British settlers arrived beginning in the early 1800s, and were followed by Indians in the late 19th and early 20th century. The majority of Indians were brought as indentured laborers to work on the sugar plantations of Natal. A substantial Portuguese minority developed in the late 20th century. The offspring of whites and slaves imported by the Dutch from Southeast Asia and other parts of Africa, and later the offspring of whites and Bantu peoples, created a sizable mixed-race population. 

Until recently, Whites dominated the nonwhite majority population under a political system of racial segregation -- known as apartheid, which ended in the early 1990s.  However, South Africans are still recovering from the racial inequalities in political power, opportunity, and lifestyle brought on by years of oppression under apartheid. The end of apartheid led to the lifting of trade sanctions against South Africa imposed by the international community. It also led to a total reorganization of the government, which since 1994, has been a nonracial democracy based on majority rule.