<P> Van Riebeeck considered it impolitic to enslave the local Khoi and San aboriginals, so the VOC began to import large numbers of slaves, primarily from the Dutch colonies in Indonesia . Eventually, van Riebeeck and the VOC began to make indentured servants out of the Khoikhoi and the San . The offspring from miscegenation between the Dutch settlers and the Khoi - San and Malay slaves became known officially as the Cape Coloureds and the Cape Malays, respectively . A significant number of the offspring from the white and slave unions were absorbed into the local proto - Afrikaans speaking white population . The racially mixed genealogical origins of many so - called "white" South Africans have been traced to interracial unions at the Cape between the European occupying population and imported Asian and African slaves, the indigenous Khoi and San, and their vari - hued offspring . Simon van der Stel, the first Governor of the Dutch settlement, famous for his development of the lucrative South African wine industry, was himself of mixed race - origin . </P> <P> In 1787, shortly before the French Revolution, a faction within the politics of the Dutch Republic known as the Patriot Party attempted to overthrow the regime of stadtholder William V. Though the revolt was crushed, it was resurrected after the French invasion of the Netherlands in 1794 / 1795 which resulted in the stadtholder fleeing the country . The Patriot revolutionaries then proclaimed the Batavian Republic, which was closely allied to revolutionary France . In response, the stadtholder, who had taken up residence in England, issued the Kew Letters, ordering colonial governors to surrender to the British . The British then seized the Cape in 1795 to prevent it from falling into French hands . The Cape was relinquished back to the Dutch in 1803 . In 1805, the British inherited the Cape as a prize during the Napoleonic Wars, again seizing the Cape from the French controlled Kingdom of Holland which had replaced the Batavian Republic . </P> <P> Like the Dutch before them, the British initially had little interest in the Cape Colony, other than as a strategically located port . The Cape Articles of Capitulation of 1806 allowed the colony to retain "all their rights and privileges which they have enjoyed hitherto", and this launched South Africa on a divergent course from the rest of the British Empire, allowing the continuance of Roman - Dutch law . British sovereignty of the area was recognised at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the Dutch accepting a payment of 6 million pounds for the colony . As one of their first tasks they outlawed the use of the Dutch language in 1806 with the view of converting the European settlers to the British language and culture . This had the effect of forcing more of the Dutch colonists to move (or trek) away from British administrative reach . Much later, in 1820 the British authorities persuaded about 5,000 middle - class British immigrants (most of them "in trade") to leave Great Britain . Many of the 1820 Settlers eventually settled in Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth . </P> <P> British policy with regard to South Africa would vacillate with successive governments, but the overarching imperative throughout the 19th century was to protect the strategic trade route to India while incurring as little expense as possible within the colony . This aim was complicated by border conflicts with the Boers, who soon developed a distaste for British authority . </P>

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