As I continue reading the history of various countries, we come to Australia, one of the latest entrants in the world of large nations. I have generally been using the concise history series, which in this case was written by Stuart Macintyre. Australia was founded as an English colony, but of course had been inhabited for more than 50,000 years by an aborignal people, whose rights to the land were thoroughly trampled on by the British. At least the American colonists at times pretended to “buy” the land from the native population. No history of Australia would be complete without an acknowledgment of the woeful mistreatment of the aboriginals by the colonists. But pretending this was some unique “white” or European phenomenon is absurd; humans everywhere have invaded and taken land lived on by other groups of humans and have committed massive slaughter as that occurred. The aboriginals in Australia certainly engaged in warfare among its various tribes or family groups, although as the continent was sparsely populated, this occurred less frequently than in North America for example.
In any event, the British arrived and much of the story of Australia has been immigration policy, how many people could be persuaded, or forced to come from Britain and then whether immigrants from other areas, especially Asia, would be encouraged or permitted. While Australia has its fertile areas (why there wasn’t more of an aboriginal population is somewhat of a mystery) much of the country is very dry. It’s ability to support a large population is marginal. But the early settlers created large sheep farms in particular and wheat and they hacked down forests and discovered mineral wealth. Australia created significant value for the British empire.
It was also obviously a strategic location, near other British colonies and outposts in the Pacific, and it continues to be important to the informal and formal league of Western-style democracies, particularly as China becomes more threatening to its neighbors. Australia, like the United States, has been fortunate in suffering little actual damage during wars or other military conflicts, although the Japanese did some limited bombing and other military actions during the Second World War. The country, however, contributed significant manpower and took large casualties during the two World Wars and on behalf of Britain in other conflicts.
The history of the country’s development follows a typical Western pattern. First an agrarian society, gradually expanding to other natural resources, eventually developing a manufacturing base and then becoming a service and technology-based economy. Australia also generates significant tourism income and is a wonderful country to visit. Australia become independent partly because Britain simply could no longer sustain an empire, but many Australians still feel a close link to England.
Politically, Australia, like the US, has vacillated between conservative and more liberal parties, and the political discourse has become more heated. It unfortunately also has its share of woke nuts and policies. The country has a strong commitment to citizen welfare and has generally had a strong community ethos of taking care of the less fortunate, but also as in the United States, large immigration of poorly assimilated groups has strained that ethos. It remains fairly wedded to free market economics, with occasional forays into state-sponsored focus on certain industries.
Australia is one of the countries the US should rely on to create a league of democracies who can in a more united way sustain the cause of human freedom, both economically and personally. As usual, I encourage you to read the history, which is a fairly quick read.
