THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF AUSTRALIA
Australia's first settlers are known as 'Aborigines', and probably they came from Southeast Asia.
The date of their arrival on the continent is constantly changing due to new excavations and improved dating techniques, which continually push the date of their arrival further back in time. At the moment it is estimated that they arrived about 65 thousand years ago, although that date is likely to change since only ten years ago it was said that they arrived 50,000 years ago, and various investigations are being carried out that could discover new remains.
Some of the oldest archaeological sites are found in the north of Australia, an area in which most of the objects have been found that help to date their arrival and also various cave paintings such as kangaroos (the typical animals of this country) from more than of 15,000 years.
When the Europeans arrived in Australia and colonized it, about 1,000,000 Aborigines lived in the territory and dedicated themselves to hunting and agriculture.
RELATIONSHIP WITH ASIA
In the ice age, the Australian continent was linked to Asia by New Guinea. For this reason, it is believed that the aborigines came from Asia and that later they continued to maintain relations with this continent.
Different languages initially spoken in Australia.
EUROPEAN EXPLORATIONS
The first datas of the discovery of the Australian continent by European explorers date back to the early 17th century. The first European saw continent in 1606 by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, who sailed through the Gulf of Carpentaria and landed on the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula.
However, some historians claim the Spanish expedition of Pedro Fernández de Quirós saw the Australian land a few months earlier. In fact, the navigator Luis Vaez de Torres, belonging to the Quirós expedition, was the first to map the strait that has his name (Torres Strait). On the other hand, the name of the country and continent "Australia" comes from the toponym "La Australia del Espíritu Santo" that Quirós gave to Isla Espíritu Santo, today part of Vanuatu.
Other writers have argued that Portuguese navigators may have discovered Australia even earlier, in the 16th century. This theory is based on a fragment of an exact map of part of the Australian coast, written in Portuguese, which shows that the Portuguese were the first to arrive in Australia.
During the 17th century and much of the 18th, the northern and western coasts of what had been called "New Holland" were explored and mapped.
But it was not until 1770 that Captain James Cook sailed and charted the eastern coast of Australia and that same year landed on the continent for the first time. On his way out he made a stop at Possession (at Torres Strait), where he claimed eastern Australia for Britain.
James Cook's discoveries made possible the first European settlement on the continent, which is why he is often known as the discoverer of Australia, although several explorers were there before him.
BRITISH COLONIZATION
Although Captain Cook claimed a part of Australia as a British colony, it was not until January 26 of 1788 that ships led by Captain Arthur Phillip landed at Sydney Cove and raised the British flag. This meant the takeover of the entire eastern part of the continent. Once the British authorities had set foot on dry land and had established themselves on Australian lands, they ordered the dispossession, imprisonment and even murder of the Aboriginal people in order to control them and dominate their lands. Soon the exploration of the vast Australian territory began, of course this involved great risks and many British people lost their lives during the long journeys due to the hard weather conditions.
Australia began to be used as a place for deportation of criminals convicted in England, due to its wide desert area and the lack of space in British prisons.
The considerable decrease in the Aboriginal population after the landing of the first Europeans endangered the survival of the British colony and forced the United Kingdom to send more British citizens to the colony. The arrival of the second fleet of English ships in 1790 guaranteed the survival of the colony, which was already suffering a severe famine.
The first communities were organized based on the trade of agricultural and livestock products, as well as materials derived from animals
THE GOLD RUSHES OF THE 1850s
During the Australian gold rush, which began in 1851, a significant number of workers moved from other parts of Australia and abroad to New South Wales (where the gold was). Gold had been found several times before, but the New South Wales colonial government had suppressed the news for fear it would reduce the workforce and destabilize the economy. After the California gold rush began in 1848, many people went there from Australia, so the New South Wales government asked for approval from the British Colonial Office for the exploitation of mineral resources and offered rewards for finding gold.
The first gold rush in Australia began in May 1851 after prospector Edward Hargraves claimed to have discovered payable gold near Orange, at a site he named “Ophir”. Hargraves had been to the California goldfields and had learned new gold mining techniques. Hargraves received bounties from the Colony of New South Wales and the Colony of Victoria. Before the end of the year, the gold rush had spread to many other parts of the state where gold had been found, not only to the west, but also to the south and north of Sydney.
The Australian gold rush transformed convict colonies into more progressive cities with the arrival of free immigrants. These diggers brought new skills and professions, contributing to a flourishing economy. Although not all the diggers found riches in the gold fields, many decided to stay and integrate into these communities.
Australian gold mine
WORLD WARS
When the First World War broke out, the Australian government quickly entered the war in support of the UK and therefore the allies. The first battle in which the German army was involved was in German New Guinea, as the Australian armed forces were sent to seize Germany's possessions in the Pacific. Then, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) fought against the Turks in a battle that tried to invade the Gallipoli Peninsula, but lost. Finally, Australia participated in another battle developed in Egypt and Palestine in which together with British and French troops they faced the Turks and Germans which were superior and the allied side had to back out. In addition to their participation in these battles, the Australians also saw themselves involved in battles by sea and air. During this great war more than 60,000 Australians lost their lives.
Between World War I and World War II, Australia suffered greatly from the Great Depression that began in 1929. This limited Australian defense spending and led to a decline in the size and effectiveness of the armed forces during the 1930s. In 1931, the Statute of Westminster gave the Australian government independence in foreign and defense affairs. However, from the mid-1930s Australian governments generally followed British policy.
Australia entered World War II on September 3, 1939, following the government's acceptance of the United Kingdom's declaration of war on Nazi Germany. By the end of the war, almost a million Australians had served in the armed forces, whose military units fought primarily in Europe, the North African campaign and in the South West Pacific. Furthermore, Australia was directly attacked for the first time in its post-colonial history. Their deaths due to the war were 27,073 killed and 23,477 wounded.
World War II contributed to major changes in the nation's economy, military, and foreign policy. The war accelerated the process of industrialization, led to the development of a larger peacetime military, and began the process by which Australia shifted its foreign policy focus from Britain to the United States.
SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR
TO THE PRESENT
When World War II ended, the Australian Government launched a massive program for European immigration. After preventing the Japanese invasion and have suffered attacks on Australian soil for the first time, it was believed that the country must be populated or it would not survive. Immigration attracted traditional UK emigrants and large numbers of Southern and Eastern Europeans. Two million people came to the nation between 1948 and 1975. Australia's growing economy did not degrade unlike Europe's, which had been devastated by war.
The Liberal Party, founded in 1944, dominated the situation in the immediate postwar period. Manufacturing, which had previously played a minor role in an economy dominated by primary production, expanded enormously. Since the 1970s and the abolition of the White Australia policy, immigration from Asia and other parts of the world has also been encouraged. As a result of this, the national demographics, culture and image have been radically transformed.
Australia signed the ANZUS treaty in 1951 with the United States and New Zealand, and provided troops for the Korean War and the Malayan Emergency. Melbourne hosted the 1956 Olympics. British-Australian nuclear tests and rocket launches began near Woomera, South Australia, around the same time.
Since 1951, Australia has been a military ally of the United States. The last constitutional links between the UK were removed in 1986 through the Australia Act, ending any British colonial relationship in the Australian states. Australia remains, however, a constitutional monarchy with Britain's Elizabeth II as its Queen, as in 1999, voters rejected a move to make the nation a republic.
Legends
Australia is a country full
of legends and folk tales dating back to the first Aboriginal people who
inhabited it. All these stories focus on what the Australian ancestors called
''Dream Time'' and focus above all on themes such as the creation of the earth,
the appearance of animals and the first settlers, water cycles and the struggle
of light versus darkness. All of them are legends related to preserving the
balance with nature.
This Australian tale tells
us about Tiddalick, a giant frog that inhabited the lands of Australia and was
famous for being extremely thirsty when he woke up from his long sleep. So
great was his thirst that one day he drank all the water in the world. With
this legend, the aborigines knew when the dry and rainy seasons were coming,
and that laughter was a good remedy for all.
“Long ago in the Dreamtime, Tiddalik, the largest frog ever known, awoke one morning with a huge thirst. He started to drink and drank until there was no fresh water left in the world. Soon creatures everywhere were dying, and trees were wilting because of the lack of moisture.
All the animals pondered about their terrible plight until a wise old wombat suggested that if Tiddalik could be made to laugh then maybe all the water would flow out of his mouth. This was a good idea the animals agreed.
The animals gathered by Tiddalik's resting place and tried for a long time to make him laugh, but it was in vain. The kookaburra told his funniest story, the kangaroo jumped over the emu and the lizard waddled up and down on two legs making his stomach stick out but Tiddalik was not amused.
Then when the animals were in despair, Nabunum the eel who was driven from his favourite creek by the drought slid up to the unresponsive frog and began to dance. As the dance got faster Nabunum wriggled and twisted himself into all sorts of knots and shapes to the amusement of Tiddalik. Tiddalik's eyes lit up and burst out laughing. As he laughed the water gushed out from his mouth and flowed away to replenish the lakes, swamps and rivers again.
That is why the Australian natives watch the frogs in the river and if they drink a lot of water they think that a dry season is coming.”