| History of Australia |
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Australia, like Antarctica, remained in complete isolation from the rest of the world until the middle of the eighteenth century. It was not known as an East Asian civilization, but was inhabited by the aborigines - the people who came probably from Southeast Asia several thousand years before the discovery of Australia. For the first time the continent of Australia was discovered by Europeans in the sixteenth century. They were the Portuguese, who at the time assumed its business base in India, Southeast Asia. and in China. Australia, however they are not interested, because uninhabited and seemed to be hostile to Europeans in terms of natural and climatic conditions. Similarly, the Dutch, who have penetrated in the seventeenth century, western and northern coasts of the continent, content with merely naming it New Holland. For the third time Australia has discovered English navigator and explorer James Cook in 1768. He studied the Eastern coast of the mainland and found it suitable for habitation by Europeans called the recognized territories of New South Wales and annexed the them for the British Crown. In his series of expeditions also discovered the island of New Zealand, New Caledonia, and many others, including the archipelago, named after him. It is not clear whether the Portuguese, who had a monopoly on shipping in the waters of the Indian Ocean in the sixteenth century they came to Australia. In those days, like the Spaniards claimed many of their discoveries secret. It is known that in 1601 Manuel Godinho de EREDI navigated by Arafura Sea and could also land on the Arnhem Land in northern Australia. As the official discoverer of Australia could be the Dutchman Willem Jansz, Captain in the service of the Dutch East India Company. Duyfken sailing ship in 1606 he landed on the mainland in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The last episode of Iberian domination of sailors in the waters of the Australian tour was Luis Torres, who in 1606 was the first to circumnavigate New Guinea and the Torres Strait was discovered. At the time when the Dutch drove the Portuguese from that region of the world, discoveries began to multiply. Dutch navigators discovered it and went to Indonesia after opłynięciu Africa should stick to the east of the course, in the area of strong and persistent winds, and only the length of about 105 ° E affect the north, reaching straight for Jawę or Sumatra. It was clear that many had to travel to reach the west coast accidentally Australia. In this way, it is Captain Dirk Hartog landed at Shark Bay in 1616, on the west coast. Outdoor country has a very bleak. Thus, it is restricted only to pile potted with an appropriate inscription. In 1624, almost at the same place and also accidentally landed another Dutch master - Vlaming, who left the second pile (survived there until 1817, when he was discovered by French explorer Luis de Freycient). In the following years gradually recognized most of the west coast of the continent. In 1627, Pieter Nuyts also visited the southern part of the coast. Until 1640 the coast of the continent, with the exception of the eastern part, the Dutch were known quite accurately - to reveal a huge picture of the island they called New Holland. For a time it seemed that along with New Holland discovered the north cape of the legendary Terra Australis. In order to verify this assertion in his famous expedition left Abel Tasman. Then he discovered Van Diemen's Land, an island on the southern tip of Australia, renamed in 1856 in Tasmania. The last chord of the Dutch presence in this region of the world was a trip Vlaming, in 1697, which landed at the mouth of Swan River (Swan River) near present-day Perth and went to the top. This trip also convinced the Dutch economic meaningfulness of the lack of exploration of the Australian mainland. In the seventeenth century explorer, naturalist and buccaneer in one person, William Dampier was the first Englishman, who investigated and drew the map of New Holland (Australia) and New Guinea. Only in the seventies of the eighteenth century aroused interest in Australia again. This time, thanks to the British, who after the Dutch took control of transport routes in East Asia and Oceania. The first English explorer in the area was James Cook, who during his two expeditions explored the coast of Australia: first, in 1770 the eastern coast, from Bay Botanical. Then moved along the coast in a northerly direction, until the Torres Strait, where he broke through the Great Barrier Reef. At the end of the episode went through the entire north coast. During his second voyage in 1777, circumnavigate the continent from the south. Cook finally specify the size of land and demonstrated lack of a more extensive land mass in the south. At the turn of the century due to Bass and Flinders was eventually removed the entire coastline of Australia. In 1817 Phillip Parker King was the first to circumnavigate the entire continent in one trip. In 1814 Matthew Flinders who suggested that the island be treated as the fifth continent and called it Australia. The new name is adopted and used previously ousted - New Holland. Soon after the discovery research by James Cook, the British Government decided the settlement of the newly discovered continent of Australia, causing a possibly including desire to compensate for a loss in 1775, the colonies in North America, which wybiły then for independence. In the first instance it was decided in New South Wales, as he called Cook discovered the new continent by itself, to organize summer camps for convicted criminal offenders. The first settlement of Port of Port Jackson (later Sydney), condemned the British began to adopt as early as 1788, accounted for their pioneering role in spatial eastern coast of Australia. They grubbing up the forests, managed fallows, they raised sheep on the vast savannahs. But above all, build settlements along the coast, which later evolved into the city harbor. In 1793 came to Australia the first free settlers. Initially, the settlement developed in the fertile climate-friendly and eastern parts of Australia, near Sydney today. Since when Gregory's expedition crossed the Blue Mountains Baxlanda and discovered after the west side of the fertile pastures, settlements, and with it the knowledge of the interior of the continent, began to grow quickly. Nevertheless, for a period of about 40 years since the founding of the first settlements in Australia United Kingdom treated only as a place of exile of prisoners. Until 1858, he transported them to the metropolis of more than 160 thousand. Proper colonization, this is a major influx of settlers and their families, began after 1830. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Australian continent has a population of approximately 300 thousand indigenous people, called aborygenami. They lived a very low level of civilization, like the prehistoric era, starting in Europe. They led a nomadic life, the gathering and leaseback hunting, and coastal fisheries. In a series of conflicts, European visitors have Aboriginal massacres and drove them from the eastern territories into the continent. The interior of Australia was difficult to obtain, and for that reason it has been examined only in the second half of the nineteenth century, the coast has been previously recognized, especially south and east, and on them in convenient places established several ports and marinas. In 1851, the area approximately 400 km from the eastern coast were discovered rich deposits of gold. Since that time there was a great acceleration of the settlement. This "gold rush" caused that in 1861 Australia has a population of one million settlers from Europe, mainly from Britain, and Chinese contract workers. And in 1890, the continent's population has grown to over three million. Australia has been administratively divided into 6 states, each with its own association of local governments and the Australian Association, subordinate directly to the British Crown. Experience and knowledge gained in previous expeditions have contributed to the success of the project to build the transcontinental telegraph network in the years 1870-1872. It combines Port Augusta in the south of Darwin in the north and consisted of 3000 km. Soon, along the lines of telegraph, the relay stations began to appear a number of settlements, which set off another expedition, this time trying to overcome the continent towards równoleżnikowym. Ernest Gilles in 1872 embarked on an unsuccessful expedition to the west. More luck was Peter Egerton Warburton, who that same year it came down to the west coast. At the same time, William Gosse was the first European who arrived to the famous Ayers Rock formation. In the years 1891-1892 by David Lindsay led the study of Great Victoria Desert. In 1896 David Carnegie moved from Kalgoorlie in the south to the Kimberley in the north. |
