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England's Experimental Colony: The First Settlement In Australia, Frances M. Casazza

Honors Theses

Almost 200 years ago, the first white settlers stepped on the shores of Australia. They were not there for freedom or opportunity, but rather for punishment. England's prisons were overflowing and their solution was sending the convicts away and forgetting about them. Australia's history and first eighty years of development began in this shadow. From 1787 until 1867 the English Government transported convicts to their penal colony in Australia. In all over 160,000 convicts were sent. The initial settlement and the reasons behind it were uniquel. England's attempt to establish a self-sufficient convict colony was the firs tof its kind. …