Colonisation of Australia Essay Example

The 19th century saw a massive increase in the European population in Australia. When Australia was discovered, the British saw it as a perfect way to help the problem of overcrowding in jails. During the 19th century, more than 180,000 unwilling convicts were shipped to Australia. However, in the 1830s, when the British government introduced programs to encourage migration to Australia, the population increased rapidly. With the government offering to pay for transport as well as assisting in setting up businesses, British citizens saw it as a new start and an escape from the high unemployment rates of Britain. Most of these free-settlers, people who chose to move to Australia, were British, but a large number of them were also Irish, who were currently going through the Potato Famine. The Irish Potato Famine was caused when the potato crops of Ireland failed for 4 consecutive years. The famine caused half a million people to die, as half the population of Ireland depended solely on potatoes for their diet. In 1851, when gold was discovered in New South Wales and Victoria, more than 600,000 people migrated to Australia, tripling its population. About 80% of these new immigrants were from the United Kingdom, mostly from England. Immigrants from Germany also play a massive part in the European colonization of Australia, and one of the main reasons they migrated was because of religion. The king of Prussia at the time, Fredrick William III, introduced a new church service by unifying the Lutheran and reformed churches of his kingdom, and imprisoning any pastor that spoke up against this new form of worship. In 1838, more than 500 Lutherans arrived in Port Adelaide.

Before colonization, Aboriginal communities were strong and well developed, with roles relating to law, education, spiritual development, and resource management. They had properly established languages and territorial boundaries. They had ceremonies, customs, and traditions. However, this all changed with European colonization. With them, the Europeans brought many new diseases, such as smallpox, influenza, and measles. As the Aboriginal people had never faced these diseases before, the consequences were often fatal. A particularly deadly disease was smallpox. A year after the first fleet arrived, 1789, a smallpox outbreak killed many of the aboriginal people that lived in the Sydney area. This epidemic quickly spread to other areas, rapidly increasing the number of deaths. Aboriginal people tried to fight these diseases using remedies made of natural ingredients they had trusted for thousands of years but failed as the Europeans had taken most of their natural resources. Aboriginal people also suffered with malnutrition after European colonization. By now, Aboriginal people either worked for the Europeans or tried to maintain the lifestyle they had lived with for many years. People who worked for the Europeans were paid in rations for a day’s work, this usually included flour, sugar, tea, and sometimes bits of meat, however, this food was inadequate compared to the diets they were used to. Aboriginal people who tried to live like their traditional lifestyle suffered just as greatly. Settlers put in local developments, destroying the food supply. This also resulted in a loss of land, meaning Aboriginal people could no longer hunt and gather food. Trees and plants were destroyed, ;and waterways were dirtied, therefore further reducing the amount of food available for Indigenous inhabitants. Aboriginal people suffered greatly because of European colonization, the loss of their loved ones deeply impacted their spirit of life, birth rates dropped their traditional way of living was forever changed.