Australia and the British Empire - Essay Example

Australia and the British Empire [Name of the Student] [Name of the University] Australia and the British Empire Introduction Europe first came into contact with Australia, during the 17th century. During that period, Australia was known as New Holland. Subsequently, in 1770, Captain James Cook claimed Australia for Britain. Initially, this new acquisition was employed as a penal colony, and the first of the convicts from England, arrived at this place on 26 January 1788. The 1,500 people, half of whom were the convicts, arrived by 11 ships at Sydney Harbour. The total number of convicts who arrived in Australia was 160,000. This penal transportation was discontinued in the year 1868[Tou15]. As such, the prisoners lived under brutal conditions, and the women who were just a sixth of the total population were under constant threat of being molested. At the same time, free settlers arrived in Australia from the early 1790s. Convicts were treated with extreme brutality, and they were mercilessly flogged and several of them were hanged for petty crimes. Moreover, the Aborigines were forcibly evicted from their dwellings. The indigenous people fell prey to the various infectious diseases brought in by the English[Tou15]. This had a deleterious and damaging effect upon Aborigine culture and practices. In addition, the chief difficulty faced by the colonies of Australia, was due to the British policy that had been formulated for a penitentiary and the rapidly escalating interests generated by fishing, farming, sealing, and trade. During the convict stage of development, the mainstay had been agriculture in regions that were favourable to such activity. One such area was the Van Diemen’s Land. This area commenced to export grain to New South Wales in the year 1815. Government buildings and transportation facilities, such as bridges and roads, had been developed with convict labour. The merino sheep was introduced by colonists in the 19th century. This proved to be a great success, and thus production of the world renowned merino wool commenced[His14]. Moreover, several soldiers, officers and convicts who had served their sentence were provided with land by the government. These individuals worked with determination and converted the land into thriving farms. Australia boasted of cheap land and the copious availability of labour. This induced increased immigration from Britain. At that juncture, the squatters forayed deeper into the Aboriginal territories. It was the usual practice with these squatters to usurp the land of the Aborigines by violent means. The vicinity of Brisbane was occupied in the year 1825, by several convicts and soldiers. Subsequently, in 1829, Perth was occupied and Melbourne was appropriated by a squatter in 1835. During the same period, Adelaide was settled by a private British company[Tou15]. Nevertheless, the British Empire proved to be extremely beneficial to most of the regions that it had colonised. Thus, Australia, Canada and the United States acquired the status of some of the most desired destinations in this world. These countries had been colonised by the British, and the cultural mores and political philosophy of England had been impressed upon them. All the same, the process of colonisation had been brutal and rife with racial superiority. The legacy of the colonial period consisted of the following; liberty, individual rights, protection against arbitrary power, and the prosperity ensuing from freedom[Kra97]. By the 1820s, there was a significant increase in individual immigration to Australia. The majority of these immigrants had the monetary resources to acquire land, which was granted chiefly to people of substance. Pastoral expansion of Australia, in the 1820s, was promoted on account of this biased land policy, which favoured the people of substance over the freed convicts. Most of the immigration was to the established colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land. However, some of the immigrants settled in the newer colonies of South Australia and Western Australia. The southern part of New South Wales, which subsequently became the colony of Victoria in 1851, was occupied by the wool growers in the 1830s[His14]. As such, the contemporary Commonwealth of Australia originated in 1901, when the erstwhile British colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania came together as the Commonwealth of Australia. This effectively rendered it an independent dominion of the British Empire. Subsequently, the other territories formally joined it and thus the Commonwealth of Australia, comprised of 10 territories was formed[The15]. Moreover, the Imperial Conference of 1926, conducted at London, confirmed the fully autonomous status of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. However, it was emphatically declared that these dominions would remain united, via a common allegiance to the Crown. With that decision, the Governor-General was accorded the position of the sole representative of the Sovereign. Prior to that the Governor-General had, in addition, represented the British Government[The15]. Furthermore, the Statute of Westminster, in the year 1931, described Australia, New Zealand, Irish Free State, Newfoundland, and South Africa as dominions. As a result, these regions were nations of the British Empire and subsequently the Commonwealth. The autonomy of these dominions was restricted to domestic and foreign affairs. After the World War II, the term dominion was discarded. Specifically, the new status of the overseas dominions was granted a legal form by the Statute of Westminster. The residuary restrictions on legislative autonomy in those regions were discarded, save for the legislation pertaining to succession to the throne[The15]. However, the Australia Acts of 1986 discarded the residual powers of the British Government to interfere with the Australian Government or that of its individual states. Subsequently, in 1999, a referendum was conducted in Australia, in order to decide whether Australia was to become a republic or remain a monarchy. The majority of the electorate decided to continue with the monarchy. In the year 2000, the British Queen, during her visit to Australia, declared that it was up to the Australians to decide whether they wished to remain a monarchy, and that she would gladly continue to be their Queen, as long as they wished her to do so[The15]. The British Empire employed the process of indirect rule. This was an essential feature of its overall strategy, which crystallised as the League of Nations Mandate System. Thus, the British Empire structure eliminated the necessity for a traditional empire. In its place, it produced and developed varieties of native government that served metropolitan interests, despite being independent of formal metropolitan control[Sil07]. Such was the final result of the dual mandate, and it became possible to educate the indigenous people of the colonised nations, with a view to enabling them to exploit their resources for the metropolitan benefit. The aim of settler colonialism was to acquire the land, which required the removal of the indigenous people. This brought about the containment of the indigenous challenges to settler nationhood, by opposing state legitimacy. In addition, it resulted in the curbing of the non-modern, non-bourgeois natives who had been projected as the beneficiaries of native title rights. It would be indeed propitious to introduce indirect rule into Australia. This could be under the garb of a liberal project of benevolence that was seized with the modernising of the indigenous communities that had been least influenced by the colonial rule[Sil07]. A native title regime would empower indigenous people by assimilating them into the mainstream of contemporary Australian society. In the year 1975, the remaining authority of Britain over Australia was clearly demonstrated. At that juncture, the then Australian Governor General John Kerr, who represented Her Majesty the Queen, removed the then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam from office. This drastic measure was occasioned by the profligate ways of the Prime Minister, which had precipitated Australia to the brink of a grave financial crisis. After dismissing Gough Whitlam, John Kerr appointed an interim government and called for fresh elections. Subsequently, an attempt was made to transform Australia into a republic, which was defeated by the national referendum of 1999. During the tenure of Whitlam as the Prime Minister, the sole significant change was the substitution of ‘God Save the Queen’ by ‘Advance Australia Fair’, as the national anthem of Australia[Cro111]. Since its very inception, the Commonwealth of Australia endeavoured to create a distinct Australian citizenry. At that juncture, the populace consisted of Aborigines, Britons, and a minority of other Europeans, Asians and Pacific Islanders. This situation was deemed to be untenable, and it was decided to have in place a national citizenry to satisfy the needs of nationhood. In addition, it was perceived that it was necessary to develop strong ideas regarding identity and belonging, in order to promote and preserve political and social unity[Dut02]. Conclusion The emergence of the federal structure in Australia did not affect the existing imperial structures and identities. Thus, the national building exercise was distinguished by gradual change that merely refined and supplemented, rather than supplanting or transforming the existing structures. There were concerted measures to distinguish the citizenry of the Commonwealth from the rest of the population[Dut02]. This was clearly evident in the policies of the Commonwealth that were related to the control of movement of the people. The British Empire was the largest realm in the history of the world. As such, it was an extraordinary global power that had ruled over a large number of countries, in the past. British Colonisation, promoted and preserved the vested interests of the English. However, it did provide several benefits and guidance to its colonial subjects, in many areas. List of References Tou15: , (Tourism Australia, 2015), His14: , (nationsonline, 2014), Kra97: , (Krauthammer, 1997, pp. A, 21:2), The15: , (The Royal Household, n.d.), Sil07: , (Silverstein, 2007, p. 78), Cro111: , (Crocker, 2011, p. 307), Dut02: , (Dutton, 2002, p. 155), Read More