State · 1788
The First Fleet reaches Australia
Sydney Cove, Port Jackson (Sydney)
Eleven British ships under Captain Arthur Phillip, carrying over 1,400 convicts, marines, sailors and officials, reached Botany Bay in January 1788 and settled instead at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson on 26 January, founding the penal Colony of New South Wales. Aboriginal Australians had lived on the continent for 50,000 to 65,000 years; the local Eora people met the newcomers with curiosity and suspicion, and an outbreak of smallpox in April 1789 killed about half the Aboriginal population of the Sydney region.
Why it mattered
It began the British colonisation of Australia, which brought disease, violent conflict and the dispossession of Aboriginal peoples from their lands; 26 January is still marked as Australia Day.
Elsewhere
In New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi between the British Crown and Māori chiefs (rangatira), first signed on 6 February 1840, is increasingly recognised as a founding document of the country; its English and Māori texts differ, and their meaning is still debated.
Related
- The world in 1783: A New Nation Is Born chapter
- American Revolution and independence previous moment · 1775–1783
- The French Revolution next moment · 1789–1799