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/image%2F1054224%2F20140521%2Fob_b8a186_aust-5.jpg "\"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.\"
Maya Angelou")
Brief History of Australia
Published on May 1 2014
Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40 000 years before the first Europeans began the exploration in the 17th century.
In 1770 Captain James Cook took possession of Australia in the name of Great Britain.
The first European settlement in Australia was in 1788. It was originally established as penal colony, by the 1830s the number of free settlers was rising. Transportation of convicts to the eastern colonies was abolished in 1852 and to the western colonies in 1868.
Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries. In 1901, the six colonies federated and became one nation. The new country took advantage of its natural resources to develop its agricultural and manufacturing industries to help the British during World War I and II.
Australia had become an internationally competitive, advanced market economy. It also has a unique environment, beautiful landscape, aboriginal art and unique creatures.