Colonization of Australiaby England in the 18th Century

The British Claim Australia

Let’s trace the route the explorers took – left Great Britain, sailed along the west African coast to the Cape of Good Hope, and then turned east across the Indian Ocean

Captain James Cook sails for Englandin 1770

1770 – Captain James Cookclaims Australia as a colony for England

Captain James Cook mapped the east coast, claiming it for Britain and calling it . . . New South Wales.

The first settlement in 1788 Sydney, Australia

The New Settlement• Captain Arthur Phillips arrived with 1,450 settlers on

January 26, 1788

The Settlers . . .

• 736 convicts, their guards, and the rest were settlers• Men out numbered women and few had any farming

experience• They faced hostile Aborigines who inhabited the island

and the new settlers nearly starved to death in the beginning

• Even with these conditions, the colony thrived and paved the way for people to settle this area; known as “South Wales” on the Australian continent

What was happening in England . . .

• At this time, England was very crowded. Their prisons were over flowing and they needed a place to house these undesirables.

• The independence of the 13 colonies led the British to colonize Australia in 1788

• Before American independence, the British sent their prisoners to be colonists in the Georgia colony in America

• This new territory would be a “Penal “Colony for Great Britain or a “Prison” Colony

• Many people wanted to come for the cheap land or a new start in life

The reasons that Britain wanted to colonize Australia

• Relieve over crowding in their jails• Gave the British navy a port in the southern

hemisphere for defense• Natural resources to send back to Great

Britain• Did not want one other countries, especially

France, to start a colony on the Australian continent