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 grew inexorably. Under these conditions, the English government approved a plan to send convicts to Botany Bay in .
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 the location and soon found another harbor a little further north. The landing was carried out in Sydney Harbor in 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 boiled down to providing the necessary food, maintaining prisoners and developing their living conditions after the end of their sentences. Providing food to meet the needs of the colony became important during the early stages of settlement. The colonists did not want or could not accept the experience of indigenous Australians, whose hunting and gathering lifestyle was fully consistent with local conditions. It subsequently turned out that, although the soil in the vicinity of Port Jackson was not fertile, good crops could be grown in places further inland.
Meanwhile, the flow of prisoners into New South Wales was in full swing until 1840, until 1852 and until 1868. Particularly large numbers of convicts arrived between 1825 and 1845. Almost all of the 160 thousand arrivals were ordinary criminals, but approximately 1 thousand British and 5 thousand Irish could be considered political prisoners. In accordance with the sentence, some prisoners served time in penal colonies or worked on road works, shackled in chains, but the overwhelming majority were assigned to work with free colonists.
As a reward for good behavior, the governor could release convicts from work and had the right to give them “freedom,” which allowed them to work for themselves without being under the control of others. After the expiration of their sentences, former prisoners rarely returned to their homeland. Before 1822, they often received small plots of land and cultivated them, but often became ordinary hired workers.
The first English convict settlements (1788) were entirely dependent on supplies from Great Britain. However, in a short period of time, sheep farming began to develop in Australia. It served as the foundation of almost the entire economy until the end of World War II. The growth of wool exports between the 1820s and 1850s was particularly important for Australia's economic development; the discovery of gold deposits in Victoria and the gold rush of 1851–1858; the introduction of meat freezing technology in 1879, which allowed Australia to begin exporting meat to Britain in 1880.
The first European to reach Australia (the northern tip of its western coast) in 1606 was the Dutchman Willem Janszoon, who solemnly proclaimed the land found in the area of the modern Gulf of Carpentaria as New Holland. And in 1770, James Cook, during his first trip around the world on the Endeavor, walked along the east coast of Australia about 4 thousand km, discovered Botany Bay, the Great Barrier Reef, and Cape York. He declared all new lands the property of the English crown and called them New South Wales. Thus, he became the de facto discoverer of Australia. Among Captain Cook's crew was the scientist and botanist of the Royal Geographical Society, Joseph Banks. The previously unseen plants and animals found so captured the researcher’s imagination that he persuaded Cook to name their landing site Botany Bay (Botany Bay).
In the 18th century, English authorities began sending convicts to North America to relieve prison congestion. Between 1717 and 1776 approximately 30 thousand prisoners from England and Scotland and 10 thousand from Ireland were sent to the American colonies. When the American colonies achieved independence, the British government tried to send prisoners to their possessions in West Africa. But the local climate led to colossal mortality among the exiles. And then the English government came up with the idea of sending prisoners to Australia. The botanist Joseph Banks addressed a House of Commons select committee in 1779 to study the establishment of overseas settlements for prisoners in British prisons. He proposed establishing a colony at Botany Bay in New South Wales.
In August 1786, the British government prepared plans for the creation of a colony. Lord Sydney wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer indicating that funds should be made available to send 750 prisoners to Botany Bay "with such quantities of provisions, necessaries, and agricultural implements as they may require upon their arrival." In January 1787, King George III announced the plan in a speech to Parliament. Captain Arthur Phillip was entrusted with the command of the transportation of the first batch of exiles to the Australian colony by order of the Minister of the Interior, Lord Sydney. 11 vessels were allocated to him.
Preparations for the expedition began in March 1787, and in May the flotilla left England. The First Fleet was the name given to the fleet of 11 sailing ships that sailed from the shores of Great Britain on May 13, 1787, to establish the first European colony in New South Wales. The bulk of the people were prisoners. The First Fleet consisted of two warships (the command ship HMS Sirius and the small fast ship HMS Supply, used for communications), six prisoner transports, and three cargo ships.
2 Botany Bay
On the way to New South Wales, the First Fleet stopped at Santa Cruz (Tenerife), where it remained for a week. Then he proceeded through Rio de Janeiro to Cape Town, in each of these ports the fleet stayed for a month. On the approach to Tasmania, the Fleet, to speed up, was divided into 3 groups of ships - according to speed. Therefore, the ships did not reach Botany Bay at the same time, but between January 18 and 20, 1788.
Unable to find sufficient sources of fresh water and salt in Botany Bay, and finding that it was not deep enough and subject to winds, Captain Arthur Phillip explored Port Jackson Bay, located 12 km to the north.
3 Port Jackson. Sydney
On January 26, 1788, the First Fleet moved to Port Jackson, and dropped anchor in the small round Sydney Cove. 1026 people left England, including officials, their wives and children, as well as soldiers - 211, exiled men - 565, women - 192, children - 18. During the journey, 50 people died, 42 were born. The sailors were the first to land ashore . They hoisted the British flag and fired a volley of rifles.
Thus was founded the first settlement of the colony of New South Wales, named Sydney in honor of the British Home Secretary. Male prisoners came ashore to pick up the sailors (the women were landed only on February 6). They were surrounded by virgin eucalyptus forest. The land turned out to be infertile. There were no wild fruits or vegetables. After the appearance of people, kangaroos moved to such a great distance that hunting them became impossible. When they started setting up the colony, they saw how poorly the people were chosen for this. Among the exiles there were only 12 carpenters, one mason and not a single person knowledgeable about agriculture or gardening. Phillip wrote to Sidney: "It is necessary to supply the colony regularly for four or five years with food, as well as clothing and shoes."
The inauguration of the colony of New South Wales took place on February 7, 1788. Judge D. Collins read the royal decree appointing Captain Phillip governor of the colony of New South Wales. This act determined the boundaries of the colony: from north to south - from the Cape York Peninsula to the Southern Cape with all the islands and to the west - to 135° east longitude. Then the decrees on the appointment of officials of the colony and its legislation were announced. The governor was given such broad powers as no administrator in the British colonies had. He was in charge of foreign and domestic trade, had the right to distribute lands at his discretion, commanded the armed forces, made all appointments to positions in the colonial administration, had the right to impose fines, impose punishments, including the death penalty, and release them from them.
The colonists encountered great difficulties in Australia. Exhausted people were unable to cut down giant trees and loosen the rocky soil. Phillip reported that it took twelve men five days to cut down and uproot one tree. Small groups of colonists were sent to the Parramatta area and Norfolk Island, where the land was more suitable for farming than in Sydney. However, even there it was not possible to collect any significant harvest. In Sydney, wheat, maize, as well as the seeds of some vegetables, sown somehow by people who had no agricultural experience, did not germinate at all. The food brought was quickly depleted. Famine began in the colony. The supply ships from England did not arrive. The harvest collected in December 1789 was again very small, and they decided to leave it for new sowing in the hope that ships from England would soon arrive. But they still weren't there.
Together with the first batch of exiles, European domestic animals were brought to Sydney, which were to become the basis for the development of cattle breeding in the new colony. Many animals died on the way. A census taken in May 1788 showed that the colony had 7 heads of cattle and the same number of horses, 29 rams and sheep, 19 goats, 25 pigs, 50 piglets, 5 rabbits, 18 turkeys, 35 ducks, 29 geese, 122 hens and 97 chicks. All of them, except horses, sheep and cows, were eaten by the colonists.
On June 3, 1890, Australian colonists saw the British ship Lady Juliana entering the bay. She was the first of the ships of the Second Fleet sent by the British government to Australia. The colonists were greatly disappointed when they learned that there was no food on the ship, but there were 222 female convicts. Later, other ships of the Second Fleet arrived, bringing over 1000 more exiles to New South Wales. This fleet included a ship loaded with food, but on December 23, 1789, off the Cape of Good Hope, it hit an iceberg. To save the ship that had begun to sink, all food supplies had to be thrown into the sea.
Until August 1791, 1,700 exiles arrived in the colony, and in September of the same year, about 1,900 more people. Thus, the population of New South Wales exceeded 4 thousand people (including soldiers and officials). It was still not possible to collect any satisfactory harvests. And if it were not for food delivered on several ships from England, the population of the colony would have died of starvation.
Captain Phillip persistently asked the government to arrange for free settlers to be sent to New South Wales in order to create a more stable basis for the colonization of the remote mainland. In one of the letters, the governor wrote: “Fifty farmers with their families in one year will do more to create a self-supplying colony than a thousand exiles.” But there were very few people willing to voluntarily go to the colony. In the first five years of the colony's existence, only 5 families of free colonists arrived there, although the British government took on all the costs of moving, provided food for two years free of charge, donated land and placed exiles at the disposal of the settlers to work the land, and even provided food for these exiles at the expense of the treasury.
The sending of convicts to Australia began to decline in 1840 and ceased completely by 1868. Colonization was accompanied by the founding and expansion of settlements throughout the continent. Large areas were cleared of forest and bush and began to be used for agricultural purposes. This had a serious impact on the way of life of the Australian Aborigines and forced them to retreat from the coasts. The number of Aborigines decreased significantly due to introduced diseases to which they had no immunity.
In 1851, gold was discovered in Australia. The discovery of gold mines radically changed the demographic situation in Australia. If earlier the main colonists were prisoners, their guards and, to a lesser extent, farmers, now they were gold miners eager to get rich quickly. The colossal influx of voluntary emigrants from Great Britain, Ireland, other European countries, North America and China provided the country with a workforce for many years to come.
In 1855, New South Wales became the first Australian colony to gain self-government. It remained part of the British Empire, but the government controlled most of its internal affairs. In 1856, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia received self-government, in 1859 (since its foundation) - Queensland, in 1890 - Western Australia. The British government remained in charge of foreign policy, defense and foreign trade.
Introduction
1. History of the discovery of Australia
1.1. Willem Janszoon, Abel Tasman and William Damper
1.2. James Cook
2. The beginning of the English colonization of Australia
2.1. Reasons contributing to the colonization of Australia by England
2.2. The first colonists of Australia
2.3. Australia in the 19th century
2.4. English colonialists and Australian aborigines
Conclusion
Introduction
Australia is the only country in the world that occupies an entire continent. It is the oldest land mass, the flattest and the driest. The total area of the continent is 7.7 million km. Most of the country's territory is occupied by deserts and vast plains, with small mountains in the southeast. 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 there is snow for 7 months of the year. The unique beauty of the world-famous Great Barrier Reef. The continent is washed in the north by the Timor and Arafura seas and the Torres Strait; in the east - the Corral and Tasman seas; in the south by the Bas Strait and the Indian Ocean; in the west - 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 large Vodorazdelny ridge. 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 called 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, approximately 70,000 years ago the first people from Indonesia came to Australia. The first settlers, whom archaeologists later called “robusts” because of their large-boned constitution, were replaced another 20,000 years later by graceful people, the ancestors of the Australian aborigines.
The purpose of the course project “Colonization of Australia. Development of the territory of Australia by the British" - to show how the settlement and discovery of Australia by Great Britain took place, the relations between the British and the indigenous population of Australia, the development of Australia during the era of colonization.
1. History of the discovery of Australia
1.1. Willem Janszoon, 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 were not a huge continent somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, the Earth would simply topple over under the enormous weight of Europe, Asia and Africa. 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, in Latin sounding like Terra Australis Incognita. Dozens of sailors dreamed of repeating Columbus's feat.
The first to reach the northern tip of the western coast of the continent was the Dutchman Willem Janszoon in 1606, who solemnly proclaimed the land found in the area of the modern Gulf of Carpentaria (west coast of the Cape York Peninsula) as 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 in New Holland at that time. Nevertheless, a thin stream of researchers reached there from the Dutch base in Batavia (modern Jakarta). Eastern India became the springboard for further research.
In 1642, the governor of the East Indies, Anthony Van Diemen, sent an expedition in search of new unexplored lands. The expedition was led by the experienced navigator Abel Tasman. So it’s 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 Van Diemenova, in honor of the governor who sent him. But since later this name turned out to be inextricably linked with the penal colony - Port Arthur and its prisoners, the name initially 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 treasures. Local residents did not react at all to the brought silver and gold demonstrated by the sailors. These strange, in the eyes of savages, objects had no value. From which it followed that there was nothing of the kind here. The local aborigines were in a primitive state, without the slightest idea of property, much less money.
At the end of the 17th century, the English pirate William Dampier sailed to the shores of Australia twice, and explored its western coast over a long distance; here his name is still borne by the large port of Dampier. Then there was a rather long break in research, and in 1770, James Cook, during his first trip around the world on the Endeavor, walked along the east coast of Australia about 4 thousand km, discovering Botany Bay, the Great Barrier reef, Cape York. He declared all new lands the property of the English crown and called them new South Wales. Thus, he became the de facto discoverer of Australia.
1.2. James Cook
On April 29, 1770, the heavy and clumsy ship Endeavor dropped anchor 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 between the Earth and the Sun on June 3, 1769. Although these astronomical studies were only a pretext. The English government was extremely interested in the unknown southern continent, on which unusually rich deposits of gold, silver and other minerals were expected to be discovered. But Cook, alas, was unable to find anything like that there. But the captain found something completely different, namely, real Australia, or rather, New South Wales - that’s what he called the land he discovered. At the same time, he perfectly understood that it was the eastern side of New Holland, discovered by Willem Janszoon.
Among Captain Cook's team that set out in search of Australia was the scientist and botanist of the Royal Geographical Society, Joseph Banks. The previously unseen plants and animals found so captured the researcher’s imagination that he persuaded Cook to name their landing site Botany Bay (Botanical 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 Port Jackson, describing it as an ideal place for the safe anchorage of many ships. This report, apparently, was not forgotten, since a few years later it was here that the first Australian city, Sydney, was founded.
It took Cook four months to climb up the northern coast to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The navigator compiled 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 - all of them found their Australian counterparts then.
Having not quite happily passed the Great Barrier Reef, 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 ran out on the sailors - the Endeavor, not far from the modern city of Cooktown, hit a reef and almost sank. Repairing the ship took 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 throughout the world for its tropical forests. This is the only place on the planet where the Rhine Forest grows directly into the ocean, literally touching the coral reefs with its roots.
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.
Cook later made 2 more expeditions. The first of them began in 1772, when Cook left Plymouth on 2 ships. In January 1774 Cook reached 70° S. w. Cook then visited Easter Island, Tuamotu, and Tonga.
On January 8, 1778, Cook discovered the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands). The Hawaiians initially mistook him for the god Lopo, but soon became disillusioned with their guests. After this, Discovery and Resolution sailed to the coast of Russian Alaska. The following year, Cook returned to Hawaii, but his sailors treated the natives poorly. Captain Cook died on February 14, 1779 during his 3rd voyage to the Hawaiian Islands, being attacked by aborigines. The team managed to obtain Cook's body from the natives, and on February 21, 1779, he was buried in the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
2. The beginning of the English colonization of Australia
2.1. Reasons contributing to the colonization of Australia by England
Ideologists of colonialism often point to 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 visited the eastern shores of Australia, the British government remembered this continent and decided to begin its colonization. These actions were explained by the fact that in the 80s of the 18th century. It was not English cities that began to become overpopulated, but English prisons. The development of capitalism in England was accompanied by a terrible impoverishment of the masses.
From the end of the 15th century. In the country's agriculture, sheep farming began to develop rapidly due to the reduction of farming. Large landowners increasingly turned their estates into pastures. Moreover, they seized communal lands that were jointly owned with the peasant holders, and also drove these peasants from their plots and turned the plots into pastures. At the same time, they demolished not only individual peasant houses, but also entire villages.
Driven from the land and unable to find work, the peasants formed a huge army of vagabonds, wandering along the roads of the country without a means of subsistence and without a roof over their heads. When they managed to find work in factories or large farms, they found themselves in conditions of ruthless exploitation and found themselves completely powerless before the law. Their working day lasted 14-16 hours or more. The unlimited arbitrariness of the owner reigned in the manufacturing workshop. Wages were not enough even to buy bread for the family, and therefore begging became widespread. Child labor was widely used in factories. “Poor children aged six or seven had to work 12 hours a day, six days a week, in the terrible noise of textile mills or underground in coal mines dark as night.”
Nevertheless, their parents sent them there. “Hungry women even “sold” their children to mines and factories, because they themselves were unable to find work. Thousands and thousands of unemployed, homeless people were faced with the dilemma: “steal or die.”
Crime was rampant. Gangs of robbers terrified the cities. The ruling caste, frightened by the uncontrollable crowds of men and women, fell upon them with the full force of barbaric criminal laws. And the criminal laws of that time were characterized by extraordinary cruelty. The death penalty was provided for 150 types of crimes - from murder to theft from a handkerchief pocket. It was allowed to hang children over the age of seven.
To relieve prison congestion, the British government sent convicts to North America. Planters willingly and generously paid for the transportation of free labor: from 10 to 25 pounds. Art. per person depending on whether he was qualified or not. Between 1717 and 1776 approximately 30 thousand prisoners from England and Scotland and 10 thousand from Ireland were sent 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 destructive 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 Internal Affairs had no information about the rest. As a result, England abandoned the use of West African colonies as a place of exile.
2.2. The first colonists of Australia
Then the British government turned its attention to Australia. The botanist Joseph Banks, a member of J. Cook's expedition, contributed greatly to this. In 1779, he recommended exploring Botany Bay, which he claimed was an ideal place for establishing a settlement.
In 1783, T. J. Banks was supported by James Matra, a resident of New York, who also took part in J. Cook’s voyages and remained loyal to the British government. He proposed to distribute large tracts of land in the Botany Bay area to the Americans who had sided with the British during the war with the rebel American colonies, and to resettle the indigenous people of the Pacific Islands to Australia and distribute them to the American colonists as labor. In 1785, Admiral George Young began to advocate for the speedy colonization of Australia. Finally the government began to act. In 1786, plans were prepared to establish a convict colony in Australia. In January 1787, King George III announced it in a speech to Parliament. Home Secretary Lord Sydney appointed Captain Arthur Phillip to command the transportation of the first batch of exiles to Australia.
On January 26, 1788, a caravan of ships landed on the deserted shores of Australia. This was the first English fleet, under the command of Sir Arthur Phillip. On the 11 ships of the fleet there were 750 settlers, men and women, four teams of sailors and a supply of food for two years. Philip arrived at Botany Bay on 26 January, but he soon moved the colony to Sydney Cove, where water and land were better. For the new arrivals, New South Wales was a terrible place and the threat of famine hung over the colony for 16 years.
When discussing the issue of exile settlement in the South Seas, New Zealand was not lost sight of. True, in 1784 the House of Commons spoke out against organizing a settlement there. This was explained by the very unflattering characterization that both Cook himself and his companions gave to the Maori. But James Matra already emphasized the expediency of using New Zealand, located relatively close to Australia, to supply the Australian colonists with flax and construction and ship timber. Lord Sydney's order for sending exiles to New South Wales stated that ships on their way back to England were to 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 organizing the settlement turned out to be so great that he had no time for New Zealand.
The first from 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 of the impossibility of forcing prisoners to start making linen, since none of them knew how To do this, King decided to bring several Maori to the island who would teach the colonists their craft.
He offered 100l. Art. to the captain of the whaling ship William & Anne for bringing two Maoris 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 important voyage to Nootka Sound, for the possession of which a fierce dispute broke out between England and Spain. He re-instructed Lieutenant Hanson, commander of the ship Daedelus, to carry out the Admiralty's order. In April 1793, Hanson arrived in the Bay of Islands and simply stole two Maoris who had trustingly boarded the Daedelus at his invitation. King then took these Maoris to Sydney and from there to Norfolk Island. But it turned out that the stolen Maori had very little understanding of the production of linen, since they belonged to the native aristocracy: one was a priest, and the other was a military leader. Nevertheless, during the six months they were on the island, they taught the local settlers something.
In November 1793, the ship Britannia arrived in 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 with a view to organizing a British settlement there.
Having reached the Bay of Islands, King released the Maori he had brought (Huru and Tuki) home, generously rewarding them. On board the Britannia, King received the Maori chiefs and presented them with several pigs, which he had prudently captured from Norfolk, as well as seed potatoes. Among the chiefs was Te Rahi, whom King was to meet again in the future.
In turn, the Maori were friendly and hospitable. But they could not overcome their distrust of the pale-faced people, despite the rich gifts of the English 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 visited New Zealand more frequently. The fact is that the number of whales in the northern seas had by that time decreased significantly and, after Cook reported that he had seen herds of whales in the southern seas, primarily in the seas surrounding New Zealand, whalers turned their gaze to the south. At the beginning of 1775, the first sperm whale was killed in the South Pacific Ocean, and after that whaling gradually began to develop here.
The South Seas have also attracted attention as a place for seal fishing. It was in connection with this that the first, short-lived British settlement in New Zealand was created.
In 1791, the Enderby and Sons enterprise arose in Port Jackson, which set out to organize systematic fishing for seals in the seas surrounding New Zealand.
In October 1792, Enderby sent the ship Britannia under the command of Captain William Reven to Dusky Sound. On November 3, the ship arrived at the site and 41 people landed ashore 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 pick up the people left there and the skins of the seals that they should have obtained by this time. The commercial results of British fishermen in New Zealand were so poor that Enderby and Sons had to cease operations in the area.
However, nothing could shake King's conviction in the great potential of the New Zealand Islands. Using his own funds, in 1795 he sent the ship "Francy" to New Zealand to purchase timber and flax there. The expedition was successful. In March 1795, the Francey returned to Sydney with a rich cargo, which was sold at a profit.
King's success lifted the spirits of Sydney businessmen, and flights to New Zealand from Australia began to become more frequent. Ships sailing to Australia from India also began to visit New Zealand. 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 seal hunters increased.
King, having received the post of Governor-General of New South Wales, not only did not lose interest in New Zealand, but, on the contrary, tried even more energetically to strengthen British influence there. Taking advantage of the opportunities, 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.
More and more British trade expeditions to New Zealand were organized. But the British were by no means a monopoly in contacts with the Maori. From the very first steps, they encountered 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, communication between Maori and Europeans became multifaceted.
2.3. Australia in the 19th century
After 1800, British, American and French whaling ships began regular fishing off the New Zealand coast. They entered not only the Bay of Islands, but also almost all convenient bays on the New Zealand Islands, entering into trade relations with the Maori.
Often teams that landed from ships to catch seals remained 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 still had no idea what this land was like. There were different opinions on this subject, including that Australia is connected to China and is part of Asia. And the pioneers remained in such ignorance until 1803, when the British explorer Matthew Flinders announced that Australia was a huge island. To do this, he walked around the continent along the coastline, thereby eliminating all doubts. And he gave the newly populated island its current name - Australia.
The first Australian city was named Sydney in honor of the man who actually sent the exiles here. The English Colonial Minister of that time, Lord Sidney, was an ardent supporter of the settlement of new lands. And it was by his will that a trip to Sydney for many years became synonymous with irrevocable exile.
And in 1802, British colonists were landed in Tasmania. One of the reasons for settling on the island of Tasmania was that the English government noticed the increased interest of the French in it and hastened to annex it to their crown. Most of the new settlers were former convicts of the ominous Norfolk Island prison. Tasmania had 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 from here, and there were few people willing to live in the Tasmanian wilds, where the terrible marsupial wolf, the thylacine, lived. Later, partly out of fear, this unique animal was completely exterminated.
In 1830, the exemplary Port Arthur complex appeared on the Tasman Peninsula. It received this name in honor of the governor who initiated the creation of this prison. She was a very well-oiled machine, one might say, the pride of the UK 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 guarded sectors. It had its own hospital and post office, temple and guard quarters, 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 stopped being brought here.
By the way, Tasmania received 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 plenty of old prisoners. And yet, in the end, in 1877, the settlement was closed. Some found their last refuge on the island of the dead, while others received an amnesty or were transferred to a free settlement in Hobart or other Australian cities.
In 1851, gold was discovered in Australia. Surprisingly, the new southern continent actually turned out to be the thing for which all the grandiose sea voyages of previous years were started. At first, neither the Dutch nor the British simply suspected the existence of this noble metal here.
The discovery of gold mines radically changed the demographic situation in Australia. If earlier the main colonists were prisoners, their guards and, to a lesser extent, farmers, now they were gold miners eager to get rich quickly. The colossal influx of voluntary emigrants from all over the world provided the country with labor force for many years to come. In the ten years since the discovery of gold, the number of people trying to reach Australia has tripled.
One of the richest deposits was found in the Balla Rata Hills, 110 kilometers northwest of Melbourne. The city of the same name grew and developed rapidly. To service the gold miners, many 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. And so everyone dug where they wanted. In such a situation, mining engineers were called upon to make literally jeweler's calculations. After all, numerous miners could accidentally break through the wall and invade someone else’s excavation site. In the current 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 considerable income to Australia. During the entire existence of the mines in Ballarat, 650 tons of gold were mined.
2.4. English colonialists and Australian aborigines
Maori tribes living on the coast were in constant contact with European and American sailors and traders. Maori helped cut down and load exported timber onto ships; they were recruited as sailors on whaling ships.
It would be natural to expect some kind of ennobling influence of representatives of European civilization on the “primitive” natives. They really had a very strong influence, but by no means an ennobling one. The arrival of European colonialists on the islands was like a natural disaster of enormous destructive power for the Maori. The indigenous people, who did not know serious illnesses, began to die in thousands from measles and flu. The colonialists introduced the islanders to alcoholic drinks, and their increased “introduction” led to a huge spread of drunkenness among the population.
Although the colonialists treated the aborigines with contempt, they nevertheless turned out to be very sensitive to the beauty of local women, “dark Helens, native Messalinas,” 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 mass diseases of the Maori with venereal diseases.
The greedy colonialists introduced the natives to trading activities. It is impossible not to mention this type of business as the export of dried human heads from New Zealand. The fact is that the Maori had an ancient custom of preserving the heads of deceased relatives. For this purpose, they smoked them in a special way. Since demand exceeded supply, traders entered into contracts with local leaders for the heads of still living people they liked - slaves or captives - and by the next visit they received these heads, suitably processed.
But perhaps the most terrible consequences for the Aborigines were their acquaintance with firearms. The Maori quickly appreciated all its advantages and asked for muskets in exchange for their goods. In 1819, the Maori living in the Bay of Islands area already owned at least a hundred muskets.
In 1821, the leader of the Ngapuhi tribe, Hongi, traveled to England. There he received various kinds of gifts from the English government, which he exchanged for guns on his way back to Sydney. After this, Hongi started a civil war. In Auckland 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 Vollier. - sent his cousin to England, got guns from there and destroyed almost all the Maori on the South Island. During this time period, a significant number of European adventurers settled among the Maori. Since they knew how to handle guns and repair them, they were well received by the natives and played a significant role in wars.” More and more 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 aborigines 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 there were only 56 thousand.
Relations between Maori and Europeans deteriorated increasingly. In response to attacks by Maori, European captains carried out brutal reprisals, ending in the murder of dozens of Maori. One of these “operations” was organized against Te Rahi and his people.
The priest Samuel Marsden, of 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 began to cause so much bloodshed that the Governor-General of New South Wales, Macquarie, was forced to issue an order requiring the captains of all ships sailing from Port Jackson to New Zealand or to any other island in the South Pacific, make a mortgage in the amount of 1 thousand f. Art. as a guarantee of abstinence from actions towards the natives.
The first historian of New Zealand, military doctor A. Thomson, in his “History of New Zealand”, published in 1859, defined the relations that developed between Europeans and Maoris as a “war of races”.
Although British sailors and traders 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. On November 17, 1814, the ship Active entered the Bay of Islands, carrying 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 across the Pacific Ocean. At the age of 28, he was appointed assistant chaplain to New South Wales, where he and his wife went in July 1793.
Marsden settled in Parramatta, 15 miles from Port Jackson. A year later, he received the position of senior chaplain of the colony and remained in it for almost 45 years until his death.
At the beginning of 1794, after only two months of arriving 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 subsequent years, Marsden had occasions to meet Maoris, 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 set off for London on the Buffalo ship in February 1807. The leaders of the London Missionary Society approved his plan. The difficulty was recruiting people. composition of the mission. The European rumor about the Maori as “the most barbaric among the savage tribes” was too terrible. Finally, the society managed to find two volunteers, but, alas, not from the clergy: carpenter William Hall and shoemaker John King. Accompanied by these assistants, Marsden left England in August 1809.
The London Missionary Society obtained from the British government an order to the Governor-General of New South Wales, Macquarie, to provide the necessary assistance and to organize the British mission in New Zealand.
During the return voyage, Marsden discovered among the ship's crew a young Maori chief, Ruatara, whom he had met several years earlier.
Returning to Sydney, Marsden began by teaching the Christian faith to Ruatara and two other of his compatriots. At the same time, Marsden tried to use the stay of these Maoris in Australia to teach the Australian aborigines the art of linen production. Thus, the first missionary center for the spread of Christian teaching among the Maori arose on Australian soil - in Port Jackson.
Years passed, and Marsden could not get Governor General Macquarie's consent to travel to New Zealand. Then the power-hungry, assertive Marsden decided to buy a ship to transport the mission to New Zealand at his own expense. In September 1814 he became the owner of the brig Active. “I want it to be clearly understood,” Marsden wrote to the secretary of the London Missionary Society, “I did not purchase Active at the expense of the society, as I had no 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 did not at all intend to spend the money on pure philanthropy, but even upon his return expected to make a profit from the sale of goods purchased in New Zealand.
But this time, Macquarie did not allow Marsdej to leave New South Wales, but ordered that Marsden’s associates first visit New Zealand: Hall, King, and schoolteacher Thomas Kendall, who had recently arrived in Sydney from London. Liter Dillon was appointed captain of the brig Ective. This enterprising Irishman, 13 years later, in 1827, sailed on the ship Research in order to find out the fate of the famous French navigator La Perouse and the crew members of the two frigates that he commanded during his 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 La Perouse and his people, for which the French government awarded him the Order of the Legion of Honor and gave him the title of count.
The voyage to New Zealand went well. The Active 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 discussion.
Now Macquarie had no reason to postpone 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 Islands all the rights and privileges which extend to any dependent territory of New South Wales.” At the same time, he appointed Kendall as His Majesty's judge "in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand and throughout the islands of New Zealand and all the neighboring islands."
On November 28, 1814, the brig Active entered the open ocean, heading for the shores of New Zealand. On board, in addition to Marsden, the captain of the brig 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 loggers, eight Maoris, five of whom - Ruatara, Korokoro, Hongi Hika, Tui and Tiratau were tribal leaders, as well as Sydney resident John Nicholas, who was traveling as a private citizen.
Upon his release from prison in 1830, Wakefield launched an unusually active activity to practically implement the ideas hatched in Newgate. He contributed greatly to the rapid organization of the National Colonization Society, which also in 1830 published a pamphlet entitled “An Statement of the Principles and Aims of a Proposed National Society for the Cure and Prevention of Pauperism by Systematic Colonization.”
With the consent of the Ministry of Colonies, Wakefield carried out his experiments in Australia and Canada. But more and more his attention is focused on New Zealand, especially after his fiasco in Australia.
In June 1836, addressing the English Parliament, Wakefield writes: “Very close to Australia there is a country in every respect most suitable for colonization, the most beautiful, with an excellent climate and the most fertile soil. I'm talking about New Zealand. They may say that New Zealand does not belong to the British crown, and this is true, but the British began to colonize New Zealand. New Zealand becomes the property of the British Crown. Adventurers come from New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land for a few trinkets and a little gunpowder to acquire land... We must, 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 rapid colonization of the islands. In October 1838, the association already had 250 thousand pounds. Art. It soon turned into 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 creator of the theory of “systematic colonization.”
On August 18, 1839, the Tory approached the shores of New Zealand. Until the end of the year, Colonel Wakefield hastily purchased plots of land in various parts of the country. He was in a hurry - and not in vain. Australian entrepreneurs also began to acquire land on the New Zealand islands.
Soon the first colonists, sent by the New Zealand Land Company, appeared. Already on January 22, 1840, the ship “Aurora” equipped with it entered the harbor of Port Nicholson, later renamed Vellinton. A few days later, the arrivals founded the settlement of Britain. A month later, three more company ships arrived, bringing 482 colonists.
The Ministry of Colonies, which was now headed by Lord Normandy, was replaced rather hesitantly: it was dissatisfied with the claims of the New Zealand Land Company to a monopoly in the colonization of the New Zealand islands and therefore began to act more quickly and 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 that a government commissioner rather than the New Zealand Land Company be appointed to administer these territories. The commissioner, vested with the power of the British consul, would have to take steps "which will make New Zealand partly or wholly a British colony."
W. Hobson was entrusted with negotiating with the aborigines to establish 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 concerning 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 its annexation to Britain without the free and informed consent of the natives, but that the benefits of the natives arising from this th act will more than compensate them for the 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 smallness and savagery of its population, should be annexed on the basis of its discovery by J. Cook.
Wakefield persuaded Hobson to make Port Nicholson his residence, where the settlements of the New Zealand Land Company colonists were concentrated. But Hobson refused. He first chose Okiato for his capital, a place located three miles southwest of Kororareka, renaming it Russell in honor of Lord John Russell, the then Secretary of State for 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 was named Auckland in honor of George Auckland, the Governor-General of India. Hobson was grateful to Auckland for the fact that he, being First Lord of the Admiralty, helped him become captain of the ship. The city of Auckland remained the capital of New Zealand until 1865.
The New Zealand Land Company now tried to conduct its affairs in close contact with the British government, with the main goal of assisting its agents in the complete and speedy implementation of the 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 the employees of the company would do everything possible to help the success of Captain Hobson’s mission and to bring forward, as far as possible, the time when he , as Her Majesty's representative, will be able to establish the authority of Britain and the regular application of English law, not only in the settlements of the company, but throughout the islands of New Zealand." Before 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 serve as governor for long. 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 reached almost 27 thousand people.
All settlements that arose in the decade (from 1840 to 1850) in New Zealand, except Auckland: Port Nicholson, Wanganui, New Plymouth, Nelson, Da-nedin and Christchurch, were founded with the assistance of the New Zealand Land Company.
A characteristic feature of the colonialist ideas developed by E. Wakefield was that he viewed 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 Oakland Examiner newspaper, in its issue of September 7, 1859, wrote that “Maori nature cannot be civilized according to the whites’ ideas of civilization.” In the History of New Zealand, written by A. Thomson, it was argued that the heads of the Maoris were smaller than the heads of the English, and that therefore the Maoris were mentally inferior to the English. “Generations of mental laziness would have led to a decrease in brain size,” Thomson admonished.
The colonialists denied that the Maori had such a feeling as love for their homeland, and treated them as lazy, evil and cowardly. They did not allow the thought that this ancient people could have their own complex spiritual world.
However, at first there were relatively few Europeans, and they were forced to admit the unpleasant fact of the existence of a fairly large indigenous population. Even J. Cook believed that the Maori numbered at least 100 thousand.
Since the late 30s of the XIX century. began to buy up land owned by Maori. It is understandable that the British wanted to acquire land, but why did the Maori, who were always wary of strangers, so easily agree to such deals?
Everything will become clearer if we dwell, at least very briefly, on the Maori system of land tenure and land use. Maori did not know personal ownership of land. None of them could say that this or that piece of land belonged to him. The land belonged to the tribe. The tribe acquired rights to the land, either by seizing it from another tribe, or as a result of the initial occupation. None of the members of the tribe, including the leader, had the right to alienate the land, and before the arrival of the Europeans, the Maori did not even think about the possibility of such transactions.
When the Europeans appeared and began to offer all sorts of tempting things and, first of all, muskets for the land, the leaders, making the exchange, innocently believed that the land would still remain with them. Then they realized how this threatened their people, but by that time they themselves had already tasted enough of the benefits of civilization, and often became quite corrupted and therefore continued to sell off the land, but in secret from the members of the tribe.
More and more of the most fertile land passed to English businessmen. The Maori people were entering the most difficult period of their history. Disunited and exhausted by years of bloody inter-tribal hostility, provoked and incited by the colonialists, dying in thousands from diseases brought by Europeans, the Maori felt increasingly deceived and robbed: the land of their homeland was taken away from them, and taken away by those people who forced them to believe in Christ's mercy. But the enormity 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: courage, determination, 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 nation in the world. Lightning is already flashing, the 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 sites by annexing 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" the land for the company in 1839, the chiefs of the Ngatitoya tribe living 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 among themselves in Wairau, they immediately went to A. Wakefield, declared that the document selling the land to the company was invalid, and demanded the removal of the representatives of the colonists who had arrived to divide the land. 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 demanding that both leaders be punished for burning his home. The magistrate ordered the arrest of the leaders. And Wakefield with a group of 50 colonists headed to the territory of Wai-rau to make an arrest. However, both Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata flatly refused to recognize the legality of the magistrate's decision and asked the newcomers to leave their domain. “I stand on my own ground,” Te Rangi-haeata told the British, “I will not go to England to argue with you.”
Then the colonists, with bayonets fixed to their guns, advanced towards the Maoris. One of the colonists shot and killed Te Rangihaeata's daughter and wife. The Maori, who were also armed, returned fire. In the ensuing battle, 27 British died, including Arthur Wakefield. The Maori lost four people.
But the main events took place in the far north of the country, where the Ngapuhi tribe lived. One of its main leaders was Hone Heke, nephew of the warlike Hongi. After the Treaty of Waitangi was concluded, the British raised their flag in the village of Korora-ka (in the Bay of Islands) on Mikey Hill as a sign of British dominance over New Zealand.
Conclusion
Australia became a state when the individual colonies formed a federation on January 1, 1901 (although this cut off many cultural and trade ties with England). Australian troops fought on the British side in the Boer War, World War I and World War II. However, the US role in defending Australian territories from Japanese invasion during World War II called into question the strength of this alliance. Australia in turn supported the United States during the Korean and Vietnam Wars in Asia.
Despite the fact that England's colonial policy essentially ended 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 England sending its prisoners.
In 1840, Sydney stopped accepting 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 from the shores of England to establish Australia's first colony, called New South Wales. Other ships followed him, and soon many convict settlements were formed in Australia.Eastern Australia was declared a British territory in 1770, and the first colony was founded on 26 January 1788. As Australia's population grew, six self-governing colonies were established within Australia.
On January 1, 1901, the 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 is only 5 kilometers.
The name "Australia" comes from the Latin. australis, meaning southern. Legends about the “unknown southern land” (terra australis incognita) go back to the times of the Romans and were a common place in medieval geography, but were not based on real knowledge. The Dutch used this term for all newly discovered southern lands from 1638.
The name "Australia" became popular after the publication of A Voyage to Terra Australis by Captain Matthew Flinders. Governor McQuire of New South Wales used this name 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 crime rates. The main reason for this was extreme need. To stop this, the authorities have issued strict laws with severe penalties. At the beginning of the 19th century, approximately 200 crimes were punishable by death. “Even the most 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 insult and the theft of a silk purse, a gold watch and approximately six pounds sterling. He was sentenced to death by hanging. The execution was replaced by lifelong exile. In that terrible era, approximately 160 thousand people suffered a similar fate. Women, as a rule, together with their children, were sentenced to 7-14 years of hard labor.However, at the beginning of the 18th century, the authorities passed a law that in many cases made it possible to replace the death penalty with deportation to the English colonies in North America. Soon, up to a thousand prisoners a year were being sent there, mainly to Virginia and Maryland. But, having declared themselves an independent state in 1776, these colonies were no longer willing to accept British criminals. Then they began to be sent to terrible floating prisons on the Thames River, but they were also overcrowded.
The solution 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 from the shores of England to establish the first colony called New South Wales. Other ships followed him, and soon many convict settlements were formed in Australia, including on Norfolk Island, located 1,500 kilometers northeast of Sydney.
"Many of the 'criminals' deported to Australia were pre-teens," writes Bill Beattie in his book Early Australia - With Shame Remembered. As the book says, in one case a court sentenced a seven-year-old boy to “lifelong exile in Australia.”
First wave of immigration to Australia: founding of convict colonies.
At first, transferring to the Australian colonies was a real nightmare for prisoners placed in damp and dirty ship holds. Hundreds died en route, others soon after arrival. Scurvy claimed many lives. But over time, doctors appeared on ships, especially those carrying female prisoners, and the mortality rate dropped significantly. Subsequently, with the improvement of ships, the journey time was reduced from seven to four months, and deaths became even fewer.
Shipwrecks posed another threat to life. The British ship Amphitrite, five days after sailing from England, was still within sight of the French coast when it encountered a violent storm. Tossed mercilessly by the waves for two days, the ship ran aground a kilometer from the shore on August 31, 1883 at five o'clock in the afternoon.
However, the crew did not make any rescue attempts and did not launch lifeboats. Why? For one simple reason: so that the prisoners - 120 women and children - do not escape! After three horror-filled hours, the ship began to sink, and people began to be washed out to sea. Most of the crew and all 120 women and children died. In the following days, 82 corpses washed ashore, and among them was the corpse of a mother who hugged 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. After all, for some people in Australia, in fact, better prospects opened up than in their homeland. Yes, that part of Australia's history was extremely contradictory: it combined cruelty and mercy, death and hope. It started in Great Britain.
The Settlement of Australia: When Death is Desired.
The Governor of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Brisbane, decreed that the worst 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 worse than death" in Norfolk. This is what happened, especially during the reign of John Price, a governor of noble birth. Price “guessed the thoughts of criminals with deadly accuracy, and this, coupled with strict adherence to the law, gave him some kind of mystical power over the convicts.” For singing, walking too fast or not pushing a cart of stones hard enough, a convict could receive 50 lashes or 10 days in a cell with up to 13 prisoners and where you could only stand.Only priests, as spiritual persons and therefore inviolable, could openly condemn such inhuman treatment. “No words can describe how cruelly the convicts were treated,” wrote one priest. “What is scary to even think about was done with complete impunity.”
Australian History: A Glimmer of Hope.
With the arrival of Captain Alexander Maconoch in Norfolk in 1840, the situation improved somewhat. He introduced a new rating system that took into account how much a convict had improved, offered rewards for good behavior and gave him the opportunity to earn freedom by accumulating a certain number of ratings. “I am confident,” wrote Maconochie, that with the right methods, any criminal can be corrected. A person’s intellectual abilities are quickly restored if one directs his thoughts in the right direction, treats him humanely and does not deprive him of hope.”Maconock's reform was so effective that it was subsequently widely used in England, Ireland and the United States. But at the same time, with his innovations, Maconoch dealt a strong blow to the pride of some influential people whose methods he rejected. It cost him his place. After his departure, abuse in Norfolk resumed, but not for long. In 1854, thanks to the priests, the island ceased to be a place of convict settlements, and the exiles were transported to Tasmania, to Port Arthur.
Port Arthur, especially in the early years, also terrified people. But still, the treatment of convicts here was not as cruel as in Norfolk. Corporal punishment was abolished almost completely here in 1840.
As Ian Brand wrote in his book Port Arthur - 1830-1877, George Arthur, the strict governor of Tasmania, wanted to secure 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 hardest labor in shackles.
When Exile to Australia Was a Blessing
“For convicts, with the exception of those who were sent to Port Arthur, Norfolk ... and other similar places when conditions there were intolerable,” wrote Beatty, “the prospects for the future in the colony were much better than in their homeland ... Here the convicts had the opportunity to live a better life.” Indeed, convicts who received early release or served their sentences realized that a better life awaited them and their families in Australia. Therefore, after liberation, only a few returned to England.Governor Lachlan Macquarie, an ardent defender of freed convicts, said: “A person released from prison should never be reminded of his criminal past, much less reproached for it; he should be made to feel like a full-fledged member of society, who has already redeemed his guilt by exemplary behavior and has become decent.” 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 them in the field and with housework.
Over time, many hardworking 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 widely respected doctor, and Australians owe many architectural structures in Sydney and its environs to Francis Greenway.
Finally, in 1868, after 80 years, Australia ceased to be a place of exile. The modern society of this country bears no resemblance to those terrible years. Partially preserved convict settlements are of historical interest only. Less horrific evidence of the era also survives: bridges, buildings and churches built by convicts. Some of them are in excellent condition and are still in use today.