Dole, Sanford Ballard
(1844-1926), American statesman
and lawyer, born in Honolulu, and educated at Oahu College,
Hawaii, and Williams College, Mass. He was a member of the
Hawaii legislature from 1884 to 1887 and was active in securing
the constitution of 1887 and in the overthrow of Queen
Liliuokalani (1838-1917) in 1893. In 1894 he was elected first
and only president of the republic of Hawaii, a position he held
until 1900. In 1898 Dole went to Washington, D.C., to use his
influence in favor of Hawaii's annexation by the U.S. When
Hawaii was established as a U.S. territory in 1900, President
William McKinley appointed Dole its first territorial governor.
From 1903 until his retirement in 1915 he was U.S. district court
judge in Hawaii.
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Governor William Goebels
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Emperor Franz Joseph
Born in Germany, Franz Josef (1830-1916),
emperor of Austria (1848-1916) and king of Hungary
(1867-1916), the last important ruler of the Habsburg dynasty;
his policies played a major role in the events that led to World
War I.
Francis Joseph was born in Vienna on Aug. 18, 1830, the eldest
son of Archduke Francis Charles (1802-78), brother and heir of
Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I. Francis Charles having
renounced his right to the throne, Francis Joseph became
emperor when Ferdinand abdicated during the revolution of
1848. With Russian help, he and his prime minister, Felix, prince
zu Schwarzenberg (1800-52), restored order in the empire and
reestablished Austrian dominance in the German confederation
(1849-50). In 1854 he married Elizabeth (1837-98), daughter of
Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, with whom he had one son and
three daughters. Francis Joseph's failure to support Russia in
the Crimean War (1854-56) permanently damaged
Austro-Russian relations, and in the decade that followed,
Austria lost most of its Italian possessions, as well as its
position
of leadership in Germany. Weakened by these reverses, Francis
Joseph was forced to agree to Hungarian demands for
autonomy in 1867, when he and Elizabeth were formally
crowned in Budapest as king and queen of Hungary. He also
planned to grant some form of self-government to the Austrian
Slavs but backed down because of opposition from the German
and Hungarian elite that controlled the new monarchy of
Austria-Hungary. The resulting dissatisfaction among Francis
Joseph's Czechoslovakian and Serbian subjects further
weakened the Habsburg realms and caused increased friction
with Russia, which championed the cause of Europe's Slavic
peoples. Beginning in the 1870s, Austria-Hungary gradually
became subservient to its powerful neighbor and ally, the
Prussian-dominated German Empire.
Francis Joseph's later years were marked by a series of
tragedies in his family. In 1889 his only son and heir to the
throne, Archduke Rudolf, committed suicide; in 1898 his wife,
the empress Elizabeth, was assassinated by an Italian anarchist;
and in 1914 his nephew, Francis Ferdinand, who had replaced
Rudolf as heir to the throne, was assassinated by a Serbian
nationalist. The murder of Francis Ferdinand precipitated the
crisis between Austria-Hungary and Germany on the one hand,
and Serbia and Russia on the other, that led to World War I.
Francis Joseph did not live to see Austria's defeat in the war
and the extinction of the Habsburg monarchy. He died on Nov.
21, 1916.
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President Willliam McKinley
(1843-1901), 25th president of the U.S. (1897-1901); his
administration inaugurated a period of Republican
party dominance, aided business, and made the U.S. a world
power through its victory in the Spanish-American War.
Early Life
Born on Jan. 29, 1843, to a devout Methodist family in the
small town of Niles, Ohio, McKinley was the seventh
of nine children of a storekeeper and iron founder. He showed
himself early as a mature, serious student and attended Allegheny
College for a year. At the outbreak of the American Civil War in
1861, McKinley enlisted and served for the duration, first as an
enlisted man in the commissary department and later as an officer,
after receiving a battlefield commission for bravery. For the rest
of his life he was known as "Major" McKinley.
McKinley began practicing law in Canton, Ohio, in 1867 and,
entering politics, won his first office as county attorney in
1869.
Thereafter, his political rise was steady, with election to the
U.S.
House of Representatives (1877), growing influence among
Republicans in his state and in Congress, and a term as
governor of Ohio (1892-96). By 1896 he had become the most
likely Republican presidential nominee because of his
leadership in the critical state of Ohio, his long services and
wide connections within the party, and his championship of
economic issues, particularly the protective tariff. In addition,
he
had gained an able, devoted political and financial manager in
Mark Hanna. In 1871 McKinley married Ida Saxton (1847-1907)
of Canton, who became an invalid after the deaths of their two
young daughters and took almost no part in political or social
life.
Domestic Policy
The 1896 election formed a major turning point in American
politics. McKinley advocated the tariff as a way of protecting
business and labor from foreign imports and defended the gold
standard against his Democratic opponent William Jennings
Bryan, who espoused the free coinage of silver, which would
have inflated currency and aided debtors. The Republicans ran
an efficient, lavishly financed campaign, and McKinley won the
election by the largest popular margin since the Civil War. His
administration enacted a higher tariff in 1897, committed the
country to the gold standard in 1900, and generally promoted
business confidence. Probably in part because of these
policies, the economy recovered from a severe depression, and
the Republicans became identified with economic prosperity,
which made them the dominant party until the 1930s. McKinley
received public vindication when he defeated Bryan again and
was reelected by a still larger vote in 1900.
Foreign Policy
Foreign affairs initially presented a troublesome distraction,
as
the Cuban revolution for independence from Spain created
pressures on the U.S. to help free the island. After resisting
such
sentiment for a time, McKinley decided in 1898 to intervene.
The
U.S. defeated Spain easily in three months and acquired Puerto
Rico and the Philippines. Although the war was popular, these
new possessions aroused controversy, along with the
recognition that the nation had become involved in world politics
as a great power. Disquiet also arose from the unprecedented
growth of big businesses, called trusts, including the first
billion-dollar corporation. McKinley showed an awareness of
these concerns as his second term began, but whatever
changes might have come were cut short when Leon Czolgosz
(1873-1901), an anarchist, shot him in Buffalo, N.Y., on Sept.
6,
1901. He died eight days later, the third president of the U.S.
to
be assassinated.
Evaluation
McKinley was an astute manager who relied on subtle
persuasion rather than flamboyant advocacy. Although not a
visionary or an activist, he built a lasting political coalition
and
presided over some of the most momentous developments in
American history.
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Czar Nicholas II
(1868-1918), emperor of Russia (1894-1917);
one of the major European leaders of the pre-World War I era,
the last czar of the Russian Empire.
The eldest son of Emperor Alexander III, Nicholas was born at
Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin) on May 18, 1868. Educated
privately, he was married in 1894 to Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt
(1872-1918), a German princess who took the name Alexandra
when she converted to Russian Orthodoxy. In the same year his
father died, and he succeeded to the throne. Believing firmly
in
his duty to preserve absolute power in the Russian monarchy,
he
opposed any concessions to those favoring more democracy in
government, but had little talent for leadership himself. He
tended to rely for advice on his wife, to whom he was devoted
and who bore him four daughters and a son, and was influenced
by her mystical beliefs. Nicholas's interest in Russian expansion
in the Far East was one of the contributory causes of the
disastrous Russo-Japanese War (1904-5), which in turn helped
touch off the Russian Revolution of 1905. Forced by the
revolution to assent to constitutional monarchy, he nevertheless
continued to believe he was responsible only to God.
An advocate of peace and international cooperation, Nicholas
sponsored the Hague Conferences, which created the
Permanent Court of Arbitration and formulated rules for the
humane conduct of war, but failed to check Europe's growing
arms race. Despite his personally friendly relations with his
cousin, William II of Germany, their two countries were on
opposite sides when World War I broke out in 1914.
Russia's defeats and the suffering caused by the war among the
people were blamed on Nicholas, especially after he assumed
personal command of the army in 1915. Forced to abdicate in
March 1917, Nicholas was held captive by the Bolsheviks until
executed, along with his family, at Yekaterinburg on the night
of
July 16-17, 1918. Eighty years later, the remains of Nicholas,
the
Empress Alexandra, three of their daughters, and four members
of their household staff were buried in a state ceremony in the
Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Saint Petersburg.
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British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, III Marquess of (1830-1903),
British statesman, noted for his achievements in foreign affairs,
especially for the expansion of British power in Africa.
Born at Hatfield, his family estate in Hertfordshire, on Feb.
3, 1830,
Salisbury was educated at the University of Oxford. He entered
the
House of Commons as a Conservative in 1853 and soon became noted
as a foreign policy expert. He was secretary of state for India
in 1866-67
and became marquess of Salisbury when his father died in 1868.
He was
Indian secretary again from 1874 to 1878. As foreign secretary
(1878-80) under Benjamin Disraeli, he prevented Russia from achieving
hegemony over Ottoman Turkey and acquired Cyprus for Great Britain.
Salisbury became prime minister in 1885 and-except for a brief
period in
1886-held that post until 1892, becoming his own foreign secretary
in
1887. In domestic affairs his ministry was responsible for the
Local
Government Act of 1888 and for the establishment of free public
education (1891). In 1889 he secured British possession of what
later
became the colony of Rhodesia, and the following year he negotiated
an
agreement with Germany that divided East Africa into British
and German
spheres of influence. Returning to office as prime minister and
foreign
secretary in 1895, he won French agreement to Anglo-Egyptian
control
of the Sudan in 1899 and in the same year involved his country
in the
Boer War, which led to British control over all of South Africa.
Just
before leaving office in 1902 he concluded the Anglo-Japanese
Alliance,
which remained in effect until after World War I. Salisbury died
at
Hatfield on Aug. 22, 1903.
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Alfred Lord Milner
1st Viscount Milner (1854- 1925), British
statesman, born in Giessen, Hesse (now in Germany), and
educated at the universities of London and Oxford. A former
journalist with the Pall Mall Gazette, Milner was undersecretary
for finance in Egypt from 1889 to 1892; in the latter year he
published England in Egypt, an argument for British involvement
in that country. In 1897 he was appointed high commissioner for
British southern Africa and governor of the Cape Colony (now
Cape Province), in which post his outstanding achievement was
to negotiate the peace ending the Boer War . He returned to
Great Britain in 1905 and retired from politics. In 1915 he
became a member of the war cabinet, without portfolio, and he
later served as emissary to Russia (1917), secretary of war
(1918), and colonial secretary (1919-21). His recommendations
that Egypt be given limited self-government were adopted in
1922.
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Edward VII
(1841-1910), king of Great Britain and Ireland and
emperor of India (1901-10), who gave his name to the
Edwardian period.
Edward was born on Nov. 9, 1841, in Buckingham Palace,
London, the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and
was christened Albert Edward. He studied at the universities
of
Edinburgh, Oxford, and Cambridge. In 1860 he visited Canada,
inaugurating the custom of goodwill visits by members of the
British royal family, particularly the prince of Wales, to British
dominions and foreign countries.
In 1863 Edward married Alexandra (1844-1925), eldest
daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark. The prince and
princess then assumed much of the burden of court ceremonials
and public functions, which Queen Victoria had laid aside on
going into virtual retirement after the death of the prince consort
in 1861. Edward traveled extensively. In Russia and France,
particularly, he made valuable personal contacts in political
and
social circles. At home, his popularity was increased both as
prince of Wales and as king by his interest in sports, notably
yachting and horse racing; his horses won the Derby in 1896,
1900, and 1909 and the Grand National at Liverpool in 1900.
Edward succeeded to the throne in 1901. From the beginning of
his reign he adopted a policy of promoting international amity
in
Europe, where political tension had been mounting. His visits
to
various European capitals from 1901 to 1904 and return visits
to
him by European rulers helped promote the signing of arbitration
treaties in 1903-4 between Great Britain and France, Spain,
Italy, Germany, and Portugal. He was also an important force
behind two agreements that strengthened the position of Great
Britain on the Continent, the Entente Cordiale of 1904 between
France and Great Britain, and a pact between Russia and Great
Britain in 1907. In 1909 the king and queen paid a diplomatic
visit to Emperor William II of Germany (Edward's nephew) that
temporarily dispelled German suspicion that the increasingly
friendly relations between Great Britain and France and Russia
were aimed at weakening Germany. Because of his efforts to
increase international amity the king became known as Edward
the Peacemaker.
Edward died at Buckingham Palace on May 6, 1910, having
reigned for only nine years. Three daughters and two sons were
born of the marriage between Edward and Alexandra. The sons
were Prince Albert Victor, duke of Clarence (1864-92), and
George, duke of York, who succeeded Edward as George V. In
1896 Edward's youngest daughter, Princess Maude Charlotte
Mary Victoria (1869-1938), married her cousin, Prince Charles
of Denmark, who later became King Håkon VII of Norway.
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Tz'u Hsi, née Yehonala ,Dowager Empress
(1835-1908), Chinese empress
dowager, born in Beijing. A consort of Emperor Hsien Feng
(1831-61), she gave birth in 1856 to a son, later the Emperor
T'ung Chih (r. 1861-75). On the death of Hsien Feng, Tz'u Hsi
became the virtual ruler of China, acting as regent from 1861
to
1873, and continuing to control state affairs after that. When
T'ung Chih died, Tz'u Hsi placed her nephew, Kuang Hsü
(1871-1908), on the throne and ruled as his regent until 1889
and again from 1898 until her death.
A conservative, she interfered with Kuang Hsü's modernizing
efforts in 1898-the so-called Hundred Days' Reform-and
subsequently supported the unsuccessful Boxer Rebellion as a
way of resisting foreign territorial encroachment. Between 1902
and 1908, relinquishing her former conservatism, Tz'u Hsi
encouraged the modernization of China, promising to grant
constitutional government by 1916.
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William Averell Harriman
(1891-1986), American
financier, government official, and diplomat, son of Edward
Henry Harriman, born in New York City, and educated at Yale
University. After heading various railroad, shipping, and banking
enterprises, he entered government service in 1934 and was
thereafter closely associated with the New Deal and the
Democratic party. He served in many key government and
diplomatic posts. During World War II he was lend-lease
administrator from 1941 to 1943, when he became ambassador
to the Soviet Union (1943-46). He then served as ambassador
to Great Britain (1946), U.S. secretary of commerce (1946-48),
and director of the Mutual Security Agency (1951-53). Harriman
was governor of New York State (1955-58) and an unsuccessful
candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1956.
Defeated for reelection in 1958 by Nelson A. Rockefeller, he
was appointed assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern
affairs (1961-63), and undersecretary of state for political
affairs
(1963-64). In 1968-69 he led the U.S. delegation conducting
preliminary peace talks in Paris with North Vietnam, with the
aim
of negotiating a settlement of the Vietnam War. Harriman wrote
America and Russia in a Changing World: A Half Century of
Personal Observation (1971).
His third wife, the English-born Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward
Harriman (1920-97), also became a leading figure in the
Democratic party and served as U.S. ambassador to France
(1993-97).
HARRIMAN, Edward Henry (1848-1909), American railroad
magnate, born in Hempstead, N.Y. At the age of 14 he became
an office boy in a Wall Street firm and seven years later bought
a
seat on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1883 he became a
director of the Illinois Central Railroad, and in 1897 he formed
a
syndicate that acquired the bankrupt Union Pacific. He
eliminated competition by gaining control of many other lines,
including the Central and Southern Pacific railroads. His
unsuccessful attempt to wrest control of the Chicago, Burlington
& Quincy Railroad and, later, the Northern Pacific from James
Jerome Hill resulted in a panic on the New York Stock Exchange
in 1901. In an effort to settle the dispute, Harriman joined
forces
with Hill and John Pierpont Morgan to form a holding company,
the Northern Securities Co.; a 1904 decision by the U.S.
Supreme Court held the company in violation of antitrust laws,
and it was dissolved. An investigation of Harriman's holdings
by
the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1906-7 exposed
nothing illegal.
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John Peirpont (JP) Morgan
(1837-1913), American financier, art collector, and philanthropist.
Morgan was born in Hartford, Conn. He learned banking in the
brokerage house of Duncan, Sherman & Co., New York City.
In 1860 Morgan became U.S. agent for his father's banking firm
in London, and in 1871 he entered the firm of Drexel, Morgan
& Co., which he reorganized in 1895 as J. P. Morgan &
Co.,
with branches in Paris and London.
Because of his dominant position in
the fields of both domestic and international finance, Morgan's
control of private enterprise and government financing was
unequaled by any American of his time. For many years his
company was engaged in railroad negotiations with Edward
Henry Harriman and James Jerome Hill. By 1900 Morgan
controlled one of the six major railroad lines in the U.S. In
1895
he organized a syndicate to float the bond issue negotiated by
President Grover Cleveland for increase of the U.S. gold
reserve, thereby helping to stabilize the American economy,
which had been shaken by the so-called panic of 1893. In 1901
Morgan organized the U.S. Steel Corp., which was then the
largest corporation in the world. He also gained control of
numerous other American businesses, including the Equitable
Life Assurance Society. In 1912, during a period of economic
discontent, Morgan was investigated by a committee of the U.S.
House of Representatives. He testified on his own behalf,
denying the existence of a money trust or of any far-reaching
financial control.
Morgan was also famous as an art collector and philanthropist.
He contributed to art museums, cathedrals, churches, and
hospitals. After his death the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New
York City received a large part of Morgan's collection, which
is
housed in the Pierpont Morgan wing. In 1924 his private
Pierpont Morgan Library was made into a public institution.
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John Milton Hay
(1838-1905), American statesman and writer, secretary of state
during the expansion of U.S. international activity under Presidents
William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, and an important
biographer of President Abraham Lincoln.
Born Oct. 8, 1838, in Salem, Ind., and educated at Brown
University, Providence, R.I., Hay joined his uncle's law office
in
Springfield, Ill., in 1858. In 1861-65, during the American Civil
War, he was assistant to his friend John Nicolay (1831-1901),
private secretary to Lincoln. During this period he and Nicolay
collected the material for the two monumental works on which
they later collaborated: Abraham Lincoln: A History (10 vol.,
1890), a critical biography still highly regarded today; and
Abraham Lincoln: Collected Works (2 vol., 1894).
Hay held minor diplomatic posts in Europe in 1865-70 and then,
except for serving as assistant secretary of state in 1879-80,
devoted himself to writing until 1897. Besides serving on the
editorial board of the New York Tribune he published sketches
of his experiences in Spain, Castilian Days (1871), a collection
of poems in Illinois frontier dialect, Pike County Ballads (1871),
and the two Lincoln works.
Hay was ambassador to Great Britain in 1897-98 and then
served until his death as secretary of state to McKinley and
Roosevelt. As secretary he directed peace negotiations after
the
Spanish-American War (1898), secured U.S. influence in the
Pacific by annexing the Philippines, and in China initiated
(1899) the Open Door Policy , which guaranteed equal trade
opportunities for all countries. In 1900, following the outbreak
of
the Boxer Rebellion, Hay defined U.S. policy even more
emphatically, declaring that the U.S. would uphold both the
territorial and administrative integrity of China and the policy
of
free trade. In 1901 he negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty ,
which opened the way for U.S. construction of the Panama
Canal. Hay died on July 1, 1905, in Newbury, N.H.
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Friedrich (Wilhelm) Nietzche
(1844-1900), German
philosopher, poet, and classical philologist, who became one
of
the most provocative and influential thinkers of the 19th century.
Life and Works.
Nietzche was born on Oct. 15, 1844, in Röcken, Prussia. His
father, a Lutheran minister, died when Nietzsche was five, and
Nietzsche was raised by his mother in a home that included his
grandmother, two aunts, and a sister. He studied classical
philology at the universities of Bonn and Leipzig and was
appointed professor of classical philology at the University
of
Basel at the age of 24. Ill health (he was plagued throughout
his
life by poor eyesight and migraine headaches) forced his
retirement in 1879. Ten years later he suffered a mental
breakdown from which he never recovered. He died in Weimar
on Aug. 25, 1900.
In addition to the influence of Greek culture, particularly the
philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, Nietzsche was influenced
by
the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, by the theory of
evolution, and by his friendship with the German composer
Richard Wagner.
A prolific writer, he wrote several major works, among them The
Birth of Tragedy (1872; trans. 1966), Thus Spoke Zarathustra
(1883-85; trans. 1954), Beyond Good and Evil (1886; trans.
1966), On the Genealogy of Morals (1887; trans. 1966), The
Antichrist (1888; trans. 1954), Ecce Homo (1889; trans. 1966),
and The Will to Power (1901; trans. 1910).
One of Nietzche's fundamental contentions was that traditional
values (represented primarily by Christianity) had lost their
power in the lives of individuals. He expressed this in his
proclamation "God is dead." He was convinced that traditional
values represented a "slave morality," a morality created by
weak and resentful individuals who encouraged such behavior
as gentleness and kindness because the behavior served their
interests. Nietzsche claimed that new values could be created
to
replace the traditional ones, and his discussion of the possibility
led to his concept of the overman or superman.
According to Nietzsche, the masses, whom he termed the herd
or mob, conform to tradition, whereas his ideal overman is
secure, independent, and highly individualistic. The overman
feels deeply, but his passions are rationally controlled.
Concentrating on the real world, rather than on the rewards of
the
next world promised by religion, the overman affirms life,
including the suffering and pain that accompany human
existence. His overman is a creator of values, a creator of a
"master morality" that reflects the strength and independence
of
one who is liberated from all values, except those that he deems
valid.
Nietzsche maintained that all human behavior is motivated by
the will to power. In its positive sense, the will to power is
not
simply power over others, but the power over oneself that is
necessary for creativity. Such power is manifested in the
overman's independence, creativity, and originality. Although
Nietzsche explicitly denied that any overmen had yet arisen,
he
mentions several individuals who could serve as models. Among
these models he lists Socrates, Jesus, Leonardo da Vinci,
Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Goethe, Julius Caesar, and
Napoleon.
The concept of the overman has often been interpreted as one
that postulates a master-slave society and has been identified
with totalitarian philosophies. Many scholars deny the connection
and attribute it to misinterpretation of Nietzsche's work.
Influence.
An acclaimed poet, Nietzsche exerted much influence on
German literature , as well as on French literature and theology.
His concepts have been discussed and elaborated upon by
such individuals as the German philosophers Karl Jaspers and
Martin Heidegger, and the German Jewish philosopher Martin
Buber, the German-American theologian Paul Tillich, and the
French writers Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre. Nietzsche's
proclamation "God is dead" was seized upon by the post-World
War II radical theologians, the Americans Thomas J. J. Altizer
(1927- ) and Paul Van Buren (1924-
), in their attempt to
make Christianity relevant to its believers in the 1960s and
'70s.
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Cecil John Rhodes
(1853-1902), British colonial statesman and financier, one
of the main promoters of British rule in southern Africa.
Rhodes was born July 5, 1853, in Bishop's Stortford, England.
In 1870 he was sent to live with his brother Herbert (fl. about 1845-73)
in Africa, in the area now known as the Republic of South Africa.
Diamond fields were discovered at Kimberley in Cape Colony
(now in Northern Cape Province; see CAPE PROVINCE) in the
following year, and Rhodes became a diamond prospector; by the
time he was 19 years old he had accumulated a large fortune. In 1873
he returned to England to study at the University of Oxford; until
1881, when he received his degree, he divided his time
between the university and the diamond fields. His most
important achievement during this period was the amalgamation
of a large number of diamond-mining claims to form De Beers
Mining Co., which he controlled. In 1881 he entered the Cape
Colony Parliament and held the seat for the rest of his life.
Rhodes was largely responsible for the annexation to the British
Empire of Bechuanaland (now Botswana) in 1885. In 1888, with
the founding of De Beers Consolidated Mines, Rhodes
monopolized the diamond production of Kimberley. In the same
year he received exclusive diamond mining rights from
Lobengula, who was the ruler of Matabeleland (now in
Zimbabwe). The following year Rhodes was granted a charter to
incorporate the British South Africa Co. Until 1923 the company
controlled what are present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia; the
region was named Rhodesia in 1894 in honor of Rhodes.
In 1890 Rhodes was made prime minister of the Cape. Five
years later he supported a conspiracy by British settlers in
the
Transvaal Republic (now Transvaal Province) to overthrow their
government, which was dominated by the Boers. The revolt was
to be backed by a British South Africa Co. force led by Sir
Leander Starr Jameson, British administrator of the lands
constituting present-day Zimbabwe. On Dec. 29, 1895,
Jameson invaded Transvaal prematurely and unsuccessfully.
Rhodes was acquitted of responsibility for the invasion, known
as Jameson's Raid, but he was censured for his role in the plot
against the Transvaal government and was forced to resign his
premiership the following month. He then devoted himself to the
development of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). During the Boer
War he was prominent in the defense of Kimberley. He died at
Cape Town on March 26, 1902, before the war was over. In his
will Rhodes left most of his fortune to the establishment of
the
Rhodes scholarships.
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St. Francis of Assisi
Saint (1182-1226), Italian mystic and preacher, who founded the
Franciscans. Born in Assisi, Italy and originally named Giovanni Francesco
Bernardone,
he appears to have received little formal education, even though his
father was a wealthy
merchant. As a young man, Francis led a worldly, carefree life.
Following a battle between Assisi and Perugia, he was held
captive in Perugia for over
a year. While imprisoned, he suffered a severe illness during which
he resolved to
alter his way of life. Back in Assisi in 1205, he performed charities
among the lepers
and began working on the restoration of dilapidated churches. Francis's
change of
character and his expenditures for charity angered his father, who
legally disinherited
him. Francis then discarded his rich garments for a bishop's cloak
and devoted the
next three years to the care of outcasts and lepers in the woods of
Mount Subasio.
For his devotions on Mount Subasio, Francis restored the ruined
chapel of Santa
Maria degli Angeli. In 1208, one day during Mass, he heard a
call telling him to go out
into the world and, according to the text of Matt. 10:5-14, to
possess nothing, but to do
good everywhere.
Upon returning to Assisi that same year, Francis began preaching.
He gathered round
him the 12 disciples who became the original brothers of his
order, later called the
First Order; they elected Francis superior. In 1212 he received
a young, well-born nun
of Assisi, Clare, into Franciscan fellowship; through her was
established the Order of
the Poor Ladies (the Poor Clares), later the Second Order of
Franciscans. It was
probably later in 1212 that Francis set out for the Holy Land,
but a shipwreck forced
him to return. Other difficulties prevented him from accomplishing
much missionary
work when he went to Spain to preach to the Moors. In 1219 he
was in Egypt, where
he succeeded in preaching to, but not in converting, the sultan.
Francis then went on
to the Holy Land, staying there until 1220. He wished to be martyred
and rejoiced
upon hearing that five Franciscan friars had been killed in Morocco
while carrying out
their duties. On his return home he found dissension in the ranks
of the friars and
resigned as superior, spending the next few years in planning
what became the Third
Order of Franciscans, the tertiaries.
In September 1224, after 40 days of fasting, Francis was praying
upon Monte Alverno
when he felt pain mingled with joy, and the marks of the crucifixion
of Christ, the
stigmata, appeared on his body. Accounts of the appearance of
these marks differ,
but it seems probable that they were knobby protuberances of
the flesh, resembling
the heads of nails. Francis was carried back to Assisi, where
his remaining years
were marked by physical pain and almost total blindness. He was
canonized in 1228.
In 1980, Pope John Paul II proclaimed him the patron saint of
ecologists. In art, the
emblems of St. Francis are the wolf, the lamb, the fish, birds,
and the stigmata. His
feast day is October 4.
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KARL KÖNIG
Born on September 27, 1902 in Vienna, Austrian-Hungarian Empire, into
a Jewish family.
Studied medicine, fascinated by embryology
He first took notice of Rudolf Steiner in 1921, but missed the opportunity
to meet him at the West-East Conference in Vienna in 1922, a fact that
he regretted all his life. He decided to become a member of the AS on March
30, 1925, the day Rudolf Steiner died.
Friendship with Ita Wegman, pioneering work in the field of Curative
Pedagogics in Silesia
In 1938, he had to take refuge from Nationalsocialism in Scotland
Together with a small group of close friends from Vienna, he started
in Camphill the first Village Community for children with down syndrom
which was to become the worldwide Camphill Movement.
Died on March 27, 1966 in Überlingen, Lake of Constance, FRG
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