Cecil Rhodes, while problematic, was born in England 200 years after the colonizing of the Dutch Cape Colony in South Africa. When he arrived in Africa, sent out for his health, in his early teens he landed on an established albeit failing cotton farm.
His wealth arose from snowballing into a monopoly the purchase of Kimberley diamond leases from other European settlers over 17 years with backers money and then his own.
For that matter Columbus was in truth a failed navigator and accidental colonizer.
His intent was sail to the already colonised spice islands of the Dutch East Indies ... but he'd made a boo boo wrt the circumference of the Earth.