In the late 19th century, British–South African mining entrepreneur and politician Cecil Rhodes founded the British South African Company (BSAC), with a charter from Queen Victoria to colonise and develop land in sections of what is now northern South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Botswana. Rhodes was a strong believer in the Cape to Cairo railway project, although with German East Africa blocking the route to the north of BSAC territory, he could not progress it during his lifetime. With little regard for the human rights of the African populations, Rhodes personally led the conquest of territory as far as Salisbury (now Harare in Zimbabwe), and his company continued extending to the north even after his death in 1902. The BSAC took formal control of the region around Lusaka through the protectorate of Barotziland–North-Western Rhodesia, named after Rhodes, in 1899. The capital was initially at Kalomo, being switched to Livingstone in 1907. This was merged in 1911 with the territory of North-Eastern Rhodesia to form Northern Rhodesia, the pre-cursor to modern Zambia.