L3 - Geopolitics

Indentured Servitude (bonded labor)

workers who must work for a period of time during which their labor pays for their eventual freedom

Penal Labor

forced labor for people in prison

Penal Colony

a colony where serious (but usually nonviolent) criminals are transported for long prison labor terms, or often for life

The First Fleet

literally, ‘the first fleet’ of British ships to arrive and establish a penal colony in Australia

arrived into Botany Bay after 250 days at sea

20% of Australians descended from…

convicts

many were political prisoners, including Irish who fought against British colonialism in Ireland

about 165,000 sent to Australian colonies in total

A motivating factor in penal labor in Australia came in 1849…

with the California gold rush

many free Australians went to the USA, so labor shortages motivated convict labor

German Empire

built a small colonial empire around the world starting in the late 1800s

in Oceania, the Germans controlled German New Guinea (the northeast part of the island), much of Micronesia, and German Samoa

US also claimed parts of the …

Samoan Islands

A proxy battle between…

the German Empire and US turned into the first Samoan War, where each side backed a rival claimant to be King of Samoa

hurricane sank both countries’ ships ending the war

second Samoan War saw half controlled by the Germans and half by the US

After WWII, Germany…

lost its Oceanian colonies

Samoa became independent, but the American-controlled portion voluntarily remained an American overseas territory: American Samoa

Hawaii..

was annexed by the USA in 1893 and Pearl Harbor was established as a naval base

it marked the USA’s western sphere of influence under the Monroe Doctrine

became a state in 1959

Papua New Guinea

was controlled by Australia after WWII until 1972 when it became independent

Soldiers from Australia and New Zealand…

were formed into a military unit called the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC)

fought in one of the most famous battles of WWI in the Ottoman Empire: Gallipoli

Gallipoli

a battle during WWI in which the Ottoman Turks won a victory, but ANZAC forces fought bravely

the Gallipoli peninsula is very strategic because whoever controls it controls the Dardanelles Strait

story of them was a founding moment in Australia and New Zealand nationhood

later, in WWII, the ANZAC battle against the Japanese in Papua New Guinea served the same purpose