Case study: How the Brits came to dominate Australia and made it part of the British Empire.

A- Finding Australia. Endeavour: Captain Cook's First Voyage and The History of Australia in a nutshell  Did James Cook really discover Australia? What were the goals of the Endeavor expedition?

 Read the following text, find the missing words. A new voyage In ______, after a brilliant career in the Royal Navy, ______was asked by the Royal Society (a world-famous scientific organization) to captain ship called “______” on a voyage of discovery. His orders were to take a group of ______, astronomers, botanists and artists to explore the ______. He was also asked to look for a great southern continent – the mysterious “______” or “unknown southern land”. ______knew there was land there somewhere -and had even landed on the west coast of Australia- but they didn’t know quite how much land there was, and it had never been mapped properly or “claimed” by any country! Land ahoy! After several months at sea, Cook arrived in ______in 1769 and sailed all around it. Then, in ______, Cook landed on the east coast of Australia at ______. The area reminded him of South Wales in Britain so he called the whole area ______. Cook planted a British flag on an island nearby and claimed the territory for Britain…despite the fact that there were ______tribes already living in the area. European countries didn’t care that the land they “discovered” was already occupied by people who had lived there for thousands of years. As far as they were concerned, they had the power (i.e the guns) and the right (they were Christians and these “natives” weren’t) to take all the land they wanted. In fact, they saw it was their duty to bring ______to the “godless” natives! The real Australians When Cook arrived in Australia he wrote in his diary that “when we got near the beach, we could see several people of a dark or black colour”. Cook was referring to the native people whose ancestors had lived in Australia for over ______years. These people are sometimes called ______. When Cook first arrived in Australia there were approximately 500,000 Aboriginal Australians living all over Australia, speaking 200 different languages. Generally, the tribes moved around to different areas at different times of year ______for food. Tragically, ______that the British brought with them to Australia (like smallpox) would kill around half of the Aboriginal Australian population over the next few decades. A few years after Cook’s first landing, the Brits returned to Australia to set up the first permanent ______. The colony they built later became the city of ______, the largest city in modern-day Australia.

The voyages of Captain Cook

 How did James Cook die?

B- Transportation nation. The 'First Fleet' The British Government decided to send a well-known naval commander, Captain Arthur Phillip, to set up the first settlement or colony on Australian soil. They also wanted him to take over 700 convicts from Britain's overcrowded jails to help him do it. It was hoped that these prisoners would never return to Britain - after their sentences were completed, they would be forced to stay in Australia because they wouldn't be able to get home! ln May 1787, 11 ships left Portsmouth heading for the new British colony of Australia. There were over 1300 people on board the ships in total, including 736 convicted criminals. These 11 ships are today known in Australia as the 'First Fleet' and are acknowledged as the 'Founders of Australia'. They arrived on 26 January 1788, now known as Australia Day or Foundation Day. ln 2004, an estimated 8 million people attended Australia Day celebrations across the country.

Life down under The oldest convict on the First Fleet was an 82- year-old woman called Dorothy Handland. She survived the trip but hanged herself from a tree when she saw the conditions which she was expected to live in. John Hudson, who had stolen some clothes and a gun, was the youngest convict. He was nine years old. The convicts began to build the settlement. Each convict was assigned a master who used them to carry out whatever work they wanted for the rest of their sentence This was usually for seven years, fourteen years ... or life! Good, hardworking convicts earned themselves an early release, whilst bad behaviour ended in a whipping - or an extended sentence! Over the next 20 years, British courts transported over 20,000 more convicts to join them.

Free settlers Life in the new settlement was tough. Few of the convicts - or their masters - knew about farming or carpentry, two of the most important skills needed in the new colony. ln fact, the new settlement was lucky to survive its early years. However, in 1790 the first 'free settlers' began to arrive from Britain, attracted by the idea of a new life in another part of the world. They brought the supplies and skills needed to help the settlement survive ... and grow. More convict ships arrived too and by 1800 the British population in Australia had grown to around 6000.

Brits abroad Over the next 50 years the Brits began to explore the different parts of Australia. When the explorers returned with reports of what they had seen or found, the settlers began to move inland, hoping to set up farms or look for gold and other valuable gemstones such as opal. New settlements were set up in Hobart (1803), on the Brisbane River (1824), on the Swan River (1829), on Port Phillip Bay (1835) and on Gulf St. Vincent (1836). By this time, the British population in Australia stood at around 130,000. Today, the huge cities of Hobart (in Tasmania, the island to the south of mainland Australia), Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide are on these sites! A new generation Australia was first used by the Brits mainly as a place to dump their criminals • but things soon started to change. The majority of convicts decided to stay in Australia at the end of their sentences. Many became sheep or wheat farmers. An 'Australia-born' generation grew up too - people who were born in Australia and regarded themselves as 'Australian'. And with more free settlers arriving, the population of Australia grew to 405,000 by 1850. By now the colonies each had their own councils and governors who started to make decisions about how to run things. Soon, this new generation of Australians began to object to what they thought of as 'their country' being used as a dumping ground for Britain's criminals. Transportation ended in 1868 - by that time a total of 162,000 convicts had been sent to Australia on 806 'transport ships'.

 What was “transportation” and why was it introduced? Who were the “first fleeters” and the “free settlers”?  Place on the map the cities of modern Australia that grew from the early settlement.  In your own words, can you describe how white settlers gradually colonized Australia?

C- Adventure or invasion?

In groups of three, using the set of documents below and your own searches, design a leaflet, a poster, a mind map or a Powerpoint presentation about the struggle between British settlers and the Aboriginal Australians. Make sure you include: ➢ a detailed definition of the term “Aboriginal Australian”; ➢ information about the Aboriginal way of life; ➢ reasons why the settlers and Aboriginal Australians clashed; ➢ the story of Pemulwuy; ➢ details of the “Stolen Generations”. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Australian-Aboriginal The expansion of the British Empire in Australia can be interpreted in different ways https://australianstogether.org.au/discover/australian-history/stolen- generations

Part of the Australian Prime Minister’s apology to the Aboriginal Australian children of the “Stolen Generations” delivered by Kevin Rudd in February 2008.

D- An independent Australia. There were special councils in each of the four Australian provinces - with governors in charge - that took some responsibility for running things in the province. The provinces were all run slightly differently, having different rules and ideas about land, education, the railways, and so on. Of course, Australia was still part of the British Empire and all the big decisions were made by the British Parliament - but the everyday running of each province was left to the governor and his council. However, by 1901 Australia was a united nation, running itself and making key decisions that concerned the whole country through its own parliament. So how did this change happen?

 Put the cartoons in the chronological order (you can use this Internet link to help you) and thanks to them create a digital timeline (thanks to Timetoast) charting the history of Australia from “colonization to independence” (1770-1901).

Birth of a nation 1901 is a very important year in Australian history. It marks the birth of a nation - that is. when ail six independent territories joined as one to form 'Australia'. A new capital city was even built from scratch - Canberra - because they couldn't decide whether it should be Melbourne or Sydney. Soon after, a new flag was created.

The new Australia quickly created its own army and navy, as well as new laws on education, transport, pensions and much more. However, there were still some legal links to Britain after 1901. For example, the British Parliament could (if it chose to) meddle with the powers of Australia's Parliament. This never actually happened • but the idea still annoyed Australians. Over the next few decades though, Australia gradually gained more and more control, until finally, in 1986, Australia became totally independent of Britain.