Australia

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  • Created by: Hbrandxx
  • Created on: 14-05-17 16:17

How did the first British penal colony in Australi

Why had the British chosen to establish a penal colony at Botany Bay?

  • Cook expedition reported well on fertility and vast land (didn’t consider Aboriginals).
  • Loss of US colonies= couldn’t send felons there anymore so the Pitt government decided to establish a new colony.
  • By establishing it in Australia, preventing any French territorial claim to the territory.
  • Fundamental reason= crisis in prison system in Britain (filled to bursting by 1780s).

Who were the first British settlers?

  • More than 600 were marines, seamen, civil officers and their families.
  • Phillip relied on seamen and convicts to act as overseers and police.
  • 732 convicts landed- average age under 30 (men, women and their kids).
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How did the first British penal colony in Australi

Initial settlement:

  • Botany Bay chosen due to Banks’ recommendation (botanist who joined Cooks).
  • Move through Port Jackson into Sydney Cove was a matter of survival.
  • Convicts weren’t hunters, skilled carpenters or farmers.
  • Phillips bought extra supplies for the colony at the governments expense; helped to tide over the colony until the arrival of relief ships.
  • Survival of 1st settlement due to: Phillip's preparation (success with 1st and 2nd fleet), established 2nd colony at Norfolk Island, Phillip's control of food stores (rations), relocation to better farmland (Paramatta).

The second fleet:

  •  Arrival of Lady Juliana- devoted to transporting female convicts and store ship Justinian.
  • Helped colony’s survival; vital supplies of livestock and crops on the store ship.
  • 1000+ living on Norfolk Island; establishment executed well by Phillips.
  • Irish formed the biggest group after arrival in 1791: rebelled, grievance with English.
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Importance of Macquarie (1809-21) to the developme

How did Macquarie change the colony?

  • Removal of NSW corps (mutinied against Bligh in 1809 in the Rum Rebellion).
  • Communications between London and Sydney became more frequent, London got info from Governors and free settlers.
  • Under Macquarie’s governorship the colony was no longer going to be ran by freeborn officers.
  • Macquarie sided with the Emancipists and the currency over the Exclusives- source of tension.
  • By ending the rule of the Corps, Macquarie limited the power of the Exclusives and was viewed as being sympathetic to Emancipists.
  • Land grants for well-behaved convicts and 'tickets of leave'.

Convict experience:

  • Whaling (arrived after 3rd fleet), was the most important source of income until the 1830s.
  • Women were assigned to officers, soldiers and ex-convicts as domestics (form of cohabitation).
  • Skilled labourers were ‘specials’- Phillip + Macquarie utilised them (Greenway, Crossley).
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Importance of Macquarie (1809-21) to the developme

Land grants to ex-convicts and the development of the Hawkesbury river:

  • Phillip’s original orders had been to provision the land grants to freed convicts (used by subsequent Governors).
  • Emancipists, Exclusives + NSW corps all entitled to convict labour.
  • Macquarie issued early pardons and tickets of leave, treated emancipated convicts as full members of society.
  • Exclusive complaints about Macquarie’s liberal attitude lingered; upheld by Bigge report.
  • Land grants made in Hawkesbury river- slowly expanding (fertile land), Macquarie founded 5 towns there between 1810-11.
  • Aboriginals there were ‘pacified’ by various formal expeditions by Governors; conflict.

Growth of Macquarie towns:

  • Spent a lot of infrastructure and architecture; sent no money back to London.
  • Building programme helped colony through economic depression= provided employment and income for convicts + Emancipists. Road built over Blue Mountains opened up the grazing plains= boosted development of the wool industry in the 1820s (pre-eminent industry).
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Impact of the British settlement on the Aboriginal

The population of the Aboriginals:

  • Civilisation based on hunting not cultivation (seen as savages and sub-human).
  • Cook didn’t obtain the consent of the natives to claim land for the King (declared it all ‘terra Nullis’), this judgement he made was shared by the first settlers.

Eora of NSW:

  • Phillips ordered that the convicts shouldn’t steal from them; ignored, so Aboriginals retaliated and in 1788, 2 convicts murdered (mangled and butchered).
  • Smallpox epidemic in 1789; wiped out 50% or more, depopulated area significantly.
  • Phillip favoured a non-aggressive policy when possible; refused to order reprisals when he was injured by an Aboriginal.
  • Organised expeditions in 1790s in response to attacks on settlers + subsequent NSW governors did the same.
  • Due to settler action + denied access to traditional fishing grounds, Aboriginal population in NSW effectively destroyed.
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Impact of the British settlement on the Aboriginal

Aboriginal genocide in Van Diemen's land:

  • Ongoing frontier conflict as the settlement expanded- ‘The Black War’.
  • Inhabitants were hunted, starved and poisoned until they died out; make way for farms to produce wool (also had no resistance towards veneral diseases).
  • When they resisted settler encroachment, Governor Arthur declared martial law against them in 1828 (put them in settled districts).
  • Survival depended on hunting kangaroo (convicts given guns, ‘bushmen’- no compulsion to killing Aboriginals).
  • Whereas in NSW control was more centralised by the Governor- limits on violence.
  • Free settlers came in 1804- brought farming and the introduction of merino sheep in 1821.
  • Retaliatory raids began against the settlers by them as their food supplies were destroyed and Governor Arthur was forced to change policy towards them.
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What was the extent and nature of colonial control

Penal settlement in Van Diemen's land, 1803:

  • VDL secure enough to establish a 2nd branch of settlement- Port Risdon (strategic value, Tasmania a key area for whaling, NSW economy depended on it).
  • Under Arthur’s governorship (1823-37), more totalitarian version of NSW system developed.
  • Divided into police districts under the control of a police magistrate and control over free settlers + convicts done by withholding of assigned labour.

Development of whaling and sealing:

  • Exports of whalebone, whale oil and sealskins enabled colonies to buy the goods they needed for the new colony and rum (began in 1791 after 3rd fleet).
  • Despite the EIC attempting to seize the ships and cargo; Campbell was successful in establishing the free trade of skins and oil between the colony + England.
  •  Wool trade more significant as great sheep stations were established.
  • Macarthur owned ¼ of the 20,000 sheep; driving force in development of wool trade (imported Merino sheep to the colony).
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What was the extent and nature of colonial control

The first crossing of the Blue Mountains 1813:

  • Expedition led by Blaxland, Lawson + Wentworth.
  • Macquarie commissioned a road across in 1814; settlers went after 6 months of building.
  • More land opened up in the following years; in 1824, the Australian Agricultural Company was established and given 1 million acres in NSW for agricultural development.
  • Sheep farming operations began in 1825; cheap labour sourced through convicts.

First British settlements in Western Australia 1826:

  • Settled in to prevent French claim, trade link w/China and claims about agricultural possibilities.
  • The first free colony struggled; famine. By 1832, had only 1,500 colonists.
  • Nature of settlement reveals a change in British thinking; now viewed as a source of potential wealth and opportunity, not an open prison.
  • Future settlements followed similar pattern; used private finance facilitated by Government protection and the provision of convict labour.
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What was the extent and nature of colonial control

Political development:

  • Initial settlements were vast open prisons; distance from London meant that Governors had unlimited power to run the colony.
  • British Government had little involvement, apart from Rum rebellion.
  • Macquarie’s governorship; prison camp to a colony; his paternalistic style + investment in the infrastructure of Sydney was his downfall.
  • Bigge recommended; convict labour should be assigned to sheep farms not public works programmes, early pardons/tickets of leave + land grants for Emancipists should cease, positions of responsibility shouldn’t be given to Emancipists.

Extent of colonial control by 1829:

  • NSW act passed in 1823 after Bigge’s report; paved the way for self-government.
  • A legislative council, justice system and supreme court established.
  • By 1829, the almost unlimited powers of the governors were restricted by better communications with London and had to consult the free citizens.
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