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CHAPTER VII
The Northward Expansion
1924 onwards. The history of the Rhodesias —more particularly that of Northern Rhodesia—in the period after World War I parallels the economic develop­ment of the Union at an earlier stage of history—the gradual growth of a modern organized economy, primarily based on mining, in an area previously primitive, and, for that reason, poor.
The pioneer work in Northern Rhodesia had been mainly done by Sir Edmund Davis and the companies associated with his name. His interests included the Rhodesia Broken Hill Development Company in Northern Rhodesia, which was also destined to fall within the ambit of Anglo American Corporation. Ernest Oppenheimer's personal contacts with Edmund Davis in diamond matters led to collaboration over new prospecting companies (to this end the then new conces­sions policy of the 'Chartered' company contributed); out of these in the end emerged the producing mines in the Copperbelt owned by Anglo American Corporation and Rhodesian Anglo American. Out of the new prospecting policy finally emerged also the mines owned and administered by Rhodesian Selection Trust, the creation of Sir A. Chester Beatty. The relations between the two groups, and the two strong personalities behind them —partly com­petitive and partly co-operative—form an essential part of the history of the Copperbelt. A second vital element was constituted by the efforts of Ernest Oppenheimer to achieve co-operation with American interests without incurring the risk — which was a very real one — of the domination of the Rhodesian field by powerful American groups.
The opening up of the Copperbelt inevitably raised the issue of 'African advancement'. Ernest Oppenheimer's efforts to overcome the doubts enter­tained by the white workers are set out, in connexion also with his general attitude towards economic advancement in the Federation.
Over the course of the years, Anglo American Corporation and Rhoanglo interests in the Rhodesias have extended widely: Ernest Oppenheimer's convic­tion that there was a moral obligation to aid the development of the Rhodesias has borne fruit in many directions.
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I N the course of the year 1924, Ernest Oppenheimer, being then in his forty-fourth year, was brought into contact with an area and with problems hitherto ahen to his experience. Up to that time he had concerned himself principally with gold and with
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