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Hard labor in Australia. How prison labor hinders economic development

It appeared thanks to the discovery of new lands by Captain James Cook, a navigator who proclaimed New Holland (now Australia) as British possessions. Soon, in 1786, it was decided to make East Coast Australia is a place of exile. The following year, the First Fleet sailed from the shores of England to establish Australia's first colony, called New South Wales. Other ships followed him, and soon many convict settlements were formed in Australia.

Eastern Australia was declared a British territory in 1770, and the first colony was founded on 26 January 1788. As Australia's population grew, six self-governing colonies were established within Australia.

On January 1, 1901, the six colonies formed a federation. Since that time, Australia has maintained a stable democratic system of government. Australia's neighbors are Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the northeast, New Zealand from the southeast. The shortest distance between the main island of Papua New Guinea and mainland Australia is 150 kilometers; however, from the Australian island of Boigu to Papua New Guinea is only 5 kilometers.

The name "Australia" comes from the Latin. australis, meaning southern. Legends about the “unknown southern land” (terra australis incognita) go back to the times of the Romans and were a common place in medieval geography, but were not based on real knowledge. The Dutch used this term for all newly discovered southern lands from 1638.

The name "Australia" became popular after the publication of A Voyage to Terra Australis by Captain Matthew Flinders. Governor McQuire of New South Wales used this name in correspondence with England. In 1817 he recommended this name as the official one. In 1824, the British Admiralty finally approved this name for the continent.

How did immigration to Australia begin?

In Great Britain, the 18th century was marked by significant social changes, which led to an increase in crime rates. The main reason for this was extreme need. To stop this, the authorities have issued strict laws with severe penalties. IN early XIX centuries, approximately 200 crimes were punished by death. “Even the most petty theft is sentenced to death,” wrote one traveler. For example, one 11-year-old boy was hanged for stealing a handkerchief! Another man was found guilty of insult and the theft of a silk purse, a gold watch and approximately six pounds sterling. He was sentenced to death by hanging. The execution was replaced by lifelong exile. In that terrible era, approximately 160 thousand people suffered a similar fate. Women, as a rule, together with their children, were sentenced to 7-14 years of hard labor.

However, still in early XVIII century, the authorities passed a law that in many cases made it possible to replace the death penalty with deportation to the English colonies in North America. Soon, up to a thousand prisoners a year were being sent there, mainly to Virginia and Maryland. But, having declared himself in 1776 independent state, these colonies were no longer willing to accept British criminals. Then they began to be sent to terrible floating prisons on the Thames River, but they were also overcrowded.

The solution appeared thanks to the discovery of new lands by Captain James Cook. In 1786, it was decided to make the east coast of Australia a place of exile. The following year, the First Fleet sailed from the shores of England to establish the first colony called New South Wales. Other ships followed him, and soon many convict settlements were formed in Australia, including on Norfolk Island, located 1,500 kilometers northeast of Sydney.

"Many of the 'criminals' deported to Australia were pre-teens," writes Bill Beattie in his book Early Australia - With Shame Remembered. As the book says, in one case a court sentenced a seven-year-old boy to “lifelong exile in Australia.”

First wave of immigration to Australia: founding of convict colonies.

At first, transferring to the Australian colonies was a real nightmare for prisoners placed in damp and dirty ship holds. Hundreds died en route, others soon after arrival. Scurvy claimed many lives. But over time, doctors appeared on ships, especially those carrying female prisoners, and the mortality rate dropped significantly. Subsequently, with the improvement of ships, the journey time was reduced from seven to four months, and deaths became even fewer.

Shipwrecks posed another threat to life. The British ship Amphitrite, five days after sailing from England, was still within sight of the French coast when it encountered a violent storm. Tossed mercilessly by the waves for two days, the ship ran aground a kilometer from the shore on August 31, 1883 at five o'clock in the afternoon.

However, the crew did not make any rescue attempts and did not launch lifeboats. Why? For one simple reason: so that the prisoners - 120 women and children - do not escape! After three horror-filled hours, the ship began to sink, and people began to be washed out to sea. Most of crew and all 120 women and children died. In the following days, 82 corpses washed ashore, and among them was the corpse of a mother who hugged her child so tightly that even death could not separate them.

But it must be said that the situation of some prisoners was not so bad. After all, for some people in Australia, in fact, better prospects opened up than in their homeland. Yes, that part of Australia's history was extremely contradictory: it combined cruelty and mercy, death and hope. It started in Great Britain.

The Settlement of Australia: When Death is Desired.

The Governor of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Brisbane, decreed that the worst criminals should be sent from New South Wales and Tasmania to Norfolk Island. “There these scoundrels will lose all hope of returning home,” he said. Sir Ralph Darling, the next governor, vowed to create "conditions worse than death" in Norfolk. This is what happened, especially during the reign of John Price, a governor of noble birth. Price “guessed the thoughts of criminals with deadly accuracy, and this, coupled with strict adherence to the law, gave him some kind of mystical power over the convicts.” For singing, walking too fast or not pushing a cart of stones hard enough, a convict could receive 50 lashes or 10 days in a cell with up to 13 prisoners and where you could only stand.

Only priests, as spiritual persons and therefore inviolable, could openly condemn such inhuman treatment. “No words can describe how cruelly the convicts were treated,” wrote one priest. “What is scary to even think about was done with complete impunity.”

Australian History: A Glimmer of Hope.

With the arrival of Captain Alexander Maconoch in Norfolk in 1840, the situation improved somewhat. He entered new system assessments, which took into account how much the convict had improved, provided rewards for good behavior and gave him the opportunity to earn freedom by accumulating a certain number of marks. “I am sure,” wrote Maconochie, that the right methods Any criminal can be corrected. A person's intellectual abilities are quickly restored if one directs his thoughts in the right direction, treats him humanely and does not deprive him of hope."

Maconock's reform was so effective that it was subsequently widely used in England, Ireland and the United States. But at the same time, with his innovations, Makonoki dealt a strong blow to the pride of some influential people, whose methods he rejected. It cost him his place. After his departure, abuse in Norfolk resumed, but not for long. In 1854, thanks to the priests, the island ceased to be a place of convict settlements, and the exiles were transported to Tasmania, to Port Arthur.

Port Arthur, especially in the early years, also terrified people. But still, the treatment of convicts here was not as cruel as in Norfolk. Corporal punishment was abolished almost completely here in 1840.

As Ian Brand wrote in his book Port Arthur - 1830-1877, George Arthur, the strict governor of Tasmania, wanted to secure his colony's reputation as a "place of iron discipline." And at the same time, Arthur wanted every convict to learn that “good behavior is rewarded, and bad behavior is punished.” To do this, he divided the convicts into seven categories, starting with those who were promised early release for exemplary behavior, and ending with those who were sentenced to the hardest labor in shackles.

When Exile to Australia Was a Blessing

“For convicts, with the exception of those who were sent to Port Arthur, Norfolk ... and other similar places when conditions there were intolerable,” wrote Beatty, “the prospects for the future in the colony were much better than in their homeland ... Here the convicts had the opportunity to live a better life.” Indeed, convicts who received early release or served their sentences realized that in Australia they and their families were waiting for better life. Therefore, after liberation, only a few returned to England.

Governor Lachlan Macquarie, an ardent defender of freed convicts, said: “A person released from prison should never be reminded of his criminal past, much less reproached for it; he should be made to feel like a full-fledged member of society, who has already redeemed his guilt by exemplary behavior and has become decent.” human." Macquarie backed up his words with deeds: he allocated freed exiles land, and also gave them some prisoners to help them in the field and with housework.

Over time, many hardworking and enterprising former convicts became wealthy and respected, and in some cases even famous people. For example, Samuel Lightfoot founded the first hospitals in Sydney and Hobart. William Redfern became a widely respected doctor, and Australians owe much to Francis Greenaway. architectural structures in Sydney and surrounding areas.

Finally, in 1868, after 80 years, Australia ceased to be a place of exile. Modern society This country bears no reminder of those terrible years. Partially preserved convict settlements are of historical interest only. Less horrific evidence of the era also survives: bridges, buildings and churches built by convicts. Some of them are in excellent condition and are still in use today.

The monument includes 11 camps selected from among the thousands that were established by the British Empire in Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries. They are located along the fertile periphery of the sea from which the Aborigines were displaced, mainly around Sydney and Tasmania, but also on Norfolk Island and the Fremantle area. These prisons held tens of thousands of men, women and children sentenced by British justice to be transported to penal colonies. Each institution had its own specifics - some were a place imprisonment, others served re-education through forced labor, the fruits of which they enjoyed colonial administration. The monument preserves eloquent evidence of the large-scale deportation of criminals and the colonial expansion of European powers through the placement of prisoners there and the exploitation of their labor.

Transporting people for forced labor is a system shared by many human societies in different periods history and in many civilizations. Most often this involved slavery or deportation of people after the war. However, in modern and modern eras, convict colonies were used as a place for prisoners to serve out their sentences in a distant land, where they were generally used for forced labor.

Correctional colonies were originally intended to imprison criminals, along with forced labor. In Europe they were concentrated in military ports, for example, to provide labor to work on proofs or for hard labor in arsenals, building infrastructure, etc. During times of war, forced labor prisoner of war camps are similar in terms of their organization and objectives.

A new form of ITC, combined with the colonial project, appeared at the beginning of the 17th century in European countries, involving the constant transport of prisoners to new territories. Under the Transportation Act of 1718, England organized only such a system for its criminals in its North American colonies. France did the same after closing its galleys in 1748. Being convicted of a criminal colony is in theory serious prison term for a serious crime. In reality, however, due to the labor needs of the colonies, all types of crimes, often relatively minor ones, resulted in transportation for more or less long sentences. Expressing certain opinions or membership of a banned political group were also punished in this way.

In 1775, England stopped transporting its criminals to America due to a coup that eventually led to these colonies gaining their independence. Australia became a replacement destination, beginning in 1778 with the gradual organization of a number of convict colonies. Jackson Port (Sydney Harbor) was the first place where the criminals were imprisoned.

Transport to Australia peaked between 1787 and 1868 with 166,000 prisoners sent to its many convict stations. Australia was at this time a vast region inhabited only by First Nations, who were quickly forced away from the most protected and most fertile coastal zones. From the colonists' point of view, everything had to be built, starting with ports, buildings, roads, colonial farms, etc. The criminals were often from the lower classes; women explained 16% total number, and there were also quite a few children who could be punished with transportation from the age of nine.

The Australian criminal system has taken various shapes to meet her many goals. It developed out of great debates in Europe at the end of the 19th century about how to punish crime and social role, which will be given to the transportation of prisoners. The discussion included on the one hand the concept of punishment and on the other the desire to discourage crime through the idea of restoring personal behavior through work and discipline. The transportation of labor to serve colonial development, especially in more distant lands, was seen as a useful and effective response to these various social issues in England, as well as in other European countries such as France and Russia.

In the Australian case, the convict system was practically also designed to make prisoners completely feather the colonists once they had served their sentences. The considerable distance between Europe and Australia meant that these criminals almost always remained after their release.

The Australian criminal system included a variety of prison systems, ranging from outdoor to indoor work, from probationary transportation to simple confinement; this included convict stations for women or children (Cascades Woman Factory and Puer Point). In some convict stations, prisoners lived next to free settlers (Brickendon and Woolmers Estates). Living conditions were naturally very strict, but they were variable in their severity, depending on place and function.

Surveillance and transport of criminals also required the presence of a large prison administration, the organization of a specialized fleet, the presence of numerous guards, etc.

The harshest stations, for those prisoners considered to be the most dangerous, included prison, difficult and often dangerous labor, corporal punishment such as lashes or deprivation, and solitary confinement. Most places had a prison and solitary confinement area; but others were punishment stations, such as Norfolk Island, Port Arthur, and the Tasman Land Coal Mines. These stations were known throughout the British Empire for their harshness, in order to maintain fear of transportation among the population and so reduce crime in Britain and its colonies.

The outlaw gang system was used for public works, especially for roads and port facilities. They were generally very strict and the work was difficult. Examples include Old Great North Road, Hyde Park Barracks, Port Arthur, Coal Mines, Kingston and Arthur's Vale Historic Area, and Fremantle Gaol.

There were also convict labor stations for those prisoners considered to pose less of a threat, where convicts were made available for private projects, often farming. Entrepreneurs used them at their own risk. Examples include Brickendon and Woolmers Estates and the Old Government House. Women's labor was big amount industrial nature, such as the Cascades Women Factory, a textile factory. They were, of course, still prisons with a system of punishment and rewards. Some convict stations used women as servants - for example on farms and the Old Government House.

Those criminals who behaved themselves could earn an easier sentence, gradually leading to their early release. In the very bright minds of the prisoners' social reformists, the goal was to establish a probationary path that would gradually lead to social restoration through labor and finally to the status of a fully fledged colonial settler.

The creation of convict stations in Australia, the basis of the colonial creation program, had particularly negative effects on First Nations. This led to civil unrest, displacement, and fetal loss. native land, as well as devastating epidemics due to their lack of immunity. Conflict and resistance were frequent occurrences as settlers and outlaws arrived, often resulting in death.

Criminal settlements continued quite long after the transportation system was abolished, right up until the eve of World War II, driven by their own dynamic of prisoner control and similar methods, although applied on a much smaller scale such as expulsion.

The last of the places to remain in active use was Fremantle Prison, which closed in the early 1990s.

Today, most of these places are entirely or part of memory sites, museums, or parks.

1793 drawing of Australian convicts

Between 1788 and 1868, over 162,000 convicted criminals were forcibly sent to various colonies in Australia by the British government.

The British government began sending convicts to overseas colonies from the early 17th century - initially to North America. When the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War made it impossible to send them there in the late 1770s, the problem of housing in British prisons large quantity prisoner crisis has seriously escalated and the need arose to find new territories to send convicts there. In 1770, James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia as a British possession; In the second half of the 1780s, in an effort to resolve the prisoner situation and at the same time strengthen its influence in the region, the government decided to use Australian territories to deport convicts. In 1787, the so-called First Fleet, consisting of eleven ships that were floating prisons, sailed to Botany Bay in Australia. Following his arrival on Australian shores on 20 January 1788, Sydney was founded - the first permanent European settlement on the continent, becoming the center of the colony of New South Wales. A convict colony was founded in Tasmania in 1803, and in Queensland in 1824. Western Australia, founded in 1829 by free settlers, had received convicts since 1850; the population of Victoria and South Australia consisted only of free people. Convict shipments to Australia peaked in the 1830s, declining significantly in the following decade; the last convict ship arrived in Western Australia on 10 January 1868.

Most of the convicts sent to Australia were convicted of various minor crimes, but there were also a significant number of political prisoners among them. More serious crimes such as rape and murder were punishable by death penalty and did not envisage hard labor in the colonies as a punishment. After the expiration of their sentences, many convicts remained in Australia among free settlers, some of whom achieved high status in society. At the same time, a person serving hard labor imposed a social stigma on him, and therefore many descendants of convicts faced disdainful attitude due to their origin. By the 20th century, however, the situation had changed, and now some Australians are even proud of having convicts among their ancestors. According to some reports, in modern Australia, about 20% of the white population are descendants of convicts.

Reasons for sending convicts to Australia[ | ]

Arrival of convicts in Australia in 1788

As Robert Hughes pointed out in his work on Australian history, The Fatal Shore, the population of England and Wales began to increase significantly from 1740, which soon coincided with the beginning of the American Revolution. London late XVIII century was overpopulated and filled with unemployed drunkards and “cheap gin.” Coupled with widespread poverty, social injustice, widespread child labor, unsanitary living conditions and long working hours, this contributed to a strong increase in crime in London and the UK as a whole, as well as to the emergence of a large number of convicts for whom there were not enough prisons to accommodate. This factor became the main incentive for the government to send those sentenced to hard labor to the British colonies and Australia.

Women convicts[ | ]

Most of the convicts sent to Australia were men, but about 20% of them were women. In search of protection, many of them met with male convicts, and sometimes with the police officers escorting them. Sometimes such women were called “courtesans,” but in England almost none of them were involved in prostitution, since hard labor was not a punishment for engaging in it.

Political prisoners[ | ]

A certain part of those sentenced to Australian penal servitude were those arrested and convicted under political reasons, primarily participants in various anti-government movements and uprisings, including the Luddites (traveled 1828-1832) and Chartists.

Heritage [ | ]

Some convicts sent to Australia became widely known in the colonies, and their images took a place in national folklore. In particular, these were the Jamaican blacks

January 28th, 2013

Reading about prosperous Australia, it is impossible to believe that this practically problem-free continent brought horror to the population of the British Isles and was considered simply a lost place. In 1644, Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer, named the open lands in the south Pacific Ocean New Holland. For almost 150 years this name has been used all over the world.

The ancestors of the tribes now called Aboriginals began settling Australia at least 40,000 years ago, and perhaps even 100,000 years ago. They spread over most of the mainland and penetrated into Tasmania. Their main activities were collecting edible plants, hunting and fishing. The number of Aboriginal people is estimated differently - from 300 thousand to 1.2 million people. Sea cucumber traders from the islands of Indonesia regularly visited the northern shores of Australia, but it is unknown when the voyages of the mentioned traders began. Europeans became interested in the region in the 16th century, when geographers theorized that a landmass must exist somewhere between Africa and South America. The discovery of this continent by Europeans occurred during the search sea routes to India from both the Indian and Pacific oceans.

In 1567 Alvaro de Mendaña discovered the Solomon Islands; in 1606 Luis de Torres visited New Guinea and suggested that he had seen the "great southern continent". Explorer Dirk Hartog landed on an island in Shark Bay in modern Western Australia in 1616. In 1642, Abel Tasman discovered the island that now bears his name - Tasmania. In 1644 he sailed the seas between New Guinea and Australia, but was unable to find a passage through the Torres Strait to the Pacific Ocean.

Sections of the Australian coast are already depicted on some maps of the 16th century. (for example, on Nicholas Wallard's 1547 Atlas map). However, until the beginning of the 17th century. these visits to Australia were most likely accidental.

In 1688, William Dampier, an English pirate, writer and artist, chanced upon the west coast of New Netherland. Returning home, he typed notes about this trip. The English government became interested in new lands. In 1699, William was given a ship to lead an expedition to the shores of the mainland - but he did not get along with the crew and the first mate, and the journey ended with the ship being wrecked after exploring the western coast of New Holland.

In 1768, preparations began for a large Pacific expedition led by James Cook. The voyage began in 1769. In 1770, the southeastern coast of the continent, which would later be called Australia, was discovered. Cook named it New South Wales - and presented it to the British crown.

New South Wales could only remain geographical discovery. The continent of Australia would never have existed if it had not been for the revolution in North America and the formation of the United States. At the beginning of the 18th century, a law was passed in England that allowed the death penalty to be replaced by the deportation of those guilty to the colonies of North America. Every year more than a thousand people were sent to hard labor overseas. In 1776, the 13 American colonies gained independence - and no longer wanted to accept British criminals. Great Britain lost both vast territories in the New World and the ability to send unwanted citizens there. The government had to look for new places for hard labor. In the meantime, the guilty began to be sent to floating prisons on the Thames, terrible in their conditions. There was such a stench from the “houseboats” that the indignation of Londoners knew no bounds. So, 20 years later, they remembered the discovery of James Cook. Joseph Banks, Cook's companion who became an adviser to King George III, at a meeting of the British Parliament proposed sending criminals to new lands. And in 1786 it was decided to make the east coast of Australia a place of exile and hard labor.

Among the exiles there were both dangerous criminals and unfortunates convicted of minor offenses

Most of the displaced people were from the East End, the poorest part of London. For more than a hundred years, this area of the capital supplied the bulk of prisoners

Esther Abrahams - seven years' hard labor for stealing lace. Solomon Levi - eight years for stealing a box of tea. John Hill - seven years' hard labor for stealing a linen handkerchief. Elizabeth Bason is sentenced to death by hanging for stealing seven yards of calico, but the sentence is commuted to seven years' hard labor. James Barlett - seven years hard labor for stealing a thousand pounds of yarn. George Barsby was found guilty of insult, stealing a silk purse, a gold watch, and six guineas - and was sentenced to death, which was commuted to hard labor for life. About 160 thousand people were sent to hard labor for similar “especially major” offenses. Theft in Great Britain in those days was considered a terrible crime. In the 18th century, those caught stealing began to be sentenced to deportation to Australia. Women were sentenced to 7-14 years of hard labor and exiled along with their children. Many criminals are under 14 years of age. Once a seven-year-old child was sent to hard labor for life.

The 18th century brought enormous social changes to Great Britain. The Industrial Revolution left many with no way to survive. The government did not want to solve the issue of employment. Extra investments in creating jobs and sales markets were considered economically unprofitable. The country's leadership decided to give the people a free choice of ways and methods of survival. Extreme need led to terrible crime. To stop it, the authorities introduced severe penalties for minor crimes. By the end of the 18th century, more than 200 people were executed for petty theft. They were sentenced to death for any theft, regardless of what was stolen. One 11-year-old boy was hanged for stealing a handkerchief.

The "First Fleet" to establish the first colony of New South Wales consisted of 11 ships and set sail in 1787. In January 1788, 850 exiles and 250 soldiers and officers landed on the coast of Australia. Other ships followed him. Soon many convict settlements appeared in Australia. Both the guards and the convicts arrived on an empty shore, which needed to be equipped and settled.

On January 26, 1788, the British flag was raised in Port Jackson and the founding of a new colony was solemnly proclaimed. This day is now celebrated as Australia Day - the beginning modern history continent. Arthur Phillip was appointed the first governor of a convict settlement in New South Wales. At that time he was 48 years old. He was smart person with enormous life experience: at the age of seventeen he entered the navy, after eight years of service he was a farmer in the province for almost 30 years, then returned to the navy and took part in the war with France, served the Portuguese crown for a year (participated in the war with Spain), then he was awarded the rank of captain ship. The government was very wise in choosing this man as governor of the new colony. He was brave, reasonable and self-possessed. In addition, he had the most valuable quality - he was not senselessly cruel.

The exiles saw in him not a jailer, but reasonable person, true to oath and duty. Phillip understood his responsibilities as establishing and maintaining law and order in his assigned territories. The governor introduced a strictly regulated working day - conditions that were much better for most convicts than they had at home. He personally monitored compliance with labor rules. But any hard labor is hard labor. Unnecessary, obligatory and burdensome. And the regime, although regulated, is tough. For the slightest offense - whipping, serious offense or disobedience to authorities - execution by hanging. Attempts at rebellion, escape, and sabotage occurred frequently. The governor brutally suppressed them. Spanking was common. The death penalty was also not something out of the ordinary.

To distract from work, constant religious services were held. At the same time as the convicts, the chaplains arrived.

Phillip repeatedly asked London to send talented artisans to organize life in the colony. Few people wanted to go to Australia voluntarily. The free population was replenished only by former convicts and officers and guard soldiers. Only when minimal comfort was established did other citizens begin to arrive, wanting to start new life far from home. The first group of "free citizens" arrived only five years later, in 1793. And for more than 60 years their share among Australian Europeans was negligible. Only in the middle of the 19th century did a stream of emigrants pour into Australia. The reason was very simple - gold was found in the colony. During the ten years of the Gold Rush, the number of immigrants from England tripled. After the Polish uprising of 1863, many Poles arrived in the colony. On the map of Australia you can find many Polish words - for example, the most high mountain is named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the failed “dictator” of the Polish uprising of 1794 and participant in the American Revolutionary War. Since 1868, convicts were no longer sent to Australia.

Gradually roads were laid and houses were built. The new settlement was named Sydney - in honor of the lord who signed the decree creating the colony. The governor himself participated in expeditions in the vicinity of this city. Each free person was offered 30 acres of land (an acre is approximately 2.5 hectares) - a huge territory. These fields were cultivated by prisoners specially assigned to them. The food problem was solved.

Many convicts understood that after their release a better life awaited them in Australia than in England. But first we had to get to the colony. In horrific conditions: frequent shipwrecks, damp, dirty ship holds, in which they had to stay for many months without light and air. Scurvy. Hundreds of people died along the way. There were no doctors on the ships. Over time, doctors appeared on ships, especially on those with women prisoners. The death rate has decreased. As ships improved and travel time was reduced from seven months to four, the mortality rate dropped even further.

Many governors of New South Wales adhered to the principle that a person who has been released should never be reminded of his criminal past. We need to make him feel like a full-fledged member of society. So that he knows that he has redeemed himself by exemplary behavior and has become a decent person. The liberated people were allocated plots of land. They were given prisoners to help them in the fields and with housework. After their release, many “criminals” became very respected citizens. Samuel Lightfoot founded the first hospitals. William Redfren became a doctor. Francis Greenway built many buildings in and around Sydney. John Harris, sentenced for theft silver spoons to the death penalty, which was replaced by 14 years of hard labor, in 1793 - just five years after arriving at hard labor - he became the first Australian policeman.

But there were also governors like Sir Thomas Brisbane. Under him, for singing, not walking fast enough, or not pushing a cart full of stones hard enough, a convict received 50 lashes or ten days in a cell. Due to the cramped conditions in the cell, it was only possible to stand - there were 13 prisoners in it. Then death seemed like a condemned deliverance. And the riots were raised for the sole purpose of being executed.

The aborigines met the first settlers with hostility: they set fire to the grass, threw stones, pushed them away from water sources and hunting grounds. The British, in response to their reluctance to move from their native land, shot the locals.

Many died from hunger, thirst, or were killed by whites. Many died from diseases introduced by Europeans to which they had no immunity. They were then moved to reservations. Often located in areas where life is impossible.

The name "Australia" was first mentioned in Captain Matthew Flinders's book, Voyage to Terra Australis (which is Latin for " South Land"). The Governor of New South Wales, Maccawairi, used this name in correspondence with England - and in 1817 he recommended this name as the official name. In 1824, the British Admiralty approved the word " Australia" How official name continent.

In the following decades, free settlers began to appear in Australia, and in 1850 gold deposits were discovered in the country. The huge flow of emigrants and the dramatic shake-up of the economy irrevocably changed the colonial social structure. The Aborigines were displaced from the lands that the colonists needed to Agriculture and mining. The Industrial Revolution in England required large quantities of raw materials, and Australian agricultural and Natural resources were spent uncontrollably to satisfy this need. Australia became a state when the individual colonies formed a federation on 1 January 1901 (although this severed many cultural and trade ties with England). Australian troops fought on the British side in the Boer War, World War I and World War II. However, the US role in defending Australian territories from Japanese invasion during World War II called into question the strength of this alliance. Australia, in turn, supported the United States during the Korean and Vietnam War in Asia.

After the war, a flood of immigrants poured into the country, most of whom were not British. Immigrants have provided big influence for the development of the country. By revitalizing the culture and broadening Australia's worldview. IN post-war years Australia was experiencing an economic boom as its raw materials and minerals were in great demand. In the 1980s Australia has taken in huge numbers of Asian refugees, especially from Vietnam. Socially and economically, Australia is struggling to live up to its place in Asia. Relevant for Australia are the issues of republicanism, the universal adoption of the Native Name Act (adopted in 1993), legal regulation regarding refugees and an official apology from the government for the violation of the rights and suffering of Aboriginal people. Unfortunately, many Aboriginal people continue to live in terrible conditions.

The British government forcibly sent over 162,000 criminals sentenced to hard labor.

The British government began sending convicts to overseas colonies from the early 17th century - initially to North America. When the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War made it impossible to send them there in the late 1770s, the problem of housing large numbers of prisoners in British prisons became seriously aggravated and the need arose to find new territories to send convicts there. In 1770, James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia as a British possession; In the second half of the 1780s, in an effort to resolve the prisoner situation and at the same time strengthen its influence in the region, the government decided to use Australian territories to deport convicts. In 1787, the so-called First Fleet, consisting of eleven ships that were floating prisons, sailed to Botany Bay in Australia. Following his arrival on Australian shores on 20 January 1788, Sydney was founded - the first permanent European settlement on the continent, becoming the center of the colony of New South Wales. A convict colony was founded in Tasmania in 1803, and in Queensland in 1824. Western Australia, founded in 1829 by free settlers, had received convicts since 1850; the population of Victoria and South Australia consisted only of free people. Convict shipments to Australia peaked in the 1830s, declining significantly in the following decade; the last convict ship arrived in Western Australia on 10 January 1868.

Most of the convicts sent to Australia were convicted of various minor crimes, but there were also a significant number of political prisoners among them. More serious crimes, such as rape and murder, were punishable by death and were not punishable by hard labor in the colonies. After the expiration of their sentences, many convicts remained in Australia among free settlers, some of whom achieved high status in society. At the same time, a person serving hard labor imposed a social stigma on him, and therefore many descendants of convicts faced disdainful attitude due to their origin. By the 20th century, however, the situation had changed, and now some Australians are even proud of having convicts among their ancestors. According to some reports, in modern Australia, about 20% of the white population are descendants of convicts.

Reasons for sending convicts to Australia[ | code ]

Arrival of convicts in Australia in 1788

As Robert Hughes pointed out in his work on Australian history, The Fatal Shore, the population of England and Wales began to increase significantly from 1740, which soon coincided with the beginning of the American Revolution. London at the end of the 18th century was overpopulated and overflowing with unemployed drunkards and “cheap gin.” Coupled with widespread poverty, social injustice, widespread child labor, unsanitary living conditions and long working hours, this contributed to a strong increase in crime in London and the UK as a whole, as well as to the emergence of a large number of convicts for whom there were not enough prisons to accommodate. This factor became the main incentive for the government to send those sentenced to hard labor to the British colonies and Australia.

Women convicts[ | code ]

Political prisoners[ | code ]

A certain part of those sentenced to Australian penal servitude were those arrested and convicted for political reasons, primarily participants in various anti-government movements and uprisings, including Luddites (sent in 1828-1832) and Chartists.

Heritage [ | code ]