History Essay

Colonisation or Invasion?

 

Colonisation: Settlement, settlers, in a new territory forming community fully or partly subject to the matter state.

(The Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary, Pg. 135)

 

Invasion: Make hostile inroad into another country or place

(The Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary, Pg. 365)

 

In 1788, the first group of European’s arrived on the eastern coast in New South Wales. Most of the settlers were convicts, who had been sent to Australia because they had broken the law, in some way, back in England. The British chose to come to Australia because they believed that it was uninhabited, or did they? The Aboriginal people had already been living in Australia for many years, and suddenly a ‘battle’ for colonisation between the British and the Aboriginals had begun.

 

Shipping convicts off to America was Great Britain’s answer to the overloaded jail situation back in the 18th Century. But as more and more convicts began to role into the ports in America, the Americans became more and more angry. Finally, America refused to accept any more convicts. A war between Great Britain and America started in 1776 and seven years later, in 1783, America won their independence.

 

It became crystal clear to Great Britain that they would need a new place to send their convicts, so they sent Captain James Cook to find a suitable place of a settlement. Cook went in search of “The Great Southern Land”, and in 1770 he reached Australia.

 

Cook and his fellow mates explored the countryside. They saw a few groups of indigenous Australians, but believed they did not own or claim the land, nor did they live on the land, because there was no sign of houses or cattle, so Cook claimed it for Britain.

 

Eight years on, the British came back to Australia, this time with hundreds of convicts to set up a colony. The first thing they saw were many aboriginals, standing, as stiff as a board looking at them in horror. As the convicts stepped off the ship they offered gifts to the Aboriginals, most turned down the offer, but some of the daring ones captured the opportunity. At first the Europeans didn’t look twice at the Aboriginals, but then they realised they would have to fight the Aboriginals for their land. So that was what they did, a war between the two races began. Looking at the evidence so far, I would say that it was colonisation, because at that time the laws back in Britain said that they were allowed to do what they did.

 

Many convicts were killed during the ferocious battles, but in the end the British won, mainly because they outnumbered the Aboriginals considerably. The British claimed the land and there was nothing that any of the Aboriginals could do. The British shipped more convicts over from Britain and they began to spread far and wide. They moved into Queensland, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Adelaide and finally to Tasmania. This seemed to  turn out very nicely for the British, and everyone was pleased.

 

Looking at the paragraph above, I would say that the British invaded Australia, because they forced the Aboriginals off their land, and didn’t respect them and their rights.

 

The Aboriginals are thought to have come to Australia about 300 years ago. It is thought that they came to this great southern land through Asia and Indonesia. The Aboriginal people were the first to inhabit Australia. The Aboriginal people had only ever seen people of their same skin colour, they had never seen white people before. When Captain Cook and his crewmembers onboard the ‘Endeavour’ came to Australia in 1770, the Aboriginals were in shock, they feared the white people and at one stage they believed they were ghosts who were back from the dead. Then before the Aboriginals knew, the ‘ghosts’ had left again. Eight years later the ‘people from the dead’ returned again, this time there seamed like millions, the Aboriginals asked who they were, they answered, ‘convicts from Britain’. The Aboriginals did not like the British people at all, and after a short time they realised that the British were going to set up a colony and begin to live on their land. The Aboriginals didn’t want any of this, so a war between the two races began.

 

The Actions of the British so far, say to me that they were willing to listen to the Aboriginals, and want to live in harmony with the them. I would say looking at the above information it was colonisation.

 

The British drove the Aboriginals out, they didn’t want to share the land with them, they wanted it for themselves. The British treated the Aboriginals like animals, many of the Aboriginals were captured and killed for no reason. Many others were captured as slaves and made to work and others were robbed of their possessions. It was hard for the Aboriginals to come together and fight the British as one, because all the tribes had different languages, so this made the Aboriginals easier targets.  Time went on, and the Aboriginals were outnumbered considerably. The British took control of most of the land in New South Wales. More and more people rolled into the ports, and the Aboriginals were forced into hiding, away from all the convicts and British.

Looking at this evidence I would say that it was invasion, because the British just did what they wanted and drove out the Aboriginals out and into hiding.

 

 

Have the British colonised or invaded Australia? The answer to this question is what every true blue Australian wants to know. The truth is, going on what information we have, it was neither. It was not invasion, and it was not settlement. I believe that there is a considerable amount of information missing about the British coming to Australia, I think, if found, it could solve whether Australia was invaded or colonised. At this present moment no one can be quite sure!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference List

 

Books

1.    F.G and H.W Fowler. 1984. Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary. Melbourne, Australia. Oxford University Press.

 

Web Sites

1.    A History of Australia. 12/9/02.           http://www.acn.net.au/articles/1999/01/australia.htm

     7/9/02

2.    Australian History. http://www.austemb.org/history.htm 7/9/02

 

CD- Encyclopaedia

1.    1999 World Book Encyclopaedia. 1998 World Book, Inc.