Whose colony was Australia? History of Australia
Introduction
1. History of the discovery of Australia
1.1. Willem Janszon, Abel Tasman and William Damper
1.2. James Cook
2. The beginning of the English colonization of Australia
2.1. Reasons for the colonization of Australia by England
2.2. Australia's first colonists
2.3. Australia in the 19th century
2.4. English colonizers and Australian Aborigines
Conclusion
Introduction
Australia is the only world state occupying whole continent. It is the oldest land mass, the flattest and the driest. The total area of the mainland is 7.7 million km. Most of the country's territory is occupied by deserts and vast plains, in the southeast - small mountains. In the central-western part of the continent, more than 50% of the land is desert: the Great Sandy Desert, the Great Victoria Desert and the Gibson Desert. In the northeast, tropical forests cover the coast. In the mountains in the southeast, snow lies 7 months a year. The beauty of the world-famous Great Barrier Reef is unique. The continent is washed in the north by the Timor, Arafura seas and the Torres Strait; in the east - by the Corral and Tasman seas; in the south by the Bass Strait and the Indian Ocean; to the west by the Indian Ocean. Australia's most important river, the Murray, flows on the border of two states: New South Wales and Victoria. Its length is 2766 km. In terms of its length, it ranks 5th in the world. The highest peak is Kosciuszko in the South-East (2228 m) in the Great Dividing Range. The lowest point in Australia is Lake Eyre, which is 15 meters below sea level.
It is considered the beginning of the history of Australia on August 22, 1770, when James Cook, in the name of King George III, solemnly proclaimed the land he had explored as the possession of Great Britain and named it New South Wales. However, this is not entirely true. Even before him, French, Dutch and English ships approached its shores. Cook was the first European to visit the eastern shores of the continent.
And before that, according to scientists, about 70,000 years ago, the first people from Indonesia came to Australia. The first settlers, whom archeologists later called "robust" because of their large-boned constitution, were replaced by graceful people, the ancestors of the Australian Aborigines, after another 20,000 years.
The purpose of the course project “Colonization of Australia. The development of the territory of Australia by the British ”- to show how the settlement and discovery of Australia by Great Britain took place, the relationship between the British and the indigenous population of Australia, the development of Australia in the era of colonization.
1. History of the discovery of Australia
1.1. Willem Janszon, Abel Tasman and William Damper
By the beginning of the 17th century, almost no one in Europe doubted that Australia existed. Anyone understood that if there was no huge continent somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, the Earth, under the exorbitant weight of Europe, Asia and Africa, would simply capsize down. Therefore, the discovery of this continent was only a matter of time. After the conquest of the New World, the eyes of the major European powers, with understandable impatience, turned to the unknown southern land, which in Latin sounds like Terra Australis Incognita. Dozens of sailors dreamed of repeating the feat of Columbus.
The first to reach the northern tip of the western coast of the mainland in 1606 was the Dutchman Willem Janszon, who solemnly proclaimed the land found in the area of \u200b\u200bthe modern Gulf of Carpentaria (the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula) the land of New Holland. It should be noted that this discovery did not cause much enthusiasm in Europe. Neither gold, nor pearls, nor other useful and valuable materials could be found at that time in New Holland. Nevertheless, from the Dutch base in Batavia (modern Jakarta), a thin stream of researchers reached there. Eastern India became a springboard for further research.
In 1642, the governor of the East Indies, Anthony Van Diemen, sent an expedition in search of new uncharted lands. The expedition was led by an experienced navigator Abel Tasman. So it is not difficult to guess what exactly this sailor managed to discover. True, this island received its current name - Tasmania - recently, in 1953. Tasman himself named the newly discovered land of Van Dimenova, in honor of the governor who sent him. But since in the future this name turned out to be inextricably linked with the penal colony - Port Arthur and its prisoners, the name originally given to the island had to be changed. Moreover, it is interesting that, having landed on the coast of Tasmania, the Dutch captain bypassed New Holland, that is, he missed Australia.
Although Tasman took possession of Van Diemen's Land on behalf of Holland, it was even less useful than New Holland: a rather harsh climate, wild nature, gloomy rocks, and again no treasure. Local residents did not react at all to the brought silver and gold, demonstrated by the sailors. These strange, in the opinion of savages, objects had no value. From which it followed that there was nothing of the kind here. The local natives were in a primitive state, not having the slightest idea about property, and even more so about money.
At the end of the 17th century, the English pirate William Dampier twice sailed to the shores of Australia, who explored its western coast for a long distance; here is his name and now bears the large port of Dampier. Then there was a rather long break in research, and in 1770, James Cook, during his first round-the-world trip on the Endeavour, traveled about 4 thousand km along the east coast of Australia, discovering Botany Bay, a large Barrier reef, Cape York. He declared all new lands the property of the English crown and called them the new South Wales. Thus, he actually became the discoverer of Australia.
1.2. James Cook
On April 29, 1770, the heavy and clumsy ship Endeavor anchored in the waters of a charming bay.
The official reason for sending the ship, commanded by James Cook, to the newly discovered island of Tahiti was the observation of the passage of Venus on June 3, 1769 between the Earth and the Sun. Although these astronomical studies were only a pretext. The English government was extremely interested in the unknown southern mainland, on which it was supposed to discover unusually rich deposits of gold, silver and other minerals. But Cook, alas, could not find anything of the kind there. But the captain found something completely different, namely, the real Australia, or rather, New South Wales - that's how he called the land he discovered. At the same time, he was well aware that it was the eastern side of New Holland, discovered by Willem Janszon.
Among the team of Captain Cook, who went in search of Australia, was a scientist - a botanist of the Royal Geographical Society, Joseph Banks. The plants and animals found hitherto unknown hit the imagination of the researcher so much that he persuaded Cook to name the place of their landing Botany Bay (Botany Bay). This name has survived to this day, and today this place is very popular in Australia as the place where the British first landed on the new continent.
A few kilometers north of Botany Bay, Cook discovered a wide natural passage into a huge natural harbor. In his report, the researcher called it the Port of Jackson, describing it as an ideal place for the safe parking of many ships. This report, apparently, was not forgotten, since a few years later the first Australian city, Sydney, was founded here.
It took Cook four months to climb up the north coast to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The navigator made a detailed map of the coastline of the future Australia. Dozens of names appeared on it - bays, bays, capes, which received new English names. Ministers, princes, lords, cities and provinces of Great Britain - it was then that they all found their Australian counterparts.
Not entirely happily passing the Great Barrier Reef, the Endeavor finally reached the northern tip of Australia. The ship had been on the verge of destruction many times before, but the skill of the captain and his crew, as a rule, helped to avoid serious problems. But on that ill-fated day, luck turned away from the sailors - "Endeavor" not far from modern city Cooktown hit a reef and nearly sank. The repair of the ship lasted 7 weeks. Today, in memory of those distant events, this place is called Cape Tribulation, in other words, "Cape of disaster." This cape is famous all over the world for its tropical forests. This is the only place on the planet where the Rhine Forest grows right into the ocean, literally touching its roots with coral reefs.
On August 22, 1770, James Cook, in the name of King George III, solemnly proclaimed the land he had explored as the possession of Great Britain and named it New South Wales.
Later, Cook made 2 more expeditions. The first of these began in 1772, when Cook left Plymouth on 2 ships. In January 1774, Cook reached 70°S. sh. Then Cook visited Easter Island, Tuamotu, Tonga.
January 8, 1778 Cook discovered Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands). The Hawaiians at first mistook him for the god Lopo, but soon became disillusioned with the guests. After that, the Discovery and Resolution sailed to the coast of Russian Alaska. The following year, Cook returned to Hawaii, but his sailors treated the natives badly. Captain Cook died on February 14, 1779 during the 3rd trip to the Hawaiian Islands, being attacked by the natives. The team managed to get Cook's body from the natives, and on February 21, 1779, he was buried in the waters Pacific Ocean.
2. The beginning of the English colonization of Australia
2.1. Reasons for the colonization of Australia by England
Ideologists of colonialism often point to the overpopulation of European states as the objective basis for European colonization. But the history of the English "development" of Australia and New Zealand serves as a clear refutation of this.
18 years after J. Cook's visit to the eastern shores of Australia, the British government remembered this mainland and decided to start colonizing it. These actions were explained by the fact that in the 80s of the XVIII century. it was not English cities that began to be overpopulated, but English prisons. The development of capitalism in England was accompanied by a terrible impoverishment of the masses.
From the end of the XV century. in the country's agriculture, sheep breeding began to develop rapidly due to the reduction of agriculture. Large landowners turned their estates into pastures on an ever larger scale. Moreover, they seized communal lands that were jointly owned with the peasant holders, and also drove these peasants from their allotments and turned the allotments into pastures. At the same time, they demolished not only individual peasant houses, but entire villages.
Driven off the land and unable to find work, the peasants formed a huge army of vagabonds who roamed the roads of the country without a livelihood and without a roof over their heads. When they managed to find work on manufactories or large farms, they fell into conditions of ruthless exploitation and turned out to be completely powerless before the law. Their working day lasted 14-16 hours or more. In the manufacturing workshop, the unlimited arbitrariness of the owner dominated. Wages were not enough even for bread for the family, in connection with which begging became widespread. Child labor was widely used in manufactories. "Unfortunate children as young as six or seven had to work 12 hours a day, six days a week, in the terrible noise of weaving mills or underground in dark as night coal mines."
Nevertheless, their parents sent them there. “Hungry women even “sold” their children to mines and factories, because they themselves were unable to find a job. Thousands and thousands of unemployed, homeless people faced a dilemma: "steal or die."
Crime flourished. Gangs of robbers terrified the cities. The ruling caste, terrified by the unruly crowds of men and women, attacked them with all the force of the barbaric penal laws. And the criminal laws of that time were distinguished by extraordinary cruelty. The death penalty was provided for 150 types of crimes - from murder to theft from a pocket of a handkerchief. It was allowed to hang children who had reached the age of seven.
To unload the prisons, the British government sent convicts to North America. The planters willingly and generously paid for the transportation of gratuitous labor: from 10 to 25l. Art. per person depending on whether he was qualified or not. Between 1717 and 1776. approximately 30,000 prisoners from England and Scotland and 10,000 from Ireland were deported to the American colonies.
When the American colonies achieved independence, the British government tried to send prisoners to their colonies in West Africa. The consequences were catastrophic. The disastrous climate led to colossal mortality. In 1775−1776. 746 people arrived in West Africa. Of these, 334 died, 270 tried to escape and died, the Ministry of the Interior had no information about the rest. As a result, England refused to use the West African colonies as a place of exile.
2.2. Australia's first colonists
Then the British government turned its eyes to Australia. The botanist Joseph Banks, a member of the J. Ku-ka expedition, contributed a lot to this. In 1779, he recommended exploring Botani Bay, which he claimed was the ideal location for a settlement.
In 1783, J. Banks was supported by James Matra, a resident of New York, who also took part in the voyages of J. Cook and remained loyal to the British government. He proposed distributing large tracts of land in the Botany Bay area to the Americans, who were on the side of the British during the war with the rebellious American colonies, and resettling the indigenous inhabitants of the Pacific Islands in Australia and distributing them to the American colonists as labor. In 1785, Admiral George Jung began to advocate for the speedy colonization of Australia. Finally, the government began to act. In 1786, a plan was prepared to create a colony of exiles in Australia. In January 1787, King George III announced him in a speech to Parliament. The Home Secretary, Lord Sydney, appointed Captain Arthur Phillip to command the transport of the first batch of exiles to Australia.
On January 26, 1788, a caravan of ships moored to the deserted shores of Australia. This was the first English fleet under the command of Sir Arthur Phillip. On 11 ships of the fleet there were 750 settlers, men and women, four crews of sailors and a supply of food for two years. Philip arrived in Botany Bay on 26 January, but he soon moved the colony to Sydney Harbour, where the water and land were better. For the new arrivals, New South Wales was a terrible place and the threat of starvation hung over the colony for 16 years.
When discussing the question of an exile settlement in the southern seas, she did not lose sight of New Zealand. True, in 1784 the House of Commons spoke out against organizing a settlement there. This was explained by a very unflattering characterization, which both Cook himself and his companions gave to the Maori. But already James Matra emphasized the expediency of using New Zealand, located relatively close to Australia, to supply the Australian colonists with flax and building and ship timber. Lord Sydney's order to send exiles to New South Wales stated that ships on their way back to England should pick up flax and timber in New Zealand.
However, Arthur Phillip found himself in such a difficult situation in Australia, and the worries associated with the organization of the settlement turned out to be so great that he was not up to New Zealand.
The first of the colonial administration of New South Wales to pay attention to New Zealand was Philip King, Arthur Phillip's assistant in managing the exile settlement on Norfolk Island, convinced that it was impossible to force the prisoners to engage in the manufacture of linen, since none of them knew how To do this, King decided to bring a few Maori to the island who would teach the colonists their craft.
He offered 100l. Art. to the captain of the whaling ship William & Ann for delivering two Maori from the New Zealand Islands to Norfolk. The captain promised to fulfill his request, but did not keep his promise.
Then the persistent King turned to the British government for help. Secretary of State Henry Dundes ordered the Admiralty to give the necessary instructions to Captain George Vancouver. But Vancouver was at that time making a very responsible voyage to Nootka Sound, for the possession of which a fierce dispute flared up between England and Spain. He re-instructed Lieutenant Hanson, commander of the Daedelus, to carry out the order of the Admiralty. In April 1793, Hanson arrived at the Bay of the Islands and simply stole two Maori who trustfully boarded the Daedelus at his invitation. These Maoris were then taken by King to Sydney and from there to Norfolk Island. But it turned out that the stolen Maori were very poorly versed in the production of linen, because they belonged to the native aristocracy: one was a priest, and the other was a military leader. Nevertheless, within six months, while on the island, they taught the local settlers something.
In November 1793, the ship Britannia arrived at Norfolk. King decided to use the opportunity and send the Maori home. Moreover, he himself undertook to accompany them on a four thousand-mile voyage. This altruistic action of his was explained very prosaically. King was going to get acquainted with New Zealand in order to organize a British settlement there.
Having reached the Bay of the Islands, King released the brought Maori (Huru and Tuki) home, generously rewarding them. On board the Britannia, King received the Maori chiefs and presented them with a few pigs, which he had the foresight to grab from Norfolk, as well as seed potatoes. Among the leaders was Te Rahi, whom King would meet again in the future.
In turn, the Maori were friendly and hospitable. But distrust of the pale-faced, they could not overcome in themselves, despite the rich gifts of the British and the fact that their compatriots returned to their homeland alive and unharmed. Huru and Tuki themselves supported these sentiments.
In subsequent years, whaling ships entered New Zealand more frequently. The fact is that the number of whales in the northern seas had significantly decreased by that time, and after Cook reported that he had seen herds of whales in the southern seas, primarily in the seas surrounding New Zealand, the whalers turned their eyes to the south. In early 1775, the first sperm whale was killed in the South Pacific, and after that whaling gradually began to develop here.
The South Seas also attracted attention as a place to catch seals. It was in connection with this that the first, short-lived British settlement in New Zealand was created.
In 1791, Enderby & Sons, an enterprise founded in Port Jackson, set out to organize systematic catching of seals in the seas surrounding New Zealand.
In October 1792 Enderby sent the Britannia under Captain William Reven to Dusky Sound. On November 3, the ship arrived at the site and 41 people landed on the shore to create a base and catch seals.
Eight months later, the Britannia, accompanied by the Francis, the first ship built in Port Jackson, returned to Dusky Sound to collect the people left there and the skins of seals, which they should have obtained by this time. The commercial results of the activities of British fishers in New Zealand were so small that Ender-by and Sons had to stop operations in the area.
However, nothing could shake King's conviction of the great potential of the New Zealand islands. In 1795, at his own expense, he sent the ship Francie to New Zealand to acquire timber and flax there. The expedition was successful. In March 1795, the Francie returned to Sydney with a rich cargo, which was sold at a profit.
King's success lifted the mood of the Sydney businessmen, and flights to New Zealand from Australia began to become more frequent. New Zealand also began to visit ships sailing to Australia from India. Having delivered the cargo to Sydney, on the way back they entered the waters of New Zealand and filled their holds with goods, which they then sold in China and India.
At the same time, the number of visits to New Zealand harbors by whaling ships and cat hunters increased.
King, having received the post of Governor-General of New South Wales, not only did not waste his interest in New Zealand, but, on the contrary, tried even more vigorously to strengthen British influence there. Taking advantage of occasions, he constantly sent various gifts to New Zealand, primarily Te Rahi, including pigs and goats.
In 1803, on board the Venus, Te Rahi and his five sons visited Norfolk Island and Sydney, where they stayed with King for three months.
There were more and more British trading expeditions to New Zealand. But the British were by no means monopolists in contacts with the Maori. From the very first steps, they met strong competition from the Americans, and this is not surprising, since American whalers began their operations in the Pacific Ocean in 1791. The French were also very active in Pacific waters. Thus, Maori communication with Europeans has acquired a multifaceted character.
2.3. Australia in the 19th century
After 1800, British, American and French whaling ships began to regularly fish off the New Zealand coast. They entered not only the Islands Bay, but also practically all the convenient bays on the New Zealand Islands, entering into trade relations with the Maori.
It was not uncommon for cat-catching teams that landed from ships to stay for months or even years in New Zealand. Sailors and convicts who managed to escape from New South Wales settled on the islands.
The first English colonists did not fully understand what this land was like. There were different opinions on this subject, including the fact that Australia is connected with China and is part of Asia. And the first settlers were in such ignorance until 1803, until the British explorer Matthew Flinders announced that Australia was a huge island. To do this, he went around the continent along the coastline, thereby dispelling all doubts. And he also gave the newly settled island the current name - Australia.
The first Australian city was named Sydney in honor of the man who actually sent the exiles here. The Minister of the Colonies of England at that time, Lord Sydney, was an ardent supporter of the settlement of new lands. And it was by his will that the journey to Sydney for many years became synonymous with irrevocable exile.
And in 1802 British colonists were landed in Tasmania. One of the reasons for the settlement on the island of Tasmania was that the British government noticed the increased interest of the French in it and hastened to attach it to its crown. Most of the new settlers were former convicts from the sinister prison of Norfolk Island. Tasmania needed to be used somehow, and, from the point of view of the colonial authorities, there was simply no better place to keep prisoners. There was nowhere to run away from here, and there were few who wanted to live in the Tasmanian wilds, where there was a terrible marsupial wolf - thylacine. Later, partly out of fear, this unique animal was completely exterminated.
In 1830, the exemplary complex of Port Arthur appeared on the Tasmanian Peninsula. He received such a name in honor of the governor, who was the initiator of the creation of this prison. She was a very well-oiled machine, one might say, the pride of the British prison system. The house of correction built here was at that time the largest stone structure in all of Australia. More than two thousand prisoners sewed clothes, made furniture, shoes and even small ships.
Gradually, Port Arthur acquired the features of a real city of prisoners. The entire peninsula was divided into strictly protected sectors. It had its own hospital and post office, a temple and guard rooms, a well-fortified commandant's residence, several watchtowers and a farm, docks and a port, a maximum security prison and an island of the dead, where the dead were buried. All this continued to function flawlessly even after prisoners from the Old World were no longer brought here.
By the way, Tasmania has been hosting criminals from England for the longest time. The last ship with convicts arrived here in 1853. But even after the delivery of new ones stopped, this terrible colony continued to work, because there were still enough old prisoners. And yet, in the end, in 1877, the settlement was closed. Someone found their last refuge on the island of the dead, and someone received an amnesty or was transferred to a free settlement in Hobart or other Australian cities.
In 1851, gold was found in Australia. Surprisingly, but on the new southern continent it really turned out to be what all the grandiose sea voyages of previous years were started for. Neither the Dutch nor the British at first simply did not suspect the existence of this noble metal here.
The discovery of gold mines has fundamentally changed the demographic situation in Australia. If earlier the main colonists were prisoners, their guards and, to a lesser extent, farmers, now they have become gold miners thirsting for a quick enrichment. The colossal influx of voluntary emigrants from all over the world provided the country with a labor force for many years to come. In the ten years since the discovery of gold, the number of people seeking to reach Australia has tripled.
One of the richest deposits was found in the Ballarat Hills, 110 kilometers northwest of Melbourne. The city of the same name quickly grew and developed. To service the gold diggers, a multitude of shopkeepers, artisans, engineers and lawyers were required. Moreover, the latter played a very important role, since in the later industrial stages of gold mining, this was done by large companies that did not own entire mines (they were common), but only individual pits in them. Therefore, everyone dug where he wanted. In such a situation, mining engineers were called upon to make literally jewelry calculations. After all, numerous miners could, accidentally breaking through the wall, invade someone else's excavation. In the existing confusion, this was commonplace. And since such an invasion threatened the owner of the pit with litigation, and often ruin, numerous lawyers corrected the situation.
Gold mining brought Australia considerable income. During the entire existence of the mines in Ballarat, 650 tons of gold were mined.
2.4. English colonizers and Australian Aborigines
The Maori tribes living on the coast were in constant contact with European and American sailors and merchants. The Maori helped to cut and load the exported timber on ships, they were attracted as sailors on whaling ships.
It would be natural to expect any ennobling influence of representatives of European civilization on the "primitive" natives. They really had a very strong influence, but by no means ennobling. The arrival of European colonialists on the islands was for the Maori like a natural disaster of great destructive power. The indigenous people, who did not know serious illnesses, began to die by the thousands from measles and influenza. The colonialists introduced the islanders to alcoholic beverages, and their increased “introduction” led to a huge spread of drunkenness among the population.
Although the colonizers were contemptuous of the natives, nevertheless they turned out to be very sensitive to the beauty of local women, “dark Helens, native Messalines,” as one of the first settlers in the Bay of Islands dreamily called them. The amorous adventures of the loving envoys of Europe became the cause of massive Maori diseases with venereal diseases.
The boxy colonialists introduced the natives to trading activities. It is impossible not to say about such a type of business as the export of dried human heads from New Zealand. The fact is that the Maori had an ancient custom to preserve the heads of deceased relatives. For this purpose, they smoked them in a special way. Since demand exceeded supply, merchants entered into agreements with local leaders on the heads of still living people they liked - slaves or prisoners - and by the next visit they received these heads, appropriately processed.
But, perhaps, the acquaintance with firearms had the most terrible consequences for the natives. Maori quickly appreciated all its advantages and asked for muskets in exchange for their goods. In 1819, the Maori, who lived in the Islands Bay area, already owned no less than a hundred muskets.
In 1821, the leader of the Ngapuhi tribe - Hongi - made a trip to England. There he received various kinds of gifts from the British government, which he exchanged for guns on his way back to Sydney. After that, Hongi started a civil strife. In Oakland, he killed a thousand people, and in Waikato - one and a half thousand. “His rival is Te Roparaga,” wrote the famous French scientist P. Leroy Volier. - sent his cousin to England, took out a gun from there and destroyed almost all the Maori in the South Island. During this period of time, a significant number of European adventurers settled among the Maori. Since they knew how to handle and repair guns, they were well received by the natives and played a significant role in the wars. More and more new tribes were drawn into the internecine war. Due to the widespread use of firearms, it was unprecedentedly bloody.
The result of the "contacts" of the natives with the colonialists was a catastrophic drop in the total number of Maori. If at the time of Cook there were at least 100 thousand people, then in 1858 - only 56 thousand.
Relations between Maori and Europeans deteriorated more and more. In response to Maori attacks, European captains carried out brutal reprisals that ended in the killing of dozens of Maori. One of these "operations" was organized against Te Rahi and his people.
The priest Samuel Marsden, about whom we will speak in detail after carefully examining the sad event, later wrote: “In this terrible bloodshed, my friend Te Rahi received seven wounds ... Many other friendly people were killed.”
European sailors became so often bloody that the Governor General of New South Wales, Macquarie, was forced to issue an order that required the captains of all ships leaving Port Jackson for New Zealand or any other island in the South Pacific Ocean, pledge £1,000 Art. as a guarantee of refraining from acts against the natives.
The first historian of New Zealand, military doctor A. Thomson, in his "History of New Zealand", published in 1859, defined the relationship that developed between Europeans and Maori as a "war of races".
Although British sailors and merchants were the first to come into contact with the Maori, it fell to British missionaries to create the first permanent settlement in New Zealand and pave the way for its colonization. there were representatives of the London Missionary Society, consisting of 21 people, headed by Samuel Marsden.
S. Marsden was born in England three years before J. Cook set off on his first voyage in the Pacific Ocean. At the age of 28 he was appointed assistant chaplain to New South Wales, where he went with his wife in July 1793.
Marsden settled in Parramatta, 15 miles from Port Jackson. A year later, he received the post of senior chaplain of the colony and stayed in it for almost 45 years until his death.
At the beginning of 1794, after only two months of his arrival in Australia, Marsden, accompanying the governor of the colony Peterson, visited Norfolk Island, where he met King, who told him a lot about the Maori. In the following years, Marsden had occasion to meet the Maori, whom British whalers often brought to Sydney. Gradually, the idea of creating a Christian mission in New Zealand matured in him. Since the colonial authorities could not resolve this issue on their own, Marsden in February 1807 went to London on the Buffalo ship. The leaders of the London Missionary Society approved his plan. The difficulty was recruiting people c. mission composition. The European rumor about the Maori as "the most barbaric among the wild tribes" was too terrible. Finally, the society managed to find two volunteers, but, alas, not from among the clergy: the carpenter William Hall and the shoemaker John King. Accompanied by these assistants, Marsden left England in August 1809.
The London Missionary Society procured from the British government an order to the Governor-General of New South Wales, Macquarie, to provide the necessary assistance and to organize a British mission in New Zealand.
During the return journey, Marsden found among the crew of the ship the young Maori chief Ruatar, whom he had met a few years ago.
Returning to Sydney, Marsden began by teaching the Christian doctrine of Ruatar and two other of his compatriots. At the same time, Marsden tried to use the stay of these Maori in Australia for training Australian aborigines the art of linen production. Thus, the first missionary center for the dissemination of the Christian doctrine among the Maori arose on Australian soil - in Port Jackson.
Years passed, and Marsden could not get the consent of the Governor General Macquarie to travel to New Zealand. Then the power-hungry, assertive Marsden decided to buy a ship to ferry the mission to New Zealand at his own expense. In September 1814 he became the owner of the brig Active. “I want this to be clearly understood,” Marsden wrote to the secretary of the London Missionary Society, “I did not purchase the Active with society's funds, as I did not have the authority to do so. I intend to take full responsibility for the purchase myself.
But Marsden, despite his high clerical ideals, was a very resourceful man with a strong commercial streak. However, this is not such a rare combination. He was by no means going to spend money on pure philanthropy, but even on his return he expected to make a profit from the sale of goods purchased in New Zealand.
But this time, too, Macquarie did not allow Marsdej to leave New South Wales, but ordered that Marsden's associates: Hall, King, and the schoolteacher Thomas Kendall, who had recently arrived in Sydney from London, visit New Zealand first. Liter Dillon was appointed captain of the brig Active. This enterprising Irishman, 13 years later, in 1827, sailed on the Research ship to find out the fate of the famous French navigator La Perouse and the crew members of two frigates, which he commanded during a voyage across the Pacific Ocean in 1789 and which disappeared without a trace. Dillon managed to find out about the circumstances of the death of Laperouse and his people, for which the French government awarded him the Order of the Legion of Honor and appropriated the title of count.
The voyage to New Zealand went well. On the Active, he brought to Sydney several leaders of the Maori tribes who inhabited the northern part of the Auckland Peninsula, and among them Korokoro and Hongi Hika, whom we will have to meet in the course of further presentation.
Macquarie now had no reason to delay Marsden's trip.
On November 9, Macquarie issued an order expressing his intention "to grant to the natives of New Zealand and the Bay of the Islands all the rights and privileges that apply to any dependent territory of New South Wales." At the same time, he appointed Kendall as a judge of his majesty "in the Bay of the Islands in New Zealand and throughout the islands of New Zealand and all the islands adjacent to them."
November 28, 1814 the brig "Active" went out into the open ocean, heading for the shores of New Zealand. On board, in addition to Marsden, brig captain Thomas Hansen with his wife and son, four European and two Tahitian sailors, there were three missionaries with their wives and six children, a servant, a blacksmith, two lumberjacks, eight Maori, five of which − Ruatara, Korokoro, Hongi Hika, Tui, and Tiratau were tribal chiefs, as was John Nicholas, a resident of Sydney, traveling as a private individual.
Upon his release from prison in 1830, Wakefield launched an unusually vigorous activity in order to put into practice the ideas borne in Newgate. He greatly contributed to the rapid organization of the National Society of Colonization, which in the same 1830 published a pamphlet entitled "A Statement of the Principles and Purposes of a Proposed National Society for the Cure and Prevention of Pauperism by Systematic Colonization."
With the consent of the Ministry of the Colonies, Wakefield is doing his experiments in Australia and Canada. But more and more his attention is focused on New Zealand, especially after he fails in Australia.
In June 1836, addressing the English Parliament, Wakefield writes: “There is a country very close to Australia, in every respect the most suitable for colonization, the most beautiful, with a wonderful climate and the most fertile land. I'm talking about New Zealand. It may be said that New Zealand does not belong to the British crown, and this is true, but the British began to colonize New Zealand. New Zealand passes into the possession of the British crown. Adventurers come from New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land for a few knick-knacks and some gunpowder to acquire land... We should, I think, colonize New Zealand and are already doing it in the most ugly and shameful manner.
On the initiative of Wakefield, on May 12, 1837, the New Zealand Association was formed, which set as its goal the earliest possible colonization of the islands. In October 1838, the association already had 250 thousand pounds. Art. It soon became a commercial company for the colonization of New Zealand and became known as the New Zealand Land Company.
On May 12, 1839, the company's first ship, the Tory, set sail for New Zealand. The expedition was commanded by Colonel William Wakefield, brother of the originator of the "systematic colonization" theory.
August 18, 1839 "Tori" approached the shores of New Zealand. Until the end of the year, Colonel Wakefield hastily bought up land in various parts of the country. He was in a hurry - and not in vain. Australian entrepreneurs have also begun to acquire land in the New Zealand islands.
Soon the first colonists appeared, sent by the New Zealand Land Company. Already on January 22, 1840, the Avro-ra ship equipped by her entered the harbor of Port Nicholson, later renamed Wellinton. A few days later, the arrivals founded the settlement) Britain. A month later, three more ships of the company arrived, delivering 482 colonists.
The Ministry of Colonies, now headed by Lord Normandy, who replaced him rather hesitantly: he was dissatisfied with the claims of the New Zealand Land Company for a monopoly in the colonization of the New Zealand islands and therefore began to act faster and more definitely.
In June 1839, Lord Normandy recommended that the government immediately acquire for the British crown "those parts of New Zealand which are already occupied or may be occupied by British subjects", and to appoint an authorized government, and not the New Zealand Land Company, to manage these territories. The Commissioner, endowed with the authority of the British Consul, would be required to take steps "which will make New Zealand partly or wholly a British colony."
W. Hobson was instructed to negotiate with the natives about establishing the power of the English queen over them. The instructions he received from the British government were imbued with the hypocrisy and cynicism characteristic of all documents of bourgeois governments relating to colonial conquests. Lord Normandy wrote that the English government had hitherto recognized the independence and sovereignty of New Zealand, that Queen Victoria would never insist on her annexation to Britain without the free and informed consent of the natives, but that the benefits of the natives arising from this act, more than compensate for their loss of independence. At the same time, it was emphasized that it was enough to conclude an agreement with the leaders of the North Island, and the South Island, due to the small number and savagery of its population, should be annexed on the basis of its first discovery by J. Cook.
Wakefield persuaded Hobson to make the residence of Port Nicholson, where the settlements of the colonists of the New Zealand Land Company were concentrated. But Hobson refused. He first chose Okiato for the capital - a place located three miles southwest of Kororarek, renaming it Russell in honor of Lord John Russell, then Minister of the Colonies, then moved to another village - near the Hokianga River, calling him Churchill in honor of the captain of the Druid we have already mentioned. In March 1841, Hobson moved his residence to the village, which received the name Auckland in honor of George Auckland, the Governor General of India. Hobson was grateful to Auckland for the fact that he, being the first lord of the admiralty, helped him become the captain of the ship. Auckland remained the capital of New Zealand until 1865.
The New Zealand Land Company now endeavored to conduct its affairs in close contact with the British Government, with the chief aim of assisting its agents in bringing about the full and speedy occupation of the islands. “I want to draw your attention,” the company secretary wrote to Colonel Wakefield, “to the great desire of the management that you and all employees of the company would do everything possible to help the success of Captain Hobson’s mission and bring as close as possible the time when he , as Her Majesty's representative, will be able to establish the power of Britain and the regular application of English law, not only in the settlements of the company, but throughout the islands of New Zealand. Prior to leaving for New Zealand, each of the colonists received appropriate instructions from the company to support the Queen's representative in New Zealand. In turn, the royal representative Hobson tried to ensure the interests of the British colonists. But he did not last long as a governor. On September 10, 1842, half a month before his 49th birthday, Hobson died in the capital he founded. The British population of the colony was then 11 thousand people. By the middle of the century, it had reached almost 27 thousand people.
All the settlements that arose in a decade (from 1840 to 1850) in New Zealand, except for Auckland: Port Nicholson, Wanganui, New Plymouth, Nelson, Dunedin and Christchurch were founded with the assistance of the New Zealand Land Company.
characteristic feature of the colonial ideas developed by E. Wakefield was that he considered the territory of New Zealand as a kind of tabula rasa. He simply ignored the fact of the existence of the indigenous population: the land and all its gifts should belong to the British.
The colonists were adjusted accordingly. They looked at the Maori as "dirty savages", as something intermediate between man and beast. The theory about the organic inability of the Maori to join civilization was very popular, which was widely spread in the then New Zealand press. Thus, the newspaper "Auckland Examiner" in the issue of September 7, 1859 wrote that "the nature of the Maori cannot be civilized according to the ideas of the whites about civilization." In the "History of New Zealand", written by A. Thomson, it was argued that the heads of the Maori are smaller than the heads of the English Lichans, and that therefore the Maori are mentally much lower than the English. “The mental laziness that lasts for generations must have led to a decrease in the size of the brain,” Thomson pointed out admonishingly.
The colonialists denied that the Maori had such a feeling as love for their homeland, they bullied them, considering them lazy, malicious and cowardly. They did not allow the thought that this ancient people could have its own complex spiritual world.
However, at first there were relatively few Europeans, and they unwittingly had to admit the unpleasant fact of the existence of a rather large indigenous population. Even J. Cook believed that at least 100 thousand Maori
From the end of the 30s of the XIX century. began to buy land owned by the Maori. The fact that the British wanted to acquire land is understandable, but why did the Maori, who were always wary of newcomers, so easily go to such deals?
Everything will become clear if we dwell, even if very briefly, on the system of land tenure and land use among the Maori. The Maori did not know personal ownership of land. None of them could say that this or that piece of land belongs to him. The land belonged to the tribe. The tribe, on the other hand, acquired the rights to the land, either by seizing it from another tribe, or as a result of the original occupation. None of the members of the tribe, including the leader, had the right to alienate the land, and before the arrival of Europeans, the Maori did not even think of the very possibility of such transactions.
When the Europeans appeared and began to offer all sorts of seductive things for the land, and first of all, muskets, the leaders, making an exchange, innocently believed that the land would still remain with them. Then they realized what this threatened their people, but by that time they themselves had already tasted enough of the benefits of civilization, and often decently corrupted and therefore continued to sell the land, but already in secret from the members of the tribe.
More and more of myself fertile land went to the English dealers. The Maori people were entering the most difficult period of their history. Disunited and exhausted by years of bloody tribal feuds, provoked and fomented by the colonialists, dying by the thousands from diseases introduced by Europeans, the Maori felt more and more deceived and robbed: they were deprived of the land of their homeland, and those people who forced them to believe in Christ's mercy. But the mass of misfortunes did not suppress the will of the small people. On the contrary, during this difficult time, those natural qualities of the Maori, the existence of which the British stubbornly did not want to notice, began to manifest themselves more and more strongly: courage, determination, the deepest patriotism, readiness for self-sacrifice. The Maori tribes began to feel more and more clearly that they were a single people. Soon they will challenge the most powerful power in the world. Lightnings are already breaking out, harbingers of a long and bloody thunderstorm.
In 1843, the colonists located in the settlement of Nelson, founded by the New Zealand Land Company, on the South Island, decided, according to the customs of that time, to expand the boundaries of their plots by adding Wairau, located 50 miles to the east. The company's chief representative in Nelson, Arthur Wakefield, another brother of Edward Wakefield, supported the colonists' intentions.
Despite the fact that Colonel Wakefield "acquired" this land for the company in 1839, the chiefs of the Ngatitoya tribe, who lived in the southwestern part of the North Island - Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata - continued to consider it the property of the tribe. Therefore, when they learned about the intentions of the Nelson colonists to divide the land in Wairau among themselves, they immediately went to A. Wakefield, declared that the document on the sale of the company's land was invalid, and demanded that the representatives of the colonists who arrived to divide the land be removed from there. Having learned about the actions of the leaders, A. Wakefield decided to apply "good English laws" against these, as he put it, "wandering fighters."
At his instigation, one of the colonists, who participated in the division of the land, turned to the Nelson magistrate with a demand to punish both leaders, and that they burned his dwelling. The magistrate issued a decision to arrest the leaders. And Wakefield, with a group of 50 colonists, went to Wai-rau territory to make an arrest. However, both Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata flatly refused to recognize the legality of the decision of the magistrate and asked the newcomers to leave their possessions. "I stand on my own land Te Rangi-haeata said to the British, “I will not go to England to argue with you.”
Then the colonists, having attached bayonets to their guns, moved on the Maori. One of the colonists shot and killed the daughter and wife of Te Rangihaeata. The Maori, who were also armed, returned fire. In the ensuing skirmish, 27 Englishmen were killed, including Arthur Wakefield. The Maori lost four men.
But the main events unfolded in the far north of the country, where the Ngapuhi tribe lived. One of its main leaders was Khone Heke, the nephew of the militant Hongi. After the conclusion of the Treaty at Waitangi in the village of Kororare-ka (in the Bay of the Islands) on Mikey Hill, the British raised their flag as a sign of British dominance over New Zealand.
Conclusion
Australia became a state when the separate colonies formed a federation on January 1, 1901 (although many cultural and commercial ties with England were interrupted because of this). Australian troops fought on the British side in the Boer War, World War I and World War II. However, the US role in protecting Australian territories from Japanese invasion during World War II called into question the strength of this alliance. Australia, in turn, supported the US during the Korean and Vietnam Wars in Asia.
Despite the fact that the colonial policy of England was actually completed by the end of the First World War, back in the 19th century, many of the free settlers of Australia and New Zealand from the very beginning were against the fact that England would send its prisoners.
In 1840, Sydney ceased to accept prisoners from England, and in 1877 the settlement in Port Arthur was closed.
It appeared thanks to the discovery of new lands by Captain James Cook, a navigator who proclaimed New Holland (now Australia) as British possessions. Soon, in 1786, it was decided to make the east coast of Australia a place of exile. The following year, the First Fleet sailed off the coast of England to establish Australia's first colony called New South Wales. Other ships followed him, and soon many penal settlements were formed in Australia.Eastern Australia was declared a territory of Great Britain in 1770, and the first colony was founded on January 26, 1788. As the population of Australia grew, six self-governing colonies were founded in Australia.
On January 1, 1901, these six colonies formed a federation. Since that time, Australia has maintained a stable democratic system of government. Australia's neighbors are Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea from the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu from the northeast, and New Zealand from the southeast. The shortest distance between the main island of Papua New Guinea and mainland Australia is 150 kilometers; however, from the Australian island of Boigu to Papua New Guinea, only 5 kilometers.
The name "Australia" comes from the Latin. australis meaning southern. Legends of the "unknown southern land" (terra australis incognita) date back to the time of the Romans, were a commonplace in medieval geography, but were not based on real knowledge. The Dutch have been using this term for all newly discovered southern lands since 1638.
The name "Australia" became popular after the publication of Journey in Terra Australis by Captain Mathew Flinders. Governor of New South Wales McQuirey used the title in correspondence with England. In 1817 he recommended this name as the official one. In 1824, the British Admiralty finally approved this name for the continent.
How did immigration to Australia begin?
In Great Britain, the 18th century was marked by significant social changes, which led to an increase in the level of crime. The main reason for this was extreme need. To stop this, the authorities issued strict laws with harsh penalties. IN early XIX century death punished approximately 200 crimes. "Even the petty theft is sentenced to death," wrote one traveler. For example, one 11-year-old boy was hanged for stealing a handkerchief! Another man was found guilty of contempt for stealing a silk purse, a gold watch and approximately six pounds sterling. He was sentenced to death by hanging. The execution was replaced by life exile. In that terrible era, about 160 thousand people suffered a similar fate. Women, as a rule, along with their children, were sentenced to 7-14 years of hard labor.However, as early as the beginning of the 18th century, the authorities passed a law that in many cases allowed the death penalty to be replaced by deportation to the English colonies in North America. Soon, up to a thousand prisoners a year were sent there, mainly to Virginia and Maryland. But, having declared themselves an independent state in 1776, these colonies no longer wanted to accept British criminals. Then they began to be sent to terrible floating prisons on the River Thames, but even those were overcrowded.
The way out appeared thanks to the discovery of new lands by Captain James Cook. In 1786, it was decided to make the east coast of Australia a place of exile. The following year, the First Fleet sailed off the coast of England to establish the first colony called New South Wales. Other ships followed him, and soon a lot of hard labor settlements were formed in Australia, including on Norfolk Island, located 1,500 kilometers northeast of Sydney.
"Many of the 'criminals' deported to Australia were children under adolescence," writes Bill Beatty in his book Early Australia-With Shame Remembered. According to this book, in one case the court sentenced a seven-year-old boy to "life exile in Australia".
The first wave of immigration to Australia: the establishment of penal colonies.
Initially, transferring to the Australian colonies was a real nightmare for prisoners placed in damp and dirty ship holds. Hundreds died en route, others shortly after arrival. Scurvy has claimed many lives. But over time, doctors appeared on ships, especially those carrying female prisoners, and as a result, the death rate dropped significantly. Subsequently, with the improvement of the ships, the travel time was reduced from seven to four months, and there were even fewer deaths.Shipwrecks were another threat to life. The British ship "Amphitrite" five days after sailing from England, still within sight of the coast of France, was caught in a severe storm. Mercilessly thrown by the waves for two days, the ship ran aground a kilometer from the coast on August 31, 1883 at five o'clock in the afternoon.
However, the crew made no rescue attempts and did not launch any lifeboats. Why? For one simple reason: so that the prisoners - 120 women and children - do not escape! After three hours filled with horror, the ship began to sink, and people began to be washed into the sea. Most of the team and all 120 women and children died. In the following days, 82 corpses washed up on the shore, and among them was the corpse of a mother who held her child so tightly that even death could not separate them.
But it must be said that the situation of some prisoners was not so bad. Indeed, for someone in Australia, in fact, better prospects opened up than at home. Yes, that part of the history of Australia was extremely controversial: it combined cruelty and mercy, death and hope. She got her start in the UK.
Settling Australia: when death is desired.
The governor of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Brisbane, decreed that the most hardened criminals should be sent from New South Wales and Tasmania to Norfolk Island. "There, these scoundrels will lose all hope of returning home," he said. Sir Ralph Darling, the next governor, vowed to create "conditions on Norfolk worse than death". And so it happened, especially during the reign of John Price, a governor of noble birth. Price "with deadly accuracy guessed the thoughts of criminals, and this, coupled with strict observance of the law, gave him some kind of mystical power over the convicts." For singing, not walking fast enough, or pushing a wagon of stones not hard enough, a convict could receive 50 lashes or 10 days in a cell where there were up to 13 prisoners and where one could only stand.Only priests, as spiritual and therefore inviolable persons, could openly condemn such inhuman treatment. “No words can describe how cruelly the convicts were treated,” wrote one priest. “Things that are terrible even to think about were committed with complete impunity.”
Australian history: a glimmer of hope.
With the arrival of Captain Alexander Maconocki in Norfolk in 1840, the situation improved somewhat. He introduced a new rating system that took into account how much the convict had improved, offered rewards for good behavior, and gave him the opportunity to earn his freedom by accumulating a certain number of ratings. “I am sure,” Makonoki wrote, that with the right methods, any criminal can be corrected. Intellectual abilities A person is quickly restored if his thoughts are directed in the right direction, treated humanely and not depriving him of hope.Maconokey's reform proved so effective that it was subsequently widely adopted in England, Ireland, and the United States. But at the same time, with his innovations, Makonoki dealt a strong blow to the pride of some influential people, whose methods he rejected. It cost him his seat. After his departure, mistreatment on Norfolk resumed, but not for long. In 1854, thanks to the priests, the island ceased to be a place of hard labor settlements, and the exiles were transported to Tasmania, to Port Arthur.
Port Arthur, especially in the early years, also terrified people. Still, the treatment of convicts here was not as cruel as on Norfolk. Corporal punishment was abolished here almost completely in 1840.
As Ian Brand wrote in his book Port Arthur-1830-1877, George Arthur, the strict governor of Tasmania, wanted to establish his colony's reputation as "a place of iron discipline." And at the same time, Arthur wanted every convict to learn that "good behavior is rewarded, and bad behavior is punished." To do this, he divided the convicts into seven categories, starting with those who were promised early release for exemplary behavior, and ending with those who were sentenced to the most difficult work in shackles.
When Exile to Australia Was a Blessing
“For the convicts, with the exception of those who were exiled to Port Arthur, Norfolk ... and other similar places, when unbearable conditions reigned there,” Beatty wrote, “the prospects for the future in the colony were much better than at home ... Here, the convicts had the opportunity to live a better life." Indeed, convicts who received early release or served their sentences realized that Australia was waiting for them and their families. better life. Therefore, after liberation, only a few returned to England.Governor Lachlan Macquarie, an ardent defender of freed convicts, said: "A man who has been released should never be reminded of his criminal past, and even more so reproached for it; human." Macquarie backed up his words with deeds: he allocated plots of land to the liberated exiles, and also gave them some prisoners to help in the field and with housework.
Over time, many hard-working and enterprising former convicts became wealthy and respected, and in some cases even famous people. For example, Samuel Lightfoot founded the first hospitals in Sydney and Hobart. William Redfern became a well-respected physician, and Australians owe many of the architectural structures in and around Sydney to Francis Greenway.
Finally, in 1868, after 80 years, Australia ceased to be a place of exile. Modern society this country does not remind of those terrible years. Partially preserved penal settlements are of historical interest only. Less horrifying evidence of that era has also survived: bridges, buildings and churches built by convicts. Some of them are in excellent condition and are still in use today.
AUSTRALIA. STORY
early research. The ancestors of the tribes now called Aboriginal people began to settle Australia at least 40,000 years ago, and possibly even 100,000 years ago. They spread over most of the mainland and penetrated the island of Tasmania. Their main occupations were the collection of edible plants, hunting and fishing. Trepang traders from the islands of Indonesia regularly visited the northern shores of Australia even before the foundation of the first European settlement on this mainland in 1788, but it is not known when the voyages of the mentioned traders began. Europeans became interested in this region in the 16th century, when geographers suggested that somewhere between Africa and South America there must be a landmass. The discovery of this continent by Europeans occurred during the search for sea routes to India from both the Indian and Pacific oceans. In 1567, Alvaro de Mendaña discovered the Solomon Islands; in 1606 Luis de Torres visited New Guinea and suggested that he saw "the great southern mainland". Meanwhile, the rivals of the Spaniards - the Dutch have strengthened their position in trade with India. Traveler Dirk Hartog in 1616 landed on an island in Shark Bay in modern Western Australia. In 1642, Abel Tasman discovered the island that now bears his name - Tasmania. In 1644 he sailed the seas between New Guinea and Australia, but he failed to find a passage through the Torres Strait into the Pacific Ocean. In 1768 the British government organized an expedition to conduct geographical and astronomical research in the Pacific Ocean. This expedition, led by Captain James Cook, reached the east coast of Australia in 1770. It followed the coast to the north for a distance of 1670 km from present-day eastern Victoria to the Torres Strait. Cook called this land New South Wales and declared it the possession of England. Then he headed through the Torres Strait to the Cape of Good Hope and from there returned to his homeland.
Settlement of New South Wales. The development of Australia by the British began mainly after the cessation of the deportation of convicts to the English colonies in North America. Such a measure of punishment was practiced in the English criminal system until the American War of Independence. The search for other places of detention was unsuccessful, and the contingent of prisoners who were kept on barges moored to the banks of the Thames increased inexorably. Under these conditions, the British government approved a plan to send convicts to Botany Bay in New South Wales. The first flotilla, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, sailed from England in May 1787 and arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788. Phillip did not like this place, and soon found another harbor a little further north. The landings were made in Sydney Harbor at an area called Port Jackson, and work began on clearing the area and building houses. The main problems facing the colony in New South Wales were to provide the necessary food, the maintenance of prisoners and the development of their living conditions after the expiration of their sentence. Providing food to meet the needs of the colony became relevant at an early stage of settlement. The colonists did not want or could not accept the experience of the indigenous Australians, whose way of life, associated with hunting and gathering, was quite consistent with local conditions. Subsequently, it turned out that although the soils in the vicinity of Port Jackson were not fertile, good ones could be grown in places far from the coast. Meanwhile, the flow of prisoners to New South Wales was in full swing until 1840, to Tasmania - until 1852 and to Western Australia - until 1868. Especially many convicts arrived in the period from 1825 to 1845. Almost all of the 160 thousand who arrived were ordinary criminals , but about 1 thousand British and 5 thousand Irish could be considered political prisoners. In accordance with the verdict, some prisoners served time in penal colonies or worked on road works, chained, but the vast majority were assigned to work with free colonists. As a reward for good behavior, the governor could release the convicts from work and had the right to give them "free", which allowed them to work for themselves without being under someone else's control. After the expiration of the terms of punishment, former prisoners rarely returned to their homeland. Until 1822, they often received small plots of land and cultivated them, but often became ordinary wage workers, and this practice became widespread.
Administration of New South Wales. Arthur Phillip was the first governor of the colony. For health reasons, he had to return to England in 1792, and over the next three years, two temporary governors, John Hunter and Philip Gidley King, alternately tried to manage the colony with the help of a detachment recruited in England and known as the New South Wales Corps. These governors were succeeded by William Bligh, whose name is associated with the mutiny on the Bounty. Bligh tried to impose naval discipline in the colony and came into conflict with those who sought to take personal advantage of the difficulties that existed in the colony. Relying on the wealthy and influential colonists, the commander of the New South Wales Corps, Major George Johnston, deposed and arrested Bligh. Johnston was convicted by a military court for participating in this "rum revolution", and in 1809 Colonel Lachlan Macquarie was appointed governor. Together with Macquarie, the troop unit led by him, the 73rd Scottish Regiment, arrived in Australia, and the New South Wales Corps was returned to England. Macquarie believed that many of the former convicts were better citizens than some of the free colonists. He energetically took up the construction program, significantly updated the look of Sydney, improved the condition of the roads. All these activities required a lot of money. The British government, worried about costs and inclined to believe that Macquarie was too lenient with the prisoners, sent a commissioner, John T. Bigge, to check on the state of affairs in the colony. Bigge's reports contributed to the tightening of prison discipline and the granting of civil rights to free colonists. A quick transition to self-government in New South Wales could not be carried out as long as there were unresolved contradictions between the convicts who had served time and the free colonists. The former sought to gain the right to participate in government, while the free colonists did not want to grant political privileges to former prisoners. A committee of the English Parliament in 1837-1838 recommended an end to the expulsion of convicts. In 1840 the British government approved this recommendation for New South Wales. Thanks to this, it became possible to take another step towards self-government of the colony. By an act of 1842, New South Wales was granted the right to elect a legislative council of 36 members. Freed convicts were given the right to vote. In the modern sense, this law was not democratic, since the right to elect and be elected to the legislative council was made dependent on the nature of property. Bills could be rejected by the governor or referred to the British government. The latter also disposed of the sale of land. Meanwhile, the settlement of other areas of Australia continued. Hard labor colonies were created on Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). The colony of Western Australia was organized in 1826 after landings at Albany on its south coast, and the colony of Swan River on the west coast near the modern city of Perth in 1829, although it was not used until ships began to arrive with prisoners in 1850-1868. South Australia was not founded as a penal colony: from 1836 they began to allocate land to free settlers in accordance with the project of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Unofficial settlers began to settle in what is now Victoria in the 1830s, migrating south from the Sydney area and north from Van Diemen's Land. Some of them settled down near what is now Melbourne. Separate settlers also migrated north of Sydney to the territory of modern Queensland, and in 1824 a convict settlement was founded in the Brisbane area.
Further research. All this time, the study of the nature of the Australian mainland was carried out. In 1803 Matthew Flinders sailed around its shores and mapped the entire mainland. He suggested calling it "Australia". The establishment of the general configuration of the mainland and the threat of occupation by the French of ports in the west and north stimulated the annexation of the islands of Bathurst and Melville to England in 1824, territories between 135 ° and 129 ° E. - in 1825 and the rest of the mainland - in 1829. Since 1844, attempts began to cross the interior of Australia. Captain Charles Sturt led an expedition to its arid central part, and Ludwig Likehart to Port Essington Bay on the north coast. Robert Burke and William Wheels, who set out from Melbourne in 1860 and reached the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1861, were the first to cross the mainland from south to north (both of them died on the way back). McDwall Stuart hoisted the flag in the center of Australia in 1860 and successfully crossed the mainland from Adelaide to Darwin in 1861-1862.
Gold Rush in the 1850s. The discovery of gold in New South Wales in 1851 changed the course of Australian history. The squatter brought gold from around Bathurst to Sydney, and soon hundreds of prospectors set off in search of nuggets and placers. It turned out that the richest deposits of gold in Victoria. The gold-bearing fields attracted so many people from the cities and countryside of Victoria and New South Wales that all other activities began to suffer from severe labor shortages. Immigrants from other countries also rushed to search for gold, which contributed to the growth of the population of Australia from 400 thousand in 1850 to 1146 thousand in 1860. The Chinese were noticeably distinguished among the immigrants (mainly from the two southern provinces of China - Guangdong and Fujian). Their number exceeded 100 thousand people. In the second half of the 19th century. the gold rush greatly contributed to the economic development of the southeastern colonies. It was necessary to build houses, produce equipment and supply the population with bread, meat and dairy products. Prices rose, and the area under cultivation more than doubled in the 1850s. Fugitive criminals - robbers from the highway, acting in rural areas singly or in gangs - enriched themselves along with gold diggers. They robbed travelers, individual farms and stagecoaches. Lawlessness in some mines was comparable to what was happening in the American Wild West. The most infamous was the Kelly gang; its leader, Ned Kelly, was finally captured in 1880 after a shootout in which three other members of the gang were killed. In 1880 he was hanged in Melbourne for the murder of three police officers. Riots often broke out in the gold mines, sometimes directed against Chinese prospectors, and in 1854 there were riots in Eureka, where the troops dispersed the rebel miners who protested against police bullying and poor management of the mines. The value of gold mined in Victoria in 1851-1861 fluctuated greatly. The 1852 level of $81.5 million was never reached again, and in 1861 the value of the mined gold was $38 million. tricks. Individual miners who lacked the funds to create large enterprises, were forced to leave the mines for other work. The gold rush that broke out in Queensland in the 1880s and Western Australia in the 1890s caused an exodus of miners from the southeastern colonies to the new centers of gold mining. One of them was Mount Morgan in Queensland, the other was Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. At the same time, the mining industry was shifting to other minerals, especially silver, lead and zinc around Broken Hill in the far west of New South Wales and copper on the York Peninsula in South Australia.
Development of democracy. Apparently convinced that a more liberal constitution was working successfully in Canada, the British Parliament issued the Australian Colonies Bill in 1850; the colonial authorities were allowed, with the consent of the British government, to work out a new constitution for themselves. By 1856 the constitutions of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia had been drafted. The new bicameral legislatures of the colonies received rights to the royal lands and could form governments along the lines of England and Canada. Queensland, open to free settlement after the cessation of the deportation of convicts to New South Wales in 1840, was organized as a separate colony in 1859. Western Australia, founded in 1829 and sparsely populated, had no representative bodies until 1870 and had no government until 1890. After The adoption of the constitutions of the 1850s in the history of Australia clearly marked a trend towards the democratization of the electoral system. The constitutions declared the principle of universal suffrage for men in elections to the lower houses of the colonial parliaments. Women were given this right later: in South Australia in 1894, in Western Australia in 1899, in New South Wales in 1902, in Tasmania in 1903, in Queensland in 1905 and in Victoria in 1908. Secret voting was introduced in Victoria as early as 1856 .
Land use. The colonial governments wanted to create an independent class of farmers and, despite the opposition of pastoralists (ranchers), passed a series of laws that promoted the acquisition of arable land so that it would not be used for pasture. However, the ranchers, having received loans from financial institutions, bought land for themselves through figureheads and gradually became the formal owners of vast lands. Although land laws encouraged the development of the so-called. mixed agriculture, based on various combinations of grain cultivation, milk and meat production, sheep breeding, focused on wool production, remained the leading industry. For example, in 1887 in New South Wales over 3.2 million hectares of land belonged to just 96 sheep farms. In the last quarter of the 19th century pastoralists faced economic hardship. World prices for wool began to fall, and overgrazing and lack of moisture contributed to the development of dust storms. In the period 1891-1901, millions of hectares of land were abandoned, and the number of sheep decreased by 33%. The potential forage capacity of the land has also decreased due to the increased number of rabbits. The development of improved hybrid breeds of sheep, the use of mechanized shearing and the erection of barbed wire fences have all failed to solve the problems of pastoralists. Meanwhile, the situation of farmers improved with the use of new agricultural machinery and fertilizers, the introduction of improved varieties of wheat, the provision of loans to the countryside, and the laying of railways to agricultural areas. On the coast of Queensland, sugar cane farming attracted settlers and investment.
Labor movement. Workers' organizations of the modern type arose in the 1850s, when builders' associations began agitating for an 8-hour day. However, it was only after 1890 that trade unions began to have a great influence on politics. By this time, miners, sailors, dock workers and sheep shearers were united in unions. After the unsuccessful strikes of 1890-1892, the positions of supporters of political actions strengthened. At this time, the Labor Party was formed. Among the typical tasks of the Australian labor movement in the 1890s were the following: limiting immigration, especially from Asia and the Pacific Islands; cessation of activities of sweatshops; the introduction of wage control systems and labor arbitration; payment of old age pensions. In Victoria, factory legislation was enacted in 1885, and during the 1890s laws were quickly followed throughout the colonies to regulate factories and mines, to regulate public health, to close shops early, and to control ships. Compulsory arbitration in labor disputes in industry and state regulation of prices were first introduced in South Australia in 1894, and in the rest of the colonies in 1901.
Protectionism. Between 1860 and 1900, all Australian colonies except New South Wales sought to support industry through protective tariffs. The reduction in alluvial gold mining revenues caused unemployment and Victoria had to turn to customs to find a source of income, as there was not much proceeds from the sale of royal lands, as in New South Wales. The system of protectionist measures in Victoria was imposed by powerful groups of businessmen, workers and politicians who were looking for sources of income that were not subject to direct taxation. The different political courses of Victoria and New South Wales caused a lot of controversy on the border of these colonies.
Creation of the Commonwealth of Australia. The British government proposed the formation of a central federal government as early as 1847, but withdrew this proposal, fearing opposition in the colonies. Favorable conditions for making such a decision appeared only in the last two decades of the 19th century, when, thanks to the construction of railways, the union of colonies began to look like a realistic idea. Prisoners escaping from the French penal colony of New Caledonia made their way into Australia illegally, and many feared that France would annex the New Hebrides. Rumors of German interest in New Guinea prompted the Queensland government to occupy the southeastern part of this island in 1883. The British government immediately rejected this annexation, but in 1884 Germany annexed the northeastern part of New Guinea with the adjacent archipelagos and then England re-annexed territory previously claimed by Queensland. In the early 1880s, the federal council, which represented the colonies, gained the right to enact certain laws, but it did not have real executive power and the right to collect taxes. The first federal convention met in Sydney in 1891. It worked out the first draft of a constitution modeled on the US constitution, with the division of power between the federal and state governments. The lower house was to have representation based on the population of each state, while the upper house represented the states equally. In 1895, the prime ministers of the colonies agreed to convene a second federative congress in order to submit a constitution to the voters and, if adopted, ask the British parliament to approve it as a basic law. In 1897, the second federal congress adopted a text based on the draft 1891. The amendments introduced by the parliaments of the colonies were then considered at the second and third sessions. As a result of referendums held in the three southeastern colonies - Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, the draft constitution was adopted by a majority of voters. However, in New South Wales, only 5,367 votes were cast in favor of the draft, far short of the required minimum of 80,000 votes. New South Wales feared the rise of other less populated colonies and the imposition of a protectionist tariff. To meet the requirements of New South Wales, amendments were made regarding taxation and the choice of residence of the federal capital. A second referendum, held in 1899, resulted in the adoption of an amended version of the constitution in all five eastern colonies. Western Australia abstained until 1900 and agreed to accept the project when it was approved by the English Parliament. Striving for free internal trade and common action on defense, in matters of immigration, industrial and financial affairs, ultimately contributed to the unification of the colonies. The Union Constitutional Bill was passed by the British Parliament in the spring of 1900 and Queen Victoria's assent was received on 9 July 1900. The Commonwealth of Australia was founded on 1 January 1901.
The first years of the Union. Australian political life from 1901 to 1914 was dominated by pro-free trade and protectionist groups, while Labor maintained the balance of power and eventually encouraged tariffs. Other important events of the period under review were the provision of pensions for the elderly and the establishment of a system of conciliation and arbitration in labor disputes. It was also characteristic of the strengthening of central power at the expense of the power of the states, mainly because economic problems were increasingly taking on a national character. Customs duties and immigration policy were regulated by the federal government. The Supreme Court of Australia provided significant, but not unlimited, support for the federal government. Customs rights brought large funds to the federal treasury; in 1909 the federal government assumed all state debts and provided compensation to state governments for the loss of customs and excise duties.
Foreign policy and defense. The Australian government, although it did not have independence in foreign policy, showed an obvious interest in the problems of the Pacific region. The Australian delegates defended the interests of their country at the 1902 Colonial Conference and at the Imperial Conferences of 1907 and 1911. In 1909 the post of High Commissioner for Australia was established in London. Australia did not make much of a claim to an independent foreign policy, but wanted to communicate its wishes to the British government and be kept informed of British policy. Australia has also shown an interest in defense issues. The Council of Defense was created in 1905, and the federal law of 1909 approved the principle of compulsory military training. A system for the exchange of officers between british army and Australian connections. Similar decisions have been made regarding navy country, which was established in 1909.
Economic development. In the period 1901-1914 the population of Australia grew from 3.75 million to nearly 5 million. The development of the economy was encouraged in every possible way, and the government showed confidence in the future by taking loans for public works, especially for the construction of railways, the network of which has increased by 8 thousand km over the years. The number of enterprises and workers increased. By 1914 the majority of the population was in the country's trade unions, and in this respect Australia was ahead of other countries.
immigration policy. The federal government has taken over immigration policy issues that were previously controlled by the states. It encouraged immigration from Britain and passed laws to limit the influx of immigrants from Asia and the Pacific.
World War I. When war broke out in 1914, Australian Labor Prime Minister Andrew Fisher promised to help Britain "until last person and to the last shilling". Australian troops received a baptism of fire in Gallipoli (Italy) on April 25, 1915. Since then, this day has been celebrated as a day of remembrance for the soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand army corps. After the evacuation from Gallipoli in December 1915, Australian troops were transferred to France. At the very end of 1916, Labor Prime Minister W. M. Hughes recognized the need for the introduction of conscription. However, his political opponents forced a referendum on the issue, and the proposal was rejected. In 1917, Hughes formed a new war cabinet, consisting of five Labor members who supported the proposal for compulsory military service, and six representatives of other parties. The proposal was defended by the newly formed National Party, but the second attempt to pass this law also failed. On Versailles peace conference in Paris, after the end of the war, Prime Minister Hughes represented the interests of Australia in a very ultimatum form and insisted on maximum reparations. Fearing the proximity of a potential enemy, he demanded that Australia be allowed to annex any lands it had conquered during the war and opposed the proposal that former German colonies become mandated territories. He had to agree to the transfer to Japan of the former German possessions in the Pacific Ocean north of the equator. Australia took control of the German part of New Guinea, the Bismarck archipelago and northern group Solomon Islands. Hughes actively opposed Japan's proposal to include the principle of racial equality in the charter of the League of Nations.
Interwar period. After the conclusion of the Versailles Peace Treaty, the wartime coalition disintegrated. The rural landowners refused to support the Hughes government, and it was forced to resign in 1923, which led to the formation of a coalition of the National Party and Agrarian Party. In 1927 the government began moving the federal capital from Melbourne to Canberra. It allowed the entry of 300,000 immigrants and began the transformation of the Union Bank into the Central Bank, giving the latter the right to issue paper money, keep records of bills, etc. In the late 1920s, the government took harsh measures against strikes and proposed to abolish the arbitration system. In the face of an imminent industrial crisis, the government lost popularity. After the 1929 elections, the Labor Party came to power just on the eve of the world economic crisis.
Labor government. As an important producer of primary raw materials, Australia quickly felt the impact of the fall in world market prices in 1929-1931. To overcome difficult situation, the federal government cut public wages, pensions, and bond interest. The arbitration court decided to reduce real wages by 10%. Well national currency stabilized at a depreciated level. The Union Bank agreed to provide loans for public works for the unemployed and for agricultural assistance to cover the government deficit. In December 1931, the United Party of Australia elected 75 deputies to the House of Representatives by an absolute majority and formed an anti-Labor government.
International relationships. After World War I, Australia joined the League of Nations. Naval Forces Australia have been reduced. During the depression, compulsory military service was abolished. In the early 1930s, defense spending was extremely low and increased slightly after 1935, but the country's real defense capability was at a low level until the Munich crisis of 1938. During the first two years of World War II, the Australian government continued to maintain relations with Japan.
The Second World War. Robert J. Menzies had only been Prime Minister for five months when his government joined Britain and declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. Australian troops fought in the Middle East and North Africa from 1940-1942. However, Menzies' coalition government faced growing opposition, and eventually Labor Party leader John Curtin was asked to form a new government on October 7, 1941. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 took place two months later. The surprise attack by Japan on Malaya, where the 8th Division of the Australian Army was supporting the British, caused the Curtin government to declare war on Japan the next day. The Japanese rout of allied forces in Southeast Asia in the following weeks shook Australians' faith in the ability of the British Navy to defend their country. On December 26, Curtin called for a radical change in national allegiance, declaring: "Australia looks to America without any scruples about our traditional kinship ties to the United Kingdom." Ignoring a request from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Curtin withdrew the 6th and 7th Australian Divisions from the Middle East to defend Australia. The landing of the Japanese on New Guinea in January 1942, accompanied by air raids on Darwin, Broome, Townsville and other cities northern australia confirmed the correctness of the decision. In April 1942, American General Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia to serve as commander-in-chief in the southwestern Pacific region during the transition of the allied forces to the counteroffensive. The Australian naval and air forces were replenished and became more combat-ready; by May, the threat of a Japanese invasion had been eliminated.
post-war period. During World War II, the British government passed the Westminster Act of 1931, which granted some dominions, including Australia, legislative autonomy. A spirit of optimism and confidence prevailed in post-war Australia. The Labor government, led by Prime Minister Joseph B. Chifley, who replaced Curtin after his death in June 1945, put forward new plans economic development countries. In the period 1946-1949, legislation was developed aimed at improving welfare, developing the healthcare system, caring for the elderly, and helping the unemployed and the disabled. In a referendum in 1946, a constitutional amendment was approved, according to which the federal government should not only take care of the disabled and the elderly, but also provide benefits for young mothers, widows, children, the unemployed, students and families with many children, as well as help in acquiring medicines and payment of fees to medical personnel. This forced a significant expansion of the social programs of the Australian government. The government has taken a course to encourage entrepreneurship in aviation, shipping and banking and has introduced a system of scholarships for obtaining higher education. In 1949, the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric complex was created to irrigate the arid hinterland of southeastern Australia and generate cheap electricity. A large-scale immigration program was important, which made it possible to fill the shortage of labor during the post-war economic boom. There have been big changes in the country. In 1949 it became obvious that the Labor government had lost its understanding of the alignment of forces in the international arena. Domestic policy caused dissatisfaction among the general population. Gasoline has been rationed since the war, although since 1948 the very popular Holden, the first Australian-made car produced by General Motors, has been available to every Australian family. The economic control inherent in wartime was becoming unnecessary as the country entered an extended period of post-war boom with the stimulation of consumer interests. Seeking to realize the socialist ideals of the Labor movement, Chifley attempted - quite unsuccessfully - to nationalize the private banks. In December 1949, R.J. Menzies again became prime minister, having come to power at the head of a coalition of the Liberal Party and the Agrarian Party, putting forward an electoral platform of free enterprise and anti-communism.
1950-1960s. Under Menzies, who remained in office for 16 years and laid the foundation for the uninterrupted rule of the coalition of the Liberal Party and the Agrarian Party for 23 years, the country began a period of economic growth. Although pockets of poverty and social tension remained in the country, the middle class reached high level well-being in the conditions of industrial production growth. The acquisition of a separate house has become a reality for all categories of workers; the suburbs of the capital cities expanded rapidly, and the new skyscrapers of capitalist corporations transformed the central business districts. Once ridiculed as a "bush capital" due to its small population and abundance of undeveloped land, Canberra has evolved into a clean green city with beautiful public buildings. The system of secondary and higher education in Australia has been rapidly improved with the support of the government. Development of international airlines; export of coking coal, iron ore, copper, aluminium, gold, silver, lead and zinc; the use of Asian and American markets for the export of Australian wool, wheat and meat, as well as the discovery of oil and natural gas deposits, ended Australia's dependence on Great Britain and turned it into a developed state. Immigrants arrived on an increasing scale from different countries. Between 1949 and 1968, over 1 million immigrants arrived from Great Britain and about 800,000 from the rest of Europe. Many came with the financial support of the Australian government. The policy of "white Australia" actually ended in 1966 (officially in 1973), and large contingents of immigrants began to come from Asian countries after that. Menzies, an outspoken Royalist and Anglophile who boasted of being "British from head to toe," nevertheless sought to solidify Australia's alliance with the United States. The foreign policy of the government headed by him was based on the fact that ties with Great Britain were weakening more and more, and with the USA - strengthened. At the outbreak of the Korean War, Menzies sent Australian warships to aid the United States and soon recruited a contingent of volunteers from the regular army. In 1951, Australia formed the Pacific Security Pact with the US and New Zealand, and this pact remained the cornerstone of Australian defense policy for almost 40 years. In 1954, Australia joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), and in 1955 Australian troops were stationed in the Federation of Malaya to help the British suppress the pro-communist movement there. Menzies initially reacted to civil war in Vietnam by introducing compulsory military service for certain categories of citizens and sent 800 troops to South Vietnam in 1965. In January 1966, Menzies retired, and Harold Holt, who replaced him as prime minister, increased the number of Australian troops in Vietnam to 4.5 thousand. Human. In Australia, sharp discussions unfolded on the assessment of the government's foreign policy and its dependence on the US course. Government supporters felt that it was necessary to support US action in Vietnam, as Australia's security depended on US assistance under the Pacific Security Pact. In the November 1966 elections, Holt's government policy won the support of most of the electorate. However, opposition intensified, and a coalition was formed that included left-wing elements of the Labor Party, some church leaders, intellectuals, university students, and more liberal newspapers that denounced the Vietnam War and Holt's drive to go "all the way with the Yankees." J. Gorton, who took over as prime minister in January 1968 (after Holt's death while surfing), continued the same foreign policy, although in domestic policy he strengthened the role of the federal government in supporting education and the arts. The Gorton-led coalition of the Liberal Party and the Agrarian Party remained in power after the 1969 elections, but with less voter support. Particularly strong opposition was provided by the Labor Party, headed by G. Whitlem. Faced with the threat of a split within his party, Gorton resigned in 1971 and was succeeded by William McMahon.
1970s. McMahon's government finally withdrew Australian troops from Vietnam in February 1972, but his foreign policy was rebuffed in the December 1972 elections, when voters voted in favor of Labor for the first time since 1949. The widespread suspicions in the country of the pro-communist tendencies of the Laborites provoked a discussion that sharply split this party in 1955. Resurrected after 1967 under the leadership of G. Whitlem, who now became prime minister, the Labor Party put forward a pretentious program of reforms. The new government immediately abolished military service, released from prison those who evaded conscription for military service and established diplomatic relations with China. Laws were expanded to provide education at all levels, universal health insurance was introduced, and tax breaks were provided for the poor. Other key elements of the program included the establishment of a federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the establishment of Regional Urban Development Centers (to limit the growth of capital cities) and the formation of the Council of Australia, a federal agency to promote and subsidize the arts, regular cuts in customs duties by 25%, lowering immigration quotas, the official abolition of the "white Australia" policy, the development of a flexible domestic policy focused on the recognition and support of various ethnic groups and cultures, and the granting of independence to Papua New Guinea. Labor did not control the Senate, which hampered the passage of new bills. In 1974, Whitlam dissolved Parliament after the Senate froze funding for the said bills. Labor retained a majority in the House of Representatives in the next election, but they never succeeded in taking control of the Senate. By this time, the global economic downturn and rising inflation following the rise in world oil prices had a profound effect on the Australian economy. The Labor Party's price-cutting policy, high-spending policies and the reduction of customs barriers led to an increase in inflation and unemployment. After a series of ministerial resignations public opinion in 1975, it was inclined to believe that Labor policy had reached a dead end. In October, Opposition Leader Jim Malcolm Frazier refused to pass budget laws in the Senate until the government calls new elections. The governor general found an unprecedented way out of this situation by removing Whitlam and appointing Fraser as interim prime minister until a new election. The discrepancy in assessments of the governor-general's actions split the country. In the next election, voters delivered their verdict, giving the Liberal Party-National Party coalition a record majority in the House of Representatives and a majority in the Senate. Despite the ongoing political discussion about the coming of the coalition to power, the main tasks of the new government were economic and related to the stagnation in the economy, rising inflation and unemployment. Fraser believed that the first thing to do was to fight inflation and at first he was successful, reducing the rates of its growth. Fraser's government was re-elected twice, in December 1977 and October 1986, but rising inflation and unemployment eroded support for the coalition.
1980s. In February 1983, Fraser called early elections, hoping to surprise the Labor Party, which was in the struggle in the leadership. This strategy failed because the newly elected leader of the Labor Party, R. J. L. Hawke, was universally popular. In elections held in March, Labor won a decisive victory over the coalition, and Hawke became prime minister. The desire for consensus has become distinctive feature Hawke's work as prime minister has spread to areas as diverse as tax reform, job creation, educational reform, and better relations between indigenous peoples and other citizens of the country. Hawke's government was re-elected in 1984, 1987 and 1990. It was the first Labor federal government to serve more than two consecutive terms. Under Hawke and his influential treasurer, Paul J. Keating, Labor transformed many of the principles of traditional social democratic politics and embarked on a path of market reforms, seeking to develop the private enterprise sector. Was canceled state regulation financial markets, foreign banks were allowed to conduct operations in Australia. Many state-owned enterprises (for example, Quontas Airways) have been transferred to private ownership. The monopoly on telephone communications was abolished. Financial activity flourished until the collapse of the international stock exchange in October 1987. The growth of public and private debts, a series of bankruptcies of large companies, crises in agriculture and the manufacturing industry (whose products became less and less competitive in foreign and domestic markets), a large deficit in the balance of payments, inflation and high interest rates all marked the country's economy on its way to recession in 1991.
1990s. Unemployment rose from 6% in 1989 to 11% in 1992, the highest rate since the global economic crisis of the 1930s. Despite Hawke's election success in December 1991, his parliamentary colleagues preferred Paul Keating to him. After serving as prime minister for 16 months, Keating led Labor in an election in March 1993 in which many party members expected defeat after a decade in office. Following a campaign largely over a proposal by the Liberal National Opposition to impose a general tax on goods and services, Labor won a resounding victory and gained more seats in Parliament. Reappointed Prime Minister, Keating led several important political events. In response to the Supreme Court ruling in 1992 in the Maybo case on the rights of some Australian Aborigines to their ancestral lands, the Keating government succeeded in getting these proposals through the Senate. Thus began a 10-year period of national reconciliation between the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples of Australia. The government raised the question of the elimination of the last ties with the British monarchy and the transition of Australia to republican rule. In the March 1996 elections, an unprecedented long period of Labor rule ended. The Liberal Party, led by opposition leader John Howard, won an absolute majority of seats in the House of Representatives, but chose to maintain its traditional coalition with the National Party. Since the defeat of this coalition in the previous elections of 1993 was attributed to the radicalism of its policies in the field of taxation and industry, a more moderate course was proclaimed during the 1996 election campaign. The Howard government passed a new labor law aimed at stimulating entrepreneurial activity and the weakening of the influence of unions, sold one-third of the shares of the giant state telecommunications company Telstra. The government managed to achieve a positive balance in the country's budget (which in last time was achieved by the Hawke cabinet in 1990-1991), reduce inflation, significantly increase economic growth, despite the crisis that hit Asian countries in 1998. In February 1998, it provided funds for a national conference on the feasibility of Australia's transition to a republican form of government . Based on the decisions of this conference, it was proposed to hold a referendum in 1999. The government had to deal with the consequences of the Supreme Court conclusions in the Maybo 1992 and Vic 1996 cases and find a compromise solution that would satisfy the interests of agriculture and related industries, while not prejudicing rights of indigenous people. In the election campaigns of October 1998, the Howard government promised to sell another stake in Telstra and reform the tax system by introducing a single tax on goods and services (this proposal was rejected in 1993). The government was re-elected, the Liberals retained the majority of seats in the House of Representatives (albeit with a small margin), and remained in the minority in the Senate.
Collier Encyclopedia. - Open society. 2000 .
The British did not immediately appreciate the significance of the new lands, and only eighteen years later their development began. The first British settlers were exiled convicts and their jailers. By the second half of the 18th century, due to the rigidity of the criminal law, British prisons were overcrowded. The authorities sent convicts to North America, but after the colonies in the New World achieved independence, it became necessary to search for and create new overseas settlements for prisoners. The choice fell on mainland Australia. In January 1788, a flotilla of 11 ships, on which there were more than 1 thousand people (including about 750 exiles), led by Captain Arthur Phillip, reached the coast of Australia and landed on the area, which was then called Port Jackson.
On July 7, 1788, the colony of New South Wales was inaugurated. By royal decree, Phillip was appointed governor of the colony, whose borders extended from the Cape York Peninsula to the South Cape and west to 135° east longitude. The first settlement of the colony was named Sydney in honor of the British Home Secretary. The colonists immediately encountered serious difficulties: the lands were infertile or were occupied by eucalyptus forests. The exiled criminals and their guards were unsuited to the harsh conditions of life. As a rule, those convicted of minor criminal offenses were referred to the settlement, but among them were also political prisoners (rebellious Irish, dissident Scottish priests). These were mostly weakened and emaciated people, many of them were elderly, and they had to fully provide for themselves food and housing. The need to resettle newly arrived prisoners, the lack of developed land and water suitable for use, the attempts of the French to settle in other lands of the continent - all this pushed the British to actively explore unknown territories and populate them. So, thanks to the expeditions of G. Blackland, W. Winworth, W. Lawson, fertile pastures were discovered on the western slope of the Blue Mountains. C. Sturt, D. Oxley, G. Hume explored the river systems of the southern and southeastern parts of the continent. By the end of the 19th century, six separate colonies had already emerged in Australia: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania. If New South Wales and Tasmania were colonies of convicts, then South Australia and Western Australia were colonies of free settlers.
Initially, the British government considered Australia as an open-air prison, the prisoners and their guards had to exist at the expense of the products they produced. But the development of British industry required new cheap sources of raw materials. They began to look at Australia as a manufacturer of cheap and high-quality wool. By this time, the settlers managed to achieve the first success in the development and cultivation of land, sheep breeding was rapidly developing, which became the leading sector of the Australian economy. By the middle of the 19th century, Australia had become the main exporter of wool to the metropolis. An increase in the number of livestock required an increase land plots under pasture. For the sake of developing and conquering lands, the settlers ousted and often destroyed the local population (some managed to escape by going deep into the continent). So, on the island of Tasmania, the aboriginal population was completely destroyed.
The discovery of gold deposits in the middle of the 19th century significantly changed the economic situation in Australia, influenced the organization of political life and the increase and change in the structure of the population. For some time, wool exports ceased to occupy a leading position in the economy. The number of sheep has decreased, less wool has been produced, and its quality has deteriorated. The "gold rush" swept the settlers, people left their former occupations and went in search of gold. The number of workers in production and agriculture has sharply decreased. In order to keep people in their jobs, the government has significantly increased wages, but at the same time prices for food and consumer goods have risen. The Gold Rush caused the first wave of immigration. The influx of immigrants increased the population of Australia from 400,000 in 1850 to 1,146,000 in 1860.
Immigrants mostly came from Great Britain, but there were many Chinese in the general labor force, the number of which exceeded 100,000 people. Gold mining contributed to the economic development of the southeastern colonies, the construction sector was actively developing, and the production of agricultural goods increased. New railway lines were laid, telegraph communications between cities were established. Along the way, the production and introduction of various mechanical installations at the mines and the use of new technical methods were stimulated. The extraction of minerals has increased: silver, lead, zinc (in the west of New South Wales), copper on the York Peninsula in South Australia. Gold mining stimulated the growth of foreign trade. Between 1851 and 1860, the total volume of foreign trade between Victoria and New South Wales increased 10 times.
Formation and development political system The country was due to the specific features of the population, which initially consisted of prisoners and soldiers who supervised them, and economic development, which stimulated a constant influx of immigrants from different parts of the world. Initially, the colonies existed on their own, they were separated by significant expanses of undeveloped and poorly explored lands, they were united only by the subordination of a distant metropolis. At the head of each colony was a governor, endowed with broad powers. He determined almost all aspects of the life of the colony: he was the head of military and civil justice, commanded the armed forces, appointed officials to administrative positions, had the right to impose fines, confiscate, and could impose or exempt from punishments, including the death penalty. The governor also managed the economic life of the territories entrusted to him. He also had the right to mobilize the population for public works.
In 1787, the British Parliament passed a series of acts regulating the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the colonies, which remained in effect almost unchanged until the 1820s. Only in 1814 two independent civil courts were formed - the supreme and the governor's. The last word in legislative activity belonged to the British government. A similar system of justice operated in almost all British settlements in Australia.
The increase in population, the change and complication of the social and political life of the colonies required a modification of the management system. The act of 1842 significantly changed the governing bodies in the oldest colony - New South Wales. The State Legislative Council consisted of 36 deputies, 12 of them were appointed by the British monarch, and 24 were elected. The term of office of a council member was five years. Council sessions were held at least once a year, their time and place were appointed by the governor. He could extend the session or dissolve the council. The council appointed the speaker and the rules of procedure. But all these decisions had to be approved by the governor. The final decision to reject the law belonged to the metropolis. Within two years, the British government could repeal any law passed by the Legislative Council. The council controlled the financial life of the colony, except for the income received from the lands of the crown, and the costs of maintaining the state administration (this was in charge of the British government). The rights of voters were also legally defined. Active suffrage was enjoyed by persons who had reached the age of 21 and had a plot of land worth £200 or a house that brought in an income of £20 annually. Persons who reached the age of 21 and had a lower income had a passive right to vote. Voters had to be British subjects (by birth or naturalization). Prisoners did not have the right to vote.
The act of 1842 also provided for the creation of local governments, the governor had the right to establish the boundaries of the districts and create councils there. On the territory of New South Wales in 1843, 29 districts and the same number of local councils were created. The first composition of the councils was appointed by the governor, then the deputies were elected local residents. The number of members of the council, elected for three years, depended on the population. The councils were headed by chairmen, who were appointed and dismissed by the governor. Qualifications limiting the participation of the population in elections, against the backdrop of the rapid development of the colony, caused protest moods. Therefore, soon there was a need to revise the existing legislation. After long and difficult deliberations in the British Parliament, in 1855 the constitutional arrangement of New South Wales was adopted, according to which the legislature of the colony consisted of two chambers.
The Legislative Council included at least 21 British-born and life-appointed members who were at least 21 years of age. The lower house, the Legislative Assembly, consisted of 44 elected members. They had to be British subjects at least 21 years of age. The property qualification was preserved: voters who had land plots worth £100 had the right to vote. Assembly members were elected for five years. The competence of the legislature included all legislative activities on issues of local importance, control over the lands of the crown and income from them. The governor appointed all officials of the administration in consultation with the executive committee. These principles of constitutional organization were extended to all other colonies. Back in 1850, a hierarchy of governors was established: the governor of New South Wales was the eldest, he received the title of governor general and formally became the governor of all the colonies that existed at that time; the governors of the other colonies, although they retained a certain independence, became a kind of assistant to the governor-general.
In the 1850s, the first professional organizations, among them the United Society of Mechanics (1852) and the Australian Society of Progressive Carpenters and Joiners (1854) should be noted. Later, miners, masons, workers in the gold mining and mining industries began to unite. Trade unions in Australia took an active part in the life of the country. If initially the trade unions put forward purely economic demands: the improvement of working conditions for workers and employees, the establishment of an eight-hour working day, the introduction of a system of wage control and labor arbitration, the payment of old-age pensions, then later they began to put forward political demands, for example, the participation of workers in solving the most important problems colonies. Trade unions advocated limiting immigration, especially from Asia and the Pacific Islands, demanding restrictions on the use of prison labor, as they were competitors for free workers. The emergence of numerous trade union associations led to the creation in 1861 of the Australian Workers' Federation. Active actions of workers in the 1880-1890s, a wave of strikes, strikes and demonstrations stimulated the creation of an arbitration system to resolve labor conflicts. In 1901, the New South Wales Administration passed the Labor Disputes Settlement Act.
Some researchers suggest that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the shores of Australia back in the 20s of the 16th century.
As the main evidence, supporters of this theory cite the following points:
- maps of Dieppe published in France in the middle of the 16th century. They depict a large stretch of land between Indonesia and Antarctica, called Java la Grande, with symbols and explanations in French and Portuguese;
- the presence of Portuguese colonies in Southeast Asia at the beginning of the 16th century. In particular, the island of Timor is located only 650 km from the Australian coast;
- various finds found along the Australian coastline are attributed to early Portuguese travelers.
In addition, the French navigator Binot Polmier de Gonneville claimed to have landed on some land east of the Cape of Good Hope in 1504, after the ship was blown off course by the wind. For some time he was credited with the discovery of Australia, but later it turned out that the lands he visited were part of the coast of Brazil.
Discovery of Australia by the Dutch
The first undeniable discovery of Australia is documented at the end of February 1606. The expedition of the Dutch East India Company, led by Willem Jansson, landed from the ship "Duifken" ("Dove") on the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Jansson and his comrades explored the coast of New Guinea. Sailing from the island of Java to the southern coast of New Guinea and moving along it, after some time the Dutch reached the shores of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Australia, believing that they were still watching the coast of New Guinea.
Apparently, for some reason, the expedition did not notice the Torres Strait, which separates the coasts of New Guinea and Australia. On February 26, the team landed near the place where the city of Waipa is located today and was immediately attacked by the natives.
Subsequently, Jansson and his people sailed along the coast of Australia for about 350 km, from time to time making landfalls, but everywhere they ran into hostile natives, as a result of which several sailors died. The captain decided to return back, without realizing that he had discovered a new continent.
Since Jansson described the coast he explored as deserted and swampy, the new discovery did not arouse any interest. The East India Company equipped its ships in search of new lands rich in spices and jewels, and not for the sake of geographical discoveries as such.
In the same year, Luis Vaes de Torres sailed through the same strait, apparently not noticed by the Jansson expedition and later named Torres. It is possible that Torres and his comrades visited the northern coast of the continent, but there is no written evidence of this.
In 1616, another ship of the Dutch East India Company, under the control of Dirk Hartog, reached the shores of Western Australia, in the Shark Bay area (Shark Bay) at about 25 degrees south latitude. The navigators explored the coast and nearby islands for three days. Finding nothing of interest, Hartog continued north along the previously unexplored coastline to 22 degrees S, after which he headed for Batavia.
In 1619, Frederick de Houtman and Jacob d'Erdel explored the Australian coast at 32 degrees S in two ships. sh. moving gradually to the north, where at 28 degrees S. discovered a strip of reefs called Houtman's Rocks.
In subsequent years, Dutch sailors continued to sail along the coast of Australia, calling this land New Holland, without bothering to explore the coast properly, because they did not see any commercial benefit in it. The vast coastline may have piqued their curiosity, but it did not encourage them to explore the country's resources. Exploring the western and northern coasts, they formed the impression of the newly discovered lands as swampy and barren. During that period, the Dutch never saw the southern and eastern shores, much more attractive in appearance.
On July 4, 1629, the Batavia, a ship of the Dutch East India Company, was shipwrecked off the Houtman Rocks. After the mutiny that happened soon after, part of the crew built a small fort for their protection - this was the first European structure in Australia.
According to some estimates, between 1606 and 1770 more than 50 European ships visited the shores of Australia. Most of them belonged to the Dutch East India Company, including the ships of Abel Tasman. In 1642, Tasman, trying to go around the so-called New Holland from the south, discovered an island, which he called Van Diemen's Land (later this island was renamed Tasmania). Moving further east, after some time the ships reached New Zealand. However, Tasman never got close to Australia on his first voyage. Only in 1644 did he manage to explore in detail its northwestern coast and prove that all the territories previously discovered during the Dutch expeditions, with the exception of Van Diemen's Land, are parts of a single mainland.
English studies
Almost until the end of the 80s of the 17th century, practically nothing was known in England about the lands discovered by the Dutch. In 1688, a pirate ship carrying the Englishman William Dampier anchored on the northwest coast, near Lake Melville. There was not much to plunder there, and after several weeks of repairs, the ship left the inhospitable shores. However, this voyage had some consequences: returning to England, Dampier published a story about his journey, which interested the English Admiralty.
In 1699, he set off on a second voyage to the shores of Australia, on the Roebuck ship provided to him. As in the previous case, he visited the barren northwest coast and, after 4 months of research, was forced to return without finding anything worthy of attention. Since Dampier was unable to provide any facts that could interest the Admiralty, interest in new lands waned for almost three-quarters of a century.
In 1770, an expedition led by Lieutenant James Cook set off for the South Pacific on the sailing ship Endeavor (The Attempt). The navigators were supposed to make astronomical observations, but Cook had secret orders from the British Admiralty to search for the southern continent Terra Australis Incognita, which, according to geographers of the time, extended around the pole. Cooke reasoned that since so-called New Holland had a west coast, there must also be an east coast.
The expedition landed on the east coast of Australia at the end of April 1770. The landing site, originally named Stingray Bay, was later renamed Botany Bay due to the strange and unusual plants found there.
Cook named the open lands New Wales and later New South Wales. He had no idea about the scale of his discovery, as well as the fact that this island is a whole continent, 32 times larger than Britain itself. Among other things, Cook was the first European to visit the Great Barrier Reef. The ship that stumbled across it spent the next seven weeks under repair.
The British returned in 1778 to colonize new lands.
British colonies
It was decided to begin the colonization of the lands discovered by James Cook, using convicts as the first colonists. The first fleet, led by Captain Arthur Philip, consisting of 11 ships carrying a total of about 1350 people, arrived in Botany Bay on the 20th of January 1788. However, the area was considered unsuitable for settlement and they moved north to Port Jackson.
Governor Philip issued an order establishing the first British colony in Australia. The soil around Sydney Harbor was poor. The young colony relied both on developing farms along the Parramatta River, 25 kilometers upstream to the west, and on buying food from the natives.
The Second Fleet in 1790 brought badly needed supplies and various materials; however, among the newly arrived prisoners there were a large number of patients, many of them were close to death and useless for the colony. The second fleet became known as the "Death Fleet" - 278 convicts and crew members died during this voyage, while the first time there were only 48 people who died.
The colony experienced many other difficulties, including a significant male preponderance of about four per woman, which had been a problem in the settlement for many years.
Several other British colonies were also created.
Van Diemen's Land
The first British settlement on the island was at Risdon in 1803, when Lieutenant John Bowen landed with about 50 settlers, crew, soldiers and convicts. In February 1804, Lieutenant David Collins established a settlement at Hobart. The colony of Van Diemen's Land was established in 1825, and from 1856 officially became known as Tasmania.
Western Australia
In 1827, Major Edmund Lockyer built a small British settlement at King Georges Sound (Albany). Captain James Stirling became its first governor. The colony was created specifically for convicts, and the first prisoners arrived in 1850.
South Australia
The British province of South Australia was founded in 1836 and became a Crown colony in 1842. Although South Australia was not created for convicts, a number of former prisoners subsequently moved there from other colonies. About 38,000 immigrants arrived and settled in the area by 1850.
Victoria
In 1834, the Henty brothers arrived in Portland Bay, and John Batman settled on the site of the future Melbourne. The first immigrant ships arrived in Port Phillip in 1839. In 1851, Victoria (Port Phillip) seceded from New South Wales.
queensland
In 1824, a colony known as Moreton Bay Settlement was established at Radcliffe by Lieutenant John Oxley, later known as Brisbane. About 19 hundred people were sent to the settlement between 1824 and 1839. The first free European settlers moved into the area in 1838. In 1859, Queensland seceded from New South Wales.
northern territory
In 1825, the land occupied by today's Northern Territory was part of New South Wales. In 1863 control of the area was given to South Australia. The capital Darwin was founded in 1869 and was originally known as Palmerston. On January 1, 1911, the Northern Territory seceded from South Australia and became part of the Commonwealth of Australia.
After the colonization of the coast, a period of active exploration began. However, until 1813, none of the expeditions were able to overcome the high mountain chain located along the east coast. After the passage was discovered, in 1815 Governor Macquarie crossed the Blue Mountains and founded the city of Bathurst on the other side. Many researchers rushed deep into the mainland.
John Oxley was the first serious explorer who surveyed the channels of the rivers Lochlan, Macquarie and several others. Charles Sturt in search of the mythical inland sea, discovers the Darling River, explores the Lochlan and Marambigee river system. John McDual Stuart explores the territories north of Adelaide, Friedrich Leichhardt crosses Cleveland and the Northern Territories, discovering many small rivers and land suitable for agriculture along the way, and in 1858-60 Robert Burke crosses the mainland from north to south for the first time. Nathaniel Buchanan finds vast pastures on the Barkley Plateau, which later became the center of Northern Australia's sheep farming.
In addition to those listed, many other researchers continued to study the mainland, discovering new lands and contributing to the further development of Australia.
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