Australia and New Zealand

In the late 1700s, European interest in Australia and New Zealand and the peoples living there, the Aboriginals and Maoris, was reignited. Settlement of Australia by Britain began in 1788, and in 1840 New Zealand became a British colony. Emigrants from Europe settled in both countries.

British navigator James Cook made three voyages to the Pacific during the 1700s. his first expedition left in 1768. Cook sailed around New Zealand, then to the eastern and northern coasts of Australia. He landed at Botany Bay on the southeast coast and claimed the territory for Britain. On his second journey he explored many of the islands dotted around the Pacific Ocean.

ABORIGINES AND MAORIS

Many Aboriginal Australians were ill-treated by Europeans. Some were shot, others died from European diseases. Many simply lost the will to live. The Maori of New Zealand numbered about 100,000 when James Cook arrived. After the Treaty of Waitangi, Maori rights were not protected, war broke out, and in 1848 the Maori were defeated.

The third voyage, in 1776, took Cook back to New Zealand. He then explored the Pacific coast of South America, before sailing to Hawaii.

 

In 1788, the first Fleet sailed from Britain, transporting convicts to the penal colony of Port Jackson in Australia. Some prisoners stayed on as free men, and from 1793 were joined by settlers. Towns were built and explorers crossed the continent. The settlers showed little respect for the Aboriginal Australians whose lands they were taking.

Transportation of convicts to Australia ended in 1850.

In New Zealand, the French arrived after Cook, but found the Maoris hostile. Contact continued with visits by whalers, seal hunters and Christian missionaries in the early 1800s. In 1840, by the Treaty of Waitangi, Maori leaders gave up their lands and New Zealand became a British colony.