Lord Salisbury

Lord Salisbury (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 February 3, 1830, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3^rd Marquess of 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 1866-1867 and became marquess of Salisbury when his father died in 1868. He was Indian secretary again from 1874 to 1878. As foreign secretary (1878-1880) under Benjamin Disraeli, he prevented Russia from achieving hegemony over Ottoman Turkey and acquired Cyprus for 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 colonies of Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe), 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 August 22, 1903.