How Did The Indigenous People Come To Colonize Australia?

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In 1788 when the first fleet arrived in Botany Bay Australia, it was an act of invasion not settlement, because the British Empire tried to colonise Australia even though it was already owned by the Indigenous Australians. There is plenty of evidence to suggest why. At sight of the Europeans, they Indigenous Australians thought that they were ghosts, or evil spirits. These paled-skinned people made them confused as they did not know who they were, or what they wanted. Some of them thought that they were women. They even offered them women and food because they thought they were spirits of the dead. It started to become clear that they weren’t visitors, in fact they were planning to stay. The Europeans cleared land, fenced off properties,…show more content…
A man called John Oxley said” They trembled excessively and were absolutely intoxicated with fear….”. This happened when two Indigenous men saw his party. A wise, notable, Indigenous resistance fighter called Yagan was feared and admired by the British colonist. He fought for his peoples rights and seeked revenge as one of his own was killed. He quoted saying ‘ A black man claims nothing as his own but his cloak, his weapons and his name.. He does not understand that animals or plants can belong to one person more than to another’. The Indigenous Australians had no chance against the Europeans. The Europeans had their guns and horses and the number of Indigenous Australians numbers were decreasing. Most of the Indigenous Australians died by introduced diseases such as small pox, measels and influenza where they had no resistance or immunity. The Europeans saw the Indigenous Australians as savages, they wanted to change them, make them like them. They were forbidden from speaking their language and the Europeans changed the way they looked by giving them clothes to wear to look sophisticated like they

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