Australia
Early History:
The Dutch seem to have discovered Australia, Abel Tasman was the discoverer in 1642. The Dutch named the continent New Holland, but they didn´t occupey it. In 1768, Captain James Cook came to Australia. In 1783 the first penal settlement was established. Criminals were sent to this penal settlements in Australia, because the Americans didn´t accept the british criminals no longer.In 1850 the large majority of people were convicts (150 000), there were 20% woman and one third of this convicts were Irish people.
Sydney was the first major city, which was found by convicts. In 1849 Gold was discovered in the United States and in 1850 there was also the Gold Rush in Australia.
Australia within the Commonwealth:
In the 20th century Australia developed a national government and a national culture.
Alfred Deakin established a protective tariff on imports to foster internal development, designed procedures for setting minimum wages in industry and preserved the white immigration policy.
Identity forged by War:
World War I, began the transformation of Australia from six federated former colonies to a united state. In this war Australia sent more than 330 000 volunteers, who took part in some of the bloodiest battles.
At Gallipoli the Australian an New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) tried in vain to launch a drive on the Turkish forces. This date of the fateful landing in 1915 became the Anzac Day and it remains the country´s most significant day of public homage. In the same year, William Hughes became Prime Minister and leader of the Labor Party. He attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and established Australia´s right to enter the League of Nations. Economically, World War I benifited Australia, especially the textíle, vehicle and iron and steel industries. Products like wool, wheat, beef and muton found also a market in Great Britain.
Inter-War-Years:
During the Inter-War-Years an backlash within the Nationalist Party forced Hughes retirement. The Country Party, a patriotic, conservative movement, which protect the interests of farmers joined the Nationalist coalition. The opponent of the coalition was Labor. In the depression of the 1930s public and private debt increased at a time of massive unemployment. Recovery from the depression was extremly uneven. Deflationary economic policies were far more harsh than elsewhere in the world.
There were new splits in the Labor Party and the government disintegrated in 1931. Now, the United Australia Party, composed of former memebers of the National and Labor parties, held the reins of power. Emphasis was placed on following Britain´s leadership in solving the problems of the depression. Among these, there was an attempt to redirect more trade between Britain and the dominions. Although that Japan and the United States were among Australia´s best consumers for its wool, Australia sought to re-establish British trade at the expense of its relations with Japan.
World War II:
In 1939 war came again to Europe and Australia dispatched its armed forces to assist in Great Britain´s defence.
The Pacific war between Japan and the United States broke out in 1941, Great Britain was unable to support Australia´s defence and so the new Labor government of Curtin sought alliance with the United States. Because of that US General Douglas MacArthur and his staff used Australia as their base of operations. Australian industry was transformed by the needs of war. The economy was redirected towards manufacturing and heavy industries. Curtin died in 1945 and Chifley, a member of the Labor party strenghened Australia´ s relationship with the United States in the ANZUS pact. New Zealand was their third partner.
Contemporary Australian Culture:
The siting of the federal government was first in Melbourne and than in Canberra.
World War II administered a shock to Australian culture. They recognized their dependency on US military support and launched a cultural revolution. First, the ethnicity of Australian culture has to be changed. In the 1950s thousands of immigrants were transported from Europe to Australia. This made the Australian population more cosmopolitan.
In the 1960s full citizenship for the Aborigines were garanted and in 1967 they were allowed to vote. But greater efforts were still needed to address the profound social, they were not accepted in society, health, educational and economic inequalities. Although most of the white people want to help the Aborigines, there are still problems. For example, many Aborigines distrust the white doctors, and they have their own medicine and they are also often not interested in a white education. The Aborigines are a very old part of our history. They have many languages, the most importants are Aranda and Murngin.
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