The First Matabele War involved the British businessman who was Prime Minister of what area from 1890-96?
Cape Colony
Title: Battle of the Shangani
Passage: The Battle of the Shangani took place on 25 October 1893, during the First Matabele War in what is now Zimbabwe.  A British column was attacked at night by a large force of Matabele, but repulsed them with heavy loss of life to the Matabele.  It is noted for being the first battle in which the Maxim gun played an important role.
Title: First Matabele War
Passage: The First Matabele War was fought between 1893 and 1894 in the country today called Zimbabwe.  It pitted the British South Africa Company against the Ndebele (Matabele) Kingdom.  Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, had tried to avoid outright war with the company's pioneers because he and his advisors were mindful of the destructive power of European-produced weapons on traditional Matabele impis (units of Zulu warriors) attacking in massed ranks.  Lobengula had 80,000 spearmen and 20,000 riflemen, armed with nine-pound Martini-Henrys, which were modern arms at that time.  However, poor training meant that these were not used effectively.  The British South Africa Company had no more than 750 troops in the British South Africa Company's Police, with an undetermined number of possible colonial volunteers and an additional 700 Tswana (Bechuana) allies.  Cecil Rhodes, who was Prime Minister of the Cape Colony and Leander Starr Jameson, the Administrator of Mashonaland also tried to avoid war to prevent loss of confidence in the future of the territory.  Matters came to a head when Lobengula approved a raid to forcibly extract tribute from a Mashona chief in the district of the town of Fort Victoria, which inevitably led to a clash with the Company.
Title: Cecil Rhodes
Passage: Cecil John Rhodes PC (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British businessman, mining magnate and politician in South Africa, who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896.  An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia), which the company named after him in 1895.  South Africa's Rhodes University is also named after him.  Rhodes set up the provisions of the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate, and put much effort towards his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory.
Cecil Rhodes First Matabele War