British South Africa Company

a British joint-stock company founded in 1888-89 by a group of financial magnates headed by C. Rhodes; it played the main role during the 1890’s in the colonial enslavement of African peoples (Mashona, Matabele, and others) inhabiting the Zambezi-Limpopo interfluvial area. In October 1889 the British South Africa Company received a royal charter, under which it ruled the territories of Southern Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia until 1923-24, when the administrative functions were redeemed by the British government. The company enjoyed monopoly rights on the exploitation of mineral resources in Southern Rhodesia (until 1933) and in Northern Rhodesia (until 1964, when this country was proclaimed an independent state under the name of Zambia). It owned large tracts of land, plantations, and financial, industrial, commercial, and transport enterprises. The company also made considerable financial investments in the mining industries and other companies in South and Central Africa. In 1962 the joint-stock capital of the British South Africa Company amounted to £14,250,000. In 1965 the company’s independent existence ended when it merged with the Central Mining and Investment Corporation and Consolidated Mines Selection. Control over Charter Consolidated, the investment firm born of this merger, was taken over by the Anglo-American Corporation of South Africa, a large South African monopoly.