FIND OUT MORE. Australia and New Zealand 274–275 • Polynesia 396
History^425
WHY WERE CONVICTS SENT TO AUSTRALIA?
From 1788 until 1852 the British sent criminals
to Australia for punishment. The new country
was built with forced labour. Free settlers were
soon arriving as well to seek their fortune –
especially after gold was discovered in 1851.WHEN DID AUSTRALIA BECOME A NATION?
The various colonies founded in Australia by the
British were mostly granted self-rule in the 1850s.
There was great rivalry between them, but they finally
agreed to unite as states within a single federal
Commonwealth in 1901.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ABORIGINES?
About two million Aborigines lived in Australia in
- By 1900 only 50,000 survived. Many died of
diseases introduced by the settlers. Others were
murdered or driven off their land. Some worked as
police trackers, or as labourers on sheep stations.
Australia
The coasts of Australia were first mapped by
Dutch explorers in the 17th century and by
the British in the 18th. In 1788, the British
founded a colony in New South Wales and
went on to settle the rest of this vast land.
New Zealand
New Zealand is known to the Maoris as Aotearoa. Dutch
and English navigators charted these islands and by the
19th century traders and whaling crews were landing
there. The islands came under British rule in 1840.
ABORIGINAL FISHERS 3
Aborigine hunters and
fishers could survive in the
harshest environments, but
they only just survived the
European invasion and the
long years of suffering
that followed.FIND OUT MORE. Australia and New Zealand 274–275 • Exploration 400–401 • First Modern Humans 362–363
JAMES COOK
1728–1779
Captain Cook was a brilliant
English navigator who
explored the coasts of
Australia and New Zealand.
He landed at Botany Bay in
New South Wales in 1778 and
claimed the land for Britain.
Cook was killed in Hawaii by
natives of the islands.TREATY OF WAITANGI 3
In 1840, the British signed a treaty
with a gathering of Maori chiefs on
North Island. It guaranteed Maori
rights to the land, but these
were ignored by the settlers.WHEN DID NEW ZEALAND GAIN SELF-RULE?
Britain granted the colonists self-rule in 1852. The
country prospered from sheep farming and from
the discovery of gold in 1862. In 1893, New
Zealand became the first country to give
women the vote. In 1907, it became a
Dominion, a fully independent nation
within the British Empire.WHAT BECAME OF THE MAORIS?
The Maoris had possessed firearms
since the arrival of the first foreigners.
After 1840, the settlers seized more and
more land, so between 1845 and1847
the Maoris rose up in revolt. A second
war took place from 1860 to 1872. This
won the Maoris representation in the
New Zealand Parliament.1 MAORI TRADITION
The Maoris are descended from Polynesians who colonized Aotearoa
about a thousand years before the arrival of the Europeans. They remain
fiercely proud of their culture and its traditions.
Australian
historyNew Zealand
history