Background to the Colonisation of Australia

A set of vocabulary flashcards detailing the historical events, key figures, and impacts of the British colonisation of Australia.

Imperialism

A policy of one nation extending its rule over other nations to form an empire.

Age of Imperialism

A time period during the $1700\text{s}$ when European nations like Spain, Britain, Portugal, and the Netherlands used sailing technology to open trade networks and create vast empires.

Indigenous Australians

The original inhabitants of the continent who have lived in Australia for $60,000+$ years.

Abel Tasman

The Dutch seafarer who, in the $1640\text{s}$, gave the name 'New Holland' to the Australian continent while searching for the 'Southern land'.

New Holland

The name given to the Australian continent by Abel Tasman in the $1640\text{s}$.

Captain James Cook

A British sailor and cartographer who commanded the HMS Endeavour and claimed the eastern coastline of Australia for Great Britain in $1770$.

HMS Endeavour

The ship Captain James Cook set sail on in $1769$ with orders to observe the transit of Venus and expand the British Empire.

Transit of Venus

A scientific event observed by Captain Cook in $1769$ to collect measurements to assist with naval navigation.

Botany Bay

The location just south of modern-day Sydney where James Cook arrived in April $1770$.

New South Wales

The name given by James Cook to the eastern coastline of Australia when he claimed it for Great Britain.

Joseph Banks

The botanist (plant scientist) who accompanied Cook and argued that establishing a colony would advance scientific knowledge and serve British strategic and economic needs.

First Fleet

The group of $11$ ships that arrived at Port Jackson in $1788$ under orders to establish a convict settlement.

Captain Arthur Phillip

The commander of the First Fleet and the first Governor of New South Wales.

Sydney Cove

The site in Port Jackson where the convict settlement was established on $26$ January $1788$.

Murnong

Also known as the 'yam daisy', a root vegetable that is $8$ times more nutritious than a potato and was a food source for Aboriginal people before colonization.

Smallpox

A European disease that halved the Aboriginal population in Victoria in the $1790\text{s}$ and again in the $1820\text{s}$.

Richard Broome

An historian who described the high death rates and low birth rates in Victorian Aboriginal communities during the first $20$ years of European presence.