to England, he found, rather to his surprise, that everybody wanted to see him, that he was invited to meet the Queen." "And for the rest of his life he was known as 'Chinese Gordon'." "The Chinese Emperor had offered Gordon a fortune to stay." "Gordon had declined." "He had not the slightest interest in money." "In an age famed for its English eccentrics," "Gordon was a very strange fish indeed." "The big interest of his life, which was far more than a hobby - it was practically an obsession - was the care of children, particularly small boys." "He would seek out starving children sleeping in doorways, chimneysweeps, bring them back to his billet, wash them, clothe them, send them to school, give them pocket money, see to their education, find them jobs." "He had dozens of these children, eventually, dotted all over the Empire." "He had a map with little flags on, where these children were currently living or currently working." "He called them his 'kings'." "And when people offered him money, he only took enough to subsidise the education of these children." "And there was nothing odd about that, and no-one has ever suggested, at any time, that his interest in these children was motivated by anything other than Christian charity." "He was the archetypal 'muscular Christian' of the Victorian Age." "By all reports, Gordon was celibate and deeply religious." "Wherever he went, he took the Bible and a generous supply of brandy." "Since the war in China, he had led several campaigns in Africa." "He had a reputation as a maverick who frequently disobeyed orders." "This was the man the British Government chose to send to the Sudan." "MAN:" "The extraordinarily foolish thing was to employ Gordon, who was an undisciplined schoolboy and 'boy's own' papers hero." "Um...probably a drunk as well." "Um..." "A sort of..." "By Gladstone's standards, an extraordinarily crude, um... ..born-again Christian, if you like, during his sober periods." "On a winter evening in January 1885," "Leading members ofthe Government and army waited outside London's Charing Cross Station." "They were here to see off the hero on the first stage of his journey to the Sudanese capital," "Khartoum." "Gordon was late." "He'd been dining with friends and lost track of time playing with their children." "He'd also forgotten to bring any money." "The Foreign Secretary hurried off to buy Gordon a ticket." "The others dug into their pockets, giving him a gold watch and all their spare cash." "One of the generals dashed off to raise more." "NElLLANDS:" "So Garnet Wolsey went racing round the gentlemen's clubs of St James's, saying to the people at bridge and having dinner," ""Quick, give me all the money you have."" ""Gordon's going to Khartoum and he hasn't got any money."" "This must have thrown a slight frisson, I suspect, through high circles, because you send someone off on a very delicate mission who hasn't even bothered to go to the bank." "Wolsey raised about £200 and hurried back to the station." "It was, in a way, a wonderful little Victorian vignette, the night that Gordon left for Khartoum." "The Duke of Cambridge held the door of the carriage open and Sir Garnet Wolsey put his luggage inside." "And they all shook him by the hand and he got in, closed the door, and the engine blew its whistle, and the guard waved the flag and the train steamed out, taking Gordon to his destiny." "The Foreign Secretary, Lord Granville, was the only one to express doubts." "So they returned to the Reform Club, sat around in their leather armchairs, thinking." "And Lord Granville had a glass of brandy and was swilling it around, sniffing it." "And he suddenly turned to his colleagues and said," ""I wonder ifwe haven't committed the most dreadful folly"." "His doubts were echoed by the British Consul in Cairo." "MAN: "It is not easy to deal with a man who, in moments of difficulty," ""takes his instructions from the prophet Isaiah."" "Gordon got two sets of instructions." "The first was to go there, find out what was really going on, and make a report as to whether the Mahdist rebellion could be handled, could be suppressed." "And the other one was, if that couldn't be done, then he was to report on how the European traders in Khartoum could be evacuated." "But, of course, when he went there - because Gordon always went his own way - he decided to do something completely different." "Gordon was dismayed by what he found in the Sudan." "Men, women, and children were herded in chains across the desert for shipment to the great Arab slave markets, where the men were castrated and sold as eunuchs and the women stripped and auctioned for service in the harems." "Gordon assumed command in Khartoum, and he made a bonfire of the notorious whips used by the slave traders and the Sudanese rulers to control their people." "He was determined to be the saviour of the oppressed Sudanese." "MAN: "l have come here without troops," ""but with God's help, we shall address the evils of the Sudan."" "First, Gordon would try to make an ally of the man he had been sent to confront, the Mahdi." "He sent him a ceremonial uniform, offering personal friendship if the Mahdi would call an end to his holy war." "Gordon now learned what manner of man he was dealing with." "The Mahdi sent the uniform back with a patched jibbah, worn by the desert tribesmen, and a note inviting Gordon to convert to Islam and join his army." "Gordon realised that the Mahdi was a man, like himself, who could not be bought, a man who took his instructions from the prophet - except that in the case of the Mahdi it was not the prophet Isaiah," "it was the prophet Mohammed." "Gordon then decided that the only way to deal with the Mahdi was to beat him in battle." "His first step was to improve the city's defences." "He sent out patrols to find out what the Mahdi's forces were up to, prepared stocks of ammunition, trained the troops, dug trenches - he did all the things that a professional soldier would do." "Gordon took advantage of Khartoum's position, where the White Nile and the Blue Nile merge." "He dug a defensive channel between the two rivers, sealing off the city." "Then he sat back and waited for the Mahdi's attack." "øMIDDLE-EASTERN MUSIC øCHOPPING SOUNDS" "The Mahdi's forces cut the single telegraph link with Cairo and settled down to starve the city into surrender." "Gordon was trapped in Khartoum with 35,000 men, women and children." "To save them, he now had to have help from Britain." "His strategic aim was to shame the British Government into sending a force down to fight the Mahdi, and he was going to do that by hanging on until they had no option but to come and get him out." "But in London, his request for help fell on deaf ears." "MAN:" "It's the duty of the Government..." "Gladstone was determined that Britain would not be dragged into a war in the Sudan." "On the contrary, he sympathised with the Mahdi's struggle." "..with dignity and credit." "Gladstone felt that the British Empire was already far too big and, if anything, it should be contracted." "But above all, he was the head of the Government, and he simply wasn't going to be dragged into a foreign war by some half-crazed Royal Engineer general who decided to take over a town in the middle of nowhere" "and hold it against all odds." "It wasn't part of the Government policy." "Gladstone told Parliament..." "To send troops would be a war of conquest against a people struggling to be free and struggling rightly to be free." "øAFFIRMATIVE MURMURING" "But Gordon, trapped in Khartoum, had put the British Government in a trap." "After all, it had been their idea to send Gordon to the Sudan in the first place, and now this eccentric hero had captured the public imagination." "They couldn't just leave him there to die." "Besides, there was the Queen to reckon with." "Victoria shared her people's fears for the safety of General Gordon." "This handsome warrior seemed to embody all the marshal and Christian virtues of her empire." "She wrote to Gladstone..." ""The Queen trembles for General Gordon's safety."" ""lf anything befalls him, the result will be awful."" ""Gordon is in danger." "You are bound to try and save him."" ""For the honour of the Government and the nation,"" ""he must not be abandoned."" "But month after month, while Gordon held out against the Mahdi," "Gladstone held out against the Queen." "No-one was prepared to give in." "NEILLANDS:" "The situation in Khartoum steadily deteriorated." "Food started to run out." "There were food riots in the town." "People tried to desert, though that proved less than popular when the Mahdi's forces cut their heads off." "Slowly, the ring tightened, and by the autumn the town was fully under siege and there was no way out at all." "They just had to stand their ground or wait for a relief force." "From the besieged city, reports were smuggled out and taken down the Nile by steamboat." "Soon, all England knew that Gordon stood alone in his quarters in the Governor's palace, watching day after day for the British troops he hoped would be sent from Egypt." "He wrote to the British Consul in Cairo..." ""How many times have we written, asking for reinforcements?"" ""No answer at all has come to us,"" ""and the hearts of men have become weary of this delay."" ""While you are eating and drinking and resting on good beds,"" ""we are watching, night and day,"" ""endeavouring to quell the movements of this false Mahdi."" "Gordon in Khartoum was a Victorian epic." "I mean, here was a British general in this howling wilderness, surrounded by savages, fighting for the good old cause and Christianity, and we had to get him out." "It was, er..." "The British like that - the last man and the last round sort of scenario." "øSOMBRE MUSIC" "The public had already regarded Gordon as a hero" " Chinese Gordon - and here he was again, being heroic in Africa, and the Government had to do something about it." "So there was a considerable amount of pressure on Gladstone in England, a growing public pressure, to do something and mount a relief expedition." "Eight months into Gordon's mission, Gladstone finally cracked." "He ordered the British army to invade the Sudan and bring Gordon out." "øDRAMATIC MUSIC øSHOUTING AND SCREAMING" "But before they could reach Khartoum, Gordon's defences began to crumble." "øCLASHING BLADES" "On the morning of 26 January 1885, the Mahdi launched his final assault." "Hordes ofwarriors poured through a gap in the city walls." "Gordon hurried to the roof of the Governor's palace." "In the streets below, the people of Khartoum were being butchered by the Mahdi's forces." "øREPEATED SHOTS" "Gordon had a machine gun on top of the palace - a Gardner machine gun, rather like a Gatling - and he engaged the Mahdi's forces coming through the streets towards the palace with that, until they got too close" "and he couldn't press the barrel of the gun anymore." "When the Mahdi's warriors reached the palace walls," "Gordon left the roof." "Alone in his quarters, he put on his dress uniform and prepared to meet his fate." "Accounts differ as to what happened next." "øFAINT COMMOTION øCLASHING SWORDS" "By that time, the Mahdists had already killed the guards and swarmed into the garden to the palace and were rushing towards him." "Apparently, he arrived at the top of the steps just as the Mahdist spearmen and swordsmen arrived at the bottom, and they just confronted each other." "Quite an amazing sight - that they'd finally seen Gordon, the man they'd probably heard so much about, like the devil." "There is the famous picture, drawn presumedly from accounts or simple fantasy, that the spearmen rushed up the steps and sank a spear into Gordon's chest, and he fell forward into the crowd and they cut him to pieces." "This is the icon which British artists quickly reproduced and became, as you would like, the first Christian imperial martyr." "The men who actually saw him die, 40 years later told British officers in the Sudan that he'd in fact died firing his revolver in a corridor in a skirmish." "But, it's much better - if you like, almost cinematographic - to have him standing there, a noble, upright, champion of England meeting his fate." "Later that day, Gordon's head was shown to one of his officers, who had been been taken captive." "Then it was fixed in the fork of a tree, as small boys pelted it with stones and camel dung." "The Queen held Gladstone personally responsible." "She wrote to her private secretary..." ""Mr Gladstone and the Government"" ""have Mr Gordon's innocent, noble, heroic blood on their consciences."" ""No-one who reflects on how he was sent out and refused help"" ""can deny it."" "She fired off a furious telegram to the Prime Minister, who was on his way, by train, to London." "Victoria's cables to her ministers were invariably sent in code, but not this one." "This one could have been read by anyone on the telegraph line, and it was intended as a public rebuke to the man who had failed her empire and its greatest hero." "øWHISTLE BLOWS" "The telegram was presented to Gladstone by a country station master." ""These news from Khartoum are frightful."" ""To think that all this might have been prevented"" ""and many precious lives saved, by earlier action, is too fearful."" "Gladstone, unswayed by public or royal hysteria, ordered the British Army to quit the Sudan." "But Gladstone had misjudged the mood of the people and of Parliament." "The death of Gordon fatally weakened his government." "At the next election, he was voted out of office." "JENKINS:" "It was an immensely damaging incident to Gladstone." "Gladstone totally failed to appreciate that somebody to him who appeared a rather insubordinate and crude and untrustworthy junior general, would appear to the bulk of the British opinion - and indeed to the Queen, getting back to that " "as being a real hero of the lmperial Age." "Gladstone's fall from power was to have serious repercussions throughout the Empire, particularly in southern Africa." "The absence of his moral influence cleared the way for a man who would lead Victoria's empire down a far more perilous path." "Cecil John Rhodes had arrived in South Africa at the age of 17 to work on his brother's cotton farm." "There was nothing to distinguish Rhodes from thousands of other British emigrants who left the mother country to seek their fortune in the British colonies." "But this young clergyman's son would devote most of his life to expanding British rule and making himself the most dangerous man in Queen Victoria's empire." "At first, his ambitions were limited to being a successful farmer." "He got along well with his African workers, shared their food and hospitality and respected their values." "MAN:" "Rhodes had an intuitive feeling for the people of Africa." "He was fascinated in African society." "He would spend whole nights in kraals." "He wanted to understand how they operate." "He was quick to learn Zulu so he could communicate directly." "He also understood the value that Africans placed on a person's trust." "And he was much mocked by the other cotton farmers because he used to pay his labour in advance." "And that was seen by the people who worked for him as a sign of trust, and, of course, it built up their loyalty." "But Rhodes was soon lured away from farming." "His arrival in Africa had coincided with a fateful discovery 500 miles away, on a remote farmstead known as Colesburg Kopje." "øSPRIGHTLY MUSIC" "A Dutch settler noticed his neighbour's children playing 'klip-klip', or 'five stone'." "His eye was caught by a stone that shone with a particular brightness and he went to take a closer look." "An earlier British visitor had written of this desolate interior..." "MAN: "Her Majesty possesses not in all her empire"" ""another strip of land so unlovely."" "But as the world would soon discover, it contained riches beyond the dreams of avarice." "The stone that the settler had spotted would be called the 'Eureka' stone." "And it led to the richest source of diamonds ever found." "Rhodes dropped everything, packed his bags and joined the diamond rush." "The farm at Colesberg Kopje soon became the boom town of Kimberley." "Roughnecks from the goldfields of California and Australia rubbed shoulders with veterans from the American Civil War," "English aristocrats and immigrants from the ghettos of Europe - all drawn to a hole in the ground which was growing bigger every day." "To these men, Kimberley promised instant riches." "But at a price." "THOMAS:" "Kimberley was an indescribable place - the noise, the dust, the heat." "If you can, imagine this settlement of 40,000 people in the middle of nowhere." "You could see the dust from the diggings from 10, 15 miles away." "And as you came nearer, you entered this awful place." "Huts built out of old packing cases." "Littered with dead animals - the carcasses of dead animals." "Flies - infestations of flies." "The Wild West was tame compared to Kimberley." "Here, there was a bar for every 16 men and shootings were an everyday occurrence." "But Rhodes thrived as a diamond digger." "Within a year, he wrote to his mother that he was earning around £100 a week - enough to make him one of the richest young men in England." "But in 1872, just a few days after his 19th birthday," "Rhodes suffered a heart attack." "His doctors told him the attack was mild, but Rhodes knew that from then on he was engaged in a race with death." "He chose a curious form of convalescence - an epic trek across the African veldt." "Some believe that during this journey" "Rhodes developed his great love and his great plan for Africa." "A lot of commentators have said that those nine months that Rhodes spent touring Africa by ox wagon, going right up into Boer territory, had an incredible effect on him." "Rhodes would be continually hearing stories about the African interior from wandering hunters." "And I believe that it was on that journey that he formed his first nascent ideas of an Africa that was there, ready to be reached, ready to be taken." "His health restored, Rhodes returned to the diamond fields." "Most of the diggers thought that the diamond mine was exhausted and wanted to sell their claims." "Rhodes took a gamble and bought them." "His hunch was right - beneath the first seam of diamonds was another, even richer." "Rhodes put all the claims under the control of one company " "De Beers." "Within 10 years, it would own 90% of the world's diamond production." "Rhodes would use his wealth to finance his dreams." "MAN: "Money is power and what can one accomplish without power? "" "Rhodes dreamed of creating a vast British colony across the length of Africa." "To achieve this, he planned to build a railroad from Cape Town to Cairo." "But first, he needed to win political support in south Africa." "He was elected to the Cape Parliament, where he courted the Afrikanerbond, the party of the Dutch farmers or Boers, who were consolidating their own power by taking it from the native Africans." "THOMAS:" "We're talking at a stage when black people in the Cape voted, provided they fulfil certain property requirements." "They...they sat on juries, where they sat in judgment over white people." "This was abhorrent to the Afrikanerbond." "And what Rhodes did was to form a very, very close alliance with them." "Rhodes, who had once prided himself on his lack of prejudice, made a speech in the new Cape Parliament." ""Does this house think that it is right" ""that men in a state of pure barbarism should have the vote?" ""Treat the natives as a subject people." "Be the lords over them." ""The native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise."" "Following Rhodes's speech, the law was changed." "The vote in southern Africa was removed from all but a handful of native Africans." "THOMAS:" "Rhodes, throughout his career, was continually shifting the pieces on the board." "Consider the diamond mines." "If you go back to the beginning of their history, black people owned claims." "They were competitors with whites." "What Rhodes's requirements were was to have a permanent, reliable black labour force who would be kept within compounds, unable to leave at all, inspected every time they came out of mines." "And the need for a controlled labour force drove Rhodes towards racist policies." "If you try to make any political sense out of Rhodes's career, it make absolutely no sense at all." "But if you look at it in economic terms, it makes perfect sense." "The alliances that he were making was for profit and for business." "And there's no argument about it." "The next step in Rhodes's master plan was to expand British territory northward into those regions David Livingstone had explored years before." "But across his route lay the empire of the Matabele," ""the people of the long shield" - one of the most formidable warrior nations in Africa." "Their king, Lobengula, known as the "eater of men", maintained a reign of terror from his capital at Bulawayo," ""the place of slaughter"." "Gold had been discovered on his land and several European adventurers were after it." "But Rhodes was after more than gold." "He wanted Lobengula's country." "The story of Rhodes and Lobengula is fascinating and it is foul." "The two men never met and yet they had an extraordinarily strong relationship through intermediaries." "Rhodes sent three of his agents to meet Lobengula." "And in a bid to impress the Matabele king, he included among them the brother-in-law of the great David Livingstone, John Moffat." "But Lobengula was in no hurry to see them and the men were forced to stay in an enclosure where the king kept his goats." "There was a long, long wait for Rhodes's emissaries." "Rudd, particularly, writes back about the appalling conditions - the mud, the flies, the stench, the impatience that they had there." "They were kept waiting literally for months while Lobengula made up his mind." "And finally, after all this waiting," "Lobengula signified that he was willing to have a grand indaba to discuss whether they would grant a concession to Rhodes's consortium." "John Moffat presented Lobengula with a document that would grant Rhodes extraordinary powers." "MAN: "The complete and exclusive charge over all metals and minerals" ""situated in my kingdom, principalities and dominions," ""together with full power to do all the things" ""that they may deem necessary to win and procure the same."" "THOMAS:" "He eventually signed a document on the understanding that he was simply granting prospecting rights to Rhodes's company for his men to dig 10 holes in his territory." "And what Lobengula had signed - he had virtually signed away his country." "Armed with that document," "Rhodes was able to go to London seeking a royal charter which would be Britain's endorsement of his rights to that territory." "Rhodes was now famous." "He was widely admired for his immense wealth and achievement." "But many distrusted him as a man who would let nothing - not even the British Government - stand in the way of his ambition." "The Queen was curious about her over-mighty subject." "She invited Rhodes to stay at Windsor Castle." "In 1890, when he eventually met Queen Victoria, he charmed her." "There's a wonderful moment where it's said that she said to him," ""ls it true, Mr Rhodes, that you're a woman-hater? "" "To which he replied," ""How could I possible hate a sex to which Your Majesty belongs? "" "Rhodes won the Queen's approval and a royal charter authorising him to exploit King Lobengula's concession." "It gave him legal rights to recruit a company police force and build forts throughout the region - the powers of an independent state." "But Rhodes still needed to break the power of Lobengula." "To achieve this, he called on his closest friend, Dr Leander Starr Jameson - a gambler, an adventurer and a ruthless opportunist." "His chance came when Lobengula launched an attack on a weaker tribe in a dispute over cattle." "Jameson sent a message to Rhodes..." ""We have the excuse"" ""for a row over murdered women and children."" ""And the getting of Matabeleland"" ""would give us a tremendous lift in shares."" "Jameson recruited a force of 1,400 white mercenaries." "Each man was promised 6,000 acres of Lobengula's land and 15 claims to prospect for gold." "THOMAS:" "When Rhodes and Jameson between them decided that the time was right to take Matabeleland, the key ingredient, the key weapon for them, was the Maxim gun, the machine gun." "Now, this was a weapon that fired 60 bullets a second." "This had never, never been used in battle before." "And this is extraordinary - that a company, a corporation, should possess the most top secret weapon, as it were, that the British Army possessed." "But Rhodes had Maxim guns." "The Matabele were mainly armed with spears and clubs." "The result was devastating." "Rhodes's Maxim guns just cut through the advancing Matabele, again and again and again." "It was like scything grass." "They didn't stand a chance." "The losses were enormous - 3,000 on one day." "Um...it was slaughter." "Lobengula fled Bulawayo with his wives." "A few days later, his abandoned ox cart was found with the King's body lying nearby." "According to one of his followers the great King of the Matabele had poisoned himself." "John Moffat, who had persuaded Lobengula to sign the mining concession, was stricken by remorse." ""The King was a gentleman in his way, and was foully sinned against."" "In November 1893, Dr Jameson hoisted the company flag over Bulawayo." "Rhodes now had personal control over a vast territory that was to be called 'Rhodesia'." "A few days later, he made his triumphant entry into Lobengula's former capital and congratulated his troops on their destruction of what he called "a ruthless barbarism"." "John Moffat now had a complete change of heart." ""The great Rhodes is prancing around."" ""Everyone here is bowing down and worshipping him"" ""as the wisest of men."" ""The popular tide is with him."" ""l suppose there will be a crash some day"" ""and men will suddenly recollect"" ""that there is still such a thing as justice, even to niggers."" "Rhodes's reward was to be elected the Prime Minister of Cape Colony." "He bought a house on the slopes of Table Mountain overlooking the two oceans, the Indian and the Atlantic." "Here, he surrounded himself with his male friends and enlightened them with his religious and racial theories." ""Whites have clearly come out on top in the struggle for existence." ""Within the white race,"" ""the English speaking man has proved himself"" ""to be the most likely instrument of the divine plan"" ""to spread justice, liberty and peace"" ""over the widest possible area of the planet."" ""Therefore, I shall devote the rest of my life to God's purpose"" ""and help him to make the world English."" "Rhodes was master of all he surveyed, but he wanted more." "His lust for power would soon plunge Victoria's empire into its darkest hour." "In 1886, gold was discovered in the Transvaal - a state established by some of the Boers to escape British rule." "Rhodes feared that the Transvaal Boers, enriched by revenues from goldmines, would become an obstacle to his plans." "If they joined forces with German colonists in the west, they would block his route to the north." "To avoid this, Rhodes formed an alliance with disgruntled miners in the gold town of Johannesburg and planned an uprising to overthrow the Boers." "Jameson assured Rhodes..." ""Anyone could take the Transvaal with a dozen revolvers."" "THOMAS:" "So, Rhodes devised a plan to take the Transvaal by force." "These were the elements - that the people of Johannesburg would rise up in revolution, they would call for assistance, and Jameson would respond to that call with a group of mercenaries and Rhodesian police and, as it were, take the country." "øDRAMATIC MUSIC" "The promised uprising failed to materialise, but Jameson continued with the plan." "He rode into the Transvaal at the head of his men." "But the Boers were ready for them." "They let the invaders ride on until they were surrounded and then picked them off with murderous accuracy." "According to the Boer commander, many of Rhodes's raiders were boys in their late teens." "And many were weeping." "The Jameson raid into the Transvaal was widely regarded as an unprovoked attack on an independent state - a naked act of aggression." "It sent shock waves around the world," "Rhodes was forced to resign as Prime Minister of Cape Colony and he was summoned to London to answer to the British Parliament." "But he had nothing to fear." "Public opinion in Britain was increasingly anti-Boer." "The Queen expressed the popular mood in a letter to her daughter." ""The Boers are a horrid people, cruel and overbearing."" "Rhodes had set Britain on a dangerous course." "His violent and unscrupulous methods provoked a reaction that shook the empire to its core." "And this at a time when the Queen was preparing to celebrate the glories and triumphs of her reign." "øTRUMPET FANFARE" "1897 was the year ofVictoria's diamond jubilee - 60 years on the throne." "Soldiers and colonial leaders from all over the empire came to London to take part in a spectacular parade." "It was recorded by the new movie cameras." "The little old woman under the umbrella now ruled over a fifth of the population of the planet." ""A never to be forgotten day."" ""No-one ever, I believe, has met with such an ovation"" ""as was given to me."" ""The cheering was quite deafening"" ""and every face seemed to be filled with real joy."" "But this 'joy' would soon turn to disillusionment as soldiers who had paraded the streets of London were sent to fight a war in South Africa." "The British dispatched an army to accomplish what Rhodes had failed to do - put an end to Boer independence." "The Boer War began just a year after the Queen's jubilee." "The British believed it would be short and glorious." "But the Boers were well-armed." "One English private wrote in his diary..." ""As soon as we started to advance, the bullets began to fly."" ""All of a sudden, a Maxim began to play upon us."" ""That stopped the firing line, for flat on their faces they fell"" ""and devil of a move would they make at all."" "JAMES:" "The British had gone to war in South Africa very ill-prepared for this type of warfare." "Most of the generals who fought the Boers were used to people armed with spears and lances." "Well, it was a shock for them." "There were incidents of surrender." "People couldn't take it any longer - they just threw down their weapons, um, and ran back." "There were cries of cowardice." "Successive defeats shattered the confidence of the British public." "Even the staunch Victoria was shaken." ""No news today, only lists of casualties."" "The war touched her personally when her own grandson," "Prince Christian Victor, was numbered among the dead soldiers." "The British stepped up their war effort." "They shipped a quarter of a million troops to southern Africa." "Slowly, the tide turned against the Boers." "The Boer armies were defeated, but their young commandos continued a vicious guerilla war." "In retaliation, the British commander-in-chief, General Kitchener, pursued a war of attrition - burning farmsteads and rounding up women and children." "He interned them in the world's first concentration camps." "JAMES:" "Large numbers of Boer civilians are exposed to typhus and cholera." "And the result are death camps, which the British press and various British liberals take a great interest in and expose as barbaric methods of warfare." "The mood of the Queen and the public remained stoutly patriotic, but the disasters of the Boer War fed a growing disillusionment from which the imperial ideal would never recover." "Cecil Rhodes, the man who had done more than any other to start this war, had one more battle to fight." "His heart condition made it difficult for him to breathe." "He was carried to his little cottage on the coast in the hope that the fresh sea breezes would relieve his anguish." "But here, at the age of 48, he finally lost his race with death." "He had left orders that he was to be buried in Rhodesia in a spot he called 'The View of the World'." "His grave was marked not with a cross, but with a massive stone." "It was, in the words of a British high commissioner, a "haunted, sinister, pagan place"." "Many of the attitudes that Rhodes had embodied were buried with him." "The era of Victoria was over, and, with it, the unquestioning imperialism she had come to represent." "Queen Victoria died in the evening of January 22, 1901." "She was 81 years old." "On her own instructions, she was dressed in white." "Spring flowers were sprinkled over her body." "Her face was covered by the veil she had worn at her wedding with Prince Albert, 60 years before." "Queen Victoria's death was seen by many as the passing of an era." "But also in 1901, there were fears of powers arising up which might start to put pressure on Britain to yield its primacy in the world." "So that the last days of the Queen's reign, there were fears and misgivings." "Rhodes had overstretched the empire." "The Boer republics he had driven Britain to conquer were soon given independence." "His aggressive spirit was to be replaced by a Gladstonian liberalism." "Those ideals that Prince Albert had instilled in Victoria in the early years of her reign proved, in the end, to be more enduring than the harsh imperialism of her final decades." "ø Supertext Captions by øCaptioned by:" "ø Matt Levey"