On Mar. 12, 1888, following Cecil John Rhodes' devastating military loss in the First Boer War as Cape Colony's prime minister, the Rothschilds nonetheless funded Rhodes to start De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd. (Mar. 12, 1888) with the aim to control diamond mining in Southern Africa. Rhodes' vision was to control all African mining resources in a "Red Ribbon" stretching from Egypt in north Africa to the Cape of Good Hope on Africa southern-most point.