The British Colonization of Australia and Detrimental Effects

The British colonization of Australia had a number of detrimental effects on the indigenous populations of Australia. When British colonists settled in the indigenous lands, many devastating impacts occurred. The British colonization of Australia has impacted the indigenous populations by tearing them from their homelands, introducing new diseases and colonial violence from the Frontier Wars.

The first British settlements of Australia were established in the late 1700s. “The arrival of Lieutenant James Cook, and then Arthur Phillip in 1788, marked the beginning of white settlement in Australia” (Source 2). Prior to British colonization, more than 750,000 Aboriginal people inhabited the large country. Aboriginal people had well established a use of land and water resources. When the British colonists landed in 1788, they recognized the land as unsettled, and they claimed the land under the legal fiction, “terra nullius” (Source 2). As a result, the British Parliament removed all aboriginal people from their homes and moved them to dormitories.

When the British Parliament claimed Australian lands in 1788, the English colonists exposed many new diseases to the aboriginal people. Prior to British settlement, there were over 750,000 aborginal australians. Due to the introduction of new diseases, the removal of aboriginal peoples from their homelands, and violent encounterments with the colonists, the populations of indigenous people declined by a whopping 90%. According to the AustralianTogether.org, “The most immediate consequence of colonization was a wave of epidemic diseases including smallpox, measles and influenza, which spread ahead of the frontier and annihilated many First Nations communities. Governor Phillip reported that smallpox had killed half of the First Nations people in the Sydney region within 14 months of the arrival of the First Fleet” (Source 4).

As British colonists moved inland, the competition for land and resources arose. This caused violent encounterments between the colonists and the aboriginal people. “First Nations people continually resisted the violation of their right to land, and its impact on First Nations cultures and communities. It's estimated that at least 20,000 Aboriginal people were killed as a direct result of colonial violence” (Source 4).

Overall, the British colonization of Australia had a number of detrimental effects on the idigenous population. Although there are some new laws coming into effect, returning rights to the indigenous people, it still hasn’t made up for the decades of abuse and discrimination.