Impact of English Colonization on Australia:

Language & Religion

Unit 10 Notes

Language of Australia

Direct result of British colonization & expansion

Australia was the final continent discovered by Europeans

Aborigines had inhabited the country for centuries

Language

1768: Captain James Cook left England and explored & mapped parts of eastern Australia– Claimed the land for England & named it

New South Wales

England did not immediately colonize it…

Language

1788: England sent a crew to Australia to begin building prisons

Earlier, England had been shipping prisoners to American colonies--no longer a choice after the American Revolution

1788-1823: New South Wales was a penal (prison) colony housing convicts and marines

Language

1823: British government established Australia’s first Parliament that created criminal and civil courtsBy 1868: more than 170,000 convicts had arrived in Australia from England– The language of the prisoners was

English…

Language

French government became interested in Australia’s west coast

To keep French out, English settlers built new villages and cities as far out as possible– This spread English language to western

Australia

Language

More British immigrants entered Australia during the gold rush of the mid-1800s

Thousands of Chinese immigrants arrived as well– Chinese didn’t become an important

language because the English-speakers were too plentiful

Language

When Australia gained its independence from Great Britain, the government wanted to make sure it wouldn’t get too many immigrants

It allowed people from England & US to enter the country, but made rules to stop immigrants from Africa & Asia– Encouraged more English speakers to move to

Australia

Language

Today, more than 20% of Australians were born in another country– Half of Australia came from non-English

speaking countries

Because of Australia’s history, English is still the official language & it’s the most common language spoken

Religion

1788: Europeans introduced Christianity to Australia– Irish convicts were Catholic, while most others

were Methodist or Anglican

1800s: European settlers brought their traditional churches to Australia--Church of England (now Anglican Church), Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, & Baptist

Religion

Today, most Australians are Christians– Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican

Church claim the most members

Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, & Hindus combined make up less than 5% of the population