reasons (oliver)

Reasons How The Europeans treated the Aboriginals European Settlement (Good/Bad) European settlement had a severe and devastating impact on Indigenous people. The loss of their land, exposure to new diseases and involvement in violent conflict, resulted in the death of a vast number of the Aboriginal people. The small percentage of Aboriginal people who did not die during these early decades of the colony, were not unaffected. The impact of the white settlers completely changed their lives. Separation (Good/Bad) When the aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their families, this directly led to a loss of culture, language, customs and traditions among the Aborigines. When the Europeans first came to Australia, there were around 250 different aboriginal languages in Australia. There is just a fraction of that number now. Massacres (Good/Bad) Massacres of the indigenous people occurred on a regular basis. The Coniston massacre, the massacre at Myall Creek, the "Battle of Risdon" in Tasmania and many others, all were perpetrated against the Aborigines by the Europeans. There were years of conflict between Tasmanian Aborigines and white settlers which eventually resulted in the loss of the purebred aboriginal race from Tasmania - virtually genocide. Diseases (Good/Bad) When the settlers arrived in Australia they brought with them a number of European epidemic diseases. These diseases included chickenpox, smallpox, typhoid, measles and influenza. The Aboriginal peoples had no immunity (acquired resistance) to these unfamiliar diseases. Within a matter of weeks, the Indigenous population, particularly within densely populated communities, began to experience a rapid decline in numbers. Colonisation (Good/Bad) It is believed that at least 750 000 Aboriginal people were living in Australia at the time of Captain Cook's arrival. These people were divided into around 600 different tribes and had hundreds of different languages. Despite knowing of the existence of these peoples, the British considered the Australian continent to be a terra nullius which means unowned land. Eight years later, the British went ahead with their plans to establish a penal colony in New South Wales.

reasons (oliver)

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