In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck colonized the Cape. He started the camp for the Dutch East India Company. This was so that they could give fresh food to ships on their way to the south of Asia. There were very few native people living in the Cape. Because of this, slaves were brought from Indonesia, Madagascar and India to work at the colony. In 1795, Great Britain took the Cape from the Dutch East India Company, to stop France from taking it. The British gave it back in 1803 but then annexed the Cape in 1807 when the Dutch East India Company went bankrupt.