The British Empire: A source for good or evil? February 2014 | Page 20
The deportation of British and Irish convicts to Australia (17881868)
I
n 1775, the British Empire stopped transporting its convicts to America, and chose
Australia to replace it in 1788. This transportation was implemented on a large scale,
both for criminals and for people convicted just for relatively minor offenses like theft
of food. Not only men were sent to Australia, but women and children over the age
of nine too. The convicts were not always violent or dangerous, but all were treated
as slave labor and received the worst treatment. These prisoners were condemned
to transportation far from their homes, where they would never see their families
again, and were deprived of freedom. Between 1788 and 1868 about 165,000
convicts were sent to this convict colony, a new colony was created with these
prisoners in Australia, which until then was inhabited only by aboriginal populations.
(http://firstfleetfellowship.org.au/ships/the-voyage/)
DOC 1. The First Fleet entered in Bottany Bay
The First Fleet was the name of the first eleven
DOC 2.
ships which left Great Britain the 13 May 1787 to
found a new penal colony in Australia. It carried
1030 passengers, 736 were criminals. It was the
first before many others.
In theory, being condemned to a convict
colony was a severe prison sentence, for
a serious crime. But in reality, however,
because the colonies had labour
shortage, all sorts of crimes, often
relatively minor, led to transportation.
When the convicts were condemned, they
didn’t’ know if they would come back
home and if they could leave. The
expression of certain political opinions
was also punishable in this way.
KEY DATES :
1770 James COOK was the first
European to discover Australia; he took
possession of the name of the Crown of
England.
1786 The British government decided
to establish a convict settlement in Botany
Bay
18/01/1788 The first sheep of the First
Fleet arrived with Captain Arthur Philipps
and the first convicts in Botany Bay.
26/01/1788 Establishment of the first
permanent European colony in Port
Jackson (who will become the city of
Sidney).
1868 End of the deportation of
convicts in Australia.