Progressive Party (Cape Colony)

The Progressive Party formed in the late 1890s from the pro-imperialist politics of politicians such as Cecil John Rhodes, Alfred Milner and John Gordon Sprigg.

They initially formed the opposition to the government of Prime Minister William Philip Schreiner, after they lost the 1898 election to him.

However, the Progressives came to power on 18 June 1900 under Prime Minister John Gordon Sprigg, and later under Prime Minister Leander Starr Jameson.

They lost power on 2 February 1908, to the opposition South African Party under John X. Merriman.

The similarly named "Progressive Movement" started in the neighbouring Transvaal in 1891 as a movement of wealthy foreign immigrants (or "Uitlanders") who opposed the Afrikaner government of the Transvaal.