Why is Australia called the largest prison? Chapter II

“Very often, great events occurring in one part of the world affect the lives of people living thousands and thousands of kilometers away. This is what happened with the colonization of Australia and the transformation of the Green Continent into one of the most interesting and comfortable countries for living on our planet.

It began with a revolution in America, during which a new state appeared on the world map - the USA, uniting under a common flag 13 states in which emigrants from Europe lived. After losing the war in which the United States gained independence, England lost most of its possessions in North America.

The British government began to think - where, exactly, should the criminals be sent to? English prisons are overcrowded, you can no longer send dashing people to America... And the British decided to populate distant Australia with convicted robbers.

On the one hand, such a method of colonizing overseas territories was proposed not by anyone, but by Christopher Columbus. On the other hand, the farther the prison is from London, the calmer London will feel.

This landmark decision was made in 1786. And two years later, on January 18, 1788, at the height of the southern summer, a squadron of ships arrived on the shores of Australia, in whose holds they languished 778 criminals - the first settlers of the Australian continent. A team of wardens and the Governor of New South Wales, Captain Arthur Philip, arrived on the same ships. On January 26, the first prisoners and their guards came to earth - this day is celebrated by Australians as a national holiday.

Through the efforts of Arthur Philip, Australia's first city, Sydney, was founded. It was founded on the shore of the very Port Jackson Bay in which the expedition was stationed, literally 10 kilometers from the place where it met the first aborigines. The name of the city was chosen in honor of the then Secretary of the Interior and Colonies, Lord T. Sidney. On February 7, 1788, the governor of New South Wales established the administration of a colony stretching from Sydney to Cape York, including the nearest islands and adjacent inland territories. On February 14, a detachment of soldiers under the leadership of Lieutenant Philip King is sent to Norfolk to develop it, since it was decided to establish a colony for exiles there too. A few years later, in 1794, one of the research expeditions equipped by the authorities reaches the mountains on the eastern side of the mainland. In October 1798, physician Basho and Lieutenant Flinders circumnavigated the island of Tasmania and partially explored its territory...

Sydney at the end of the 18th century consisted of several dirty streets, but later the authorities decided to improve the city, giving it a typical British look. Years after the founding of Sydney, the Royal Botanic Garden was laid out - one of the main attractions of the city. And then all of old Sydney was rebuilt, which is now the Roque district.

The history of the appearance of the main observation deck of the city is interesting. Then-Governor McGuire could not refuse anything to his capricious wife, who loved beautiful views. Especially for her, a special seat was carved into the rock on the picturesque shore, which was later nicknamed “Mrs. McGuire’s chair.”

Australia is an amazing continent. The smallest of all existing ones, but at the same time huge for one country. The most remote from the centers of world civilizations, but with a favorable climate for living. It is the greenest due to the luxurious eucalyptus forests in the eastern part and completely deserted in the western part (and the deserts of Australia are considered the most lifeless on the planet). Australia has almost no dangerous predators (except for crocodiles), but is full of poisonous spiders (and the real scourge of the northwestern regions of the continent are... ordinary flies!). Thanks to tens of thousands of years of absolute isolation from other continents, Australia has developed a unique animal world, consisting of the most ancient species that became extinct on other continents (we are talking primarily about marsupials). But all these features of Australia still needed to be learned.

The city of Melbourne was founded in 1835. It is curious that Australia's two largest cities (Sydney today is home to 3.5 million people - 20 percent of the country's total population) have been competing for capital status for many years. The decision of the Constitutional Assembly to meet in Melbourne rather than Sydney added fuel to the fire. The dispute was resolved in a non-trivial way - in 1909, small Canberra, located between Sydney and Melbourne, was elected as the capital.

For half a century, ships filled with convicts sailed to Australia from England. There were few free settlers in the country - even the very first settlement, founded by Arthur Philip, consisted of 70 percent convicts. Only the discovery of gold deposits in the early 50s of the 19th century caused an influx of free colonists. Miners poured into Australia, and the population of the colonies quadrupled in just a few years. Free colonists are fighting to end the deportations of criminals, which continued in some states until 1868. If by the end of the 19th century in Australia it was difficult to find a person whose immediate ancestors were not connected with the prison - as prisoners, exiles or guards, then today it is considered a special privilege to be a descendant of a criminal exiled to Australia. And this is also one of the features of this amazing country.

What about New Zealand? The first European settlement here was created only in 1820. New Zealand's wildlife is less rich than Australia's.

Nadezhdin N.Ya., Encyclopedia of Geographical Discoveries, M., “Zvonnitsa-MG”, 2008, p. 335-337.

This amazing continent is the smallest of all, its area is almost equal to the area of ​​the United States of America (excluding Alaska). European navigators discovered it much later than other lands, since the mysterious “South Land” was too far from the civilized world. The existence of a large landmass in these waters was known to ancient cartographers, but there is no reliable information that anyone got here from the Old World before the 17th century.

Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Reformation - all this passed Australia by.

Indigenous people

Apparently, the first Australian inhabitants migrated to the mainland from Southeast Asia. This happened approximately 40-60 thousand years ago. The path of the first settlers ran along a natural land bridge that connected Southeast Asia and the shores of the new continent after the glaciation. During that period, the level of the World Ocean dropped significantly, which gave primitive people the opportunity to penetrate into Australia and reach the island of Tasmania.

The Aborigines - they can be called that as the first inhabitants - settled the most convenient areas of Australia, engaging in hunting and fishing, as well as collecting edible plants. The population of the mainland grew, and by the 17th century it reached at least 300 thousand people.

And by this time, the Spaniards who settled America had already been looking for a new land for a hundred years. After all, Inca legends claimed that the richest land was located in the southern part of the Great Ocean. Impressed by the stories of the elders, the Spaniards began to equip the ships. In the 16th-17th centuries, expeditions managed to discover new lands in that area, but these were not Australia, but small archipelagos - the New Hebrides, the Marquesas and Solomon Islands.

Who discovered Australia

The Spaniards were late - the Dutch from the legendary East India Trading Company were the first to discover the Southern continent. In 1606, Captain Janszon led his ship to the peninsula, which he gave the name New Zealand, which was later assigned to completely different islands. The team tried to find water and food on the shore, but the natives met the aliens with hostility. After several sailors died in the skirmish, Janszon hastened to steer the ship away from the inhospitable shores, making the famous entry in the ship's log: “Nothing good can be done there.”

This observation was confirmed by the next Dutchman, Captain Carstenz, calling these shores unsuitable for life, and the local residents - poor and pitiful creatures.

The expansion of the Dutch gradually faded away. The last notable navigator from the land of the tulips in this part of the world was Captain Tasman, who landed on the northern coast of an unknown land, which he believed was part of the Southern Continent. However, it later turned out that it was an island, which was named Tasmania.

And in 1770, the Englishman James Cook reached Australia, who had a clear order from the Admiralty: to find a huge land lying in the south, study it and declare it the property of the British Crown.

The first meeting with the natives was unfriendly - it went down in history as the exchange of a hail of spears and stones from the local residents and gun shots from the English ship. But Cook, unlike the Dutch, showed persistence: he moved along the coast and continued to study them. Having made sure that the land he found was separated by a strait from New Guinea and, therefore, was a separate continent, the captain hastened to consolidate British sovereignty over it.

Europeans in Australia

This is how the Europeans learned that there really was an unexplored continent in the south. And soon the indigenous Australians were beset by severe ordeals comparable to a natural disaster.

In 1788, the first colonists in history landed on the Australian coast - dangerous criminals who were exiled by the English government away from Britain. The colony was named New South Wales. Also among the arrivals were guards who monitored the exiles, and a number of artisans. Over five decades, the population of Australia has been replenished with tens of thousands of dangerous convicts sent here for serious crimes.

The newcomers began mining in mines and grazing livestock. The Aborigines offered little resistance to the new inhabitants. Until now, according to Cook’s observations, they had lived almost happily: they were content with what the land and ocean gave them, had excellent health, and did not know any inequality. With the arrival of the whites everything changed. From favorable areas, the Aborigines were gradually forced into the interior of Australia, into the desert, where they were overtaken by disease and hunger. Many were simply destroyed, clearing the lands; others were infected with diseases brought by whites...

The 19th century came, and the mainland began to be populated even faster - immigrants from different countries came here in the hope of getting rich. Most of all, the British arrived in Australia: the government of this country strongly encouraged those who decided to migrate, providing them with huge tracts of land for pastures and fields. Cities began to grow rapidly in the east and southeast of the continent. Since industry was developing rapidly in England, a lot of gold was required, and there was also a need for food supplies, minerals and other things. All this was actively mined in Australia. The interests of the aborigines were not taken into account: over two hundred years of contact with Europeans, the number of indigenous people was reduced by at least half.

Wool plus gold

Sheep farming has long been the symbol of Australia. This industry remained the basis of the country's economy until the end of World War II. But when gold deposits were discovered in Victoria in the mid-19th century, a gold rush began on the mainland. In search of untold riches, immigrants flocked here not only from Great Britain and all of Europe, but also from North America and China. The easily accessible deposits were quickly depleted, and by the 1870s the economy had returned to normal.

An important step was the development of meat freezing technology in 1879: now not only wool, but also meat was exported. Australia became an economically independent country, which was almost impossible to govern across half the globe.

Back in 1855, the Australian colony of New South Wales was granted the right to self-government. Following Wales, other colonies became independent, although the British government still controlled foreign policy, foreign trade and defense.

History of the 20th century

On the first day of the new century, the Commonwealth of Australia was created, bringing together all the colonies of the mainland - the participation of the New Zealand Islands was also expected, but this colony chose to fight for independence on its own. Soon the Commonwealth of Australia became a dominion of Britain, that is, a virtually independent country.

To emphasize their new status, the Australians decided to repeat the experience of the United States, which a little over a hundred years earlier had built a separate city for its government, Washington. The first phase of the city of Canberra lasted from 1911 to 1927, and at the end of this period the Union Government ceremoniously moved in.

The Second World War became a powerful stimulus for the development of the country. Thanks to close ties with the United States, the Australians were able to obtain guarantees of protection in the event of a Japanese attack, which allowed Australian troops to take part in hostilities without the risk of retaliation. But the main thing is that immediately after the war, thousands of people, including highly qualified specialists, flocked to Australia from dilapidated Europe.

At the same time, the government severely limited immigration from Southeast Asia: the concept of “white Australia” was part of the national policy. This norm was abolished only in the 1970s, when the level of education in Asia significantly increased and this region also became interesting to Australia for its personnel reserve.

The latest significant historical event at the moment is the Labor reforms of the 1970s: the introduction of a system of free higher education for Australian citizens (analogous to Russian “budget places”), the abolition of compulsory military service, recognition of the right of Aboriginal people to land.

A notable, albeit purely symbolic, event was the adoption of the Australia Act of 1986, according to which the continental country finally left the influence of Great Britain. And these days, a new history of Australia is being created - a recent colony for especially dangerous criminals has become a highly developed, superbly governed country, an example to be followed by the entire intelligent world. And as a result, more and more people in many countries are thinking about immigration to Australia.

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 on shore . 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 was starting 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.

On July 29, 1938, the Federal Capital Territory was renamed the Australian Capital Territory. "The Amateur" tells the story of the Europeans' conquest of the continent.

The first steps in the discovery of Australia by Europeans

The first Europeans to enter Australia were probably Portuguese sailors. There is evidence of their visits to the western, northern and northeastern coasts of Australia back in the first half of the 16th century.
Sections of the Australian coast are already depicted on some maps of the 16th century. (for example, on Nicholas Wallard's 1547 Atlas map). However, until the beginning of the 17th century. these visits to Australia were most likely accidental.

The first Europeans to enter Australia were the Portuguese

From the beginning of the 17th century. the continent attracts the attention of several European powers.

In 1606, a Spanish expedition led by Luis Vaez Torres discovered the strait separating Australia from New Guinea (Torres Strait).

At the same time, Dutch navigators also became involved in the exploration of Australia. In 1606, the Gulf of Carpentaria and the coast of the Cape York Peninsula were explored by the expedition of the Dutchman Willem Janszoon. The purpose of the expedition was to explore the southern part of New Guinea.


In 1616, another Dutchman, Derk Hartog, landed on the coast of Western Australia. Further expeditions to the shores of Australia were equipped by Dutch sailors in 1623, 1627, 1629. By the beginning of the 18th century, through the efforts of Dutch, English and French navigators, the western coast of Australia was explored and mapped. No attempts were made to populate the area during this period. The discovered lands were named New Holland.

By the early 18th century, the west coast of Australia had been mapped

In 1642-1643. The voyage of the Dutchman Abel Tasman took place with the aim of further exploring Australia. In this expedition, Tasman was unable to get close to the shores of the continent, but discovered the western coast of the island of Tasmania.

In 1644, Tasman made a second voyage, during which he mapped 4.7 thousand km of the northern coast of Australia and proved that all the lands discovered by the Dutch earlier were part of one continent.

British exploration of Australia

The English artist, writer and pirate William Dampier, sailing under a pirate flag, accidentally stumbled upon the west coast of Australia in 1688.

Upon returning to his homeland, W. Dampier published notes about his journey, where he talked about what he saw. From that moment on, the British also began to show interest in New Holland. W. Dampier was assigned a ship from the Royal Navy, and he led an expedition to the shores of the mainland.

However, this attempt by the British ended unsuccessfully, except for the discovery of pearl shells, which subsequently brought significant benefits to the English treasury. In 1768
Preparations began for a large Pacific scientific expedition led by James Cook. It started in 1769 on the ship Endeavor, and in 1770 Cook discovered the southeast coast of Australia, declared the entire eastern coast of Australia he discovered to be a British possession and named it New South Wales.

After Cook's voyage, England decided to colonize the open country

Soon after Cook's voyage to England, it was decided to colonize the country he had discovered. The independence of the 13 North American colonies was of decisive importance.

Thus, England lost not only the vast territories of the New World, but also the opportunity to send exiles there. That is why the initial development of Australia took place in the form of organizing convict settlements there.

The settlement of Australia by Europeans and the continuation of the “development” of the continent

On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip, appointed Governor of New South Wales, founded the settlement of Sydney Cove, which became the predecessor of the city of Sydney. With his squadron, the first European settlers arrived on the mainland - 850 prisoners and 200 soldiers. Currently, this event is celebrated as the beginning of the history of modern Australia and a national holiday - Australia Day.


The first group of “free” settlers from England arrived in 1793, but until the middle of the 19th century. their share among Europeans in Australia was small. Thus began the gradual settlement of Australia. The British colony included not only Australia, but also New Zealand. The settlement of Tasmania began in 1803. At the beginning of the 19th century. The British discovered the strait separating Tasmania from Australia. In 1814, the navigator Matthew Flinders proposed calling the southern continent Australia (Terra Australis). From the end of the 18th century. and the entire 19th century. exploration of the interior of the continent continued.

In 1827, the English government officially announced the establishment of English sovereignty over the entire continent. The center of the British presence was the southeastern coast of the mainland with islands, the colony of New South Wales. In 1825, a new colony was separated from its composition - Tasmania. In 1829, the Swan River Colony was founded, which became the core of the future state of Western Australia.

Initially it was a free colony, but then, due to a severe labor shortage, it also began to accept convicts.

Later there are: South Australia (in 1836), New Zealand (in 1840), Victoria (in 1851), Queensland (in 1859). In 1863, the Northern Territory, which was previously part of the province of South Australia, was founded.

The sending of convicts to Australia was reduced only in 1840.

The sending of convicts to Australia was reduced only in 1840, and completely ceased by 1868.

Colonization was accompanied by the founding and expansion of settlements throughout the continent. The largest of them are Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During this colonization, large areas were cleared of forest and bush and began to be used for agricultural purposes.

The fate of the aboriginal population

The arrival of Europeans in Australia was disastrous for the Aborigines. The aborigines were pushed away from water sources and hunting grounds, especially in the most attractive and favorable areas for life in the south and east of the mainland. Many of the Aborigines died of hunger and thirst or were killed in clashes with white settlers.

Aborigines were pushed away from water sources and hunting grounds

Many died from diseases brought by Europeans to which they had no immunity. The native population was used as cheap labor in the cattle ranches of white settlers in the interior of the country.

In the middle of the 19th century. the remaining indigenous population was removed, some voluntarily, some by force, to missions and reservations. By 1921, the total number of Australian aborigines had decreased to 60 thousand people.

Self-government of Australian Territories

In 1851, the gold rush began in Australia.
This has seriously changed the demographics of Australia. An influx of immigrants began from Great Britain, Ireland, other European countries, North America and China. In the 1850s alone, the population of the colonies almost tripled - from 405 thousand to 1.2 million people. This created the preconditions for the development of self-government here.


The first Australian territory to gain self-government within the British Empire was New South Wales in 1855.

This happened after the uprising on the Victorian goldfields. The rebels demanded the introduction of universal suffrage and the abolition of special permits for the right to mine gold. Somewhat later, in 1856, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia gained self-government, Queensland in 1859, and Western Australia in 1890.

In addition, the uprising of 1855 gave impetus to the development of the labor movement.

Unions of urban and agricultural workers began to emerge, fighting for increased wages and shorter working hours. It was here in Australia that skilled workers achieved the establishment of an eight-hour working day for the first time in the world.


In 1900, the Australian colonies united to form the Commonwealth of Australia, a dominion of the British Empire.

The capital of the Union was the city of Melbourne. Uniform postal rules were established in the Union and armed forces were created. All this contributed to the acceleration of Australia's economic development.


In the same year, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia was presented to the House of Commons, which was signed by Queen Victoria of England. In 1911, construction began on a new capital, Canberra. Between the First and Second World Wars, Australia received from Great Britain some territories previously directly subject to London: Norfolk Island (1914), Ashmore and Cartier Islands (1931) and claims to the Australian Antarctic Territory (1933).

Independent Australia within the British Commonwealth

Australia gained independence under the Statute of Westminster in 1931, which was ratified only in 1942. The British king remained the head of state.

In World War II, Australia fought as a member of the British Commonwealth on two fronts: in Europe against Germany and Italy, and in the Pacific against Japan.

Australia fought as a member of the British Commonwealth in World War II

Although Japan was unable to carry out a ground operation on Australian soil, it constantly threatened to invade, and Japanese aircraft bombed cities in northern Australia.
After World War II, the Australian government began a large-scale program to accept immigrants from Europe.

Between 1948 and 1975, two million immigrants arrived in Australia. Since 1973, a flow of Asian migrants began, which significantly changed the demographic and cultural life of the country. After the Second World War, in connection with this, the Australian economy began to develop dynamically.

Since 1986, Australia has finally ceased constitutional ties with Great Britain, but to this day the British Queen is considered the formal head of state. The de facto head of state is the Prime Minister of Australia.

The main direction of Australia's modern foreign policy is interaction with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.

Australia; the least populated continent on Earth. About 19 million people live on its territory. The total population of the islands of Oceania is about 10 million people.

The population of Australia and Oceania is divided into two unequal groups, indigenous and alien, of different origin. There are few indigenous people on the mainland, but on the islands of Oceania, with the exception of New Zealand, Hawaii and Fiji, they make up the vast majority.

Scientific research in the field of anthropology and ethnography of the peoples of Australia and Oceania began in the second half of the 19th century. Russian scientist N. N. Miklouho-Maclay.

Like America, Australia could have been inhabited by humans not as a result of evolution, but only from the outside. In its ancient and modern fauna, not only primates are absent, but also all higher mammals in general.

No traces of the Early Paleolithic have yet been discovered within the continent. All known finds of human fossils have features of Homo sapiens and date back to the Upper Paleolithic.

The indigenous population of Australia has such pronounced anthropological characteristics as: dark brown skin, wavy dark hair, significant beard growth, and a wide nose with a low bridge. The faces of Australians are distinguished by prognathism, as well as a massive brow. These features bring Australians closer to the Veddas of Sri Lanka and some tribes of Southeast Asia. In addition, the following fact deserves attention: the oldest human fossils found in Australia bear a close resemblance to the bone remains discovered on the island of Java. They are roughly dated to a time coinciding with the last Ice Age.

Of great interest is the problem of the route along which humans settled Australia and the islands close to it. At the same time, the question of the time of development of the mainland is being resolved.

Undoubtedly, Australia could only be inhabited from the north, that is, from Southeast Asia.

This is confirmed both by the anthropological characteristics of modern Australians and by the paleoanthropological data discussed above. It is also obvious that modern humans penetrated into Australia, i.e. the settlement of the continent could not have occurred earlier than the second half of the last glacial period.

Australia has existed for a long time (obviously since the end of the Mesozoic) isolated from all other continents. However, during the Quaternary period the landmass between Australia and Southeast Asia was for a time more extensive than it is today. A continuous land bridge between the two continents obviously never existed, since, if there had been one, the Asian fauna would have been able to penetrate into Australia through it. In all likelihood, in the late Quaternary, in place of the shallow basins separating Australia from New Guinea and the southern islands of the Sunda archipelago (their modern depths do not exceed 40 m), there were vast areas of land formed as a result of repeated fluctuations in sea level and land uplifts. The Torres Strait, which separates Australia from New Guinea, may have been formed quite recently. The Sunda Islands may also have been periodically connected by narrow strips of land or shoals. Most land animals were unable to overcome such an obstacle. People gradually, by land or overcoming shallow straits, penetrated through the Lesser Sunda Islands to New Guinea and the Australian mainland. At the same time, the settlement of Australia could have occurred either directly from the Sunda Islands and the island of Timor, or through New Guinea. This process was very long, it probably lasted for millennia during the Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic. Currently, based on archaeological finds on the mainland, it is assumed that man first appeared there approximately 40 thousand years ago.

The process of spreading people across the mainland was also very slow. The settlement proceeded along the western and eastern coasts, and in the east there were two routes: one along the coast itself, the second to the west of the Great Dividing Range. These two branches converged in the central part of the mainland in the area of ​​Lake Eyre. In general, Australians are distinguished by their anthropological unity, which indicates the formation of their main characteristics after their penetration into Australia.

The culture of Australians is very original and primitive. The originality of the culture, the originality and proximity to each other of the languages ​​of various tribes indicate the long isolation of Australians from other peoples and their autonomous historical development until modern times.

By the beginning of European colonization, about 300 thousand Aborigines lived in Australia, divided into 500 tribes. They fairly evenly populated the entire continent, especially its eastern part. Currently, the number of indigenous Australians has decreased to 270 thousand people. They make up approximately 18% of Australia's rural population and less than 2% of its urban population. A significant proportion of Aboriginal people live on reserves in the northern, central and western regions or work in mines and cattle ranches. There are still tribes that continue to lead the same semi-nomadic lifestyle and speak languages ​​that are part of the Australian language family. Interestingly, in some disadvantaged areas, Indigenous Australians make up the majority of the population.

The rest of Australia, that is, its most densely populated areas, the eastern third of the continent and its south-west, is inhabited by Anglo-Australians, who make up 80% of the population of the Commonwealth, and people from other countries of Europe and Asia, although people with white skin are poorly adapted for life in tropical latitudes. By the end of the 20th century. Australia ranks first in the world for skin cancer incidence. This is due to the fact that an ozone hole periodically forms over the continent, and the white skin of representatives of the Caucasian race is not as protected from ultraviolet radiation as the dark skin of the indigenous population of tropical countries.

In 2003, the population in Australia exceeded 20 million people. This is one of the most urbanized countries in the world; more than 90% are urban residents. Despite the lowest population density compared to other continents and the presence of vast, almost uninhabited and undeveloped territories, as well as the fact that the settlement of Australia by immigrants from Europe began only at the end of the 18th century and for a long time the basis of its economy was agriculture, human impact on nature in Australia has very large and not always positive consequences. This is due to the vulnerability of Australia’s nature itself: about half of the continent is occupied by deserts and semi-deserts, and the adjacent areas periodically suffer from droughts. It is known that arid landscapes are one of the most vulnerable types of natural environment, easily destroyed by outside interference. The cutting down of tree vegetation, fires, and overgrazing by livestock disturb the soil and vegetation cover, contribute to the drying out of water bodies and lead to complete degradation of landscapes. The ancient and primitive organic world of Australia cannot compete with the more highly organized and viable introduced forms. This organic world, especially fauna, cannot resist the hunter, fisherman, and collector. The population of Australia, mainly living in cities, strives to relax among nature; tourism is increasingly developing, not only national, but also international.

The islands of the Pacific Ocean, which arc around Australia from the east, and also located in its central part, have long been densely populated by various tribes. The origin, appearance, culture and languages ​​of this indigenous population vary across different island groups. Their settlement occurred at different times, but its source was Southeast Asia.

The settlement of the islands of Melanesia and all of Oceania began with New Guinea. The first settlers, engaged in hunting and gathering and belonging to the Australian race, appeared there about 30 thousand years ago. Later waves of settlers penetrated not only to New Guinea, but also to other islands of Melanesia. Over time, a population called the Papuans developed.

Much later (about 5 thousand years ago) people with clearly expressed Mongoloid features appeared in New Guinea and spoke Austronesian languages. They mixed with the Papuans and partially inherited racial characteristics, resulting in the formation of a group of peoples, which are united under the name Melanesians. Their descendants settled the Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, and New Caledonia.

Another branch of Austronesians (East Ocean) settled the islands of Fiji and Micronesia. This group of peoples is called Micronesians.

For a long time, the origin and racial identity of the population of the islands of the northern and central parts of the Pacific Ocean, from the Hawaiian Islands to New Zealand inclusive, have been a mystery to researchers. The population of these islands, called Polynesia, is characterized by great unity both in anthropological terms and in terms of language and culture.

Polynesians are characterized by a height of 170-173 cm, dark dark skin, wavy hair, weak beard growth, and a rather wide, somewhat protruding nose. The skull is usually dolichocephalic. The peoples inhabiting different islands may have slightly different characteristics. The most typical Polynesians can be considered the inhabitants of Eastern Polynesia. The languages ​​of the Polynesians are close to the languages ​​of the peoples of Indonesia; their culture is original and, in comparison with the culture of the Australians or Melanesians, is very high.

Theories about the American and Asian origins of the Polynesians were considered. An outstanding scientist, a follower of the theory of American origin, the famous Norwegian ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl, in order to confirm his assumption, sailed on a raft in 1947 from the shores of Peru to the islands of Polynesia. However, most researchers have long adhered to the theory of the Asian origin of the Polynesians.

According to modern data, the islands of Polynesia were inhabited by Eastern Oceanians, who 1000-1500 years ago entered the islands of Tonga and Samoa through Fiji, and then gradually began to populate the remaining islands of Polynesia. In conditions of long-term isolation, a special ethnic community emerged with a unique, rather high culture, different from the culture of the Melanesian islands.

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