British colonialism and emerging national identities in Oceania (1788-1919)

Latin for 'land belonging to no one' — Britain used this false legal claim to occupy Australia without treaty or payment to Aboriginal peoples.

Captain Arthur Phillip landed the First Fleet at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788, founding a penal colony in New South Wales.

The English text ceded 'sovereignty' to the Crown; the Māori text used 'kāwanatanga' (governorship) — a weaker term, causing lasting disagreement over what chiefs had actually agreed to.

Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson, meeting over 500 Māori chiefs at Waitangi in February 1840.

Sell colonial land at a fixed price rather than cheaply, and use the proceeds to fund assisted immigration — keeping a stable labour force instead of workers becoming landowners too fast.

South Australia (1836) and the New Zealand Company's settlements (from 1840) at Wellington, Nelson and New Plymouth.

Settlers who occupied vast areas of Crown land illegally from the 1820s for sheep and cattle grazing, later granted formal leases by colonial governments.

They aimed to let smaller farmers (selectors) buy land to break up squatter monopolies; in practice squatters often used loopholes to keep the best land, leaving selectors poorer blocks.

Formed in 1858 to unite Māori iwi under one king and resist further land sales to the Crown — a key organised response to settler land pressure.

The Taranaki War (1860–61) and the Waikato War (1863–64), fought between colonial/British forces and Māori resisting land loss.

It confiscated large areas of fertile Māori land without payment, even from iwi who had not fought the Crown — becoming a long-lasting grievance.

Squatters: occupied land illegally from the 1820s, later leased, held huge runs, politically powerful. Selectors: bought smaller blocks legally under the 1860s Selection Acts, meant to farm on a family scale, often got poorer land.

Near Bathurst, New South Wales, in 1851 (Edward Hargraves), followed by much larger finds in Victoria (Ballarat, Bendigo) later that year.

A rebellion by gold miners at Ballarat against expensive mining licences and unfair police treatment; crushed by troops but became a lasting symbol of Australian democratic spirit.

A political party founded by unionists after major strikes (Maritime Strike 1890, Shearers' Strikes 1891/94) were defeated, deciding that winning parliamentary seats was the way to protect workers' rights.

Sir Henry Parkes, premier of New South Wales, for his 1889 Tenterfield Oration calling for the Australian colonies to unite.

The Commonwealth of Australia was formed, uniting six former colonies (NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania) into one federal nation.

Australia gained dominion status through federation of six colonies in 1901; New Zealand, already self-governing since 1852 and choosing not to join Australia's federation, was formally declared a dominion in 1907.

Self-government over domestic affairs within the British Empire; it did NOT include full independent control of foreign policy or defence, or removal of the British monarch as head of state.

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps; landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 in a British-led campaign against the Ottoman Empire, faced months of stalemate, and evacuated by early 1916 having failed their objective, with heavy casualties.

It became a founding legend of Australian and New Zealand national identity, associated with courage and mateship, commemorated annually on Anzac Day (25 April).

Prime Minister Billy Hughes held two referendums to introduce conscription for overseas WWI service; both were narrowly defeated, revealing deep class and religious divisions in Australian society.

Both attended the Paris Peace Conference as separate delegations (not merged with Britain's) and received League of Nations mandates over former German Pacific colonies, signalling growing international recognition.

Fiji became a Crown Colony in 1874 and was ruled mainly through indirect rule via existing local chiefs, with far fewer European settlers than in Australia/New Zealand, though Indian indentured labourers were brought in for plantations.