The Myall Creek Massacre

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In the 1800s Australia was colonized by the British. This caused the rapid industrialization of Australia, and the land’s productivity to skyrocket; it also eased the pressure in England, and provided a food source throughout the world. But this advancement came at a cost—the welfare of the native people, the aborigines. They were pushed to the fringe of the new society, and made to do menial tasks for little pay. They were treated with disrespect by almost everybody at the time, and the British showed a complete disregard for their rights to the land. With the British colonists came diseases, such as syphilis and smallpox, which wrecked havoc on the native population. They were massacred by extremists among the European settlers, the most famous incident being the Myall creek massacre. The native population became a permanent underclass, and has never regained equality. However these incidents must be put in perspective—if the British had not colonized Australia then somebody else would have eventually. It must be…show more content…
Many brutal massacres of the aboriginals occurred; the most famous incident was the Myall Creek massacre, in this incident native people were brutally slaughtered, but the interesting thing is that the perpetrators were punished, which was unheard of at the time. However there were countless other incidents which did not go into the history books, most of the people instigating these attacks were never punished, never even charged. In most cases the law did not recognize the rights of the aboriginal people. However, individual people can not be completely blamed for the wrongs they did, they lived in a time when racial discrimination was the norm. Their individual attitudes were forged from the people around them, so it was not entirely their fault that they had these attitudes, although nothing can excuse the horrific crimes they
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