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Early European Exploration Although Australia was not known to the Western world, it did exist in late medieval European logic and mythology: A great Southland, or Terra Australis, was thought necessary to balance the weight of the northern landmasses of Europe and Asia. Terra Australis often appeared on early European maps as a large, globe-shaped mass in about its correct location, although no actual discoveries were recorded by Europeans until much later. Indeed, the European exploration of Australia took more than three centuries to complete; thus, what is often considered the oldest continent, geologically, was the last to be discovered and colonized by Europeans. Portuguese and Spanish Sailings In the 15th century Portugal's systematic drive southward along the west coast of Africa, seeking trade with India, rekindled European interest in finding the as yet undiscovered Terra Australis. Portuguese mariners may have charted the east coast of the continent in as early as the 16th century, but they preferred to concentrate on India, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. Australia remained undiscovered by the West for other reasons as well. One was that the continent's location was off the Oceanic-island trading corridor of the Indian and South Pacific oceans. In addition, the winds in the southern hemisphere tend to veer northward in the direction of the equator west of Australia, whereas east of the continent the strong head winds discourage sailing into them. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, Spain, having established its empire in South and Central America, began a series of expeditions from Peru into the South Pacific. Encouraged by the discovery of the Solomon Islands (northeast of Australia) by Álvaro de Mendaña in 1567, Spanish New World officials launched several expeditions in hopes of finding gold. After the failure of these voyages to find either precious minerals or significant new landmasses, Spain abandoned its interest in Terra Australis after 1605. Dutch Interest Portugal's involvement in India, and Spain's disenchantment, allowed the rising power of the Netherlands to establish a string of trading centers from the Cape of Good Hope in Africa to Indonesia during the 17th century. The Dutch, stationed chiefly in the Indonesian ports of Bantam and Batavia (Jakarta), quickly made the discovery of Australia a reality. Helped by better sailing ships and greater knowledge of global wind systems, they were able to overcome the challenges in the southern Pacific. In 1606 Willem Jansz sailed into Torres Strait, between the Australian mainland and New Guinea. (The strait was later named for a Spanish explorer, Luis Vaez de Torres, who sailed into the same area in the same year and determined that New Guinea was an island.) In 1616 the Dutch sailor Dirk Hartog followed a new southern route across the Indian Ocean to Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia). Winds blew his ship, the Eendracht, too far to the east and Hartog landed on an offshore island of Western Autralia, becoming the first known European to set foot on Australian soil. Before sailing north to Batavia, he left a pewter plate on the island inscribed with a record of his visit. Encouraged by Jansz's voyages, Dutch governors-general at Batavia commissioned expeditions into the southern oceans. The most successful was that of Abel Tasman, who in 1642 moved into the waters of southern Australia, discovering the island now known as Tasmania. Tasman then sailed farther east and north to explore New Zealand. Dutch ships sailing to Indonesia often sailed off course, and their crews landed on the western and northern coasts of Australia. Despite their increasing knowledge of the continent, which they called New Holland, the Dutch did not follow up their oceanic discoveries with formal occupation; in their contacts, they found little of value for European trade. Thus, the way was open for the later arrival of the English. British Expeditions and Claims At first England's involvement in Australia appeared likely to go the way of the Spanish and Dutch, but in the late 17th century the English launched two expeditions. The first one, in 1687 to 1688, was led by a buccaneer, William Dampier, who landed in the northwest. When he returned to England, he urged further voyages in pursuit of the continent's supposed wealth. The second expedition-along the western coast in 1699-resulted in a rather dismal assessment of the land's potential. English interest in the continent declined accordingly. The 18th century in Western Europe ushered in the Age of Reason, when philosophers and scientists stressed the value of global discovery, of learning more about the earth and in collecting unusual flora and fauna from around the world. These inquiries fit well with Britain's growing power as a maritime empire. In 1768 Captain James Cook left England on a three-year expedition to the Pacific that also took him to Australia. Cook landed at Botany Bay on the eastern coast. He charted the region and named it New South Wales. It was he and his staff, including the botanist Sir Joseph Banks, who later supported settlement in Australia. Cook's two additional voyages in the 1770s added information on the Australian landmass and cemented Britain's claims to the continent. French interest was less sustained than that of the British. Marion Dufresne, on his 1772 voyage, concentrated upon charting and describing the less hospitable western coast and Tasmania, and later French explorers investigated Australia's southern coast. By then, however, the British had established their first settlement and had claimed the eastern half of the continent. Even with Britain's sustained efforts, Australia's coasts were not fully explored until the 19th century. Matthew Flinders was the first to circumnavigate the continent from 1801 to 1803. He charted most of the coastline, but it was mid-century before the continent's major interior features were known. Penal Settlements Australia was portrayed as a remote and unattractive land for European settlement. However, it had some social and strategic value for a nation with rising crime rates and commercial interests in the Pacific and East Asia. Britain moved quickly after the American Revolution ended in 1783 to establish its first settlement in Australia, since it could no longer ship British convicts to America. Food shortages, harsh penal laws, and the general displacement of people during the early stages in the Industrial Revolution in Britain added to its criminal population. Leading social reformers of the day assumed that the best way to eliminate crime was to remove these criminals from society. In 1786 the British government announced its intention to establish a penal settlement at Botany Bay in Australia. Sydney Founded On May 13, 1787, Captain Arthur Phillip of the Royal Navy set sail from Portsmouth with the First Fleet. In addition to their crews numbering over 400 seamen, the 11 ships carried 759 convicts. Phillip arrived at Botany Bay on January 18, 1788. Finding the bay a poor choice, he moved north to Port Jackson, which he discovered to be one of the world's best natural harbors. Here he began the first permanent settlement on January 26, now known as Australia Day. The settlement was named Sydney for Britain's home secretary, Lord Sydney, who was responsible for the colony. Phillip's domain covered half of Australia (from the eastern oceanic waters to as far west as the 135th meridian), but his human resources were limited. In particular, he lacked the horticulturalists, skilled carpenters, and engineers needed to develop a self-supporting colony. His major concern, until his departure in 1792, was ruling virtually single-handedly over the small penal settlement. Three major problems confronted the early governors: providing a sufficient supply of foodstuffs; developing an internal economic system; and producing exports to pay for the colony's imports from Britain. Land around Sydney was too sandy for suitable farming, and the colony faced perpetual food shortages through the 1790s. Natural food sources were largely limited to fish and kangaroo. Phillip established farms on the more fertile banks of the Hawkesbury River, a few miles northwest of Sydney, but this land was often flooded or still used by the Aborigines. Needed food supplies came mainly from Norfolk Island, nearly 1600 km (about 1000 mi) away, which Phillip had occupied in February 1788. The island later served as a jail for the more hardened criminals. The New South Wales Corps In 1792 the Royal Marines were replaced with the New South Wales Corps, which had been specifically recruited in Great Britain. Given grants of land, members of the corps became the colony's best and largest farmers, but they also posed a serious threat to the governors by their power over the economy. With a sharp eye for enhancing their income, they specialized in controlling the price of rum, which served largely as the colony's internal means of exchange. Captain John Hunter, Phillip's successor as governor, who arrived in 1795, tried in vain to gain control of the rum traffic. The next governor, Captain Philip G. King, who served from 1800 to 1806, was no more successful. Both governors also had to house additional arrivals, and in 1804 King had to use the corps to put down a rebellion by Irish convicts. In 1806 Captain William Bligh replaced King. The captain had gained notoriety earlier, when the crew of his ship, the Bounty, had mutinied in the Pacific. Bligh threatened the corps with the loss of their monopoly. He was met with the so-called Rum Rebellion, and on January 26, 1808, officers of the corps arrested him. Bligh was later sent to London, where he successfully defended his policies, but he was not restored to his governorship. The Rum Rebellion thus gave the leaders of the corps the immediate victory. Meanwhile, one of its ringleaders, John Macarthur, had found the solution to the colony's lack of valuable exports: in 1802 he had shown British manufacturers samples of Australian wool. It was only after 1810, however, with the breeding of the merino sheep, with its long staple wool, that sheep grazing gradually developed into a major economic activity. Macquarie's Government Bligh's replacement, Lachlan Macquarie, served as governor from 1809 to 1821. The most talented governor since Phillip, he also became the most powerful. The New South Wales Corps was sent home, and because the economy had improved, the government gained stability. Macquarie began an extensive public works program, employing the ex-convict Francis Greenway to design churches, hospitals, and government buildings in Sydney. The population of the colony also increased after Britain's defeat of Napoleon in 1814. The arrival of more free settlers brought more claims to farmland on which more convicts could serve as laborers. These two new groups of colonists, however, reflected a growing tension within New South Wales. As convicts completed their sentences or were eligible for release due to good behavior, they wanted land and opportunities. They were known as the emancipists, and their leaders urged that they be given more rights. The free settlers, like the corps before them, maintained that convicts, even after their release, should not be treated as equals. They were known as the exclusives. Macquarie, as had Bligh, tended to support the emancipists, granting them land and appointing them to minor offices. The exclusives, therefore, became critical of both Macquarie and the emancipists. Constitutional Reform Macquarie's government was expensive, and most of the burden had to be carried by the British treasury. Overseas punishment, however, did not appear to have reduced the number of convicts, and many wondered if New South Wales was the proper solution to Britain's crime problems. In 1819, the British Colonial Office sent Judge John Thomas Bigge to inspect and report on Macquarie's administration. He recommended slashes in government expenses but assumed that New South Wales should continue as a convict settlement. He also, however, recognized the colony's growing importance to the British Empire as a home for wealthy free settlers, and he popularized the name Australia for the southern continent. Bigge's reports resulted in a major change in the constitution for New South Wales in 1823. By an act of Parliament the governor's autocratic powers were reduced with the appointment of a nominated Legislative Council. In 1825, by an executive order of the British government, the island settlement of Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) became a separate colony. A penal colony had been established there in 1803 out of fear that France was ready to claim the island. Although settlements south and north of Sydney had been attempted in the same period, only Van Diemen's Land became a large permanent settlement. Early Australian Society The convicts-and reaction to them-became the major theme of early Australian history. Although the sending of convicts to New South Wales was abolished in 1850 and to Van Diemen's Land in 1852, Britain had sent more than 150,000 to the two colonies. Approximately 20 percent were women, and about one-third were Irish; the majority came from the poorer classes of British towns. Many had been repeatedly convicted of petty crimes, and many of the females had been prostitutes. Most of the convicts were poorly educated; only about half of them could read or write. A minority of the prisoners were from the upper class and were serving sentences for crimes such as forgery; these convicts were often able to use their training in business and in government offices. In general, however, because they were unskilled and unaccustomed to the rigors of colonial or prison life, the convicts were an exceptionally difficult population with which to build a new society. Until the 1830s, colonial officials endorsed harsh punishments for convicts who committed crimes in the colony. Flogging was a common penalty-up to 200 lashes for crimes of theft. Although most convicts were fed and clothed by the government, many were sent out to work for others. Those with cunning and skills might accumulate wealth, and a few became the founders of prominent colonial families. Although seals were hunted before 1820 in the rich waters of Bass Strait, it was wool that connected Australian society with its counterpart in Great Britain. Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson, and William C. Wentworth opened up a route through the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, in 1813, and westward settlement of New South Wales was begun. Their explorations, followed by the southerly treks of Hamilton Hume and William Hovell in 1824 and Major Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (later Sir Thomas) in 1836 into what was later called Victoria, spurred the transfer of flocks and herds to inland pastures. By 1829 the government had become concerned about the dispersal of the sheep farmers, or graziers, who were known as squatters, since they obtained licenses to "squat" on the land they wanted rather than buying it. Efforts to control squatting failed, in part because of the continuing demand from British textile mills for more wool. Like England, the Australian colonies were officially Anglican in religion. The authorities, however, neglected religious instruction, and the Anglican faith was not the religion of the bulk of the population; Roman Catholicism (maintained by the Irish) and Methodism vied with the official religion. Many of the early settlers tended to remain indifferent to religious creeds. Education was also neglected by the government, which generally provided only a few schools for orphans. Wealthier colonists employed tutors for their children. The colony did develop a lively press, beginning in 1803 with the publication of the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser. The Gazette's editor, George Howe, also published the first books in Sydney, including a volume of poetry (1819) by Judge Barron Field. Earlier, David Collins, who had been with Phillip, had published in London the first history of Australia, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales (2 volumes, 1798-1802). In 1824 William C. Wentworth, born in the colony, began publication of The Australian, a more opinionated newspaper that campaigned for the emancipists. Expanding Colonization From the 1820s to the 1880s, Australia underwent major processes that laid the foundation for its present society. Among these were the establishment of new colonies along the coasts, the expansion of sheep and cattle raising in the interior, and the discovery of gold and other minerals in the eastern colonies. New Settlements As a prelude to increased British interest, Captain James Stirling (later Sir James) explored the Swan River on the western coast in 1827 and led a group of British investors in the establishment of Western Australia in 1829. Underfinanced, Stirling's new settlement of free settlers at Perth stagnated. In 1850 the colony requested convicts to increase its labor supply and received about 10,000 until 1868. Only with the discovery of gold in the 1890s, however, was the fortune of Western Australia reversed. South Australia, with its capital of Adelaide, was established in July 1837. It was the plan of Edward Wakefield, a British reformer who wanted to create new colonies reflecting British cultural values. By selling land rather than giving it away (the past British practice), Wakefield hoped to use the income to sponsor the immigration of laborers to meet the needs of colonial farmers. By controlling land prices, he assumed he could regulate colonial expansion. The new colony eventually succeeded as a society of small grain farmers. Like each of the other colonies, it failed to recognize the rights of the Aborigines. Growth of Sheep Grazing Australian soils and climate, with the recurrent droughts, were better suited for large-scale grazing than for farming, and the most successful and dramatic transformation of the Australian continent occurred in the 1830s and 1840s, as squatters established huge sheep runs. Paying only 10 pounds a year for a license, squatters could claim virtually as much land as they wanted. The expansion of sheep grazing resulted in the colonization of the Port Phillip district, which in 1850 became the colony of Victoria, with its capital at Melbourne (founded in 1836). To the north, graziers also gave the outlines to another colony, Queensland (with its capital at Brisbane), which was separated from New South Wales in 1859. From 1830 to 1850 wool exports rose from 2 million pounds to 41 million pounds. With new immigrants and the growth of the capital cities, each of which served as the major port for its region, the Australian colonies began to agitate for more control over their governmental systems. Development of Political Institutions The transfer of more authority from Great Britain to the colonies was helped by Britain's adoption of free trade in the late 1840s. Free trade, which meant that Britain would buy from the lowest-price supplier and sell in the most profitable market, eliminated-at least in principle-the need for colonies. Thus, in 1850, without having to unite into a common front, the eastern colonies received new constitutions. Victoria, South Australia, and Van Diemen's Land (which changed its name to Tasmania in 1854) were given legislative councils, with two-thirds of the membership to be elected. New South Wales had been granted the same provision in 1842. By the mid-1850s each of the four eastern colonies refashioned its governmental system and gained control over its land policy. The new systems vested power in a cabinet or council of ministers responsible to the legislature and provided a popularly elected assembly as a part of that legislature. Voting by ballot (instead of by the raising of hands) and other innovations made the new governments quite democratic. The new constitutions reflected the interests of the urban populations, who wanted to reduce the political power of the graziers, but the graziers still managed, during the 1850s and 1860s, to gain more security in their landholdings. Gold Rush and Consequences The gold rush of the 1850s sped up the development of the social and political systems. In April 1851, Edward Hargraves found gold at Summer Hill Creek in New South Wales. With the recent experience of the California gold rush in mind, others joined in the rush, which quickly became centered in Victoria at Mount Alexander, Ballarat, and Bendigo. Gold was later found elsewhere in New South Wales and Queensland. In the following ten years, Australia exported more than 124 million pounds worth of gold alone. By 1861 the Australian population had reached almost 1.2 million, a threefold increase over the 1850 population of 400,000. Americans as well as Britons and Canadians joined the immigrants to the eastern colonies. In Victoria, miners quickly became irritated with the high cost of mining licenses and restrictions on their right to search for gold. Before the fees were reduced, a small band of miners staged an uprising at the Eureka stockade at Ballarat in December 1854. Both miners and colonists responded with alarm to the influx of Chinese immigrants attracted by gold. In 1856 Victoria restricted the entry of Chinese. Eventually, the exclusion of all but European settlers gave the colonies a "White Australia" policy that was defended vigorously whenever there appeared to be new threats to Australian jobs or culture. On occasion it seemed that Queensland, which began to import Polynesian laborers (called Kanakas) for sugarcane plantations in the 1860s, might remain at odds with the other colonies, but it eventually conformed; the plantations were replaced by small-scale sugar farms run by whites, and the White Australia policy continued to provide an emotional link among the colonists. Economic Controversy In the 1860s the goldfields began to decline. Although wool exports kept the colonies fairly prosperous, colonial debate soon centered on the role of government in the economy. In particular, railroad construction, due to costs and the absence of internal market centers, became a government activity. In 1866 Victoria, followed by South Australia and Tasmania, adopted a policy of high tariffs on imported goods in order to protect its own small industries and markets. New South Wales (and Queensland to a lesser extent) continued to stay with a free-trade policy. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, the arguments over free trade versus protection divided the press, the political parties, and the colonies. This, together with the continuing jealousies among them, hindered any significant attempts at cooperation and possible union among the six colonies until the 1890s. Treatment of Aborigines Phillip's initial settlement at Sydney brought him into contact with Australian Aborigines, many of whom used the surrounding lands as their campsites and hunting domains. Only a few major confrontations took place between the colonists and the indigenous population in the first decade. With the settling of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), however, Aboriginal communities began to be destroyed on a large scale. Unable to overcome colonial arms and fears, and despite the official British policy of protection, the 5000 Aborigines of the island were then reduced to a mere handful. On the mainland, where the graziers sought lands for their sheep runs, the Aboriginal communities of hunters were forced to retreat into the drier interior. In principle, the official colonial policy throughout the 19th century was to treat the Aborigines as equals, with the intention of eventually converting them to Christianity and European civilization. Governor Macquarie even established a school for Aboriginal children. Such acts, however, stressing good intentions, were infrequently supported and always underfinanced. In fact, moving from a policy of protection to one of punishment was typical of the early colonial government. The culture clash between whites and Aborigines was especially severe on the frontier. In the 1830s and 1840s, as the frontier pushed inland, some Aborigines were employed on sheep stations, and others were used for police patrols, but even some active church efforts to serve and educate the Aborigines did not stabilize race relations. White settlers poisoned and hunted Aborigines and abused and exploited Aboriginal women and children. Forced to survive on even scantier supplies of food, the Aborigines were steadily reduced in number. By the 20th century their traditional lifestyles were confined to the Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales. Not until the 1950s did their population begin to inch back to its pre-European level and the federal government begin to review and correct past treatment. Cultural Life in the 19th Century The rapid increase of Australia's population from 1830 to 1860 contributed to the growth of the six capital cities. Unable to support dense settlements within their interior, the colonies became increasingly urbanized around the initial points of colonization. With the decline of gold mining in Victoria and New South Wales in the 1860s, even the prospectors drifted to the cities. By the end of the century, Sydney and Melbourne were among the world's largest cities, even though Australia as a whole still had a small population. Each capital served as the major port for its respective colony. Perceiving others as rivals, each city-and colony-tended to emphasize its own identity. Contacts between individual colonies were secondary to their ties with Britain, and rivalries among them were common; thus, Victoria and New South Wales each used a different gauge for their railroads. (Standardization was begun only in the 1960s.) All the colonies, however, shared a culture that was heavily influenced by the capital cities. In the 1850s it was merchants and professionals who agitated for political reform and the making of new constitutions. Small urban manufacturers and early trade union leaders aided in the formation of cabinet governments and the passage of legislation favorable to the urban populations. Victoria's workers pioneered the eight-hour day movement in 1856. Following the lead of New South Wales, the colonial political systems tended to keep the graziers and other families of wealth from controlling colonial life. Wool and the ever-occurring mineral discoveries nevertheless provided the economic base on which that way of life was based. Enjoying midcentury prosperity, Sydney and Melbourne set the pace in cultural activities. Each founded a university and undertook major efforts in building museums, art galleries, and stately homes for the wealthier classes. Sporting events, especially cricket matches and soccer games, complemented the activities of clubs and societies. Joined by Adelaide, with its even stronger streak of British liberalism, the three cities succeeded in gaining free, compulsory primary educational systems for the colonies by the 1860s. Each city also had several major newspapers that championed its colony's uniqueness. Despite intense loyalty to Britain, the colonists soon began to romanticize their frontier images of sheep shearer, farmhand, and miner. The image was that of an individual struggling against authority as well as the environment. By the 1880s and 1890s folktales and ballads were a major part of Australia's popular culture. Even earlier, the distinctive Australian slang had come into being as another variant of English. Although British authors remained far more popular than Australian writers, colonial contributions to the arts kept pace with the increasing economic and social development of the six colonies. Two writers, Catherine Helen Spence, author of Clara Morison (1854), and Marcus Clarke, author of For the Term of His Natural Life (1874), produced distinctive novels that dealt with local themes. See Also Australian Literature. Australia held a special fascination for 19th century scientists, and large numbers of botanists, zoologists, anthropologists, and geologists found ample material there for research. By the 1860s, Australians had also completed the initial exploration of the interior, including the deserts in the Northern Territory. Movement Toward Federation Federation of the Australian colonies came late and without the display of nationalism that characterized similar movements elsewhere. The idea of unification appeared as early as 1847 in proposals by Earl Grey, Britain's colonial secretary. In the 1850s John Dunmore Lang, a Scottish Presbyterian cleric in New South Wales, formed the Australian League to campaign for a united Australia. Conferences among colonial governments in the 1860s also considered closer cooperation and unification. With the formation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867, British officials began to expect a similar effort among Australians. No plan, however, received serious attention, due to the intense rivalries among colonial societies. In the 1880s the prospect of European-as distinct from British-colonization of the Pacific triggered fears of Australia's lack of defense. Queensland, anticipating German moves, claimed Papua on New Guinea in 1883 but, unable to support this claim, had to urge Britain to rule the territory and to claim other islands. Concerned that they might not be able to direct British policy in their interests and aware of the emergence of new powers in Europe, the Australian colonies created a Federal Council in 1885, but the refusal of New South Wales to participate doomed this effort at unification. Other developments during the 1880s, however, served to keep the idea of unification alive. Debate over the White Australia policy demonstrated the need for uniform immigration rules. As more Australian workers unionized, trade unions became more centralized, suggesting the attractiveness of a single economic and political system. Unstable economic conditions and outright depression by 1892 contributed to the development of labor parties that could defend worker interests. It was evident to the laborites that unification would permit the standardization of labor laws. New South Wales began the movement to replace the Federal Council in 1889, when its premier, Henry Parkes, announced that the colony would support a new form of federalism. A conference in Sydney in 1891 laid the basis for a constitutional convention, which did not, however, meet until 1897 to 1898. Further disputes followed, but eventually all six colonies approved. The Commonwealth of Australia was accordingly approved by the British Parliament in 1900 and became a reality on January 1, 1901. The federal constitution reflected both British and American practices-that is, parliamentary government, with cabinets responsible to a bicameral legislature, was established, but only specifically delegated powers were given to the government. The new House of Representatives, like the British House of Commons, was based on popular representation, but the new Senate, like its American counterpart, preserved the representation of the colonies, which now became states. As neither Sydney nor Melbourne was an acceptable federal capital, in 1911 the Australian Capital Territory was established for a new capital, Canberra-again based on the Washington, D.C., model. The Commonwealth Central to the history of Australia in the 20th century has been the development of both a national government and a national culture. Commonwealth governments, led by such architects of federation as Alfred Deakin, quickly established a protective tariff to foster internal development, designed procedures for setting minimum wages in industry, and preserved the white immigration policy. Nevertheless, Australians tended to retain their old colonial identities, and the political parties at the national level tended to be loosely defined. Identity Forged by War World War I (1914-1918), much more than federation itself, began the transformation of Australian life from that of six colonies to a united state aware of its new identity. Responding to the allied call for troops, Australia sent more than 330,000 volunteers, who took part in some of the bloodiest battles. Suffering a casualty rate higher than that of many other participants, Australia became increasingly conscious of its contribution to the war effort. At Gallipoli (now Gelibolu), an Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) tried in vain to launch a drive on the Turkish forces in the Dardanelles. The date of the fateful landing, April 25, 1915, became equated with Australia's coming of age, and as Anzac Day it has remained the country's most significant day of public homage. In 1915 William M. ("Billy") Hughes became prime minister and leader of the Labor Party. Representing Australia at councils in London, Hughes personified Australian energies. When he failed to carry the electorate in two attempts to supplement volunteers with conscripted men, Hughes remained in power by forming the Nationalist Party, much to the annoyance of his Labor colleagues. He attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, acquiring German New Guinea as a mandated territory and establishing Australia's right to enter the League of Nations. The powers designated to the federal government in the constitution proved sufficient to allow a strong central government. Interwar Years After an internal backlash within the Nationalist Party forced the retirement of Hughes in 1923, Stanley M. Bruce became prime minister. The Country Party, founded in 1920 as a patriotic, conservative movement to protect the interests of farmers and graziers, joined the Nationalist coalition, although it kept its own identity. The chief opponent of the coalition was Labor, which had to redefine its social policies. To maintain wartime levels of production and expansion the government sought to build up the basic industries, but the depression of 1929 cut deeply into the health of the Australian economy, increasing public and private debts at a time of massive unemployment. Recovery from the depression, led from 1929 to early 1932 by James H. Scullin and the Labor Party, was extremely uneven. Deflationary economic policy contributed to economic effects that were far more harsh than those felt elsewhere in the world. Disagreement on government policy broke Labor again in 1931, and for the rest of the 1930s the United Australia Party, composed of former Nationalists and disenchanted Laborites, held the reins of power. The party was led by Joseph Alyosus Lyons. From its first assumption of responsibility in foreign affairs, Australia had been guided by its cultural and political ties with Britain. Emphasis was therefore placed on following Britain's leadership in solving the problems of the depression. Chief among these was an attempt to redirect more trade between Britain and the dominions. As early as the 1920s, however, Japan and the United States were among Australia's best customers for its wool crop. Against its own interests, but motivated in part by fear, Australia sought to reestablish British trade at the expense of its relations with Japan. In the League of Nations and within the Commonwealth of Nations, Australian governments also tended to support appeasement and other policies in an effort to prevent war with the Fascist powers. World War II When war came again in Europe in 1939, Australia dispatched its small armed forces to assist in Britain's defense. After the Pacific war between Japan and the United States broke out in 1941 and Britain was unable to provide sufficient support for Australia's defense, the new Labor government of John Curtin sought alliance with the United States. Until the liberation of the Philippines, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur and his staff used Australia for their base of operations. Although casualties were lighter than in World War I, Australians were more psychologically affected because of their fears of a Japanese invasion. Again Australian industry was transformed by the needs of war. The economy was redirected toward manufacturing, and heavy industries ringed the capital cities. Postwar development built further on the foundations established during the war. Prime Minister Curtin died in 1945, but the new Labor government under Joseph B. Chifley strengthened Australia's relationship with the United States in the ANZUS pact for mutual assistance (with New Zealand as a third partner). As a charter member of the United Nations, Australia also agreed to the decolonization of the islands in the Pacific, including the preparation of Papua New Guinea for independence (achieved in 1975). The Menzies Era In 1949 Robert Menzies became prime minister, ushering in a long era of political stability. During the war, the old United Australian Party had disintegrated. In its stead arose the Liberal Party, which attracted those who opposed Labor's internal policies. Menzies, prime minister until 1966, gave Australia centralized and personal leadership. He stressed the sentimental linkage with the British crown but took more active interest than his predecessors in Pacific and South Asian affairs. Under the Colombo Plan, Asians began to study in Australian institutions. By 1966 the White Australia policy was discarded, and the entry of immigrants has since been based on criteria other than race. A national referendum in 1967 granted full citizenship to Aboriginal Australians. Militarily, Australia fulfilled its commitment to the Western alliance by fighting in the Korean War, participating in the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) from 1954 until its dissolution in 1977, and fighting in the Vietnam War as a staunch ally of the United States. Meanwhile, Australia adjusted its domestic and foreign policies, which included recognizing its growing ties with Japan. Time of Uncertainties From 1966 to 1972, the Liberal Party, with the assistance of the Country Party, provided several prime ministers who sought to extend the Menzies era, but in 1972, uniting after years of internal disputes, the Labor Party under Gough Whitlam again came to power. Whitlam's plans for increased social services, however, were in conflict with both the traditional rights of the states and declining economic prosperity; the Liberal-Country coalition was returned to power under Malcolm Fraser in 1975. He reinstated the domestic and foreign policies followed by the earlier Liberal Party governments and laid a foundation for Aboriginal land claims. Fraser's coalition survived the 1980 election with a much reduced majority. Further shaken by defections from Liberal Party ranks and by foreign trade scandals, Fraser suffered a sharp defeat in the elections of March 1983. His Labor successor, Bob Hawke, sought to promote labor-management cooperation and stimulate the economy; his foreign policy was staunchly pro-American. Labor retained its majorities in the elections of December 1984, July 1987, and March 1990. In December 1991, with Australia mired in recession and Hawke's popularity waning, Labor chose Hawke's former treasury minister, Paul Keating, as party leader and prime minister. Pledging to change Australia to a federal republic and underlining the need for a reorientation toward Asia, Keating led Labor to victory in the March 1993 election. Labor suffered a sweeping defeat in the parliamentary elections of 1996, despite opinion polls that showed a small majority of Australians favored a federal republic with an Australian president, not the British monarch, as head of state. Campaigning on a platform of economic reform, and aided by a growing perception that the ALP had lost contact with the voters, the Liberal Party combined with the National Party and voters elected a majority of these coalition candidates to both houses of parliament. Coalition leader John Winston Howard, who favors maintaining the British monarch as head of state but advocates a referendum on the issue, became prime minister. Contemporary Australian Culture Australia's cultural life in the 20th century can be divided into two distinct periods. From 1901 to World War II, Australians continued to reflect the basic tenets of their British origins. Cultural activities were dominated by the city populations within the framework of the old colonial divisions. The housing of the federal government in Melbourne until Canberra was built may have contributed to the preservation of the older orientation. Certainly, few writers and commentators addressed Australian-wide themes or problems. World War I produced a new Australian identity and the first form of mass nationalism. Proud of their accomplishments in the war, yet humbled by its horror, Australians commemorated their experiences. The war hero was portrayed in larger-than-life monuments, with features suggestive of the individualism and gangliness of the Australian common man. Wartime literature, notably the works of the official war correspondent C. E. W. Bean, as well as social organizations, deemphasized old class lines and gave credence to the commonality of all Australians. Australians expected the 1920s and 1930s to reflect a new nationalism in international affairs; yet they themselves tended to reassert their provincialism both within the League of Nations and the British Commonwealth. World War II therefore administered a shock to Australian culture. Recognizing their immediate dependency on U.S. military support and their need to understand better their own place in the world, Australians in fact launched a cultural revolution. First to be changed was the ethnicity of Australian culture. Beginning in 1946, thousands of immigrants were transported from eastern and southern Europe to the Australian suburbs. This migration rivaled the earlier transportation of convicts and made the Australian population more cosmopolitan in fact as well as in orientation. The prosperity of the 1950s encouraged new efforts in education. Almost overnight the number of universities in each state increased threefold, the governments providing free university-level education to all those who were qualified. In the 1960s, government and private attempts were made to integrate Aborigines socially and culturally, including granting them the right to vote in 1967. However, much effort was still needed to address their problems. At the same time Australians began to dissent more vigorously from the assumptions held by those in political power. Reaction to the Vietnam War was in part responsible, as public outcry over the military draft instituted in 1964 eventually ended conscription eight years later. But a generation gap also seemed to divide the Australians. The qualities of Australian life were reexamined in new periodicals and newspapers, on college and university campuses, and in town halls. Although such soul-searching had waned by the mid-1970s, the experience clearly contributed to the dissolution of older attitudes. Among the larger cultural issues with which Australia grappled in the 1980s and early 1990s was the question of Aboriginal land rights. Like other colonial countries such as Canada, Australia was challenged to address the land claims of the indigenous inhabitants of the country, who had been largely ignored for centuries. In 1992, in the historic Mabo case, the High Court of Australia ruled that the people of the Murray Islands, in the Torres Strait, held title to their land, thereby acknowledging that Australia was occupied at the time of European settlement. In 1993 the government passed an act allowing Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders to file land claims. The nation celebrated its bicentennial in 1988, and shared pride in being selected in 1993 as the host country for the Summer Olympic Games of the year 2000, to be held in Sydney. |
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