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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 April 2022
The British South Africa Company was formed in the late 1880s to establish a new colony in the region between the Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers. The area the Company wished to occupy was known as Mashohaland: the planned northern expansion was directed by Cecil John Rhodes, soon to be prime minister of the Cape and a businessman with the resources for empirebuilding. The Trust Deed of De Beers Consolidated Mines gave him the power to “annex and govern territories, raise armies and fight wars”. His Company was also granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria which entitled it to exploit and extend administrative control over a vast area of southern and central Africa.