Alive 9

FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM
Robert Darlington
Graeme Smithies | Ashley Wood
Contributing Author
Alan Wiggs
First published 2012 by

John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd
42 McDougall Street, Milton, Qld 4064
Typeset in 11.5/13 pt Adobe Garamond LT
John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 2012
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-publication data
Author:
Title:
Darlington, Robert.
History alive 9 for the Australian curriculum /
Robert Darlington, Graeme Smithies, Ashley Wood.
ISBN:
978 0 7303 3763 8 (pbk.)
978 0 7303 3764 5 (ebook)
978 1 118 32853 8 (loose-leaf)
Series:
History alive for the Australian curriculum; 9.
Notes:
Includes index.
Target audience: For secondary school age.
Subjects:
World history Textbooks.
Australia History Textbooks.
Other authors/
contributors:
Smithies, Graeme.
Wood, Ashley.
Dewey Number: 909
Reproduction and communication for educational purposes
The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one
chapter or 10% of the pages of this work, whichever is the greater, to
be reproduced and/or communicated by any educational institution
for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution
(or the body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL).
Reproduction and communication for other purposes
Except as permitted under the Act (for example, a fair dealing for the
purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated
or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written
permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher.
The publisher wishes to thank the following teachers and

schools who participated in the trial of the History Alive series.
S. Corvan, All Hallows School, QLD; E. Altamore, Assumption
College, VIC; A. Hommelhoff, Braybrook College, VIC; A. Ewing,
Caroline Chisholm Catholic College, VIC; A. Christopher,
B. Hancy, N. Hart, Corpus Christi College, WA; C. Gray,
Emmanuel College, VIC; K. Gibbs, H. Mavros, A. Muscat,
K. Scott, Geelong College, VIC; T. Wildman, Guildford Grammar
School, WA; D. Miller, International Grammar School, NSW;
C. OLoan, Meriden School, NSW; L. Kempf, Mountain Creek
State HS, QLD; M. Connell, C. Crawford, M. Diamond, A. Flavel,
C. OConnor, Newman College, WA; C. Lilleyman, S. Wynhorst,
Perth College, WA; T. Clarke, Somerville House, QLD;
D. McLean, St Augustines College, NSW; K. Georgakis,
St Patricks College, Shorncliffe, QLD; S. Gacovski, Thomastown
Secondary College, VIC; P. Partanen, Townsville Grammar
School, QLD; J. Jones, Viewbank College, VIC; V. Burton,
N. Contogouris, V. Dembalis, P. Dunne, J. Poole, F. Pospischil,
R. Powling, M. Pryer, Whitefriars College, VIC.
This textbook contains images of Indigenous people who are, or

may be, deceased. The publisher appreciates that this inclusion
may distress some Indigenous communities. These images have
been included so that the young multicultural audience for this
book can better appreciate specific aspects of Indigenous history
and experience.
In this book, the word Aborigine, rather than Koori or any other
regional term, is used when referring to Indigenous Australians.
The issues raised are not unique to any particular region of
Australia so the country-wide reference has been maintained.
It is recommended that teachers first preview resources on
Aboriginal topics in relation to their suitability for the class level
or situation. It is also suggested that Aboriginal parents or
community members be invited to help assess the resources to
be shown to Aboriginal children. At all times the guidelines laid
down by the Department of Education should be followed.
Front cover image: 20th Century Fox/The Kobal Collection/

Stephen Vaughan
Cartography by Spatial Vision, Melbourne
Illustrated by Gary Collett (pp. 66, 1623), Andrew Darlington
(pp.1689), Paul Lennon (pp. 323), Terry St Ledger (pp. 701, 767,
967), various artists and the Wiley Art Studio
Printed in Singapore by
Craft Print International Ltd
10 9 8 7 6
5_61_37634_HA9_Prelims.indd 2
7/05/13 1:31 PM
Contents
How to use History Alive vi
About eBookPLUS viii
How does History Alive address
the requirements of the
new Australian Curriculum? x
Acknowledgements xii
CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW:
CHAPTER 2 DEPTH STUDY 1:
THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD
MAKING A BETTER WORLD?
The modern world

and Australia (1750 1918) 2
The Industrial Revolution (1750 1914):

(I) Technology and progress 28
1.1 HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT ?

The world from 1750 to 1918 4
1.2 European empires in
the late eighteenth century 6
1.3 The French Revolution
a turning point in history 8
1.4 The Industrial Revolution 12
1.5 Nationalism and imperialism 16
1.6 Global population movements:
slaves, convicts and migrants 18
1.7 Progressive ideas and movements 22
1.8 SkillBuilder: Understanding
a historical debate 24
1.9 Review and reflect 26
Note: The Depth Study The Industrial Revolution (17501914)

is covered over two chapters because of the wide range
and complexity of the curriculum content. This will make
it easier for students to study this fascinating topic.
Teachers should select the material from both chapters
that best meets the needs of their students, rather than
attempting to cover all the content from both chapters.

The Industrial Revolution 30
2.2 The agricultural revolution 32
2.3 The population explosion 36
2.4 Power: from horses, wind and
water to steam 38
2.5 Making textiles: from home to factory 42
2.6 Coal and iron 46
2.7 Entrepreneurs and banks 48
2.8 Canals, roads and railways 50
2.9 The workshop of the world 54
2.10 Trade, empire and shipping 56
2.11 SkillBuilder: Investigating a historical issue 58

The Industrial Revolution (1750 1914):

(II) The impact on people 62
Life during the Industrial Revolution 64
3.2 The impact of enclosure 66
3.3 Conditions in factories and mines 70
3.4 Child labour 74
3.5 Urban conditions and peoples health 76
3.6 Poor laws and workhouses 78
3.7 Reformers and progress 80
3.8 Social unrest and trade unions 82
3.9 SkillBuilder: Recognising different
perspectives 84

Movement of peoples (1750 1901) 88

The movement of peoples (17501901) 90
4.2 Overview of slavery 92
4.3 Slavery and the cotton trade 96
4.4 The end of slavery? 98
4.5 Crime and punishment 100
4.6 Transportation to Australia 102
4.7 Convict life 106
4.8 Emigration to Australia 108
4.9 Migration to the goldfields 112
4.10 SkillBuilder: Planning a history essay 114

Using ICT 118
CHAPTER 5 DEPTH STUDY 2: AUSTRALIA AND ASIA

Making a nation
Australia (1750 1918):
(I) Colonisation and conflict 120
Note: The Depth Study Making a nation Australia
(17501918) is covered over two chapters because
of the wide range and complexity of the curriculum
content. This will make it easier for students to study this
fascinating topic. Teachers should select the material
from both chapters that best meets the needs of their
students, rather than attempting to cover all the content
from both chapters.

Race relations in colonial Australia 122
5.2 Beginnings of conflict 124
5.3 Resistance 128
5.4 Tragedy in Van Diemens Land 130
5.5 Blood on the frontiers 132
5.6 SkillBuilder: Identifying gaps in evidence 136
5.7 Reserves, missions and broken promises 138
5.8 The last frontiers 142
5.9 The Torres Strait Islanders 146
5.10 Attitudes to Asians: Chinese diggers 148
5.11 White Australia and the outside world 150

Using ICT 154

Making a nation
Australia (17501918):
(II) From colonies to nationhood 156
Late colonial and early twentieth-century
Australia 158
6.2 Towards democracy:
Eureka and political rights 160
6.3 Whose Australia?
Free selectors vs squatters 164
6.4 An Australian legend 166
6.5 City life 170
6.6
6.7
6.8
6.9
6.10
6.11
6.12
6.13

Working in cities and towns 172

Trade unions and political parties 174
Nationalism and Australian identity 178
SkillBuilder: Analysing cartoons
on social issues 180
Voting rights for women 182
Federation 184
The early Commonwealth 188
Review and reflect 192
Using ICT 194

Asia and the world:
China (17501918) 196
Colonisation, conflict and change
in China (17501918) 198
7.2 Qing China 200
7.3 Living under the emperor 202
7.4 Arrival of the foreigners 204
7.5 Effects of foreign influence on China 208
7.6 Social effects 210
7.7 Resistance in China 214
7.8 Consequences 218
7.9 SkillBuilder: Analysing cause and
consequence 220
CHAPTER 8 DEPTH STUDY 3: WORLD WAR I

World War I (19141918) 224
World War I 226
8.2 What caused the Great War? 228
8.3 The world at war 232
8.4 Australians in the Great War an
overview 234
8.5 Gallipoli 236
8.6 Trench warfare 240
8.7 The Western Front 242
8.8 SkillBuilder: Analysing photographs 244
8.9 The home front 246
8.10 The conscription issue 250
8.11 The Eastern Front: collapse and revolution 252
8.12 Peace and commemoration 256

Using ICT 262
Glossary 264
Index 266
How to use History Alive

The features described here show how you can use
this stimulating text most effectively.
CHAPTER
The chapter opening

spread orientates
students to provide
a clear starting point
for the topic.
An illustrated timeline shows the chronology and key events

of the period under study.
DEPTH STUDY 1: MAKING A BETTER WORLD?
The Industrial Revolution (17501914):

(I) Technology and progress
CE
Abraham Darby
develops a blast
furnace capable of
producing
high-quality iron.
It is said that today we are living through a

technological revolution that has dramatically
changed the way we communicate and
process information. The telephone was
invented in 1872 and remained largely
unchanged until the arrival of mobile phone
technology in the 1980s. Since the late 1990s
the development of smartphone technology,
touch screens, and the ability to capture and
transmit images has revolutionised the way we
communicate with one another.
1730s1780s
The invention of new

and larger spinning
and weaving
machines shifts textile
industry into factories.
1761
James Watt invents a

steam engine capable
of providing
continuous power.
1712
Thomas Newcomen
develops the
atmospheric engine,
the first practical
steam engine.
1720
1757
The Sankey Canal
is opened.
1760
1763
Victory in the Seven
Years War gives Britain
increased trade access
to colonies in India and
North America.
1780
1783
Henry Corts puddling
process further
improves the quality of
iron products.
1800
1801
The first official

population census is
held in Britain.
1820
1813
The first working steam
locomotive, known as
Puffing Billy, is built.
1840
1830
Stephensons Rocket
hauls the first train on
the Manchester to
Liverpool railway line.
1825
The first English

public steam railway
(from Stockton to
Darlington) is opened.
1830s
Railway building begins

in France and Germany.
1851
The Great Exhibition is

held in London.
Note to teachers and students: The Depth Study

The Industrial Revolution (17501914) is covered
over two chapters because of the wide range and
complexity of the curriculum content. This will make
Teachers should select the material from both
chapters that best meets the needs of their students,
rather than attempting to cover all the content from
both chapters.
1876
Alexander Graham Bell
patents the first
telephone.
1842
Samuel Morse
develops the single
wire telegraph.
1860
2 What major technological innovations contributed to

the progress of the Industrial Revolution?
3 In what ways was Britain in 1850 dramatically
different from Britain in 1750?
4 Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Britain,
rather than in any other country?
Starter questions
prompt students to
think about what they
already know about
the content of the
chapter.
1 What do you think are the main differences between

industrial and agricultural societies?
2 From what you know of different countries around
the world, list those you would consider to be
industrialised and those you would consider to be
primarily agricultural.
4 What do we mean by progress? Is progress always

a positive thing?
29
Source 1
This painting appeared on the cover of a

modern edition of Charles Dickens novel Hard Times.
Activity headings are based on the historical

skills identified in the Australian Curriculum.
Contemporary writers
and commentators
Source 3
Coalbrookdale at Night, painted around 1800 by

Phillip James de Loutherbourg
It was natural that writers of the eighteenth

and nineteenth centuries would comment on
the rapid changes that took place in Britain at
the time.
The enormous changes in technology, the
development of large factories, the rapid growth
of cities and dramatic changes in methods of
transportation all happened within little more
than one lifespan. While some writers set out
to record impartial observations of
Source 2
An illustration from a
the changes happening around them,
nineteenth-century edition of
many others gave biased accounts.
Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens used
Charles Dickens wrote about the
his novels to publicise the social
problems of his time.
working and living conditions of the
factory workers and the poor in novels
such as Oliver Twist, Hard Times and
Little Dorritt. Others such as Karl
Marx and Friedrich Engels used their
observations as a basis for attacks on
the political system of Britain. By
contrast, supporters of the changes to
agriculture and industry gave glowing
accounts of the economic benefits
of these changes, while ignoring the
negative effects on workers and
their families.
recorded changes in the numbers of people living in

large towns and cities compared with those living in the
country. Records of birth and death rates in cities and
rural areas can provide information about the health of
the people. Wage levels, when compared with the prices
of food, clothing materials and housing, can give us
information on peoples standard of living. All statistics
require interpretation, but when combined with other
evidence they can often add much to our picture of
the past.
Records of government inquiries

The rapid social changes taking place in Britain in the
nineteenth century sometimes prompted the government
to set up special inquiries to investigate the effects of
the changes. Written records include evidence given by
witnesses to these inquiries. Many of these witnesses
described their own experiences, while others gave
accounts of incidents and conditions they had observed.
The findings of these inquiries would later be published
in reports, and this material also survives today in official
government records.
Official government statistics
Paintings and drawings of

contemporary artists
In the eighteenth and nineteenth

centuries the government began
to collect statistics on all aspects of
British life. As well as total figures
for population growth, census figures
Given the dramatic impact of these events on peoples

lives, it is not surprising that artists were keen to
document the changes they saw happening around them.
Surviving paintings and drawings can give us further
insights into the conditions in which people lived.
ANALYSIS AND USE OF SOURCES
Chapter 3: The Industrial Revolution (17501914): (II) The impact on people
Australian employees
today are protected by
Occupational Health and
Safety laws. These laws
place a legal obligation
on the employer to
provide a safe and healthy
workplace. At the time of
the Industrial Revolution
no such laws existed,
and workplaces such
as factories and mines
could be dangerous and
unhealthy places.
History Alive provides a

wealth of primary and
secondary sources for
students to work with.
65
From an interview with James Patterson,

a factory worker, before a parliamentary committee,
June 1832
water wheel or steam engine.
An early nineteenth-century textile mill was

a dangerous and unhealthy place to work.
had no safety fences
E Machines
or guards around them, so
would punish
C Overseers
anyone responsible for
workers were always at risk of

injury.
slowing or stopping the

machines for any reason.
loose pieces of cotton from under

machines while the machines
were running.
70
History Alive 9 for the Australian Curriculum
and other
G Dust
residues from the
cotton found their

way into the workers
lungs, causing
severe illness.
I worked at Mr. Braids Mill at Duntruin. We

worked as long as we could see. I could not say
at what hour we stopped. There was no clock
in the mill. There was nobody but the master
and the masters son had a watch and so we
did not know the time. The operatives were not
permitted to have a watch. There was one man
who had a watch but it was taken from him
because he told the men the time.
Source 3
From an interview with former factory

worker Sarah Carpenter, published in The Ashton
Chronicle, 23 June 1849
There was a young woman, Sarah Goodling,

who was poorly and so she stopped her
machine. James Birch, the overlooker, knocked
her to the floor. She got up as well as she could.
He knocked her down again. Then she was
carried to the apprentice house. Her bed-fellow
found her dead in bed. There was another
called Mary. She knocked her food can down
on the floor. The master, Mr. Newton, kicked
her where he should not do, and it caused her
to wear away till she died. There was another,
Caroline Thompson. They beat her till she went
out of her mind.
Small windows and lack of

B ventilation
made the factory
air hard to breathe.
Inside a textile
factory
An early nineteenth-century
textile factory was a
dangerous and unpleasant
place to work. Long
working hours
12 hours or more per day
were common practice.
Poor light and ventilation
and excessive heat made
working conditions very
uncomfortable. Machines
were not fenced off and had
no safety guards around
moving parts, so workers
were always at risk of injury.
Children were often
employed to climb under or
between machines to keep
them operating, so they
were in particular danger.
Key terms are

explained on
each double-page
spread.
Source 2
were driven by belts attached

D Machines
to drive shafts that were powered by a
Source 1
children were employed as

A Some
scavengers: they would collect
Activities ask students to closely examine

the sources in line with the inquiry approach
of the Australian Curriculum.
biased account narrative or description in which a writer

presents only one side of an issue in an effort to convince the
reader
impartial observations comments and reflections that
recognise all sides and opinions relating to an issue or event,
leaving it to the reader to form his or her own judgement
3.3 Conditions in factories
Sources are clearly identified in the activities.
1 What kinds of statistics would provide evidence of the

following trends?
a People moving away from the country to the city to
look for work
b Improvements in peoples health and standard of
living.
2 Charles Dickens novel Hard Times, set in the imaginary
industrial town of Coketown, deals with issues of
working conditions in factories. What impression
does the illustration on the cover of Hard Times
(see Source 1 ) give of life in Coketown?
3 Oliver Twist traces the story of a poor orphan in
nineteenth-century London. What does the illustration
inside the book (see Source 2 ) tell us about the
treatment of orphans at this time?
4 Why should historians be cautious when considering the
importance of individual witness statements provided to
government inquiries?
5 Coalbrookdale was a coalmining and iron-smelting
town in the English Midlands.
a From examining Source 3 , what do you think it
would have been like to live in this town?
b Do you think the artist had a favourable or
unfavourable opinion of the town? Explain your
answer.
and mines
vi
1 In what ways did developments in agriculture during

the eighteenth century contribute to the Industrial
Revolution?
Chapter 2: The Industrial Revolution (17501914): (I) Technology and progress
3.1 Life during the Industrial Revolution
64
Big questions
are based on the
Australian Curriculum
inquiry questions.
As you work through this chapter, look for information

that will help you to answer these questions:
3 Aside from communications, what other examples of

rapid change can we see in the world today?
1880
HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT . . .?
In this chapter we will look at the effects

of the Industrial Revolution on many of
the ordinary people in Britain. These were
the people who worked in factories and
mines and lived in the towns that sprang
up around these workplaces. Many of them
had lost access to their livelihood because
of the enclosure of traditional farming land
and had suddenly been thrown into poverty.
To the people of the late eighteenth and nineteenth

centuries, the changes that took place in manufacturing,
transport, agriculture, trade and living conditions were
every bit as revolutionary as the technological changes
that are happening all around us today.
1740
1785
The Boulton and Watt

steam engine is first
used in a textiles factory.
place through a series of small steps that can be easily

understood by people living through the time. Every now
and then change speeds up and, within a generation
or less, old ways of doing things disappear. These
old methods are superseded by completely new and
unfamiliar ones that have not been used before.
1707
The first turnpike
trusts are
established.
1700
1769
What do we mean when we speak

of the Industrial Revolution?
What is a revolution? Most
historians think of a revolution
as a time of very rapid
change. Historical
change usually takes
The invention of the steam engine was a major

factor in the progress of the Industrial Revolution.
1694
The Bank of England
is established.
The Bridgewater
Canal is opened.
For most of you these changes may not

seem very revolutionary. But your parents
and grandparents used old-style landline
telephones most of their lives. To them, the
modern mobile phone and its huge variety
of applications represents a communications
revolution that has taken less than
twenty years to occur.
Links with our times

draws connections
between today and
the period under
study.
SEARCHLIGHT ID: INT-2962
1680
1700 onwards
Improvements in
agricultural technology
contribute to the
agricultural revolution.
1709
How do we know
about...? spreads
explore the evidence
available for
studying this period
of history.
Create a visual timeline of

technology and progress
during the Industrial Revolution
with the interactive timeline
application in your eBookPLUS.
eBook plus
A timeline of
technology and
progress during
the Industrial
Revolution
children were employed

H Some
as piecers: they had to repair
broken threads on spinning
were still running.
Source 4
From the testimony of Dr Michael Ward

before a parliamentary committee, 25 March 1819
bending and
F Constant
working in cramped
conditions often led to
physical deformities in
factory workers.
I have had frequent opportunities of seeing

people coming out from the factories and
occasionally attending as patients. Last summer
I visited three cotton factories with Dr. Clough
of Preston and Mr. Barker of Manchester and
we could not remain ten minutes in the factory
without gasping for breath. How is it possible
for those who are doomed to remain there
twelve or fifteen hours to endure it? If we take
into account the heated temperature of the air,
and the contamination of the air, it is a matter
of astonishment to my mind, how the work
people can bear the confinement for so great a
length of time.
71
History Alive
features stunning
major artwork
that is clearly
labelled for easy
use in class.
Most chapters include a SkillBuilder that teaches students

a key historical skill.
8.8 SkillBuilder
Who took the photograph (if known)? What is the source

(if stated)?
The photographer is unknown. The photograph belongs

to the Australian War Memorial.
Why is it useful to analyse photographs?
Where is the location? When was the photograph taken?
The photograph was taken near Ypres. It was taken in

September 1917, which places it at the time of the Third
Battle of Ypres.
Has the photograph been posed or has the photographer simply

recorded a scene? Has the photograph been cropped and if so
has this changed its meaning at all? Has the photograph been
changed by adding or removing any details?
There is no evidence that the photograph has been

cropped although it is equally possible that it has been.
Nor is there evidence of any tampering with the image.
Is the photograph taken from close up or from a distance and

does this affect our reaction to it?
The photograph has been taken close up to the dead

horses so that we react first to the scene in the foreground
then our eyes move to the background. This photographer
has a good sense of composition.
What is the main subject? What background and minor details

are shown? What extra information do the minor details add?
The subject is the destructive power of the war. The

bloated bodies of dead horses in the foreground are no
more important than the soldiers marching towards
them in the background, possibly to share their fate. The
smashed wagon, churned up earth and battered trees all
contribute to an image of devastation.
Why was the photograph taken (if known)?
We do not know exactly why the photograph was taken,

whether for personal or historical reasons.
photographers like Australias Frank Hurley. However,

we sometimes have to be careful to recognise features in
the photographs that have been altered to make them
useful for propaganda.
What questions should we ask?

1. The photographer. Who took the photograph
(if known)? What is the source (if stated)?
2. Location. Where is the location? When was the
photograph taken?
3. Editing. Has the photograph been posed or has the
photographer simply recorded a scene? Has the
photograph been cropped and, if so, has this changed
its meaning at all? Has the photograph been changed
by adding or removing any details?
4. Composition. Is the photograph taken from close up or
from a distance and does this affect our reaction to it?
5. Subject. What is the main subject? What background
and minor details are shown? What extra information
do the minor details add?
6. Motive. Why was the photograph taken (if known)?
7. Evidence. For what does the photograph provide
evidence?
For what does the photograph provide evidence?
It provides solid evidence for the effect of the war on the

landscape, animals and men.
Now use the questions in the table to analyse
Sources 2 and 3
Source 2
Australian machine-gunners in action at

Pozires in 1916. The photograph is one of a series taken
by Corporal Robert Willie Nenke, who was killed in action
on 10 August1918. The photograph now belongs to the
Australian War Memorial photographic collections.
244
6.13 Review and reflect

In this chapter we have
investigated changes that took
place in Australia between the
1850s and the early years of
the twentiethcentury. We have
studied rebellion against social
conditions and authority, from
the Eureka Stockade to the
strikes of the 1890s. We have
looked at living and working
conditions. We have also studied
the development of a sense
of national identity, Australian
attitudes to other races and the
outside world, Federation, and
the social and political character
of the new Australian nation.
A range of different activities can be

used to review the chapter.
The quick quiz quickly reviews the key
content of the chapter.
ProjectsPLUS is an ICT-based project with
an innovative research management
system featuring multimedia and project
templates. These projects are designed
to inspire and engage students while
providing quality assessment support for
teachers.
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3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
192
The Anzac Day memorials

SEARCHLIGHT ID: PRO-0045
Scenario
You are a reporter for Australias Now Channel. It is
pre-dawn on 25 April 2015 and you have been posted
at Anzac Cove to cover the memorial service to mark
the 100th anniversary of the landing of troops for the
ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of 1915. Thousands of
Australians have gathered, many covered in Australian
flags or wearing green-and-gold jerseys and beanies.
Attendance at the annual dawn service in Gallipoli has
continued to grow, with more and more Australians
making the pilgrimage every year. Other reporters have
criticised the service as just an excuse for backpackers
to meet and party but, as a first-time pilgrim, you have
been overwhelmed by the emotional and respectful
atmosphere.
Your task
Your producer has asked you to craft a moving tribute
to the annual memorials on the shores of Gallipoli. Your
news story should explain the events that occurred on
these shores 100 years ago and why these memorials
are still so important to modern Australians. You will
write and record a voiceover of two minutes duration,
and use the bank of images available in your Media
Centre to create your news story.
Process
Open the ProjectsPLUS application for this chapter,
located in your eBookPLUS. Watch the introductory
video lesson and then click the Start Project button
and set up your project group. You can complete this
project individually or invite other members of your
class to form a group. Save your settings and the
project will belaunched.
This handkerchief was made as a souvenir of Australian Federation. Lord Hopetoun

came from Britain to be Australias first Governor-General. The Duke and Duchess of York came from
Britain to represent Queen Victoria at the opening of the first Commonwealth Parliament in 1901.
How was Ned Kelly captured?

In what year did Melbournes population reach half a million?
What is a trade union?
Which trade union was the first to win an eight-hour working day?
Why did trade unionists support colonial Labour parties from the
1890s?
Name two Australian writers who contributed to a sense of national
identity.
Which newspaper wanted Australia to become a republic in the
1880s?
Who was Vida Goldstein?
Which Australian colony led the way in womens voting rights?
What was Federation?
How did Federation change Australia?
What was the basic wage?
Why was introduction of the basic wage a significant reform?
Name two other reforms that contributed to the idea of Australia as a
workers paradise?
Name Australias two main political parties from 1909.
Analysis and use of sources

1 What is the main message of Source 1 ?
2 Why does this source feature pictures
of Queen Victoria and four English
aristocrats?
3 What conclusions can we draw from this
source about the way most Australians
saw Australias relationship with Britain
and its empire?
4 What is happening in Source 2 ?
5 What reasons would the people in
Source 2 have for celebrating Australian
Federation?
6 How would they have felt about the
Immigration Restriction Act of 1901?
7 In 1901 most Australians would not
have regarded the people in Source 2
as Australian. Why did they have such
attitudes?
Your ProjectsPLUS application is available in

this chapters Student Resources tab inside your
eBookPLUS. Visit www.jacplus.com.au to locate
your digital resources.
Media Centre
Your Media Centre contains:
a selection of images from the Gallipoli memorials
a guide to crafting news stories
weblinks to research sites on Gallipoli
a storyboard template
an assessment rubric.
Back to the big questions
1 Form small groups to visit the website of the Australian

War Memorial. Each group should research one of the
following conflicts:
a the Sudan conflict (North Africa, 1885)
b the Boer War (South Africa, 18991902)
c the Boxer Rebellion (China, 1900).
Report to the class on:
why Britain was involved in that conflict
how and why Australians took part in it
criticisms that were made of Australias involvement.
Accompany your report with a data show presentation
illustrating the nature of the conflict and Australias
role.
At the beginning of this chapter, several big questions were

posed. Use the knowledge you have gained to answer these
questions.
1 What was it like to live and work in Australia between
the 1870s and 1913?
2 How and why did people rebel against the social
conditions?
3 What ideas and conditions led to the creation of the
Australian nation?
4 What were the main characteristics of the Australian
nation before the outbreak of World War I in 1914?
Statements about my learning in this chapter
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly disagree
I was able to use photographic evidence to draw conclusions

about this period.
I made connections between this era and modern Australia.
I have a better understanding of how to analyse a cartoon.
I understand why people have different perspectives on
issues and events.
Working with sources increased my understanding of
significant changes in Australian society.
Chapter 6: Making a nation: (II) From colonies to nationhood
Navigate to your Research Forum. A selection

of topics has been loaded for you to provide a
framework for your research. You should perform
background research on the Gallipoli campaign,
the memorials, and the ritual pilgrimages by many
Australians and New Zealanders to this iconic place.
You might also like to explore other news stories
about Gallipoli. The weblinks in your Media Centre
will help you get started. Enter your findings as
articles under each topic in your Research Forum.
You can also rate and comment on the posts made
by other members of your group.
When your research is complete, navigate to your
Media Centre. A selection of images from the
Anzac Day memorials has been provided for you
to download and use in your news story. Select the
images you would like to use and download the
Storyboard template. Use this to write the script for
your news story. A guide to crafting news stories has
also been provided to help you write an effective and
interesting story.
Record your voiceover using Audacity, Garage Band
or Windows voice-recording software, and then
use Windows Movie Maker, iMovie or other editing
software to create your news story. Remember
that these programs allow you to perform filmic
actions like panning across images. You can also
incorporate a number of different transitions to add
drama or emotional impact to your story.
Print out your research report from ProjectsPLUS and
hand it in with your completed news story.
Historical questions and research
Tick the box for each of these statements that you think best reflects your learning.
DIGITAL
resources for this chapter
193
Students are asked to reflect on and

evaluate their learning.
WORLD WAR I TIMELINE

Use this fun interactivity to create a
visual timeline of key events in World War I from
1914 to 1918.
An interactive version of the timeline is

available in the eBookPLUS.
TIME OUT: ALLIES

AND CENTRAL POWERS
This exciting interactivity will test your knowledge
of the major players in World War I, challenging
you to identify countries as Allies, Central Powers
or neutral states. Can you answer all ten questions
before Time Out?
Suggested software
Student workbook
6.8, 6.9, 6.10
Chinese celebrating Australian

Federation in Melbourne in 1901
ProjectsPLUS
Microsoft Word
Audacity, Garage Band or other voice-recording
software
Windows Moviemaker, iMovie or other editing
software
262
245
Source 2
Source 1
Quick quiz
15
Using ICT
Students are
asked to review
the big questions
introduced at
the start of the
chapter.
Chapter 8: World War I (1914 1918)
Review and reflect spreads at the end of

each chapter provide a range of different
opportunities to consolidate what
students have learned in that chapter.
eBook plus
Soldiers
of the Australian 45th
Battalion wearing gas
respirators in a trench
in the Menin Road area,
near Ypres, Belgium,
on 27 September 1917.
The picture was taken
by Frank Hurley, the
official Australian
war photographer.
It now belongs to
the Australian War
Memorial photographic
collections.
AWM E00732
A scene near Ypres, Belgium, on 17 September

1917. This spot, during the Ypres battles, was never free of
such scenes. The photograph belongs to the Australian War
Memorial photographic collections. The photographer is
unknown.
Students are
given a further
opportunity to
practise the skill.
Source 3
Developing my skills
How to analyse a World War I photograph
Source 1
Answer
AWM P07670.003
World War I photographs

Many tens of thousands of photographs were taken
during World War I, even though soldiers could be
court-martialled for taking photographs in battlefront
areas. A large number of photographs were taken for
military reasons or to create a visual record of the war.
Many of the best photographs were taken by official war
A clear step-by-step
approach to the skill
is presented.
Source 1
Question
Photographs can be useful primary sources. Analysing

a photograph is therefore a very important skill when
studying history. You might think that a photograph
is always an accurate record of what happened, rather
than somebodys impression of it. But that is not
necessarily true. Often when you take a photograph,
you compose a picture, choosing the angle from which
you want to shoot, what you will have in it, what
part of a scene you will leave out and whether it will
be taken close up or from a distance. Modern digital
photography had not been invented until long after
World War I, but even with the cameras that existed at
the time, skilful photographers could edit pictures in
ways that changed their meaning.
Each skill is clearly

defined.
Use these questions to analyse
Analysing photographs
AWM E00825
The importance of
the skill is clearly
explained.
Most spreads
include a crossreference to
the supporting
student workbook.
Student workbook
8.5
Ask these questions
WORLD WAR I
Download this interactive learning object
and test your knowledge of World War I. Answer all
15 questions and receive instant feedback. You can
even print your results to hand in to your teacher.
SEARCHLIGHT ID: TO229 (PC ONLY)
Chapter 8: World War I (19141918)
263
Using ICT spreads provide a guide to the

interactivities, eLessons, learning objects
and projectsPLUS projects that have
been specifically designed to support
the content of each chapter. These
engaging digital resources are provided
in eBookPLUS, which can be accessed at
www.jacplus.com.au.
vii
216 mm W x 279 mm H CMYK
About eBookPLUS
Next generation teaching and learning
This book features eBookPLUS:
an electronic version of the
entire textbook and supporting
multimedia resources. It is
available for you online at the
JacarandaPLUS website
( www.jacplus.com.au ).
Using the JacarandaPLUS

website
To access your eBookPLUS
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Using eBookPLUS references

eBookPLUS logos are used throughout
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viii
ebookPLUS_2013.indd
5
5_61_37634_HA9_Prelims.indd
8
4/03/13 1:36
8:14 PM
AM
7/05/13
Inside your History Alive eBookPLUS
More than just an online textbook

Your History Alive eBookPLUS is a digital version of the
textbook with access to:
a new Australian video series, which specifically introduces
the Overview content of the Australian Curriculum
highly visual, interactive timelines to help students
sequence key historical events
Collaborative, online projects

projectsPLUS is a unique online research management
system, featuring multimedia, project templates and video
introductions to assist students in the completion of ICT-based
projectsPLUS unique ICT-based projects that use an

innovative research management system
interactivities and games to enhance students learning
weblinks to the best support material on the internet
smart links to interactive maps and question banks in
myWorld History Atlas.
projects. The projects are specifically designed to inspire and

engage students while providing quality assessment support
for teachers.
ix
How does History Alive address

the requirements of the new
Australian Curriculum?
History Alive is clearly structured around the Historical Knowledge and Understanding (content)
of the Overviews and Depth Studies, and is firmly based on the specific historical skills outlined
in the Australian Curriculum.
Overview chapters
T hese chapters describe and explain the broad changes over time, and develop a framework within
which students can understand the important patterns of historical change. The Overview chapters
provide students with a clear overview and context for their study of the Depth Study chapters.
Depth Study chapters

Each Depth Study chapter covers the content descriptions and addresses the elaborations.
Each Depth Study chapter includes the following main features:
Chapter openers
Each chapter opener includes:
L inks with our times introduces the chapter and shows students how the chapter content
relates to their lives today
a detailed, illustrated timeline presents a clear chronology for the chapter
Big questions based on the key inquiry questions of the Australian Curriculum
Starter questions to help students think about the content of the chapter.
How do we know about...? spreads

T hese highly visual spreads explore the question of what evidence is available for the chapters
contents, taking a detective-work approach, touching on what we know and how we know this.
This introduces for each chapter the inquiry-based approach outlined in the curriculum.
Activities
T he activities are clearly structured around the historical skills outlined in the Australian Curriculum
to ensure that all the activities support the development of these skills, and that these are revisited
in a systematic way.
x
History Alive and the new Australian Curriculum
SkillBuilders
T hese double-page spreads outline a clear step-by-step approach to learning a key historical
skill. These support the inquiry-based model of the Australian Curriculum, because they
specifically address all the key historical concepts and skills. They further support the strong
skills focus of the activities.
Easy to use
Every effort has been made to ensure that the text is straightforward and easy for all
studentsto use.
Most content is presented in double-page spreads.
All sources are clearly identified and captioned.
Within the activities, the sources students are asked to work with are clearly identified.
All major artwork is clearly annotated and labelled for easy reference.
Links to Jacaranda World History Atlas

Where relevant, cross-references are made to supporting material in the Jacaranda
World History Atlas, written specifically for the new Australian History Curriculum.
The complete History Alive package

Each History Alive student text is supported by an
accompanying student workbook also available as an
eWorkbook. The student workbook worksheets directly support
and extend the student text and can be used for classwork,
homework or revision.
The eGuidePLUS provides extensive teacher support
for each year level:
comprehensive teaching and
assessment advice
answers to all activities in the
student text and workbook
Australian Curriculum grids
for each chapter
access to the student
eBookPLUS
weblinks to useful
support material.
History Alive and the new Australian Curriculum
xi
Acknowledgements
The authors and publisher would like to thank the
following copyright holders, organisations and
individuals for their assistance and for permission to
reproduce copyright material in this book.
Images
AAP Image: 90; 196/AAP image/AP Photo/Andy
Wong; 220/AAP/Mary Evans Alexander Turnbull
Library: 108/Alexander Turnbull Library Art Archive,
The: 2/The Art Archive/Muse dHistoire et des Guerres
de Vende Cholet/Gianni Dagli Orti; 8/Muse Carnavalet
Paris/Gianni Dagli Orti; 13; 30; 48 (top)/Eileen Tweedy; 52
(bottom)/Eileen Tweedy; 65/Science Museum London/Eileen
Tweedy; 93 (top right) Australian War Memorial: 245/
Negative no. ART02161; 26; 27; 133 (top)/Godfrey Charles
Mundy/ART50023; 151; 217; 235 (bottom)/Burgess, Arthur/
ART00191; 235 (top); 237/Negative no. G01291; 237/
Lambert, Georg/ART02873; 238/Negative No. A00847;
243/Leist, Fred/ART02927; 244/Negative no. E00732; 245
(left)/Negative no. E00825; 245 (right)/Negative no. E00825;
246/Hannan, Jim/ARTV07583; 247/Wall, C./ART08939; 249
(bottom)/Lindsay, Norman/ART00040; 249 (top)/Unknown
(Artist)/ARTV04953; 250 (top/Negative no. RC00317; 251
(centre); 256 (bottom); 256 (top); 258; 261/Power, H.
Septimus/ART03333 bpk: 54 (bottom)/bpk Bildagentur
Fur Kunst, Kutur und Geschichte Bridgeman Art Library,
The: 5 (top)/Bridgeman Art Library/Musee Carnavalet,
Paris, France/Giraudon; 38 (bottom); 88/Bridgeman Art
Library; 109 (top) Corbis Australia: 28/Corbis; 36 (top)/
Corbis/Bettmann; 55 (bottom)/Corbis/Guildhall Library
& Art Gallery; 57/Corbis/Fine Art Photographic Library;
99/Corbis/Historical Picture Archive; 100/Corbis/
Bettmann; 101 (bottom)/Corbis/Thomas Rowlandson/
Philip de Bay; 117 (top)/Burstein Collection/CORBIS;
206/Corbis/Hulton-Deutsch Collection; 219/Corbis/
Imaginechina; 230 (top right)/Australian Picture Library/
CORBIS/Leonard de Selva Creative Commons: iii, v, 89,
96 (bottom left)/Creative Commons; 3 (right)/Creative
Commons; 18/Creative Commons; 19/Wikimedia
Commons; 60/Creative Commons; 64 (bottom)/
Creative Commons; 106 (top)/Creative Commons; 117
(bottom)/Creative Commons <http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/File:AntiTransportation_League_Flag.svg>;
178/Creative Commons; 197, 201 (top right)/Creative
Commons; 197, 208/Creative Commons; 197, 209/
Creative Commons; 197, 221 (bottom left)/ Creative
xii
Acknowledgements
Commons; 198 (left)/Creative Commons; 198 (right)/

Creative Commons; 201/ Creative Commons; 202
(bottom left)/Creative Commons; 202 (top right)/
ralphrepo; 213/T.Chen/Creative Commons;
215/Creative Commons; 216/Creative Commons; 218
(top)/Creative Commons Department of the
Environment, Water: 134/Mark Mohell/Department of the
Environment, Water, Heritage, and the Arts Derby
Museums & Art Gallery: 39 (bottom)/[June 2010] Fairfax
Photo Library: 129 (top right)/Fairfax Photo Library/Peter Rae
Fotolibra: 68 (top)/2011 Paul Dwight-Moore/fotoLibra
Getty Images: 31/Getty Images/Science & Society Picture
Library; 33 (bottom)/Getty Images/Time & Life Pictures;
33 (top)/Getty Images/Steve Allen; 36 (bottom left)/
Getty Images/The Bridgeman Art Library; 38 (top)/
Getty Images/Mary Evans Picture Library; 41 (top)/
Getty Images/Hulton Archive; 42 (left)/Getty Images/
Dorling Kindersley; 44 (bottom right)/Getty Images/
Science & Society Picture Library; 45 (centre)/Getty
Images/Hulton Archive; 50 (centre)/Getty/Science Photo
Library; 53 (bottom)/Getty Images/SSPL; 53 (top)/ Getty
Images; 55 (top)/Getty Images/Fox Photos; 72 (bottom)/
Getty Images/Universal History Archive; 72 (top) /Getty
Images/Universal History Archive; 78/Getty Images/The
Bridgeman Art Library; 91 (bottom)/Getty Images/The
Bridgeman Art Library/Johann Moritz Rugendas; 94
(bottom)/Getty Images/Superstock; 95 (top)/Getty
Images/Fotosearch; 98/Getty Images/William
Hackwood; 107 (top left)/Getty Images/Sheldon Levis;
156/Getty Images/Robert Cianflone; 199 (bottom)/
Getty Images/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL; 199
(top)/Getty Images/Hulton Archive; 203/Getty Images/
Hulton Archive; 211/Getty Images/Hulton Archive; 212
(top)/Getty Images/The Bridgeman Art Library/After
Major George Henry Mason; 218 (bottom)/Getty
Images/Fotosearch/Stringer; 221 (bottom right)/Getty
Images/Hulton Archive Historic Houses Trust: 106
(bottom)/Patrick Bingham-Hall Imperial War Museum:
229 (bottom)/Reproduced with permission of Imperial War
Museum Q 022084; 230 (bottom left)/Imperial War
Museum - HU68062 Ipswich Library: 158/Picture
Ipswich, Ipswich City Council iStockphoto: iii, v, 39 (top)/
Geoff Kuchera; 35 (top)/Akabei; 49/peterspiro John
Oxley Library: 139 (bottom)/John Oxley Library, State Library
of Queensland, Negative no: 8944 Joy Allison: 69/Joy
Allison <www.laxtonnotts.org.uk> Mary Evans Picture
Library: 9/Mary Evans Picture Library; 48 (bottom left)/

Mary Evans; 51 (top)/Mary Evans Picture Library;
62/Mary Evans Picture Library; 75 (top)/Mary Evans
Picture Library; 79 (top right)/Mary Evans/Peter
Higginbotham Collection; 82 (bottom left)/Mary Evans
Picture Library/Tom Morgan; 82 (top right)/Mary Evans
Picture Library; 110 (top)/Illustrated London News Ltd/
Mary Evans Museum Victoria: 173/Reproduced courtesy
of Museum Victoria My Brighton and Hove: 40 (top)/
Tony Mould National Archives UK: 79 (top left)/bpk/
Lutz Braun; 102 National Film & Sound Archive: 191/A
1910 poster for feature film The Story of the Kelly Gang,
From the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
National Gallery of Australia: 113/S.T. Gill; 131 (top right)/
John Glover; 164/Lionel Lindsay/National Gallery of
Australia, Canberra, Bequest of Alan Queale, 1982; 165
(bottom)/Lionel Lindsay/National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra, Bequest of Alan Queale, 1982; 165 (top)/
Nicholas Caire, Purchased 1983 National Library of
Australia: 20/National Library of Australia; 21/National
Library of Australia; 105 (bottom)/National Library of
Australia; 107 (right); 111; 120/Craig Mackenzie; 122; 124;
129 (top left)/Rex Nan Kivell Collection NK759. Reproduced
by permission of the National Library of Australia; 133
(bottom)/National Library of Australia; 146/National
Library of Australia; 147 (top)/Reproduced by permission of
the National Library of Australia; 152/National Library of
Australia; 183 (left)/National Library of Australia; 185
(both)/National Library of Australia; 186 (top left, bottom
left)/ National Library of Australia; 192/National Library
of Australia; 193/National Library of Australia National
Maritime Museum UK: 101 (top)/National Maritime
Museum, Greenwich, UK Neville Green: 1423/Neville
Green Newspix: 179/Newspix Northern Territory
Archives: 212 (bottom)/Northern Territory Archives
Services Northern Territory Library: 135/Bradshaw
Collection Out of Copyright: 89 (bottom), 91 (top), 114, 150
(top), 180, 181/Livingston Hopkins, 182, 214, 223 Peter
Spilsbury: 52 (top)/Peter Spilsbury Photolibrary: 10/
Mary Evans Picture Library; 37 (bottom)/The Print Collector;
44 (bottom left)/Ken Welsh; 44 (top left)/J-Charles Gerard;
44 (top right)/Ken Welsh; 501 (bottom)/ Museum of
London; 50 (left)/The Print Collector; 64 (top)/Bridgeman Art
Library; 67/Mary Evans Picture Library; 73/The Print
Collector; 74/Science Photo Library; 75 (bottom)/Mary Evans
Picture Library; 80/Mary Evans Picture Library; 81/Guildhall
Library & Art Gallery; 83 (bottom)/Mary Evans Picture
Library; 845/Museum of London/Liodore Joseph Pisan; 93
(bottom left)/Bridgeman Art Library; 202 (bottom right)/The
Print Collector; 204/Bridgeman Art Library; 205 (bottom)
Powerhouse Museum: 401 (centre)/Collection:
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney <http://www.
powerhousemuseum.com/collection/blog/index.php/tag/
matthew-boulton> Robert Darlington: 3, 14 (bottom), 15,

23, 26, 29 (both), 224 (inset), 227 (bottom), 227 (top), 229
(top)/Map redrawn by MAPgraphics Pty Ltd, Brisbane, 242/
Map redrawn by MAPgraphics Pty Ltd, Brisbane, 248, 252,
253 (bottom), 253 (top), 254 (bottom), 254 (top), 255 (top),
257, 259, 260 Royal Historical Society of Victoria: 186
(right) Ryebuck Media Pty Ltd: 154 (left), 194
(centre)/Ryebuck Media Science & Society Picture
Library: 34 (top)/ Science Museum/SSPL Shutterstock.
Used under license from Shutterstock.: 423
(centre)/Shamzami; 43 (centre)/Nikonaft; 47/Lance
Bellers; 128 (right)/ Simone van Hattem; 154 (right)
/Joan Kerrigan; 205 (top)/JuLud; 210/Martin
Nemec; 224; 262 (bottom)/David Berry; 262 (top)/Steve
Estvanik Spatial Vision: 6, 7, 14 (top left), 167 (centre), 56,
589, 92, 104, 160, 167, 200 (bottom left), 228, 232, 233,
236 State Library of New South Wales: 103 (bottom, top),
123, 125, 126/Image courtesy of Mitchell Library, 139 (top),
141 (top), 149 (bottom)/ Newspaper Collection, State Library
of New South Wales, 188, 190 State Library of
Queensland BRISQ: 150 (bottom); 176/John Oxley Library;
177 (top)/John Oxley Library; 183 (right); 189 State Library
of South Australia: 175/SLSA:PRG 280/1/11/109 - Men
standing with a trade union banner, Broken Hill, NSW,
c.1911 State Library of Tasmania: 131 (top left)/Allport
Library and Museum of Fine Arts, State Library of Tasmania
State Library of Victoria: 128 (left)/State Library of
Victoria, Accession No: 30328102131553/7, Image No:
pb000329; 132; 1367 (centre)/Out of Copyright; 140 (top)/
The La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria;
148/Out of Copyright; 149 (top)/Out of Copyright; 159
(bottom)/Taken by Albert Sutcliffe, Out of copyright;
161/Out of copyright; 166/La Trobe Collection, State
Library of Victoria; 172/Out of copyright; 174/Out of
copyright; 177 (centre)/Out of copyright State Library of
W.A.: 159 (top)/State Library of Western Australia
255031PD Thomas Ross Limited: 34 (bottom
left)/Thomas Ross Limited Victoria Racing Club: 171
(top)/Victoria Racing Club Collection Wikipedia: 3, 5
(bottom)/Wikimedia Commons
Text
From Federation and the early Commonwealth by
P.F. Gilbert and J.E. Tate, The Jacaranda Press, 1974, p. 19
Every effort has been made to trace the ownership

of copyright material. Information that will enable
the publisher to rectify any error or omission in
subsequent reprints will be welcome. In such cases,
please contact the Permissions Section of John Wiley &
Sons Australia, Ltd.
CHAPTER
overview: The MAKING OF THE MODERN world
The modern world and

Australia (17501918)
A changing world
Between 1750 and 1918 the world
experienced enormous changes. These
affected the ways people provided for their
needs, how and where people lived, their
rights, how they were governed, and what
they believed. We can recognise four main
kinds of change that had a huge impact on
the world. These were:
the Industrial Revolution, which saw the
mass production of goods, changing
the countries involved from agricultural
societies to industrial societies
growth in the overseas empires of several
European powers
the movement of vast numbers of people
from continent to continent through
slavery, convict transportation and
immigration
the emergence of new ideas that
changed the ways many people thought
about their societies and their rights.
We can recognise the significance of some
of these changes by considering examples
of how things were at the beginning and
end of this period. In 1750 Australia was
populated entirely by Indigenous groups
whose ways of life had changed little
over at least 50000years. By 1918 the
overwhelming majority of Australians were
Many great changes that shaped the modern world came about
through revolutions and wars. This nineteenth-century French painting
depicts conflict in a French town in 1793 during the bloody civil war
that followed the French Revolution.
eBook plus
THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD
This video provides a historical overview

of the major events between 1750 and 1918 that
shaped the modern world.
SEARCHLIGHT ID: eles-1060

key events between 1750
and 1918 with the interactive
timeline application in your
eBookPLUS.
eBook plus
A timeline of
the modern world,
17501918
CE
SEARCHLIGHT ID: int-2961
1760
1763
Britain defeats France in
the Seven Years War.
1769

of powering industry.
1780
1783
The United States
is born when the
American colonies
win independence.
1788
The First Fleet

arrives in Australia
and establishes a
British colony.
1800
1789
The French Revolution
begins.
of European descent and Australia was fighting in a

world war on behalf of the British Empire.
Technological changes were just as dramatic. The
ships that brought convicts and settlers to Australia in
1788 were made of timber and powered by wind. The
steam engine would completely change manufacturing
and transport. During World War I, from 1914 to 1918,
several nations built massive steel battleships powered
by steam. From 1832 the camera would change the
ways people could record events. The first powered
aircraft flight of 1903 would open the way to future air
travel, and four years later radio would start a new age
of communication.
1820
1836
Samuel Morse
develops the
telegraph system for
sending messages.
1840
1848
Popular revolutions
break out across
Europe.
1860
1845
Potato blight in Ireland
causes widespread
famine, leading to
mass emigration.
1851
Australias gold
rushes begin.
1863
The Emancipation
Declaration makes
slavery illegal in the
United States.
1872
1880
The first telephone

is tested.
1898
France declares
Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia the French
Indochinese Union.
1877
Britains Queen
Victoria is
proclaimed
Empress of India.
1900

1 What changes took place in movements of people
across the world between 1750 and 1918?
2 How did technology contribute to change?
3 How did new ideas contribute to change?
4 How, where and why did colonisation by European
empires take place, and what was its impact?
1 The telegraph was the first system for sending

messages along wires. How do you think messages
had to be sent before the telegraph was invented?
2 How different would life have been without
telephones?
3 Why do you think Europeans thought they had the
right to colonise other peoples lands?
1920
191418
The First World War
brings massive
destruction to Europe.
4 Look at the image opposite and decide whether

you think that wars in the late eighteenth and the
nineteenthcenturies would have been more or less
destructive than modern wars, and why you think this.
Chapter 1: The modern world and Australia (17501918)
HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT?
1.1 The world from1750 to 1918

In this chapter we will look at
some of the great changes that
transformed the world between
1750 and 1918. We know more
about this age than about medieval
and early modern times because
more evidence has survived. For
this period of history we have an
enormous range of primary sources.
Mass media and

personal records
ship, date of transportation and

date of completion of sentence. In
contrast, for many free migrants
who came to Australia during the
nineteenthcentury there are very few
records, because governments were
much less interested in them.
For similar reasons, we have little
information about the working
conditions of people in Britain before
industrialisation. As influential
people became concerned about the
The period saw a growth in

education. Consequently, increasing
numbers of people were literate and
were able to record their thoughts in
letters and diaries. They were
also able to read newspapers,
magazines, pamphlets and books.
This age saw the rise of masscirculation newspapers that recorded
and commented on the news of
the time. Pamphlets came to be
widely used by people who wanted
to circulate ideas and bring about
changes in society. Books were
expensive by modern standards but
the latter part of this period saw the
rise of public lending libraries.
Official sources
Governments in many countries
increased their roles in society in
this period. To do so they needed
to gather and record information
about their people. Generally, if the
activities of a person or group were
of interest to a government, then
official records would be kept. For
example, if a person was sent to
Australia as a convict, there would
usually be official records providing
information about the crime the
person was charged with committing,
the trial and the sentence. There
would also be records of the convicts
4
appalling conditions in mines and

factories, official inquiries were set up
to gather evidence and their findings
were recorded.
Visual sources
We also have many physical traces
of this age such as roads, railways,
bridges and machinery. Artists created
visual sources through paintings,
sketches and cartoons. The invention
Source 1

In Britain in 1816, a parliamentary committee was appointed to investigate
the working conditions of children in the cotton textile industry. In the following extract
from its report John Moss answers the committees questions.
[Q] Were you ever employed as the master of the apprentices at a cotton mill?
[A] I was engaged to attend the apprentice-house at Backbarrow. I was over
the children.
...
[Q]
[A]
[Q]
[A]
...
What were the hours of work?

From five oclock in the morning till eight at night.
Were fifteen hours in the day the regular hours of work?
Those were the regular hours of work.
[Q] What time was allowed for meals?

[A] Half an hour for breakfast and half an hour for dinner.
...
[Q] When the works were stopped for repair of the mill, or for any want of
cotton, did the children afterwards make up for the loss of that time?
[A] Yes.
[Q] When making up lost time, how long did they continue working at night?
[A] Till nine oclock, and sometimes later; sometimes ten.
...
[Q] Did the masters ever express any concern for such excessive labour?
[A] No.
...
[Q] Did the children sit or stand at work?
[A] Stand.
[Q] The whole of their time?
[A] Yes.
[Q] Were there any seats in the mill?
[A] None.
[Q] Were they usually much fatigued at night?
[A] Yes, some of them were very much fatigued.
...
[Q] Were any children injured by the machinery?
[A] Very frequently.
Source 2

Battle in the rue de Rohan, 28 July 1830 was painted in oil on canvas by French
artist Hippolyte Lecomte in 1831. It depicts mostly working class revolutionaries fighting
in the streets of Paris during the revolution of 1830 in France. The revolutionaries are seen
exchanging fire with government soldiers in the building at the rear.
of photography in the 1830s ushered

in a new era for visual sources, but
early photographic methods required
long exposure times, so action shots
were not possible until the late
nineteenthcentury.
Gaps in evidence
Despite the abundance of sources
from this period, there are still
significant gaps in our evidence
because some groups did not keep
written records, because sources have
been lost or destroyed, and because
many people could not read or write.
Analysis and
use of sources
Source 3

The great Chartist meeting on Kennington Common on 10 April 1848, recorded in
a black and white photograph with applied colour by William Kilburn. The Chartist movement
was an attempt by British workers to improve working conditions through political action. The
Chartists gathered signatures on petitions demanding the vote and other rights for workers.
Most of their demands were not achieved until the beginning of the twentiethcentury.
1 Read Source 1 .
a What important information
does this source provide on
conditions in which children
worked in Britain during the
early nineteenthcentury?
b What might this source tell us
about attitudes to children at
this time?
c Do you think all children
would have been treated like
this or only working-class
children?
d What conclusions can we
draw about that time from
the fact that a parliamentary
committee was set up to
investigate conditions?
2 Describe what is happening in
Source 2 .
3 With which side do you think the
artist might have sympathised?
What clues did you use to form
this opinion?
4 Describe the scene in Source 3 .
5 With which side do you think
the photographer might have
sympathised? What clues support
this opinion?
6 Do you think a photograph is
necessarily more impartial than a
painting?
7 Write an extended paragraph
explaining how useful these three
sources would be for a study
of attempts to improve life for
working people during the first
half of the nineteenthcentury.
1.2 European empires in the

late eighteenth century
Imperialism means extending

control over foreign territories, usually
through the creation of empires. In
the late eighteenthcentury there
were empires within Europe and
several European countries had
empires outside Europe.
Social classes
In the late 1700s almost all European
countries were ruled by kings, most
of whom still held wide powers. Most
people lived in the countryside and
worked in agriculture. There was an
enormous gap between the aristocrats
and the overwhelming majority of the
underprivileged. In western Europe
most people were free peasants but
they were poor, unlike wealthy
Source 1

landowners who lived in mansions on

vast country estates. The gap was even
greater in eastern Europe, where the
poor had fewer rights.
much of eastern Europe and Central

Asia belonged to the Russian Empire.
Europes overseas colonies

From the early sixteenthcentury
Spain controlled most of South
America while Portugal controlled
Brazil. Spain also colonised parts of
Central and North America. Most
Empires in Europe
In the eighteenthcentury many of
todays modern states did not yet
exist. What is now Italy was then
several states, and there were more
than 300 independent states in what
later became Germany. The Hapsburg
dominions (the Austro-Hungarian
Empire) covered much of central
Europe. The Hapsburg monarchs
were also the traditional rulers of
the Holy Roman Empire, but they
wielded no real power through this
outdated organisation. All of the
Balkan Peninsula was ruled by the
Turkish Ottoman Empire, while
In the late eighteenthcentury

in the Russian Empire the tsar
had absolute power. He was
supported by a privileged class of
nobles. Most Russian serfs could
be bought and sold. Serfdom also
persisted in other parts of eastern
Europe.
A map of Europe in 1789

KINGDOM
OF SWEDEN
KINGDOM
OF DENMARK
AND NORWAY
NORTH
SEA
GREAT
BRITAIN
250
500
UNITED
NETHERLANDS
DOM
K IN G
HANOVER
BAVARIA
KINGDOM
OF FRANCE
Boundary of the
Holy Roman Empire
Hapsburg
(Austro-Hungarian Empire)
SI
A
GALICIA
5
6
4 7
MOLDAVIA
WALLACHIA
BOSNIA
8
KINGDOM
OF SARDINIA
MEDITERRANEAN
KINGDOM OF
HUNGARY
10
Ottoman
(Turkish Empire)
KINGDOM
OF SPAIN
RUSSIAN
EMPIRE
AUSTRIA
German states
LE
MORAVIA
Key
KINGDOM OF
PORTUGAL
SI
BOHEMIA
kilometres
S IA
AUSTRIAN NETHERLANDS
SWITZERLAND
TYROL
SAVOY
PIEDMONT
REPUBLIC OF GENOA
MODENA
GRAND DUCHY OF TUSCANY
PAPAL STATES
REPUBLIC OF VENICE
KINGDOM
OF POLAND
SAXONY
750
RUS
OF P
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
10
KINGDOM
OF THE
TWO SICILIES
SEA
BLACK
SERBIA
GREECE
BULGARIA
SEA
Source 2

This map of eastern North America at the outbreak of
the American Revolutionary War in 1775 shows the British province
of Quebec (taken from France in the Seven Years War), the 13 British
colonies on the Atlantic coast and the Indian Reserve. The Indian Reserve
was created by Britain in 1763 to assign lands for native North American
tribes that had been Britains allies during the conflict with France.
Territory to the west of the Indian Reserve was still claimed by Spain.
Hudson Bay Company
49
NOVA
SCOTIA
NEW
YORK
PROVINCE
OF QUEBEC
PENNSYLVANIA
SPAIN
VIRGINIA
INDIAN
RESERVE
NEW
HAMPSHIRE
MASSACHUSETTS
RHODE ISLAND
CONNETICUTT
NEW JERSEY
DELAWARE
MARYLAND
NORTH CAROLINA
SOUTH
CAROLINA
WEST
FLORIDA
GEORGIA
Key
Proclamation line of 1763
13 British colonies
EAST
FLORIDA
0
250
500
750
British province of Quebec

and Indian Reserve
Territory claimed by Spain
kilometres
of Asia and Africa was still controlled by traditional local

rulers in the late eighteenthcentury. The Portuguese
had established a few small African and Asian colonies,
but most were taken from them by the Dutch. In the
seventeenthcentury the British and French were the main
European imperial rivals in North America and India.
After the Seven Years War (175663) Britain gained
Frances colonies in North America. The British also
extended their influence in India.
Revolution in America
Just 12 years later Britains original 13 North American
colonies rebelled. Fighting began in April 1775. On 4 July
that year the rebels issued a Declaration of Independence.
Many American colonists had resented British laws
preventing them from expanding further westward and
from trading with other countries. They were also angry
about having to pay taxes to the British on newspapers
and legal documents. They refused to pay these taxes on
the grounds that as colonists they were not represented in
the British Parliament. Clashes soon led to open warfare.
Student workbook
1.1
Chronology, terms and concepts

1 What does imperialism mean?
2 Make a timeline of events that changed the map of
North America between 1756 and 1783.
Explanation and communication

3 In which part of Europe was the gap between rich and
poor greatest?
4 Name five European powers that had overseas colonies
in the eighteenthcentury.

5 Study Source 1 . Compare it with a map of modern
Europe and use it to identify:
a three European countries whose borders were much
the same in 1789 as they are today
b two modern countries that were formed from several
states that existed in 1789
c three European empires that have since been
replaced by different states.
6 Study Source 2 .
a Apart from Quebec, what North American territory
did Britain add to its empire through the Seven Years
War?
b Do you think the 13 British colonies along the Atlantic
coast could have thrown off British rule without
foreign help?
Perspectives and interpretations

7 After winning independence from Britain in 1783, the
United States took away the rights of native North
Americans to the lands in the Indian Reserve. How
would native North Americans have regarded this act by
a new nation that called itself the home of liberty?
Jacaranda World History Atlas

European imperial expansion into Asia pp. 1289
French and Dutch imperialism in Asia-Pacific pp. 1301
Egalitarianism: The American Revolution pp. 1367
and the Netherlands. To make things even more difficult

for the British, a League of Armed Neutrality was formed
by Prussia (the most powerful of the German states),
Russia, Sweden and Denmark to prevent the British from
stopping ships that supplied the rebels. Britain now faced
threats to its empire in other parts of the world too. In 1781
British forces surrendered to French and American forces at
Yorktown, Virginia. In 1783 the Treaty of Paris ended the
war and marked the birth of the United States of America.
Britain still held Canada and just five years later founded
the colony of New South Wales in Australia.
Britain loses North American colonies

The British had support from loyalists among the colonists
and from several native North American tribes, including
the Iroquois, their old allies against the French. However,
France entered the war on the rebel side to avenge its earlier
losses of colonies to Britain, and it was soon joined by Spain
nobles aristocrats, a hereditary privileged class just below a

monarch
serfs peasants who were bound to the land they worked. In
Russia they could be bought and sold by the landowner.
tsar the absolute ruler of the Russian Empire
1.3 The French Revolution

a turning point in history
A revolution brings about a

complete change in the power
relations between different groups
within a society. The French
Revolution was the most important
political and social event of the
eighteenthcentury because it
took away the powers of the old
French ruling classes and inspired
oppressed peoples outside France.
It created equality under the law.
Many of the old ruling class lost
more than their privileges. They
lost their heads to the blade of the
guillotine.
challenged such notions as the

inequality of the three Estates and the
claim of kings to rule by divine right.
The revolution began when the
privileged classes tried to resist
reforms. Louis XVI was an absolute
Source 1

Painting of a sans-culottes, by Louis-Leopold Boilly (17611845). The flag carried
by this sans-culottes is the tricolour that was adopted as the new French flag. For such people
the Revolution of 1789 did not go nearly far enough.
The ancien regime

Under the ancien regime (old order)
everyone in France belonged to one
of three Estates.
The First Estate was the clergy
of the Roman Catholic Church,
which owned much land but did
not have to pay taxes.
The Second Estate was the
landowning aristocracy (nobles),
who also paid no taxes.
Increasingly, they were seen as
a greedy class who contributed
nothing and lived off the sweat of
the peasants.
The remaining 95per cent of
people belonged to the Third
Estate. It included the urban
middle classes, workers and the
peasants, who formed the biggest
class but had no privileges and
paid many kinds of taxes.
The revolution begins

In the eighteenthcentury,
educated French people began
to be influenced by the ideas of
Enlightenment thinkers who
8
monarch. However, by 1789, after

decades of extravagance and costly
wars, France was bankrupt. The
only solution was to tax the wealthy
classes. But the First and Second
Estates rebelled, and the king was
Source 2

An engraving by an unknown artist of the time showing women marching on Versailles
forced to call a meeting of the Estates

General, which had not convened
for about 200years. The nobles and
clergy thought they would be able
to keep their privileges because,
by tradition, the First and Second
Estates could outvote the Third. But
Louis XVI agreed that the Third
Estate should have twice as many
representatives as each of the other
two Estates.
When the Estates General met,
the Third Estate declared that it
represented the nation. It called itself
the National Assembly. It was joined
by some lower clergy. When Louis
ordered the National Assembly to
disperse, it refused. Instead it wrote a
constitution.
The National Assembly succeeded
because two other revolutions were
taking place in 1789. The sansculottes were suffering from bread
shortages and high prices. On 14 July
1789 they stormed an old Paris prison
called the Bastille, which was seen as

a symbol of the ancien regime. In the
countryside, hungry peasants rioted
and burned the castles of nobles.
These events frightened the privileged
classes who wanted to preserve the
old ways.
Achievements of the
National Assembly
On 4 August 1789 the National
Assembly abolished feudal dues
and other noble privileges. In
future, all citizens would answer to
the same laws.
In October it issued the
Declaration of the Rights of Man
and the Citizen. These rights
included freedom of the press,
freedom of speech, and the right to
decide what taxes should be paid
and how they should be spent.
It also confiscated Church lands,
provided for the election of clergy,
abolished the purchase of official

jobs and abolished restrictions on
trade.
On 3 September 1791 it issued the
constitution under which France
would be governed. This reduced
the kings powers and provided for
a Legislative Assembly to be elected
by all adult men who had enough
income to pay a set amount of tax.
The power of the common people
was demonstrated on 5October
1789, when a vast crowd of women
marched on the royal palace at
Versailles and forced the royal family,
whom they did not trust, to return
with them to Paris, where they could
be watched.
The second French

Revolution
The middle classes and most peasants
benefited from the revolution, but the
sans-culottes gained little. Women
Source 3

Artwork showing the execution of Louis XVI, 21 January 1793
and poorer men still did not have the vote, and a higher
income was required for a man to stand for election to
the Assembly. Further, the Assembly passed laws denying
workers the right to strike and to form unions to defend
their interests.
The cause of the sans-culottes was taken up by the
radical Jacobins. They wanted to take the revolution
further and they soon became the dominant group in
the Legislative Assembly. In August 1792 sans-culottes
attacked the kings palace. In response, the Legislative
Assembly deposed the king, imprisoned the royal family
and agreed to hold fresh elections in which almost all
Frenchmen could vote for a National Convention.
The National Convention first met on 21 September
1792, just weeks after crowds had entered Paris prisons,
killing suspected supporters of the monarchy and
anti-revolutionary priests. The Convention abolished the
monarchy and put the king on trial for treason.
The Reign of Terror

France was now a republic and in January 1793 Louis
XVI was executed by guillotine. A Revolutionary Tribunal
was formed to try enemies of the revolution. Fears of
foreign invasion had been growing since August 1791,
when Austria and Prussia called on other powers to
unite and restore the old order in France. In April the
Committee of Public Safety was formed to deal with
10
threats of royalist uprisings in many parts of France and

from a coalition of foreign monarchies, including Austria,
Prussia, Spain, Russia and Britain, which was trying to
crush the French republic.
Fear of invasion and counter-revolution fuelled the
Reign of Terror, in which enemies of the revolution were
killed. Many nobles and royalists were executed, as were
the leaders of the Girondins, whose radicalism was less
extreme than the Jacobins. Throughout the country,
thousands who rebelled against the government met a
similar fate. The Committee of Public Safety, dominated
by the Jacobin Maximilian Robespierre, introduced the
Leve en masse.
During 1793 the revolutionary armies drove back
foreign threats and crushed the royalist rebellions,
The Jacobin Republic was a period of terror and

bloodshed but also a time of social reforms. It gave
relief to the poor, attempted to control food prices, wrote
a democratic constitution, planned a system of public
education and abolished slavery in the French colonies.
These efforts to create a fairer society were more farreaching than those attempted by the Assemblies before
and after.
Student workbook
1.2

Egalitarianism: The French Revolution pp. 1345
but in 1794 the revolutionaries turned on each other.

Robespierre and his followers executed several Jacobins
they considered too revolutionary. They then executed
Georges Jacques Danton and his followers, who were
considered corrupt.
The end of the Jacobin Republic

Jacobin rule came to an end in July 1794 when other
members of the Convention overthrew and executed
Robespierre and his followers. After their own short reign
of terror against the radicals, these men swept away the
powers of the Revolutionary Tribunal and the Committee
of Public Safety, wiped out the gains of the sans-culottes
and returned power to the middle classes.
Source 4

The Proclamation of the Duke of Brunswick,
commander of the foreign armies that aimed to invade France
and overthrow the French Revolution, 25 July 1792
Their Majesties the [Austrian] emperor and the king

of Prussia having intrusted to me the command of the
united armies which they have collected on the frontiers
of France, I desire to announce to the inhabitants of that
kingdom [that]...the city of Paris and all its inhabitants
without distinction shall be required to submit at once
and without delay to the king [Louis XVI]...and to assure
to him, as well as to the other royal personages, the
inviolability and respect which the law of nature and
of nations demands of subjects toward sovereigns
Their said Majesties declare...that...if the least violence
be offered to their Majesties the king, queen, and
royal family, and if their safety and their liberty be not
immediately assured, they will inflict an ever memorable
vengeance by delivering over the city of Paris to military
execution and complete destruction, and the rebels guilty
of the said outrages to the punishment that they merit...
Source 5

Saint-Just, a Jacobin leader of the Reign of Terror,
wrote these notes about the need for equality just months
before he and Robespierre were executed in July 1794.
I challenge you to establish liberty so long as it remains

possible to arouse the unfortunate classes against
the new order of things, and I defy you to do away
with poverty altogether unless each one has his own
land...Where you find large landowners you find many
poor people...Man must live in independence, each
with his own wife and his robust and healthy children.
We must have neither rich nor poor...We must have a
system which puts all these principles in practice and
assures comfort to the entire people.
1 Which different social groups rebelled against the old

order in France in 1789?
2 What were the main reasons for discontent?
3 Describe three reasons for the success of the 1789
Revolution.
4 Which groups benefited from the 1789 Revolution?
5 Which groups lost their power and privileges?
6 Why was there a second, more radical revolution in
France?
7 How did that second revolution come to an end?
8 Why did people such as the man in Source 1 support

a second revolution?
9 How has the artist portrayed this sans-culottes?
10 Describe the dress and weapons of the women in
Source 2 . To what social class would they have
belonged?
11 Study Source 3 . What events led to the king being
executed as a traitor?
12 Read Source 4 .
a According to the Duke, what did the Austrian
emperor and the king of Prussia aim to achieve by
intervening in France?
b What threat did they make to the French
revolutionaries and to the people of Paris?
c Why would absolute monarchs such as the Austrian
emperor and the Prussian king have been so
determined to crush the French Revolution?
d How does this source help to explain why the
Jacobins conducted a Reign of Terror?
13 Read Source 5 .
a What did Saint-Just say about land, poverty and the
need for equality?
b Why would the sans-culottes have supported such
ideas?
c Which social classes in France would have opposed
such ideas?
14 Why would the governments of other countries have

wanted to overthrow the French Revolution?
absolute monarch a ruler who governs alone, unrestrained

by laws or constitution
constitution rules for government
depose remove from power
divine right chosen by God to rule
Estates General representatives elected by the three French
Estates
feudal dues obligations and payments imposed on peasants
since the Middle Ages
guillotine device designed to execute people by decapitation
(cutting off their heads)
Leve en masse mass conscription, forcing people to fight to
defend the state
radicals those who advocate far-reaching political and social
changes
republic a form of government that relies on popular
representation rather than a monarchy
sans-culottes in Revolutionary France, working-class people of
the cities
11
1.4 The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was arguably the most
important period of change in modern history. It
marked the beginning of the technological revolution
that continues to affect our lives. Before the Industrial
Revolution, people produced things they needed in
ways that had not changed in centuries. The Industrial
Revolution saw new ideas being applied to producing
goods. It began in Britain in the mid eighteenthcentury.
By the mid nineteenthcentury it had effected enormous
changes in the ways people worked and lived, and
these changes had begun to spread around the world.
The agrarian revolution

Traditional farming practices engaged most of the rural
population in food production. There was little or no
surplus workforce for manufacturing. During the agrarian
revolution in eighteenth-century Britain, the application
of new scientific methods transformed farming. Changes
included:
selective breeding of livestock to produce more meat
and wool
a new, more productive system of rotating crops to
improve soil
changes in land ownership as common land that
had been shared by villagers was enclosed by wealthy
landowners, creating larger farms on which the new
methods could be applied.
Such changes forced many small farmers and labourers
off the land. They had little choice other than to drift
to towns in search of work. Meanwhile, these changes
produced increased wealth for large landowners that could
be invested in agriculture and manufacturing.
Trade, transport and manufacturing

Trade grew because of wealth from Britains colonies and
because of improved transport with the building of canals,
roads and, after 1830, railways. These developments
encouraged the growth of banking to finance new
industries and create more wealth.
Britains Industrial Revolution began in the textile
industry. In the mid eighteenthcentury, spinning and
weaving were done by farming families and agricultural
labourers at home in the evenings after toiling in the fields
all day. By the end of the century textile work was done
almost entirely in factories using machines.
Several inventions revolutionised the textile industry.
From 1764 the spinning jenny spun eight threads at a
time instead of one. In 1769 Richard Arkwrights new
12
water-powered spinning machine produced thread

even faster. As a result, spinning began to move out of
farm cottages to factories located near streams. After
the invention of James Watts steam engine in 1769,
steam power became an even more practical option. The
steam engine was applied to the cotton textile industry
in the 1780s. Such developments created a demand for
machinery. That, in turn, increased demand for iron and
coal and led to the growth of factories in regions that
produced these resources.
So changes in one industry affected many industries. All
of this meant increased demand for factory workers, raw
materials and markets. Britain was able to take advantage
of these developments and become the workshop of the
world because it had resources, wealth from colonial
trade, and ships to import raw materials and to export
manufactured goods.
Working conditions
Over the nineteenthcentury the proportion of Britains
population that worked in factories and mines increased
enormously. Between 1841 and 1901 the population of
England and Wales rose from 16 million to 35 million.
Almost all of this increase was absorbed by the growing
cities and towns. Industrial workers paid a high price
for the wealth that was produced. Long hours for low
pay under appalling conditions were normal in most
industries. A 60-hour working week was customary for
most workers in the 1860s.
Source 1

From Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working
Class in England, 1848. Engels was describing conditions in
the growing industrial city of Manchester in northern England.
Often the workers housing was owned by factory owners. The
workers had to pay rent out of their small wages.
The...cottages are in bad order, never repaired, filthy,

with damp, unclean cellar dwellings; the lanes are neither
paved nor supplied with sewers, but harbour numerous
colonies of swine...The mud in the streets is so deep that
there is never a chance, except in the driest weather, of
walking without sinking into it ankle deep at every step.
Trade unions
Workers tried to improve their conditions by forming
trade unions. Some skilled workers organisations had
existed before the Industrial Revolution. However, in 1799
such organisations were banned under the Combination
Acts, which made it illegal for workers to join together to
fight for better pay and conditions. When these Acts were
repealed in 1824, workers used strikes and pickets to try
Source 2

This engraving by French artist
Gustave Dor was published in 1872 in a
book called Over London by Rail from
London: A Pilgrimage. It shows the cramped
and unhealthy conditions in which many of
Londons working class lived.

Industrial Revolution
pp. 1501
Source 3

From the evidence of Nichol Hudderson to the
Childrens Employment Commission, 1842
...is lame now and will always be lame. His leg was set
wrong at first. One leg is shorter than the other. The pit
makes him sick. Has been very bad in his health since he
went down the pit...The heat makes him sick...Feels
worst when he first goes down in the morning; at
3oclock in the morning; and when he comes up at
60clock [in the evening] he feels sick...very seldom
when he gets home can he eat very much...Has known
three boys killed...The rope broke when the corf [basket]
was going down, and they fell to the bottom.
to win some justice. In 1825 the British government again

virtually outlawed these tactics.
Despite this resistance trade unionism grew rapidly
in the 1820s, especially in the textile industry. For a
time during the 1830s British trade unionism reflected a
concern not only with the immediate issues of pay and
conditions but with fundamentally changing society. Some
unionists worked to form cooperative societies, running
their own businesses so eventually there might be no need
for the capitalists who owned the factories.
13
Source 4

A map showing major sites of industry in Britain during
Australian trade unions succeeded in winning an eighthour working day for some skilled tradesmen in the
1850s. But many other workers, including women and
children, worked 10 or more hours a day for much lower
wages.
Key
Leeds
City
Lace Major industry

Coalfields
0
Areas of greatest population
100
200
300
kilometres
The Industrial Revolution and Australia

NORTH
SEA
Falkirk
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Textiles
Shipbuilding
Lanark
Textiles
Iron rails and telegraph wires
Newcastle
Shipbuilding
Iron
IRISH
The new forms of transport and communications

associated with the Industrial Revolution had a huge
impact in Australia because of its great distances. Railways
grew from the 1850s. New South Wales, Queensland and
Victoria each used a different track gauge. In 1883
New South Wales and Victoria were linked by rail as
Iron
Cotton
Bradford
Leeds
Woollens
Manchester
Textiles
Hardware
SEA
Liverpool
Pottery
Birmingham
Hardware
Iron
Cardiff
Bristol
London
Many industries
Lace
English
Trade unions in Australia

Although Australia was not a
highly industrialised country, it
inherited its trade union traditions
from Britain. The first Australian
unions emerged in the 1840s,
but unionism became stronger
between the 1860s and the 1880s.
There were huge strikes during
the 1890s, when employers tried
to destroy many of the gains won
by Australian workers. Although
these strikes were defeated, at the
beginning of the twentiethcentury
Australia had one of the highest
levels of trade union membership
in the world.
14
During the British Industrial Revolution, Australia

became a significant supplier of primary products to
Britain, especially wool and wheat. Mining also prospered,
famously with the gold rushes that began in the 1850s,
and later with other minerals. Manufacturing, in contrast,
accounted for only a small part of the Australian economy.
Chan
nel
Source 5

The Old Telegraph Station at Alice Springs was midway
along the Overland Telegraph Line between Darwin and Adelaide.
It had to be staffed 24hours a day to boost the Morse code signals
so they were carried along the great distance of the line.
Source 6

Telegraph operators sent coded messages to the next
station along the Overland Telegraph using these Morse code keys.
their lines met on the Murray River. However, because

of different gauges, neither colonys trains could run on
the others tracks. People and goods moving between the
colonies had to change trains at the border.
Linking the colonies and the world

News from the outside world reached Australia by ship, so
Australians often learned of overseas events months after
they occurred. Reducing this isolation became possible
following the invention of the electric telegraph by Samuel
Morse and Alfred Vail in 1836. The first telegraph system
began operating in England in 1837. The telegraph
carried messages along wires by electric pulses. Morse code
enabled telegraph operators to send messages in
combinations of short marks called dots and longer
marks called dashes that represented different letters.
Trained operators could then translate these messages.
The eastern Australian colonies were linked by telegraph
wires in 1859. In the following decade undersea telegraph
cables linked much of the world, though not yet Australia.
In 1870 the South Australian government reached
an agreement with the BritishAustralian Telegraph
Company. The company would extend its undersea
cable from Java to Darwin, and the South Australian
government would build the Overland Telegraph from
Darwin to Adelaide. The 3200-kilometre line was
completed in 1872, finally linking Australia by cable
to London. An exchange of messages now took only
hours rather than weeks.
picket a line of workers formed to stop
strike-breakers entering a workplace
track gauge the distance between the two
parallel tracks of a railway line
Student workbook
1.3
1 List three changes that contributed to the agrarian

revolution.
2 What was the Industrial Revolution?
3 What advantages enabled Britain to become the
workshop of the world?
4 As Britains population increased, where did the extra
people go to work and live?
5 What difficulties did early British trade unions face?
6 How did technology transform transport and
communications in Australia?
8 Read Source 3 .
a What has happened to the health of the boy
discussed in this source?
b What are his working hours?
c What other evidence does this source provide of the
dangers of working in the pit (mine)?
9 Using Source 4 , locate the main sites of economic
activity and population growth during the Industrial
Revolution.
10 Using Sources 5 and 6 , explain why the telegraph system
would have required much more labour than modern
communications systems.
7 Read Source 1 and look at the details in Source 2 .

a How does Engels describe the conditions of the
houses and lanes in which factory workers lived in
Manchester?
b Describe the details of the scene in Source 2 .
c What would it be like to have to live in such conditions
while working at least a 60-hour week in a dirty,
dangerous factory or mine?
11 Why do you think the boy in Source 3 had put up with

such terrible conditions?
12 While workers were enduring such conditions, who do
you think was enjoying the benefits of the Industrial
Revolution?
13 If Britain was the workshop of the world in the
nineteenthcentury, to which country could that title be
given today? Give the reasons for your answer.
15
1.5 Nationalism and imperialism

By the beginning of the twentiethcentury almost all
of Africa and much of Asia would be controlled by
European empires. Nationalism became an important
force during this period. In some cases nationalism
encouraged imperialism through the belief that
some races had the right to rule over others. In
others, nationalism inspired people to fight for their
independence from empires.
Source 1

A map of European and US colonies by 1914
RUSSIAN EMPIRE
GREAT
BRITAIN
GERMANY
FRANCE
Roots of nationalism
PORTUGAL SPAIN
ITALY
TURKESTAN
JIAOZHOU
The French Revolution instilled an
GIBRALTAR
MALTA
CYPRUS
PERSIA
unprecedented sense of pride in the
MOROCCO
TRIPOLI
French nation. People fought not as
EGYPT
MACAU
INDIA
subjects of a king but as loyal citizens of
ADEN
FRENCH WEST AFRICA
the nation itself. However, nationalist
ANGLOSIAM
GOA
EGYPTIAN
ideas also spread from France in
INDOCHINA
SUDAN
NIGERIA
unintended ways. In lands conquered by
ABYSSINIA
CEYLON
SIERRA
BORNEO
LEONE
SOMALILAND
MALAYA
French armies during the Revolutionary
GOLD
UGANDA
COAST
KENYA
BELGIAN
Wars, other groups discovered a sense of
CAMEROONS
CONGO
GERMAN
national identity as they resisted French
EAST AFRICA
DUTCH
ANGOLA
rule. This was even more marked during
EAST INDIES
MOZAMBIQUE
the wars waged by the French Emperor
RHODESIA
GERMAN
Napoleon Bonaparte, who seized
MADAGASCAR
SOUTH-WEST
by 1870, although
absolute power in 1804 and ruled
AFRICA
SOUTH
AFRICA
not entirely in the
France until his defeat in 1815.
ways dreamed of by
1914 Britain, France, Belgium,
idealistic nationalists.
Nationalist struggles
Germany and Italy had laid
Several South American
When Napoleon was defeated, the old
claim to nearly all the continent.
colonies achieved independence
rulers of Europe tried to turn back
from Spain in the first quarter of
the clock. Wherever possible, the
the nineteenthcentury. Later, in
Imperialism spreads
former ruling families were restored
the twentiethcentury, nationalist
All Pacific Islands peoples came
to their thrones and people who
ideas would inspire struggles for
under colonial rule during the
wanted reforms were suppressed.
independence in Asia and Africa.
nineteenthcentury, and European
But nationalism continued to cause
powers seized more territories in
unrest. Nationalists in the Ottoman
The imperialist scramble
Asia. The British had been extending
and Austro-Hungarian empires
A final round of empire building took their power in India since the start
wanted the right to form their own
of the seventeenthcentury and, in
place in the late nineteenthcentury.
nations. Greece won autonomy
1877, Britains Queen Victoria was
After unification, Italy and Germany
from the Ottoman Empire in 1829.
proclaimed Empress of India.
sought their own colonial empires.
Belgium became independent from
In South-East Asia only Thailand
For European powers, colonies were a
the Netherlands two years later.
avoided colonisation. The Dutch
source of national prestige but, more
Nationalist sentiment grew in
extended their control through
importantly, they provided valuable
many small countries during the
nineteenthcentury, including Britains markets and sources of raw materials. Indonesia. Britain took Malaya and
Burma, and the French took Vietnam,
oldest colony, Ireland. Among Italians In the mid nineteenthcentury
Cambodia and Laos. How colonised
Europeans knew little about Africa
and Germans in their many states
peoples responded depended on
there were those who wanted to create apart from the Arab north, the
local circumstances. Cambodias
Portuguese
and
Dutch
settlements
one Italy and one Germany. Both
king welcomed French protection
and some coastal regions. But by
countries achieved national unity
16
1000
2000

European imperial expansion
into Asia pp. 1289
French and Dutch imperialism
in AsiaPacific pp. 1301
Imperialism and Africa pp. 1323
Nationalism: Napoleon
Bonaparte pp. 1423
Nationalism: The Congress
of Vienna pp. 1445
3000
kilometres
CANADA
NEWFOUNDLAND
UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA
WEIHAIWEI
AZORES
PUERTO RICO
JAMAICA
HONG KONG
PHILIPPINES
MARIANA
ISLANDS
CAROLINE
ISLANDS
BISMARK
ARCHIPELAGO
BRITISH HONDURAS
NETHERLANDS
ANTILLES
SURINAM
GUIANA
MARSHALL
ISLANDS
SOLOMON
ISLANDS
NEW
HEBRIDES
AUSTRALIA
NETHERLANDS
ANTILLES
WEST INDIES
WALLIS AND FUTUNA

ISLANDS
NEW
CALEDONIA
CAYENNE
MARQUESAS
SAMOA
FIJI ISLANDS
CAPE VERDE
ISLANDS
TAHITI
TONGA
NEW
ZEALAND
because he feared losing territory to

his more powerful neighbours. But
in Vietnam there was fierce resistance
to the French. China avoided being
colonised but it was forced to give
small territories, ports and trading
rights to European powers, Japan and
the United States.
By the late nineteenthcentury two

kinds of nationalism had developed
in Australia. Imperial loyalists felt
loyalty to the British Empire and
were proud that Australia was part
of it. Radical nationalists wanted
Australia to be independent from
Britain.
Key
British
Portuguese
French
US
German
Dutch
Spanish
Italian
Russian
Belgian
FALKLAND
ISLANDS
Student workbook
1.4
Chronology, terms
and concepts
1 Explain what you understand

by nationalism, imperialism and
colonisation.
2 How did the French Revolution
influence the development of
nationalism?
Explanation and
communication
3 Explain why some nationalists could
be supporters of imperialism while
other nationalists opposed it.
4 Name two European countries
that were unified during the
nineteenthcentury.
5 Study Source 1 .
a Make a list of British colonies in
Africa.
b Make a list of British colonies in
Asia and the Pacific.
c List the colonies of the French
Empire.
d What was left of Spains once
great empire by 1914?
e Where had Germany and Italy
obtained colonies?
6 Until the mid twentiethcentury
there was a saying: The sun never
sets on the British Empire. What
do you think this was supposed to
mean?
17
1.6 Global population
movements: slaves,
convicts and migrants
During the eighteenth and

nineteenthcenturies many millions
of people moved from continent to
continent. Vast numbers of slaves
were moved by force from Africa
to the Americas. Many thousands
of people were transported as
convicts, mainly from Britain and
Ireland. At first convicts were sent
to Britains American colonies. After
the American Revolution they were
sent to Britains Australian colonies.
Many millions of Europeans and
some Asians moved as free
migrants to Australia and, in vastly
greater numbers, to America.
Slave labour formed the backbone of the economies of British and French
colonies in the Caribbean and Britains southern colonies in North America. In
1775, when the American Revolution began, there were at least half a million
African slaves in what became the southern states of the United States of
America.
Source 1

A family of slaves,
photographed on a plantation
in South Carolina, USA, in 1862
Slaves
From the sixteenthcentury
European slave traders transported
African slaves to the Americas. It has
been estimated that by the start of
the seventeenthcentury one million
African slaves had been transported
to Spanish and Portuguese colonies
in the Americas. From the mid
seventeenthcentury the Dutch,
British and French became the main
transporters of African slaves to
America.
In 1808 the United States

government banned the importing
of slaves into the USA, but it did not
free the slaves who were already
there. In several southern states
slave-breeding programs were
used to increase slave numbers.
18
Abolition of slavery
In 1807, following a campaign led
by William Wilberforce, the British
Parliament abolished slave trading
throughout the British Empire. Eight
years later France also abolished the
slave trade. However, these measures
did nothing to change the lives of
those who were already slaves or of
their children who would be born
into slavery. It was not until 1833
that Britain abolished slavery itself
and ordered that all slaves throughout
the empire be freed.
Source 2

Source 3

Some statistics on convicts from L. L. Robson, The Convict Settlers of
Australia, 1965
Male
Female
Percentage transported for crimes involving stealing
81
83
Percentage of first offenders
22
23
Percentage sentenced to seven years transportation
51
74
Percentage sentenced to 10 years
Percentage sentenced to 14 years
11
Percentage sentenced for life
27
Native to England (per cent)
56
23
Native to Ireland (per cent)
32
34
A slave market, photographed in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, in 1864
In the southern states of the USA,

plantation owners profited from slave
labour to produce cotton that was
exported to British textile factories.
Slavery was not abolished in the
USA until the Civil War between
the industrial northern states and
the southern slave states. The war
began in 1861, when the southern
states attempted to secede. In 1863
President Abraham Lincoln issued
his Emancipation Proclamation. It
outlawed slavery but it could not
actually free any slaves until the
Union (northern) armies occupied
the South. Slavery ended with the
Union victory in 1865, but African
Americans continued to suffer brutal
oppression and discrimination in the
southern states for another hundred
years. Even today, many African
Americans are among the most
disadvantaged people in the USA.
Convicts
During the eighteenthcentury
poverty and harsh laws resulted
in many British and Irish people
becoming convicts. Some convicts
were violent criminals, but many
more were ordinary people who were
forced by poverty into committing
small crimes. To try to reduce crime,
the British government made almost
200crimes punishable by death.
Other crimes were punished by
long prison sentences.
Thousands of convicts had been
sent to Britains American colonies,
19
Source 4

From the Report of the
Select Committee on Transportation,
presented in the British Parliament in
1838
Transportation...is slavery as
well; and the condition of the
convict slave is frequently a very
miserable one...he might be
fortunate in obtaining a ticket of
leave, or a conditional pardon, and
finish his career by accumulating
considerable wealth. Or he may
be the wretched...slave of some
harsh master, compelled by the
lash to work.
but American independence ended

that option. Prisons became terribly
overcrowded, so many convicts were
kept on rotting decommissioned
ships called hulks. In 1786 the British
government began to send convicts to
New South Wales. It was considered
a good place for a convict colony
because the climate and soil were

suitable and convicts would have
nowhere to escape to.
The First British settlement in
Australia was founded on 26 January
1788 at Sydney Cove. More than
160000 men, women and children
were sent as convicts to New South
Wales and later, as they were founded,
to other Australian colonies.
How were
convicts treated?
On the voyage to Australia convicts
were often treated brutally, being kept
in chains, poorly fed and crowded
together below decks. Conditions
improved by the 1820s. When they
arrived in Australia convicts entered
a system that was like a lottery.
Some who had useful skills were set
free early, but others suffered great
cruelty. Some convicts worked for the
government and were free to work for
themselves in their spare time. Others
Source 5

A sketch of bloodhounds on Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania, used
to prevent the escape of convicts
were assigned as servants to officers,

free settlers and even ex-convicts.
Whether they were treated well or
badly depended on the person for
whom they worked.
Punishments and rewards

As punishment for wrongdoing
during their sentences, convicts could
be put into chain gangs, where they
worked chained together, or sent
to a secondary penal settlement.
These settlements, such as Norfolk
Island and Macquarie Harbour, were
places of terrible suffering. The most
common punishment was flogging
with a vicious whip called the
cat o nine tails.
Convicts who behaved well or
were lucky could receive a ticket-ofleave. This meant they could work
for themselves during the remainder
of their sentences. A convict who
received a conditional pardon was
free but could not leave the colony.
A full pardon allowed an ex-convict
to return home, although few could
afford to do so.
Migrants
The main destination of free
European migrants was the United
States. Between 1830 and 1910 at
least 26million people, most of them
poor Europeans, migrated to the USA.
They included many Irish, who fled a
terrible famine in the 1840s. Migrants
also included many Germans, Italians,
Poles, Czechs, Serbs, Croats and
Jews from central or eastern Europe.
They came to escape poverty and
oppression at home, but they became
cheap labour for Americas factories,
railways and mines, and tenants in
Americas growing urban slums.
Australias changing
population
The Australian colonies could
not long remain large prisons.
Ex-convicts, or emancipists as they
were called, made up a significant
part of the population, as did their
20
Source 6

A convict tramway, drawn in Australia
and published in London in 1852
children and the children of those still serving sentences.

The first free settlers had been soldiers and officials.
They were followed by wealthy free settlers attracted by
land grants, free convict labour and profits from wool.
From 1831 workers were also encouraged to migrate
to provide the colonies with needed skills. The British
government even helped them to migrate, at least
partly because it feared many of the poor could become
rebellious if they remained in Britain and Ireland. By

Movement of peoples pp. 1267
Convict transportation to Australia pp. 1667
1851 convicts made up only 1.5per cent of Australias

population.
The gold rushes brought a new influx of migrants.
Sixty-seven thousand people arrived by ship in Port Phillip
Bay during just the last six months of 1852. Between
1851 and 1861 Australias population rose from 400000
to 1.2million. Immigration continued but at a much
slower pace after the gold rushes. By 1901 Australias
population stood at just under 4 million.
secede break away to form a separate country

1 Create a timeline of significant developments affecting
slaves, convicts and migrants between 1775 and 1910.
2 Explain the following terms: assigned convicts; chain
gangs; secondary penal settlements; tickets-of-leave;
conditional pardons; and full pardons.

3 Which countries were the main transporters of slaves
from the mid seventeenthcentury?
4 Why did slavery continue in the British Empire even after
Britain banned the slave trade in 1807?
5 For how long after the Emancipation Proclamation did
African Americans continue to suffer?
6 Why did Britain send convicts to Australia?
7 During which part of the nineteenthcentury did
Australia receive the most immigrants?
Student workbook
1.5
8 How many people migrated to the

United States between 1830 and 1910?

9 Explain how you would use Sources 1 and 2 as evidence
of slavery in the United States.
10 Using Source 3 for evidence, write a paragraph
explaining the characteristics of the typical convict. For
example, you could say that most convicts of both sexes
were transported for theft.
11 How does Source 4 support the view that the convict
system was a lottery?

12 Work in small groups to decide on six questions that
you would ask about Sources 5 and 6 to use as evidence
in an investigation of the experiences of convicts in
Australia.
21
1.7 Progressive ideas

and movements
Another development of great significance was the

emergence of new ideas and movements that changed
the ways many people thought. Several of these ideas
and movements helped to create more free and fair
societies in Europe during this period, and in later times
they would inspire struggles for national liberation in
Europes colonies.
The influence of the French Revolution

Only a small, privileged class of aristocrats had any say
in government in the eighteenthcentury. The French
Revolution temporarily overthrew that system but the
old order was restored throughout Europe when the
Revolution was defeated. Various movements struggled
for more democracy, but they differed greatly on what
democracy meant and whether it also meant a more
equal society.
Liberalism
Liberalism was the belief that people should be equal
under the law and have individual liberties. Liberals
also wanted free trade and a share in government. Most
liberals were members of the growing middle classes.
However, while industrial growth increased the size and
influence of the middle classes, it also increased the size
of the industrial working class. Workers supported liberal
demands, but they also wanted a say in government and
reforms to improve their living standards.
In 1848 democratic revolutions broke out across
Europe. At first they appeared to succeed, but in most
places the old ruling classes soon regained power. One
reason for their failure was that many liberals feared
sharing power with the working class more than they
hated the old rulers.
Source 1

From Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian nationalist who
took part in the revolutions of 1848
...the people arose; not only in France, but in almost

every country in Europe...They arose, at first, following
and supporting those wealthier classes who had
undertaken to fight...[but the people were] deceived
by their leaders, who, as soon as they had acquired their
own rights, turned against them...
22
The Chartist movement

Between 1837 and 1847 British workers attempted to
improve their lives through political action. The Chartists
drew up a petition to Parliament. Its demands included
votes for all adult men, payment for members of Parliament
and the abolition of property qualifications that prevented
poorer men from standing for election to Parliament.
One and a half million people signed the first petition,
but it was rejected by Parliament, which was controlled by
the middle and upper classes. A general strike was called in
protest but it was defeated because of high unemployment.
An isolated revolt in Wales was brutally crushed by the
government.
In 1841 three and half million people signed a second
petition, which included demands for better wages and laws
to improve factory conditions. Its rejection by Parliament
triggered a wave of strikes before arrests and hunger forced
people back to work. After a third petition was rejected in
1847, Chartism declined. However, most Chartist demands
were achieved by the beginning of the twentiethcentury.
Socialism
There were many influential socialist thinkers in the
nineteenthcentury. They shared a belief in greater
economic and political equality. They believed this could be
achieved only by workers owning and running enterprises
collectively or by the state owning these enterprises on their
behalf. Significant socialist thinkers included the British
reformer Robert Owen and the French socialist Louis
Blanc.
Marxism
Marxism is the name given to the ideas of Karl Marx, a
nineteenth-century German philosopher. Marx believed
that history was shaped by struggles between social classes.
He predicted that revolutions throughout Europe would
completely change societies. As the industrial revolution
proceeded, those who had nothing but their ability to work
the proletariat would overthrow the bourgeoisie.
The workers would then create a socialist society in
which wealth would be shared fairly. Marx thought that
socialism would eventually lead to a stage of even greater
equality that he called communism. In 1917 a faction that
described itself as Marxist seized power in Russia, but the
system it introduced had little in common with the society
Marx had imagined.
Source 2

Statues of Karl Marx (seated) and
Friedrich Engels (standing) in Berlin, Germany

Capitalism and socialism
pp. 1389
Student workbook
1.6
Chronology,
terms and concepts
1 Explain what you understand
each of the following terms to
mean: liberalism; socialism; and
Marxism.
2 Describe one reason for the
failure of the 1848 revolutions in
Europe.
3 What were the demands of the
Chartists?
4 Why do you think the Chartists
did not also demand votes for
women?
5 What did Karl Marx mean by
class struggle?
Source 3

From Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, 1848
Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps,
into two great classes directly facing each other the bourgeoisie and
proletariat...The Communists...openly declare that their ends can only be
attained by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling
classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletariat have nothing to
lose but their chains. They have the world to win. Working men of all countries
unite!
6 In Source 1 what does Mazzini

say about the role of middle-class
liberals in the 1848 revolutions?
7 Why would workers have felt
betrayed by such liberal leaders in
1848?
8 Study Sources 2 and 3 .
a Why do you think The
Communist Manifesto was
published in 1848?
b What changes that had taken
place since 1750 led Marx to
state, Society as a whole is
more and more splitting up
into two great hostile camps?
c The statue in Source 2 was
erected while East Germany
was a communist state (from
the late 1940s to 1989). Why do
you think it remains in Berlin?
bourgeoisie capitalist middle classes;

the owners of the means of production,
distribution and exchange that is,
factories, shipping, banks and other
businesses
proletariat the working classes,
especially industrial wage-earners
23
1.8 SkillBuilder
Understanding a historical debate
What is a historical debate?
One of the most important concepts in history is
contestability. This means that many interpretations of
the past are open to debate. Sometimes this is because of
lack of evidence. At others it is because historians bring
different perspectives to an investigation.
Why is it important to understand a

historical debate?
Very often one interpretation of an event comes to
be popularly accepted as the truth. It is thought to be
the only possible interpretation. To better understand
this issue, lets look at an example. In chapter 8 you
will study the First World War, including the Gallipoli
campaign. But you will already be familiar with the
story of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli on 25April 1915
because it is commemorated every year in Australia on
Anzac Day.
For much of the twentiethcentury, most Australians
believed that the terrible losses Australian troops suffered
during the landing and, to an extent, the failure of the
Gallipoli campaign, resulted from the troops being
landed at Ari Burnu, north of their intended landing
place below Gaba Tepe. Charles Bean, Australias official
war historian during World War I, stated that the Anzacs
were put ashore at the wrong place. He wrote that
the carefully laid plans had been torn to shreds by the
current that had carried the tows [landing craft] too far
northward. Other historians and most people in general
accepted this view, believing that the soldiers failed to
gain the territory needed for the campaigns success
partly because of the landing error.
More recently, several historians have challenged that
view. This is common in historical work, partly because
historians writing soon after events do not always have
all the evidence they need. For example, Bean could
not draw on the military intelligence that went into
planning the Gallipoli campaign because it was kept
secret for 50 years.
24
How to understand a historical debate

To understand a historical debate we need to recognise how
a new interpretation challenges an earlier argument. To do
this we follow these steps:
1 Identify the main argument of the earlier interpretation.
2 Identify the main argument of the later interpretation and
how it differs from the earlier interpretation.
3 Explain the details used to support the argument of the
later interpretation.
Example
Source 1

From Denis Winter, The Anzac landing the
great gamble? in Journal of the Australian War Memorial,
April 1984, pp. 15, 18
The problem to be resolved is whether the landing

at Anzac was a simple piece of bad luck or whether
it was part of Birdwoods plan...An unsuspected
sea current provides the strongest point in favour
of failure being due to factors beyond human
control...But the case against the current is a
strong one. Earlier work around the peninsula with
submarines meant that the navy was well aware
of swift currents around the landing point...the
possibility of an unsuspected or unmeasurable current
may be discounted...
Colonel W. R. McNicol...gave an address...on the
anniversary of the landing, saying that the position
attacked was identical with orders...
In this example, we can say the following:
1 The earlier interpretation (Bean) claimed that plans for
the landing were undermined by currents that forced
the troops landing craft north of their intended landing
place.
2 Winter argues that this is wrong because the Anzacs were
landed where they were intended to be landed.
3 Winter supports his argument by pointing out that the
Navy knew all about the strength of the currents and, a
year later, an Australian officer stated that their landing
position was as planned.
Student workbook
1.7
Using the previous example, try
applying the same steps to analyse
the way that another interpretation,
shown in Source 2 , challenges views.
1 Identify the relevant arguments in
Beans and Winters interpretations.
2 Identify the main argument
of Roberts interpretation and
how it differs from these earlier
interpretations.
3 Explain the details used to
support Roberts interpretation.
Source 2

From Chris Roberts, The Landing at Anzac: a reassessment, in Journal of
the Australian War Memorial, April 1993, pp. 279
Birdwoods aim of taking the Turkish defenders by surprise was achieved.

A landing north of Gaba Tepe had not been expected and the small garrison
defending Anzac Cove put up a brief resistance before fleeing inland...
By about 5.00a.m. the high ground overlooking Anzac Cove had been
captured...
Therefore, there is little ground for claiming, as Bean concludes, that the
misplaced landing was a major reason for the failure of the ANZAC assault to
achieve its intended objective.
Indeed, there is strong evidence that the error was fortunate. Birdwood
himself believed so. The strongest Turkish defences were at Gaba
Tepe and these covered the original landing beach and its seaward
approaches...Birdwood and others believed that heavy casualties would
have been experienced had the landing gone as planned.
Source 3

The beach at Anzac, painted
by war artist Frank Crozier in 1919
AWM 02161
25

In this Overview we have looked
at some of the big changes
that took place in the period
from 1750 to 1918. Chief
among these changes were:
the Industrial Revolution; the
spread of imperialism, including
a final wave of empire building
in Africa, the Pacific and SouthEast Asia; the mass movement of
people through slavery, convict
transportation and migration;
and the emergence of ideas and
movements aimed at creating a
better world.
Quick quiz
1 Name two new types of sources of evidence that emerged during this
period.
2 Name two empires that included several countries within Europe.
3 What colonies did Britain gain and what did it lose in North America in
the late eighteenthcentury?
4 Under the French ancien regime, who made up each of the three Estates?
5 What was the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution?
6 Why were many factories at first located near streams during the British
Industrial Revolution?
7 For how many hours in a week did most factory employees work by the
1860s?
8 What were the main aims of trade unions?
9 What was changed in Australia by the Overland Telegraph?
10 Describe the two kinds of nationalism that emerged in Australia during
the nineteenthcentury.
11 What were two motives for European imperialism?
12 Which South-East Asian countries were claimed as part of the French and
British empires during the nineteenthcentury?
13 When was slavery abolished in the British and French empires and in the
United States?
14 How many convicts were transported to Australia?
15 What were the aims of the Chartists?
AWM P00417.020
Source 1

A group of
Australians who fought
in the Australian Naval
Contingent in China in
1900. The contingent was
sent to help the imperialist
powers, including Britain,
Germany, Russia, the
United States and Japan,
to suppress the Boxer
Rebellion in China.
26
Student workbook
1.8, 1.9, 1.10
Source 2

Boxer prisoners beheaded in China in 1900. The Boxers
were a group of Chinese who launched a rebellion against foreign
interference in China. They killed Christians and besieged the British
Legation (embassy). An international force from the imperial powers
crushed the rebellion. The British arranged the execution of many
Boxer leaders. Massacres and other atrocities were committed by
the international force.
1 What ideas motivated Europeans to interfere in the

affairs of China (as shown in Sources 1 and 2 ) and other
Asian countries?
2 What do you think the men in Source 1 would have
understood about their small role in this imperial
venture?
3 How do you think the British and other imperialist
powers justified the event shown in Source 2 ?
4 How do you think such events might have contributed
to the rise of Chinese nationalism?
5 Do you think we would know much about events like
that in Source 2 without photographic evidence? Give
reasons for your answer.

1 Form small groups to research the life and ideas of one
of the following nineteenth-century thinkers:
a Adam Smith
b Louis Blanc
c Giuseppe Mazzini
d Karl Marx
e Charles Darwin.
AWM P00068.003
At the beginning of this chapter several big questions were

questions.
1 What changes took place in movements of people
across the world between 1750 and 1918?
2 How did technology contribute to change?
3 How did new ideas contribute to change?
4 How, where and why did colonisation by European
empires take place, and what was its impact?
Tick the box for each of these statements that you think most accurately reflects your learning.
Strongly
agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
I was able to use evidence from art and photographs to

draw conclusions about this period.
I can recognise ways in which this era influenced the
modern world.
I have developed skills that help me to understand
historical debates.
I understand why technological change affects other
aspects of life.
I have a better understanding of concepts such as
imperialism, nationalism, liberalism and socialism.
Working with written sources increased my
understanding of significant historical changes.
27
CHAPTER

(I) Technology and progress
It is said that today we are living through a
technological revolution that has dramatically
changed the way we communicate and
process information. The telephone was
invented in 1872 and remained largely
unchanged until the arrival of mobile phone
technology in the 1980s. Since the late 1990s
the development of smartphone technology,
touch screens, and the ability to capture and
transmit images has revolutionised the way we
communicate with one another.
For most of you these changes may not
seem very revolutionary. But your parents
and grandparents used old-style landline
telephones most of their lives. To them, the
modern mobile phone and its huge variety
of applications represents a communications
revolution that has taken less than
twenty years to occur.
What do we mean when we speak
of the Industrial Revolution?
What is a revolution? Most
historians think of a revolution
as a time of very rapid
change. Historical
change usually takes
The invention of the steam engine was a major

factor in the progress of the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution (17501914) is covered
over two chapters because of the wide range and
complexity of the curriculum content. This will make
Teachers should select the material from both
chapters that best meets the needs of their students,
rather than attempting to cover all the content from
both chapters.

technology and progress
eBook plus
A timeline of
technology and
progress during
the Industrial
Revolution
CE
1694
The Bank of England
is established.
1700 onwards
Improvements in
agricultural technology
contribute to the
agricultural revolution.
1700
1709
Abraham Darby
develops a blast
furnace capable of
producing
high-quality iron.
1730s1780s
The invention of new

and larger spinning
and weaving
machines shifts textile
industry into factories.
1761
1720
1760
1769
1780
1785
The Boulton and Watt

steam engine is first
used in a textiles factory.
1707
The first turnpike
trusts are
established.
1712
Thomas Newcomen
develops the
atmospheric engine,
the first practical
steam engine.
1740
The Bridgewater
Canal is opened.
of providing
continuous power.
1680
1800
1757
The Sankey Canal
is opened.
1763
Victory in the Seven
Years War gives Britain
increased trade access
to colonies in India and
North America.
1783
Henry Corts puddling
process further
improves the quality of
iron products.
1801
The first official

population census is
held in Britain.
1820
1813
The first working steam
locomotive, known as
Puffing Billy, is built.
1840
1830
Stephensons Rocket
hauls the first train on
the Manchester to
Liverpool railway line.
1825
The first English

public steam railway
(from Stockton to
Darlington) is opened.
1830s
Railway building begins

in France and Germany.
1851
The Great Exhibition is

held in London.
1876
patents the first
telephone.
1860
1880
1842
Samuel Morse
develops the single
wire telegraph.
place through a series of small steps that can be easily

understood by people living through the time. Every now
and then change speeds up and, within a generation
or less, old ways of doing things disappear. These
old methods are superseded by completely new and
unfamiliar ones that have not been used before.
To the people of the late eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, the changes that took place in manufacturing,
transport, agriculture, trade and living conditions were
every bit as revolutionary as the technological changes
that are happening all around us today.

the eighteenth century contribute to the Industrial
Revolution?
3 In what ways was Britain in 1850 dramatically
different from Britain in 1750?
1 What do you think are the main differences between

industrial and agricultural societies?
2 From what you know of different countries around
the world, list those you would consider to be
industrialised and those you would consider to be
primarily agricultural.
3 Aside from communications, what other examples of
rapid change can we see in the world today?
4 What do we mean by progress? Is progress always
a positive thing?
29
How do we know about...?
2.1 The Industrial Revolution

In this chapter we will look at the great technological changes that took place in Britain during the eighteenth and
nineteenthcenturies. These changes completely reshaped the way in which food, clothing and other necessities
were produced. New materials and sources of power, along with new forms of transport, transformed a society that
had not changed dramatically since the Middle Ages. This transformation is the source of many of the features of
our way of life today. Britain provided an inspiration for the other countries of Europe and North America, which soon
experienced industrial revolutions of their own. In more recent times, countries such as China and India are making
their own transitions to modern industrialised nations.
Why industrial revolution?

The term Industrial Revolution was first popularised by
the English historian Arnold Toynbee in the late 1870s
and early 1880s. Historians such as Toynbee looked at the
society in which they lived and compared it with what
they knew of English society a little over a hundred years
earlier. To these observers the nature and speed of the
changes they documented were revolutionary because
they brought about radical changes in the way many
people lived. So how do we know about the changes
that occurred during the period in history known as the
Industrial Revolution?
Inventions and patents

Early in the eighteenth century, farming in Britain was
carried out largely as it had been for hundreds of years.
Source 1

Contemporary artists depicted
the growth of factory production, located in
large towns.
30
The processing and manufacture of goods took place

on a small scale in local villages and small towns. By the
middle of the nineteenth century, new methods of crop
management, animal husbandry and new inventions
had completely transformed the agricultural landscape.
Clothing and other goods were no longer made by hand
in homes or small workshops but in factories using large
machines. We know about these changes because the
creators of new inventions took out patents on their
inventions. Patents could be issued only when the inventor
submitted a full written description of their invention,
and many of these descriptions survive today. By the mid
nineteenth century, steam was driving machinery of all
types. We can trace the development of steam power by
examining the models of early steam engines that still
exist, and the diagrams and descriptions submitted by
their inventors when applying for patents.
Source 2

A drawing of the opening
of the first British railway line in 1825.
Many of the creators of new farming methods wrote books
and pamphlets publicising their methods. Other writers of
the time wrote first-hand accounts of the improvements
in agriculture they had observed. By the mid nineteenth
century, writers were also commenting on working
conditions in newly built factories and life in the rapidly
growing cities. Clearly, some very dramatic changes had
occurred within peoples lifetimes, and writers of the time
were keen to document these changes.
Census figures
When the first complete population census of England
and Wales was taken in 1801, the population was
measured at 8.8 million. By 1881 the population had
virtually tripled to 25.9 million. Never before in history
had population growth on this scale been recorded
over such a relatively short period of time. These same
census figures show a change from a predominantly
rural population, engaged mainly in farming, to an
urban population, engaged mainly in employment in
manufacturing.
Paintings and drawings

In the eighteenth century, British artists were famous for
producing paintings of country landscapes. By the early
nineteenth century, artists began to record scenes of the
new industrial towns that accompanied the Industrial
Revolution. These often contrasted dramatically with the
peaceful calm of the country scenes, showing billowing
smoke from factory chimneys and the busy activity of

the industrial town. Changes in transport, such as the
development of railways, also attracted the attention of
artists. Many paintings and drawings were produced to
celebrate these new developments.

1 Examine Source 1 . What evidence is there in this picture
of the types of changes brought about by the Industrial
Revolution?
2 What impression of the new industrial towns do you
believe the artist of Source 1 was trying to create for
viewers of this work?
3 What evidence can you see in Source 2 that a
completely new form of transport was being
celebrated?
Perspectives and interpretationS

4 Using examples from the information provided above,
explain why late nineteenth-century historians believed
the changes of the previous hundredyears were a
revolution.
animal husbandry breeding and caring for livestock, usually

in a farm environment
patent a legally enforceable right to make or sell an invention.
Patents, usually granted by government, protect an inventors
idea from being copied.
rural population people living in the countryside rather than
in towns or cities
urban population people living in cities or large towns
31
2.2 The agricultural revolution

At the time of the Industrial Revolution major changes
in farming practices were already occurring throughout
Britain. These changes completely revolutionised
agriculture. Increases in farm production provided food
for the growing population, particularly the expanding
urban workforce.
Traditional open-field farming

The traditional open-field village was based on
subsistence farming, producing only enough food for
its inhabitants, who were peasants or tenants of the
landowner. It usually involved the rotation of different
activities across three large fields. One field would carry a
crop of wheat or rye, and one a crop of barley, while one
would be allowed to lie fallow. Each year the crops would
be rotated, so each field would lie fallow for oneyear in
Source 1

Three-field rotation meant that
one-third of the land would lie idle each year.
A Wheat or rye
B Barley
32
every three. Each village household was allotted a number

of strips in each field. These would usually be spread
out so that everyone had equal access to the best land.
There was also an open area of common land where
everyone had the right to graze livestock and collect
firewood. Grazing also took place in the fallow field,
helping to fertilise it, making it ready for planting the
following year.
Disadvantages of the open-field system

The open-field system had worked well for centuries,
and in 1750 about half of all farming in England still
relied on this approach. But the system had a number of
disadvantages.
It was very inefficient because:
one-third of the land was left unplanted each year
pathways separating the strips of land were not used
for crops
time was wasted when each

farmer had to look after a
number of strips scattered across
the different fields.
Weeds and animal diseases could
spread easily when everyone was
sharing so much of the available
land.
There was very little opportunity
to try new crops or new methods,
because everyone had to grow the
same crops and work together.
Source 2

Stone walls were often used to
enclose farms during the eighteenthcentury.
Major changes to
agriculture
The agricultural revolution involved
three main developments:
enclosure of the open fields
the adoption of new techniques of
farming
the change to a more businessoriented approach to farming.
Enclosure
C Fallow
Enclosure involved the consolidation

of open fields into single farms,
owned by one farmer, and separated
from neighbouring farms by
hedges or low stone walls. This
process had begun as early as the
sixteenthcentury, when some wealthy
landowners began to enclose their
land, voiding the rights of peasant
farmers to pursue their traditional
strip farming. If the newly enclosed
farm was large enough, it could be
subdivided and smaller farms leased
out to these same peasants. The
peasants were forced either to become
paid employees on the enclosed farm
or to seek work in nearby towns.

Enclosure gave the farmer/landowner
greater control over the total area
of the farm; less productive land
was wasted, and animals were kept
separate from neighbours livestock.
Adoption of new
techniques of farming
Increased control over their farms
and stock allowed farmers to
adopt new, more efficient methods
of farming. These included the
following:
Jethro Tulls seed drill

Traditionally seed was scattered by
hand into ploughed furrows. This
often meant a lot of wastage as the
wind could blow much of the seed
Source 3

Jethro Tulls
seed drill, as seen in
this nineteenth-century
illustration, revolutionised
the planting of crops in
England.
33
away or birds could eat it. In 1700, agricultural inventor

Jethro Tull developed a horse-drawn seed drill that could
plant three rows of seed at a time. A hole would be drilled
for seeds to be dropped in, the hole covered and the
drill moved forward to the next planting position. It is
estimated that this invention produced a five times bigger
crop for the same area of land than had been achieved
using the old methods.
Source 4

Traditional ploughing required a team of four or
more oxen, an ox driver and a ploughman to operate the heavy
rectangular wooden plough as shown in this artwork based on
fourteenth-century illustrations.
The Rotherham plough proved to be quicker and more

efficient, and significantly reduced costs for farmers.
Changes in crop rotation methods

As the open fields were enclosed, new systems of crop
rotation were introduced. The most successful of these
was the four-crop rotation system introduced on his
own estates by Lord Charles Townshend, or Turnip
Townshend as he became known. His farm was divided
into four fields, with wheat in the first, turnips in the
second, barley in the third, and clover in the fourth. Each
year the crops would be rotated by one field, so that in
the second year, the first field would contain clover, the
second wheat, the third turnips and the fourth barley. This
rotation continued over a four-year cycle. The planting
of clover and turnips following the crops of wheat and
barley helped replace nutrients in the soil, and therefore
helped produce better crops the following year. The clover
was used as a nutritious summer food for livestock, while
Source 6

The Rotherham plough

In 1730 Joseph Foljambe patented the Rotherham
triangular plough. This plough had an iron blade and
was lighter and easier to handle than the rectangular
wooden ploughs that had been used previously. Instead of
being drawn by a team of four oxen, and requiring both
a ploughman and an ox driver, the Rotherham plough
could be drawn by two horses and handled by one person.
Source 5

The Rotherham plough, developed in 1730, could be
operated by one ploughman and two horses as shown in this
twentieth-century artwork.
Four-crop rotation in one field

YEAR 1
YEAR 2
Use of field
Use of field
Wheat
Turnips
(root crops allowed hoeing
between rows)
Product of field
Product of field
Bread
Turnips
winter fodder for animals
YEAR 4
YEAR 3
Use of field
Use of field
Clover roots enrich soils
Barley
Animals grazing manure

the soil
Product of field
Product of field
milk/meat/wool
beer/flour/animal fodder
clover as pasture for animals
34
Source 7

New Leicester sheep were bred by
Robert Bakewell. Can you see why they were
successful for both wool and meat production?
The agricultural revolution produced great improvements

in the quantity and quality of both crops and livestock. In
1705 England exported 150millionkilograms of wheat,
but by 1765 this had risen to 1235millionkilograms.
In 1710 sheep sold at market weighed an average
13kilograms, while cattle weighed an average
167kilograms. By 1795 this had risen to 36kilograms for
sheep and 360kilograms for cattle.
Student workbook
2.1
turnips could be fed to animals in winter. This meant that

livestock no longer needed to be slaughtered before each
winter, as had traditionally been the case.
Improved stock breeding methods

Farmers such as Robert Bakewell began selective breeding
of sheep and cattle. Only the largest and strongest animals
were mated, and this produced offspring with the best
characteristics. Bakewell also cross-bred different types of
sheep to produce the best breeds for both wool and meat
production. His New Leicester breed, introduced in 1755,
proved to be a great success.
A business approach to farming

Before the eighteenthcentury, farming activity was mainly
directed towards satisfying local food and clothing needs.
Any produce left over could be sold or traded at markets,
but this would entail only a small proportion of farming
output. The great improvements of the agricultural
revolution not only increased the amount of food available
to the farmers and their workers, but provided increasing
surpluses that could be sold to feed the growing urban
population. The rural population grew very slowly, but
the output per person employed in agriculture rose
dramatically. Exporting grain to other countries also
brought profits to farmers who were prepared to innovate
and embrace new methods of production.
1 Explain how the traditional three-field rotation system

worked.
2 What impact did the enclosure of farms (see Source 2 )
have on the peasants and tenant farmers who had
previously worked the land?
3 Outline the contribution of each of the following
people to the improvements in agriculture in England
in the eighteenthcentury:
a Jethro Tull
b Joseph Foljambe
c Turnip Townshend
d Robert Bakewell.
CHRONOLOGY, TERMS AND CONCEPTS

4 Explain why each of the following innovations could
only have occurred after the enclosure of farms:
a the four-field crop rotation system
b selective breeding of animals.

5 Compare the different methods of ploughing depicted
in Sources 4 and 5 . Explain two ways by which using the
Rotherham plough could have reduced costs for the
farmer.
6 By comparing Source 1 with Source 6 , explain how
the enclosure of farming land might have overcome the
disadvantages of the open field system.

7 The Industrial Revolution relied on the availability of
an urban workforce to work in factories. Identify and
explain two ways in which the agricultural revolution
supported the growth of such a workforce.
enclosure consolidation of open fields and common land into

single farms owned by one farmer or landowner, and fenced off
from neighbouring farms
fallow land left unplanted
subsistence farming farming that provides only enough to
satisfy the basic needs of life of the farmer or community
35
2.3 The population explosion

The period of the agricultural and industrial revolutions
saw rapid population growth throughout Great Britain,
but particularly in England and Wales. Improved
farming methods appear to have been one cause of
the population explosion that occurred between 1750
and 1850. The increase in population provided a ready
workforce for newly industrialised factory production.
Source 2

Edward Jenner pioneered vaccination against smallpox
in 1796, as shown in this nineteenth-century artwork.
Before the eighteenthcentury

Population figures for most of Great Britain before the
nineteenth century are estimates only, as the first official
census was not held until 1801. The best information
suggests that population levels had moved up and
down dramatically between 1300 and 1700. From a
high of close to 6million people in 1300, the influence
of the Black Death and years of famine had seen the
Source 1

The Black Death, which struck Europe in the
late 1340s, kept the population low in Britain for centuries,
as shown in this seventeenth-century engraving.
population depleted to around 2million by 1500. During

the sixteenthcentury the population appears to have
doubled, but it grew more slowly during the first half of
the seventeenthcentury, reaching only about 5 million by
1650. Disease epidemics such as the Great Plague of the
1660s had caused the population to level out during the
second half of the seventeenthcentury and, by 1700, it
remained at about 5million.
Early eighteenth-century growth

The British population began to increase steadily again
during the first half of the eighteenthcentury, reaching
sixmillion by the late 1750s. Eradication of the plague
and improvements in medical science saw a fall in the
death rate. By mid century the changes in agriculture
had begun to have an impact, increasing the supply of
good-quality food capable of feeding a larger population.
Dietary deficiency diseases such as scurvy and rickets
declined as food quality improved, leading also to a
decline in the infant mortality rate.
The population explosion

The population really took off in Britain after 1760,
doubling over the next sixtyyears, and doubling again
in the following sixtyyears (see Source 3 ). Agricultural
improvements meant that good crops could be relied on
every year, removing fears of periodic famine that had
been common for centuries. Fresh meat was now available
36
Source 3

Population growth in England and Wales, 17611881
Year
Population
1761
6146000
1781
7042000
1801
8893000
1821
12000000
1841
15914000
1861
20066000
1881
25974000
From J. Gardiner and N. Wenborn (eds), The History Today Companion to British History,
London, 1995, p. 610.
in winter; cheaper potatoes could be eaten all year round,

and dairy produce such as butter and cheese was enjoyed
more widely. In the latter part of the eighteenthcentury
vaccination against diseases such as smallpox began to
reduce deaths from infectious diseases. The widespread
use of child labour in factories and mines in the late
eighteenth and early nineteenthcenturies appears to have
encouraged many families to have more children as a
means of increasing family income.
Impact of the population explosion

The Industrial Revolution saw small-scale domestic
production superseded by factory production. The rapid
growth in population provided a market for the products
Source 4

As seen in this artwork from 1840, all members
of a family, including mothers and children, were often
employed in English textile factories.
Bubonic plague, or the Black Death, was caused by

bacteria carried by a flea that was a parasite of the black
rat. Its eradication in England after the 1660s is said to
have occurred because of the arrival in England of the
larger brown rat. Brown rats, which did not carry the
disease-causing flea, soon drove the black rats out of their
habitat.
of these new factories, with cheap clothing readily

available because of improvements in textile production.
The growing demand provided incentives for the owners
of factories to increase production and improve their
methods. The population explosion also provided a
workforce to work in these factories. While wages were
not high (see chapter3), if all members of the family were
employed, they could earn enough to provide for the basic
essentials of food, clothing and shelter.
Student workbook
2.2

1 Why did population levels in Britain fluctuate widely
between 1300 and 1700? Refer to Source 1 in your
answer.
2 Identify and explain three factors that caused the
population to rise steadily after 1700.

3 Using Source 3 and other information in the spread,
construct a graph depicting population growth in
England and Wales between the years 1701 and 1881.
You may use a bar graph or a line graph; make sure your
graph is to scale.
4 What conclusions can you draw from Source 4 about
the conditions experienced by women and children
working in factories?

5 If you were the owner of a clothing factory in
eighteenth-century Britain, explain two ways in which
a growing population might assist you to expand your
business.
Black Death a deadly disease that ravaged Europe, killing

between a quarter and half of the population, in the second half
of the fourteenthcentury. It continued to occur periodically over
the next 300years.
famine a severe shortage of food, leading to starvation, usually
due to crop failures over a sustained period of time
infant mortality rate a means of measuring the percentage
of babies who fail to survive their first birthday
rickets a softening of the bones, leading to deformity of the
limbs, caused by a deficiency of calcium and vitamin D
scurvy a disease caused by poor diet, especially a deficiency of
vitamin C
37
2.4 Power: from horses,
wind and water to steam
The early years of the Industrial

Revolution relied on traditional
sources to provide power for
agricultural use, for machinery in
factories and for transport. With
the development of a viable steam
engine, steam power rapidly
replaced horse, wind and water
power.
Source 2

Horse power
The oldest form of power available
to humans was their own physical
muscle power. Horses, donkeys and
oxen had been used as beasts of
burden since ancient times, and
were still commonly used in the
eighteenthcentury. Long-distance
travel was usually carried out on
horseback or in a horse-drawn cart
or carriage. Poor people who did not
own a horse tended not to travel more
than a days walk from their homes.
Source 1

Andrew Meikles
threshing
machine,
shown in this
engraving from
c. 1850, is an
example of a
horse-powered
machine.
38
Barges were towed along canals by horses as shown in this c. 1880 artwork.
Carts drawn by teams of oxen were

used to transport goods over long
distances, and teams of oxen had been
used for centuries to plough the fields.
Source 3

A medieval flour mill with water wheel
Horses in agriculture and mining

With the coming of the agricultural
and industrial changes of the
eighteenth and nineteenthcenturies,
there was a continuing reliance on
horses as a source of power. For
example, the horse-powered threshing
machine was used to separate grain
from the stalks and husks of the wheat
plant (see Source 1 ). This machine
was invented in 1784 by a Scotsman,
Andrew Meikle. Small ponies, known
as pit ponies, were used to haul carts
full of coal in underground coalmines.
Canal boats or barges used to move
goods were hauled along by horses
walking along tow-paths on the canal
bank (see Source 2 ).
Water power
Water power had been used in
England since ancient Roman times.
A water wheel with blades or buckets
around its rim would be driven by
flowing water, usually from a swiftly
flowing stream or river (see Source 3 ).
The power generated by the turning
water wheel was used to mill grain
into flour. Early sawmills used water
wheels to power large circular saws.
Many of the first textile mills in
England were powered by water, with
the force of the water sufficient to
drive machines in multi-storey factory
buildings.
Source 4

A painting of Richard Arkwrights
Masson Mill on the Derwent River in Derbyshire,
which was powered by a giant water wheel.
Wind power
Like water power, wind power had
been used in England for centuries.
The wind had been used to drive
ships since ancient times, and sailing
ships were the standard form of sea
transport for several hundred years
until the mid nineteenthcentury.
Windmills were introduced to England
in the twelfthcentury. They were used
primarily for milling grain to make
flour, and later to drive pumps to drain
surplus water from marshlands.
39
Source 5

This sixteenth-century English
windmill was used to mill grain into flour.
Source 7

The
Boulton and Watt
steam engine
drove a large
wheel that could
be used to power
many different
types of machines.
Steam power
One of the most significant advances of the Industrial
Revolution was the development of steam power. While
the potential of using steam to provide power had been
known for centuries, the first practical steam engine
was the atmospheric engine developed by Thomas
Newcomen in 1712 (see Source 6 ). This machine used
Source 6

The Newcomen steam engine drove a large beam
that worked a pump to remove water from underground mines.
Chain-beam lever
steam to drive a piston, which powered a large horizontal

beam. The Newcomen atmospheric engine was used
primarily to pump surplus water out of underground
mines, particularly coalmines.
Piston
Steam power in coalmines
Cylinder
Pump
plunger
Counterweight
Boiler
Heat
40
The Newcomen engine was a huge step forward

because it allowed underground coalmines to be sunk
to greater depths. Removing excess water had always
been one of the barriers to deep-pit mining, and so had
restricted the amount and quality of coal that could
be extracted (see spread 2.6). The coalmining industry
really took off from the mid eighteenthcentury. As the
Industrial Revolution gathered pace, coal would prove to
be a very important fuel.
Source 8

Artwork of factories in the English city of Manchester, c.1840
James Watts steam engine

The next big step forward was
James Watts steam engine, developed
about 1769. Watt produced an engine
that had a separate compartment for
cooling the steam back to water, after
it had been used to drive a piston.
Instead of driving a large beam,
Watts steam engine powered a large
flywheel, so it could provide the same
type of continuous power that had
previously been possible only with a
water wheel. This meant the steam
engine sold by Watt and his partner,
Matthew Boulton, could be used
to power many different types of
machinery (see Source 7 ).
As we shall see later in this chapter,
the development of the steam engine
was to be a pivotal event in the
Industrial Revolution. Steam engines
were able to power larger and larger
machines, which in turn led to
bigger factories. Their successful use
in coalmines saw coal replace wood
as the major fuel source. Steam was
to revolutionise both land and sea
transport in the nineteenthcentury as
railways and steam-driven ships came
into use.
Student workbook
2.3

1 Identify and explain two examples of the use of animals as a source of power
that continued even after the agricultural and industrial changes of the
eighteenthcentury.
2 Referring to Sources 3 and 4 , explain how water was used to drive factory
machines.
3 Explain the contribution to the Industrial Revolution of Newcomens steam
engine.

James Watt developed the idea
of horsepower as a unit of
measurement of power. His original
calculations compared the power
of a steam engine with the work
done by horses in providing power
to drive machines. The term is still
used today to measure the output
of many different types of engines.
The watt, as a unit of energy, was
named after him.
4 While it worked well for the milling of grain (see Source 5 ), why might wind
power have been unsuitable for driving machinery in factories?
5 What does Source 4 tell us about the limitations of water as a means of
driving factory machines?
6 Compare Sources 6 and 7 , and explain how Watts improvements to the steam
engine would have increased the usefulness of steam as a source of power.
7 What does Source 8 tell us about the main form of power in Manchester,
England, in the mid nineteenthcentury?

8 Many historians claim that the Industrial Revolution did not really take off until
steam power was widely used. Identify and explain three major contributions
that steam power would have made to the Industrial Revolution.
41
2.5 Making textiles:
from home to factory
Historians generally agree that it was the textile industry, and particularly the cotton industry, that was the main driver
of the Industrial Revolution. During the second half of the eighteenthcentury the production of cotton textiles changed
from being a cottage industry to a factory-based enterprise.
The traditional textile industry

Textile production had been an important part of the
English economy for centuries, but the emphasis was
mainly on woollen goods. Cotton cloth was produced
only in small quantities, as English cotton producers
could not compete in quality or price with imported
cloth from India. Until the eighteenthcentury, textile
production was a cottage industry, carried out by farmers
and agricultural workers in their homes after normal
Source 1

working hours. Children would clean and prepare the raw

fibres, women would spin the yarn, and men would weave
the cloth. Raw wool was sourced from English sheep,
while raw cotton came largely from America where it was
grown by slaves (see chapter 4), the West Indies and the
eastern Mediterranean area.
Raw fibre was delivered to villages by merchants, who
later collected the finished products, and paid the villagers
for their work. Traditional textile production is described
in Sources 13 .
Traditional textile production step 1
In traditional textile production, the rough fibres were first manually carded,
using two hand-held paddles to untangle and straighten the fibres.
Source 2

The fibres were spun into thread using a spinning wheel.
42
Source 3

The thread could then be woven into cloth on a hand loom, by passing a
shuttle carrying a thread (known as the weft) horizontally through fixed
vertical threads (known as the warp).
Innovation in
the textile industry
Early innovations in the textile
industry applied to both cotton and
woollen production, but the period
after the 1750s saw a greater demand
for cotton products. This was due to
an increased foreign market for cotton
goods, particularly in Europe, and
increases in population and domestic
incomes. With the domestic-based
industry no longer able to meet this
demand, inventors began to develop
spinning and weaving machines to
improve both the quantity and quality
of cloth produced.
Spinners and weavers

Traditionally, one weaver required
three or four spinners to provide
enough yarn for his loom. After
John Kays flying shuttle (see Source 4
overleaf ), patented in 1733, made
weaving more efficient, it required the
output of as many as a dozen spinners
to supply the necessary yarn for one
weaver. As the flying shuttle came
to be used more widely during and
after the 1750s, it became clear that
a more efficient method of spinning
was needed. The development of the
spinning jenny in the 1760s responded
to this need (see Source 5 overleaf ).
Early models were able to spin eight
spindles of yarn simultaneously, and
later models were able to hold more
than 100 spindles at one time.
The move to factory

production
The new spinning and weaving
machines had outgrown the cottages
of spinners and weavers. Larger
buildings were needed to house them,
and textile production began to be
moved into specialised factories,
known as cotton mills. By the 1780s
all stages of textile manufacture
were becoming centralised in mills,
particularly in the growing towns
of Lancashire in northern England.
Sources 48 show the progress made in
the textile industry over 50 years.
43
Source 4

Innovation in the textile industry 1733
John Kay invented the flying shuttle, which

allowed weaving to be performed more quickly.
Source 5

James Hargreaves developed the

spinning jenny, which could spin
multiple threads simultaneously.
Source 7

Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule,

which improved the spinning
process to produce better
quality thread.
Source 6

Innovation in
the textile industry 1769
James Arkwright
patented the water
frame, a spinning
machine powered
by running water.
Similar machines
were later powered
by steam.
The first large textile factories

in England were located in and
around the city of Manchester. The
term manchester is still used today
to describe household cotton-based
items such as tablecloths, bedding
and towels.
44
Source 8

Innovation in the textile industry 1780s
Textile production began to be centralised in factories.

Initially they were built close to rivers to draw on water
power, but eventually this became unnecessary as
steam power was adopted.
Edmund Cartwright developed the power loom, shown below in

this artwork from c. 1844, which mechanised the weaving process.
A Boulton and Watt steam engine was first used to power a
textile mill, leading to the possibility of mass factory production.
carding the process of untangling and straightening raw wool

or cotton fibres
cottage industry small-scale manufacturing in which raw
materials are processed in workers homes
spinning the twisting of carded fibres into lengths of
continuous thread or yarn
warp the fixed threads used in the weaving process
weft the horizontal movable thread that is woven through the
warp to create cloth
Student workbook
2.4
1 Why was the English textile industry traditionally based on

wool rather than cotton?
2 Which members of a family would be most likely to use
each of the devices shown in Sources 13 ?
3 Explain two factors that led to an increased demand for
cotton products by the 1750s.
7 Most historians identify changes in textile production

in eighteenth-century Britain as a key element of the
Industrial Revolution.
a What is meant by the term revolutionary change?
b Why would changes in the textile industry
in eighteenth-century Britain be regarded as
revolutionary?

4 Why did the invention of the flying shuttle (see Source 4 )
make it necessary for a machine such as the spinning
jenny (see Source 5 ) to be invented?
5 Explain the significance of the invention of the water frame
(see Source 6 ) in the move away from cottage industry.
6 The power loom in Source 8 could have been powered
by either water or steam. Explain how this power actually
drove the loom.

8 It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention.
In what ways were the inventions in the eighteenthcentury English textile industry a response to
necessity?
9 If you were a farm worker earning extra money by
spinning or weaving in your cottage, what might your
reactions have been to the change to factory production?
45
2.6 Coal and iron

The progress of the Industrial Revolution was assisted
by the increased use of coal, a more efficient fuel
than wood and charcoal. Also, improvements in the
production of iron and steel resulted in metals that were
stronger and cheaper to produce, and could be applied
to a wider variety of uses.
extracted from the ground had to have various impurities

removed. This was achieved by a process known as
smelting, in which heat was applied to the ore in a blast
furnace. For centuries the source of heat for English blast
furnaces had been charcoal, obtained by the heating and
partial burning of wood. The product of the blast furnaces
was known as pig iron.
Coalmining
Coal is a much more efficient fuel than wood; that is,
a given weight of coal will burn for longer and provide
greater heat than a similar weight of wood. Britain had
a very rich supply of coal, but traditional coalmining
practice allowed only the extraction of coal from shallow
bell pits (see Source 1 ). This meant that coal was not
widely available and was therefore more expensive than
wood. Deep-pit mining could not be pursued because of
the amount of water that would flood the shafts. Pumping
out surplus water from mines with the use of steam-driven
pumps (see spread2.4) made coal more readily available
and cheaper to mine. This coal could be used as fuel for
the steam engines that would come into more widespread
use as the Industrial Revolution progressed.
Developments in iron production

Methods of producing iron had been known throughout
Europe since ancient times. To produce iron that could
be used for tools, weapons and other implements, iron ore
Source 1

46
Coalmining had traditionally been carried out in shallow bell pits.
Pig iron was so called because of the method of casting

molten iron from blast furnaces into moulds. These moulds
were laid in a row in a bed of sand, and fed the molten
iron from a common channel. The process was said to
resemble a litter of piglets being fed by a mother sow, and
so the iron at this stage was called pig iron.
Burning coke in blast furnaces

The growth in coal production meant that coal became
more widely available for use in the smelting process, but
impurities in the coal tended to contaminate the iron,
compromising its quality. During the seventeenthcentury
methods of burning out the impurities in coal to produce
coke were improved. In 1709 Abraham Darby developed
a blast furnace that burned coke to produce iron of
a superior quality. The use of coke also allowed the
construction of larger blast furnaces capable of producing
greater quantities of pig iron.
Source 2

The Iron Bridge in Shropshire, England, built by the
grandson of Abraham Darby, is an example of late eighteenth-century
iron construction.
Henry Cort and puddling

While pig iron had many uses, it could be brittle because
of the presence of carbon. In 1783 Henry Cort developed
a method of reducing the carbon content of pig iron
through a process known as puddling. This resulted in a
product that was stronger and could be bent, rolled or cast
into many different shapes. High-quality iron could now
be used for making machinery, boilers for steam-driven
engines, and a huge variety of tools and implements, as
well as bridges and the framework for buildings.
As iron production methods improved, quantities
increased, and large-scale production made good-quality
iron cheaper. By 1850 Britain was producing more than
seventy times as much iron as it had in 1760 (see Source 3 ).
Source 3


1 Explain how the method of mining depicted in Source 1
limited the use of coal before the eighteenthcentury.
2 The Iron Bridge, shown in Source 2 , was opened in the
1780s. Explain why such a bridge would not have been
practical before this time.

3 Explain why deep-pit mining became possible during
the eighteenthcentury.
4 What had been the traditional source of heat for English
blast furnaces?
5 Identify the problem that Abraham Darby was able to
solve, and explain his solution.
6 In what way did Henry Cort improve the production of
iron?
British pig iron production, 17601850
Year
Tons
1760
30000
1785
50000
1796
125000
1806
244000
1823
455000
1830
677000
1840
1400000
1850
2200000
Source: P. Riden, The output of the British iron industry before 1870, in Economic
History Review, 2nd series, pp. 443, 448, 455.
7 In what ways do you think the figures in Source 3

suggest that a revolutionary change occurred in Britain
between 1750 and 1850?
bell pit a traditional form of coalmining in which a shaft is dug

down to a seam of coal and then excavated outwards, with the
coal raised to the surface using a winch and buckets
blast furnace a type of furnace into which air is forced to raise
the temperature sufficiently to carry out the smelting of iron ore
coke a type of fuel produced by using heat to remove
impurities such as coal gas and tar from coal
pig iron the initial product resulting from the smelting of iron
ore in a blast furnace
47
2.7 Entrepreneurs and banks

Many of the innovations of the
eighteenthcentury that fuelled the
Industrial Revolution could not have
occurred without a willingness of
people to invest their savings in new
enterprises, and a banking system
able to channel that money into the
most profitable of these businesses.
Source 2

The Bank of England, established in 1694,
became the major source of lending for the government.
This artwork was created in the nineteenth century.
The importance of banks

Today we are accustomed to banks as
places where we deposit our savings
and borrow money for a variety of
personal and business purposes. A
modern industrial economy could
not survive without a banking system.
In pre-industrial times, for example,
production of textiles was a cottage
industry and coalmining took place
in shallow pits, so little expensive
equipment was needed. The costs of
building a factory and equipping it
with machinery, or providing steam-driven pumps for a
deep-pit coalmine were a very different matter. Anyone
wishing to set up these types of businesses needed access to
finance, so a well-organised banking system was essential.
Growth of the banking system

Modern banking as we now understand it dates from
Renaissance Italy, and particularly the wealthy cities of
Venice and Florence. The sixteenth and seventeenth
Source 1

Renaissance Italy was the birthplace of modern banking.
This artwork from the fifteenth century shows an Italian banking house.
centuries in England and Scotland saw the spread of

banking practices that were the forerunners of todays
modern banks. Before 1546 in England, it was illegal to
charge interest on money lent, but the law was changed
after that date. This change provided an opportunity for
profits to be made from lending money to merchants
wishing to set up business ventures.
Goldsmith bankers
Through the sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies, many
of the activities we now associate with banks were carried
out by goldsmiths. While their major activity involved
working with gold and other precious metals, goldsmiths
could also provide safe custody for money and other
valuables. They also kept quantities of foreign currency
that could be exchanged by merchants wishing to travel
overseas. By the early eighteenthcentury, these goldsmith
bankers had developed a well-organised network of private
banks that were ready to lend money for worthwhile
business enterprises.
Entrepreneurship and the middle class

In most of Europe the remnants of the feudal system had
persisted from medieval times. This meant that most of
the power and wealth remained with the monarchy and
the landowning aristocracy. In Britain the power of the
monarchy and the aristocratic class had been weakened by
48
The first banknotes were issued by goldsmiths as receipts

for gold held in safekeeping. The Bank of England was
established in 1694 to lend money to the government, and
gained a virtual monopoly over the issuing of banknotes in
England in 1708.
Source 4

Adam Smith,
whose head appears
on the British 20
note, believed that
entrepreneurship was a
significant factor in the
creation of wealth.
the Civil War (164249). The English Parliament came to

strongly represent the interests of the merchants, traders
and others involved in running businesses.
Government support for business

Between 1650 and 1673 Parliament passed the
Navigation Acts, which required all goods traded between
Britain and its colonies to be carried in British ships.
There was also stronger enforcement of the Statute
of Monopolies of 1623, which protected the rights of
inventors to profit from patents on their inventions.
By the eighteenthcentury an environment that favoured
entrepreneurship had developed in Britain.
Entrepreneurship
More and more people saw the advantages of investing
in business opportunities. Developments in agriculture
encouraged farmers to operate their farms as profitmaking businesses. Innovations in the textile industry
encouraged investment in larger and larger factories. The
increasing demand for iron and coal made investment
in larger scale mining a profitable activity. Much of the
progress made during the Industrial Revolution was due
to the availability of money through a well-organised
banking system, and a willingness of entrepreneurs to
invest that money in business ventures.
Source 3

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776
Scottish philosopher Adam Smith recognised the value of

having a government supportive of trade and commerce
when he wrote in 1776:
To found a great empire for the sole purpose of
raising up a people of customers may at first sight
appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers.
It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation
of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose
government is influenced by shopkeepers.
entrepreneur a person who organises a business venture,

and assumes the financial risks associated with it, in the hope of
making a profit
entrepreneurship the act of being an entrepreneur
goldsmith a craftsman who works with gold and other
precious metals

1 Why was cottage industry able to survive without access
to a modern banking system?
2 Explain the significance of the English law legalising the
charging of interest on borrowed money.
3 What was the role of goldsmiths in the development of
the banking system?
4 In what ways did the English Parliament support
business interests in the late seventeenth and early
eighteenthcenturies?

5 What does the image of the inside of the Bank of
England (see Source 2 ) tell us about the importance of
banking in England when compared with the activities
shown in Source 1 ?
6 Adam Smith (see Source 4 ) described the English as
a nation of shopkeepers (see Source 3 ). Napoleon
Bonaparte used these words as an insult directed
against the English. In small groups, discuss how
the qualities of a nation of shopkeepers might have
contributed to the progress of the Industrial Revolution.

7 Adam Smith is often described as the father of modern
economics and of modern capitalism. Who was Adam
Smith, and what did he do to earn these titles?
49
2.8 Canals, roads and railways

As new technologies were transforming agriculture, the
textile industry and mining, the Industrial Revolution also
brought great changes in the field of transport. Rapid
improvements in methods of transport greatly increased
the availability of the raw materials needed to feed the
new factories. They also allowed the rapid distribution of
finished products to larger numbers of customers.
The importance of transport

In pre-industrial times, most goods were produced in
small quantities by local producers to suit local needs.
Industrialisation often meant that production moved away
from local supplies and local markets. If a factory relied
on water power, it had to be located next to a fast-flowing
river. If it relied on steam power, proximity to coal and
water supplies would be necessary. Factories were not
producing just for the local market. They needed reliable
means for transporting large quantities of raw materials to
the factory and finished products away from the factory.
Canals
Transportation of goods by water had always been
important in Britain. As an island nation, with a large
Source 1

A factory needed access to efficient means of transport to
bring in raw materials and send out finished products.
50
number of navigable rivers, coastal and river shipping had

been widely used for centuries. Most roads were still no
more than muddy tracks, and horse-drawn carts could
carry only small loads without getting bogged. Much
larger loads could be transported on boats and barges,
so rivers and canals were one answer to transporting the
products of industrialisation. The first major canals of the
Industrial Revolution were built to transport coal from
the Lancashire coalfields to newly developing industrial
cities. The Sankey Canal, built to carry coal to the city
of Liverpool, was opened in 1757. The Bridgewater
Canal, opened in 1761, carried coal to the growing city of
Manchester. Alongside each canal was a towpath on which
the horse towing a barge would walk (see spread 2.4). One
horse could tow a barge carrying ten times the weight that
could be loaded onto a cart.
Canal mania
The canals were privately owned, so those who built them
were able to charge a fee to anyone wishing to transport
goods on them. This meant they paid for themselves
within a few years, and were soon making a profit for
their owners. Even with the fees paid to canal owners,
transporting coal by canal was considerably cheaper than
transporting by road. In a few years the price of coal in
cities like Liverpool and Manchester had halved, making
Source 2

The Duke of Bridgewater,
shown in this c. 1754 artwork, financed
the building of a canal to transport coal
from his mine to the city of Manchester.
steam power even more economical. The financial success

of the Sankey and Bridgewater canals inspired many
others to invest in canal building, and the next fiftyyears
saw a period of canal mania. Between the 1760s and
1815 more than three thousandkilometres of canals were
built across England to carry raw materials to factories and
finished products away to markets.
Source 4

Main roads were often in a poor state
of repair, as shown in this artwork from c. 1824.
Roads
Before the eighteenthcentury, every man in a village
was expected to provide his labour free of charge for a
certain number of days each year to maintain local roads.
Major roads between large towns and cities received little
maintenance and were often in a very poor state of repair.
In the late seventeenthcentury, local magistrates were
given the power to charge tolls on the use of main roads to
provide funds for maintenance.
Turnpike trusts
From 1707 onwards groups of nominated trustees were
given the power to collect these tolls and supervise road
maintenance. These toll roads were known as turnpikes,
and the groups of trustees called turnpike trusts. By
the 1750s most of the main roads leading to London
had been converted to turnpikes. By the 1830s more
than 30000kilometres of turnpikes connected most
of the major cities in England, Wales and Scotland.
The quality of roads between major cities improved
dramatically during this time, although the less important
Source 3

Canals became the major method of transporting
goods to and from factories.
roads remained in a poor state. Eventually the railways

took business away from the turnpikes, rendering
them unprofitable, and road maintenance became the
responsibility of local councils.
Railways
One of the biggest advances in transport came with the
growth of the railways. This development came as a result
of applying steam engines to tramway systems. In coal
and iron ore mines, horses were used to draw wagons
out of the mines along tracks. By the beginning of the
nineteenthcentury steam technology had developed
sufficiently for experiments to begin in the use of steam to
drive moving vehicles. The first locomotives were used to
haul trucks loaded with coal from mines. These inspired
an engineer, George Stephenson, to promote the use of
steam locomotives to haul a wide variety of goods, as well
as passengers.
The first successful railways

The first public railway was opened in north-east
England in 1825. Designed to carry coal from mines near
Darlington to the port of Stockton, it employed George
Stephensons Locomotion No. 1 locomotive. Before long,
the owners expanded its activities to provide a passenger
service with a regular timetable.
In the meantime, Stephenson and his son Robert were
contracted to build a railway line between Manchester,
the largest textile producing city, and Liverpool, a major
port almost 60kilometres away. The line, opened in 1830,
51
Source 5

Extracts from the toll sign
at Aberystwith Turnpike in Wales
Source 7

Stephensons Locomotion No.1
is now on display at the Darlington Railway
Museum.
RATE OF TOLL TO BE TAKEN

AT THIS GATE
For every Horse or other Beast

drawing any Coach, Chariot,
Berlin, Landau, Landaulet,
Barouche, Chaise, Phaeton,
Vis-a-vis, Calash, Curricle, Car,
Chair, Gig, Hearse, Caravan, Litter,
or any such like Carriage 6 d
[pence]
For every Horse or other Beast
except Asses drawing any
Waggon, Wain, Cart, or other
such like Carriage 4 d.
For every Ass drawing any Cart,
Carriage, or other Vehicle 2 d
For every Horse or Mule, laden or
unladen, and not drawing 1 d
For every Ass, laden or unladen,
and not drawing 1 d
EXEMPTION FROM TOLLS
Horses or Carriages attending

her Majesty, or any of the Royal
Family, or returning therefrom;
Horses or Carriages employed for
the repairs of any Turnpike Roads,
Highways or Bridges; Horses or
Carriages employed in conveying
Manure (save Lime) for improving
Lands
was constructed as a double track to allow trains to travel in both directions.

It was designed to bring imported raw materials to Manchester and to return
completed goods to Liverpool for export. Stephensons latest locomotive, the
Rocket, was used to haul both goods and passengers between the two cities.
The line was a huge financial success and became the model for a succession of
railways that were soon constructed throughout Britain.
Source 6

Steam locomotives were first used to haul trucks
from coalmines, as shown in this nineteenth-century artwork.
The first successful locomotive

was known as Puffing Billy. Built
in 1813, it was used to haul coal
from the mines to a nearby port
in Northumberland, in north-east
England. Today it is located in the
British National Science Museum
in London. Its name was the
inspiration for the steam train that
today travels between Belgrave
and Gembrook in the Dandenong
Ranges east of Melbourne.
52
Student workbook
2.5
Source 8

Stephensons Rocket, shown in
this 1894 illustration, was first used on the
very successful Manchester to Liverpool line.
Explanation and
communication
1 Why were reliable methods of
transport more important to the
process of industrialisation than they
had been in pre-industrial society?
2 What was the main purpose of the first
canals built in Britain?
3 What do Sources 3 and 4 tell us about
the advantages of canals over road
transport?
4 What were turnpike trusts and how
were they able to improve road
transport?
5 When were the first railways opened
in Britain and what was their main
purpose?
The railways expand

The growing demand for fast, efficient transport for both raw materials
and the products of industrialisation led to a rapid expansion in railway
construction. The following 20years saw huge growth in the rail
network. By 1852 there were more than 10000 kilometres of track
in Britain. Lines extended from London to the coast of Wales and
north to Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland. The industrialised north
and Midlands of England were serviced by extensive rail networks,
transporting both passengers and a huge variety of goods.
Source 9

The march of progress! In the 1830s,
a railway bridge was built over the original Sankey
Canal. This artwork was published in 1831.
6 What advantages did the factory in

Source 1 have in relation to transport?
7 Examine Source 5 . Give three
examples of groups of people who
were exempt from tolls on the
Aberystwyth Turnpike in Wales.
8 What does Source 8 tell us about the
possible future use of rail transport,
when compared with Sources 6 and 7 ?
9 Why is it appropriate to label Source 9
the march of progress?
CHRONOLOGY, TERMS
AND CONCEPTS
10 Draw up a timeline that shows the
developments in road, canal and rail
transport in Britain between 1700 and
1860.

11 Canals and railways were initially
privately owned and designed to make
a profit for their owners. Why might
a factory owner be prepared to pay
these additional transport costs?
12 While initially designed to carry
goods, railways soon began carrying
passengers. What effects might this
have had on ordinary people and their
families?
trustees a group appointed to manage

property on behalf of another person or
organisation
turnpike a type of toll road
turnpike trusts organisations established by
Parliament with the power to collect tolls on
particular roads and use the money to pay for
maintenance of those roads
53
2.9 The workshop of the world

As the first country to experience industrialisation,
Britain led the world in factory production and the
mechanisation of transport and agriculture. The export
of British techniques and inventions, as well as its
domination of world industrial production, led to Britains
becoming known as the workshop of the world.
A world leader
By 1850 Britain had become the most dominant
industrial power in the world. It produced more than half
the worlds textile products, 80per cent of its coal and
close to half of its iron. Other countries turned to British
engineers to build their railways and imported British
machinery to set up their own factories. British steam
engines were the biggest and most powerful and were
exported to all parts of the world.
Industrialisation in Europe
With the end of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe in
1815, Britain and the continent of Europe were once
more free to exchange ideas and trade. The new industrial
methods that had been pioneered in Britain were quickly
taken up in other countries.
France
In France the first railways were begun in 1832. While
these were financed by French entrepreneurs and banks,
virtually all railway construction was carried out under
the supervision of British engineers. Imported British
locomotives were used until the 1850s, when French
industry began to produce its own. Industrialisation
progressed slowly during the nineteenthcentury in France,
Source 1

Coloured lithograph,
created 1856, showing German
iron smelting. Germany was to
become Europes largest iron and
steel producer by 1900.
54
where agriculture remained the dominant economic

activity.
Germany
Germany did not become a unified country until 1871.
Industrialisation occurred initially in Prussia, the most
powerful of the independent German states. With access
to the rich coal and iron ore deposits of the Rhineland,
the Prussians quickly established a thriving iron and steel
industry. The first German railways were built in 1835
but, by 1850, the German states had built almost half
as much railway track as in Britain, and twice as much
as in France. After unification in 1871 Germany quickly
expanded its industrial production; by the beginning of
the twentiethcentury it was producing more steel than
Britain.
The United States is industrialised

The Industrial Revolution also spread quickly to North
America. Following their independence from Britain
in 1783, the Americans set about developing their own
industries, with innovations of their own. In 1794 Eli
Whitney developed the cotton gin, a machine for separating
the seeds from raw cotton. Samuel Slater introduced the
technology for water-powered textile production in 1793.
The application of steam power to boats was pioneered
by American inventors such as Robert Fulton in the early
nineteenthcentury. Samuel Morse developed the telegraph
in the 1840s, and Alexander Graham Bell was the first
to patent a workable telephone in 1876. Both inventions
were to revolutionise communications. As in Europe,
the Americans were also quick to develop iron and steel
industries, and to push through a network of railways
during the nineteenthcentury.
Source 2

was the first to patent a workable
telephone. In this photograph, he is
making the first call from New York
to Chicago in 1892.
By 1900 the United States had

overtaken Britain as the worlds
leading industrial power. By this
time the industrial output of the US
was almost seven times what it
had been in 1870. Large American
corporations run by entrepreneurs
such as Cornelius Vanderbilt,
Andrew Carnegie and John D.
Rockefeller were by then among the
most prosperous in the world.
Student workbook
2.6
The Great Exhibition

In 1851 the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations
was held in Hyde Park, London. While it was intended as a celebration of
technology and industrial design from all over the world, it also had the aim
of demonstrating British industrial power. It was held in a temporary steel
and glass building known as the Crystal Palace, which was itself designed to
show off British architectural engineering. The quality and quantity of British
innovation on show was a clear indication that at that time Britain was indeed
the workshop of the world.
Source 3

The Crystal Palace was designed
to show off British engineering during the Great
Exhibition of 1851, as shown in this 1854 artwork.
Jacaranda World
History Atlas
pp. 1501
Explanation and
communication
1 In what ways was Britain the
dominant industrial power in the
world in 1850?
2 Outline the main features of the
spread of the Industrial Revolution
into Europe.
3 Source 1 shows a basic German
iron foundry in 1856. What
factors enabled Germany to
rapidly expand its iron and steel
production in the second half of
the nineteenthcentury?
4 Give two examples of innovations
contributing to industrialisation
that were pioneered in the US.

5 Examine Source 3 . Why would
the construction of a building
like the Crystal Palace have been
impossible a century earlier?
6 How did a building like this help
Britain to achieve its main purpose
in hosting the Great Exhibition?
Historical questions
and research
7 Using internet sources, research
one French or German innovation
that contributed to the progress
of industrialisation in that country
and was taken up by other
countries.
Napoleonic Wars a series of wars

between the French Empire, led by
Napoleon Bonaparte, and a number of
other European nations between 1803
and 1815.
55
2.10 Trade, empire and shipping

Britain was able to take greatest advantage of its
Industrial Revolution because of its extensive trade
networks. This enabled it to import large quantities of
raw materials from around the world, process these
in its factories and export the finished products to
worldwide markets.
A trading nation
Long before the Industrial Revolution, Britain had
built up trade networks throughout the world. British
naval power began to grow during the second half of
the sixteenthcentury, encouraging the establishment of
colonies in North America and the West Indies. In the
seventeenthcentury British trade with Asia expanded,
with the East India Company establishing trading posts
in India. British trading interests were keen to remove
competition from other countries, such as France. Victory
in the SevenYears War (175663) allowed Britain to take
over many French colonies in North America, India and
the Caribbean.
Colonies and empire

As the first country to experience industrialisation, Britain
was able to use its industrial strength to build an empire.
Raw materials would be imported by ship and processed
Source 1

in British factories, and then the finished products

exported, often to the same colonies that had provided the
raw materials. By 1800, Britain had the beginnings of a
worldwide empire, which provided valuable sources of raw
materials to feed industrial growth. As we have seen, the
cotton industry was a major source of industrial growth,
but British industry was soon able to process raw materials
imported from almost every continent. In order to
protect its trading routes, Britain also established the most
powerful navy in the world, along with a very prosperous
shipbuilding industry.
Source 2

Main sources of raw materials from different parts
of the British Empire
British colony
Raw materials provided
Canada
Furs, timber, fish
Jamaica
Sugar, coffee
British Guiana
Sugar, tobacco
Gambia
Cocoa
Bermuda
Salt, whale oil, baleen
India
Cotton, tea, timber, sugar
Penang and Malacca
Spices, timber
Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)
Tea, timber, cocoa
New South Wales
Whale oil, baleen, wool
The British Empire in 1800

ARC TI C
O CE AN
IRELAND
BRITAIN
CANADA
ATL ANTI C
BENGAL
GAMBIA
SIERRA LEONE
INDIA
CEYLON
I N D IAN
PENANG
MALACCA
BERMUDA
O CE AN
BAHAMAS
ANTIGUA
BELIZE
BARBADOS
MOSQUITO COAST
TOBAGO
TRINIDAD
BRITISH
GUIANA
PACI FI C
JAMAICA
O CE AN
O CE AN
NEW SOUTH WALES
CAPE COLONY
VAN DIEMENS
LAND
Key
British possessions
in 1800
56
2000
4000
kilometres
6000
Source 3

Clippers
such as the Cutty Sark,
shown in this twentiethcentury artwork, could
transport goods more
quickly than many
steamships of the time.
EXPLANATION AND
COMMUNICATION
1 How was Britain able to build up
a large trading empire by the mid
eighteenth century?
2 Identify the two main changes to
shipping that resulted from the
Industrial Revolution.
3 Why were paddle steamers not
appropriate for international
trade? Which development
ultimately allowed steamships to
take over international shipping?
Developments in shipping
Until the late eighteenthcentury,
all ships were built of timber and
powered by sail. The Industrial
Revolution brought two major
changes to shipping. Advances in
the processing of iron led to the
development of iron hulls for ships.
The strength this gave the hull
allowed the building of larger ships
able to carry more cargo. The second
change was the application of steam
power to shipping.
The age of the clippers

Despite the development of steam
power, square-rigged sailing ships
continued to be widely used until the
1870s. Built for speed, these ships
were said to travel at a good clip (or
speed), and were therefore known
as clippers. They generally had iron
hulls, were able to compete with

steam-driven ships because they were
much faster than the early steamships
and did not need to use valuable
cargo space for carrying coal for fuel.
Clippers were used extensively from
the 1840s until the 1870s for trade
between Britain and her colonies.
Steam power
The first steam-driven ships were
paddle steamers, either with one large
rear-mounted paddle, or with paddles
mounted on either side of the hull.
While these proved effective for travel
in rivers and for coastal use, paddledriven ships were not really suitable
for ocean travel. It was not until the
development of the screw propeller
in the 1840s that large ocean-going
steam ships began to dominate sea
travel, both for freight and passenger
travel.
The owners and crews of clipper ships were very proud of the speeds their
ships could achieve and regularly set out to break new records. The fastest
time recorded for a clipper to sail from Plymouth in England to Sydney, NSW, a
distance of 22 130 km, was recorded by the Cutty Sark, which completed the
journey in 72 days. The ships of the First Fleet took around 250 days to complete
the same voyage in 178788.
4 Using information from

Sources 1 and 2 , explain why it
was important for Britain to have
a powerful navy and a strong
shipbuilding industry.
5 Source 2 refers to baleen as a
raw material imported from the
colonies. Find out what baleen is
and research the various uses for
it during the nineteenth century.
6 What does Source 3 tell us about
the two main advantages of
clippers as a form of transport for
goods to and from Britain?
PERSPECTIVES AND
INTERPRETATIONS
7 In small groups, discuss the ways
in which trade and the growth
of an empire might be seen to
be major factors in the progress
of the Industrial Revolution in
Britain.
8 During the nineteenth century,
European countries such as
France and Germany competed
with each other, and with Britain,
to take control of colonies in
Africa and Asia. What is a possible
explanation for this competition
to build trading empires?

British Empire
pp. 1523
colony an area of land settled by

people from another country. This can
involve military conquest if the original
inhabitants resist that settlement.
empire a number of different
countries or colonies controlled by the
government of one country
57
2.11 SkillBuilder
Investigating a historical issue
What is a historical
issue?
A historical issue is a set of
events or concerns related to the
past that historians attempt to
understand and interpret. This
will usually mean trying to find
out why such events or concerns
arose at a particular time. It can
also involve an examination of the
effects of these events on different
groups of people and society as a
whole.
How to investigate a historical issue

As historians setting out to investigate a historical issue, we could follow these steps:
Find examples of primary source evidence relevant to the issue.
Ask who, what, when, where, how and why questions in relation to that evidence.
Form a hypothesis. Remember that a hypothesis is a possible explanation for the
issue we are investigating. We need to test the hypothesis by looking for evidence
that supports it, but we also need to look for evidence that might contradict it. In
this way we can refine the hypothesis to make sure that it is consistent with all the
evidence.
An example of how to investigate a historical issue

Suppose you were investigating the issue: How did improvements in agriculture in
eighteenth-century Britain contribute to population growth? You could use Sources 1 4
to form a hypothesis:
Source 1

Why do we investigate
historical issues?
Examining why something
happened in the past can help
us understand events that
happen today. Take the example
of the Industrial Revolution.
We know that Britain was the
first country to experience the
Industrial Revolution, and that
industrialisation quickly spread to
Europe and North America.
Many parts of the world,
particularly in Africa and Asia,
are still living in subsistence
conditions. These areas have not
experienced industrialisation
as we understand it. We know
that those countries that have
been through the process of
industrialisation generally have
a better standard of living and
greater wealth than those that
have not. If we can understand
why the Industrial Revolution
occurred, it may be possible to
help poorer countries experience
industrialisation and gain the
benefits that accompany it.
58
Source 2

Enclosures in Britain
Area subject
to enclosure
(hectares)
Years
17271760
30000
17611792
194000
17931815
405000
British wheat exports
Year
Wheat exports
(kilograms)
1705
150million
1765
1235million
Source: From The Open Door Web Site,
www.saburchill.com/history/chapters/IR/003f.html.
Source: From P. Deane, The First Industrial Revolution,
Cambridge, 1967, p. 43.
Source 3

Improvements in livestock
Year
Average weight of sheep

sold at market (kilograms)
Average weight of cattle

sold at market (kilograms)
1710
13
167
1795
36
360
Source: From The Open Door Web Site, www.saburchill.com/history/chapters/IR/005.html.
Source 4

British population growth
Year
Population
1761
6146000
1801
8893000
1821
12000000
Source: From J. Gardiner and N. Wenborn (eds), The
History Today Companion to British History, London,

1995, p.610.
IRISH
Student workbook
2.7
Source 5

A map of Britain showing
the location of the major coalfields
100
200
300
kilometres
NORTH
SEA
FIFESHIRE
MIDLOTHIAN
Using the example above as a model, and Sources 5 and 6 as your

evidence, investigate the following issue:
How did the development of steam power affect the location of
textile factories? (Hint: Steam power was first introduced into textile
factories in the 1780s. By the 1830s most factories were powered by
steam engines.)
LANARKSHIRE
NORTHUMBERLAND
AND DURHAM
AYRSHIRE
CUMBERLAND
YORKSHIRE
Source 6

CHESHIRE
SEA
LANCASHIRE
NORTH
WALES
Number of cotton mills in Great Britain, 1787 and 1835
1835
YORKSHIRE,
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
AND DERBYSHIRE
NORTH
STAFFORDSHIRE
LEICESTERSHIRE
SOUTH
STAFFORDSHIRE
SOUTH
WALES
You could ask the following questions in relation to these tables:

1 What do the increases in enclosures tell us about changes in farming
practices?
2 Why was it possible for Britain to increase wheat exports during the
eighteenthcentury?
3 What were the likely effects of the improvement in body weight of animals
sold for meat production?
4 In what ways did increases in population correspond to improvements in
the quantity and quality of food available during the late eighteenth and
early nineteenthcenturies?
You could now form the following hypothesis: The increase in the
enclosure of farming areas in Britain in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenthcenturies contributed to improvements in farming techniques.
This resulted in great increases in the quantity and quality of food available,
supporting rapid increases in the population. You could indicate that each
of the sources supports this hypothesis. In order to test the hypothesis, you
might need to find other supporting evidence, or look for contradictory
evidence.
WARWICKSHIRE
BERKSHIRE
MIDDLESEX
BRISTOL
KENT
English
nel
Key
People
employed
Berkshire
Cheshire
109
31512
Cumberland
13
1658
22
93
11585
33
41
683
32
122415
Leicestershire
592
Middlesex
350
17
20
1723
Staffordshire
13
2048
Westmorland
Yorkshire
11
126
11211
Derbyshire
Lancashire
Nottinghamshire
KENT
Empty
1787
Durham
Chan
Operating
County
Coalfields
Source: From R. Burn, Statistics of the Cotton Trade (1847), p. 26; in A. Aspinall and E. Anthony Smith (eds),
English Historical Documents, XI, 17831832, Oxford University Press, New York, 1959, p. 512.
59

In this chapter we have studied some of the major changes that occurred in Britain in the eighteenth and
nineteenthcenturies that collectively are known as the Industrial Revolution. These include changes to agricultural
production; population increases; developments in the textile, coalmining and iron industries; the impact of
changes in the type of power used; changes in transport; and the significance of banking, entrepreneurship and
access to a colonial empire.
Quick quiz
1 List the four crops that would be grown simultaneously
under the four-field system.
2 Identify one innovator in eighteenth-century
British agriculture, and explain what his innovation
was.
3 List two reasons for the sustained growth in the British
population from the early eighteenth century onwards.
4 By how much did the British population increase
between 1801 and 1881?
5 Identify one advantage and one disadvantage to using
water to power a factory.
6 What contributions did Thomas Newcomen and James
Watt make to the Industrial Revolution?
7 What do we mean when we describe traditional textiles
production as a cottage industry?
Source 1

Pittsburgh in the US became a major centre for steel
production in the nineteenth century.
60
8 List two significant innovators in the British textiles

industry, and identify the innovation contributed by each
person.
9 Identify one major reason why it was necessary for textile
production to move into factories.
10 Which innovation led to coal becoming more readily
available as a fuel during the eighteenth century?
11 What was the result of the introduction of Henry Corts
puddling process in steel production?
12 Why was the growth of a banking system important for
the development of the Industrial Revolution?
13 What was canal mania?
14 Identify two examples that demonstrate that Britain was
the most dominant industrial power in the world by 1850.
15 List two reasons for Britain becoming such a major
trading nation during the period of the Industrial
Revolution.
Source 2

Student workbook
2.8, 2.9, 2.10
Distribution of the worlds manufacturing production, 1870 and 1913 (as a percentage of world total)
Great
Britain
US
Germany
France
Russia
Italy
1870
31.8
23.3
13.2
10.3
3.7
2.4
1.0
2.9
0.4
1913
14.0
35.8
15.7
6.4
5.5
2.7
2.3
2.1
1.0
Canada Belgium Sweden
Japan
India
Other
countries
11.0
1.2
1.1
12.2
Source: From Fordham University Internet Modern History Sourcebook, www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/indrevtabs1.html.

1 Examine Source 2 . Great Britains share of world
manufacturing production dropped from 31.8per cent
to 14per cent between 1870 and 1913. Does this mean
that Britain was producing less in 1913 than in 1870?
Explain your answer.
2 Identify the country that increased its manufacturing
output by the greatest amount in the period covered by
this table.
3 What is the total percentage of manufacturing
production that can be clearly identified as occurring in
Europe and North America?
4 In the late nineteenthcentury one Asian country set
out to change from a rural to an industrialised society.
Identify that country from Source 2 .
5 The city of Pittsburgh (see Source 1 ) became a major
centre for American steel production in the nineteenth
century. Identify three features that Pittsburgh and
its surrounding area must have had for it to become a
successful steel-producing city.

1 Although Britain led the world in the industrialisation
process, by 1913 both Germany and the US had
overtaken it. Select one of these two countries and,
using your school library and internet sources, prepare

a report on your selected country, including the
following:
a the natural and population resources the country
had to enable it to industrialise
b the industries that contributed most to the growth in
manufacturing in that country
c any relevant statistics that can demonstrate the
growth that occurred
d the importance of trade in the growth of
industrialisation in your selected country.

questions.
the eighteenthcentury contribute to the Industrial
Revolution?
3 In what ways was Britain in 1850 dramatically different
from Britain in 1750?
Think about your learning over this topic. For each of these statements, tick the box that most accurately reflects your
learning and briefly state your reasons.
Agree
Disagree
Reasons why I agree or disagree
I understand the difference between an industrial

society and a rural society.
I have learned about the relationship between
agriculture and population growth.
I can use examples from the Industrial Revolution
to explain what we mean by the term revolutionary
change.
I can explain the importance of trade in assisting a
country to become industrialised.
I now have a better understanding of how modern
industrialised society developed.
61
CHAPTER
Depth study 1: MAKING A BETTER WORLD?

(II) The impact on people
When a new suburb is established today,
roads and footpaths are built, services such
as water and electricity are connected, and
underground pipes are installed to take
away sewage and stormwater. All these
facilities are usually in place before any
homes are built, and even the construction
of the houses is governed by strict building
regulations. The situation was very different
two hundred years ago.
As we learned in the previous chapter,
the population increased dramatically in
Britain during the Industrial Revolution.
Changes in agricultural practices, as well as
job opportunities in the newly established
factories, brought large numbers of people
into rapidly growing towns and cities. This
influx of people was not matched by the
provision of the types of services we take
for granted today. As we shall see in this
chapter, housing was often hastily and
shoddily built, and urban slums quickly
developed.
The rapid growth of towns during the Industrial Revolution resulted in

most workers and their families living in slum conditions.
When someone enters employment today

in Australia, a range of laws and regulations
determine the wages they will receive and
the conditions they will experience. Health
and safety in the workplace is closely
regulated, with employers required to
provide a safe place of employment. In
the early years of the Industrial Revolution
no such legal safeguards existed. Working
conditions were often dangerous and
unhealthy, and employers could get away
with paying very low wages.

how peoples lives changed
eBook plus
A timeline of
changes during
the Industrial
Revolution
17991800
Parliament passes the
Combination Acts,
making trade unions
illegal.
1819
Parliament passes a
Factory Act limiting
hours of factory work
by children.
Large numbers of
protesters are killed or
injured in the Peterloo
Massacre.
1824
The Combination
Acts are repealed,
allowing workers to
form trade unions.
1833
Parliament passes a
Factory Act banning
children nine years and
younger from working
in factories.
1842
The Mines Act bans the
employment in
coalmines of girls and
women, and boys under
the age of 10.
1871
The Trade Union Act
gives unions official
legal status.
1874
Parliament passes a
Factory Act, setting
maximum allowable
working hours per week
for all workers.
CE
1790
1800
1795
Food riots in parts of
England protest high
bread prices.
1810
In most of Australia today it is illegal to employ anyone

under the age of 15 without gaining a special permit.
Compulsory education throughout childhood is the
norm, and legal safeguards prevent the exploitation
of young people. Two hundred years ago no such
safeguards existed, and children as young as four could
be employed in mines and factories.
181113
Luddites engage in
damaging textile
machines.
1820
1830

1830
The Swing Riots
result in damage to
farm machinery in
parts of rural England.
1840
1834
The Poor Law
Amendment Act forces
the poor to live in
workhouses.
1850
The six Tolpuddle

Martyrs are transported
to Van Diemens Land
for swearing an oath of
loyalty to their trade
union.
1860
1848
The Public Health Act
sets up Boards of
Health to deal with
sanitation problems in
cities and towns.
2 What were the experiences of men, women and

children as workers on farms, and in factories and
mines?
3 What was the impact on towns and cities as people
moved away from the countryside to work in
factories and mines?
4 How were living and working conditions for workers
improved during the nineteenth century?
1 How would you react if your way of life, and that of

your family, was taken away from you and you had
to move somewhere else to do a job you hated?
2 What do you think might happen if there were no
laws enforcing health and safety in the workplace?
1870
1880
1 How did the Industrial Revolution affect population

growth and where people lived?
1875
The Public Health Act
extends the powers of
Health Boards to
control water supply
and sewerage systems.
3 Why do we have laws today that prevent children

under the age of 15 from being employed?
4 How should society treat people who are poor and
underprivileged through no fault of their own?
5 What are some of the problems that might occur if
large numbers of people move into a town or city
over a short period of time?
63
3.1 Life during the Industrial Revolution

In this chapter we will look at the effects
of the Industrial Revolution on many of
the ordinary people in Britain. These were
the people who worked in factories and
mines and lived in the towns that sprang
up around these workplaces. Many of them
had lost access to their livelihood because
of the enclosure of traditional farming land
and had suddenly been thrown into poverty.
Source 1

This painting appeared on the cover of a
modern edition of Charles Dickens novel Hard Times.
and commentators
It was natural that writers of the eighteenth
and nineteenthcenturies would comment on
the rapid changes that took place in Britain at
the time.
The enormous changes in technology, the
development of large factories, the rapid growth
of cities and dramatic changes in methods of
transportation all happened within little more
than one lifespan. While some writers set out
to record impartial observations of
Source 2

An illustration from a
the changes happening around them,
nineteenth-century edition of
many others gave biased accounts.
Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens used
Charles Dickens wrote about the
his novels to publicise the social
problems of his time.
working and living conditions of the
factory workers and the poor in novels
such as Oliver Twist, Hard Times and
Little Dorritt. Others such as Karl
Marx and Friedrich Engels used their
observations as a basis for attacks on
the political system of Britain. By
contrast, supporters of the changes to
agriculture and industry gave glowing
accounts of the economic benefits
of these changes, while ignoring the
negative effects on workers and
their families.
Official government statistics

In the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries the government began
to collect statistics on all aspects of
British life. As well as total figures
for population growth, census figures
64
Source 3

Coalbrookdale at Night, painted around 1800 by
Phillip James de Loutherbourg
recorded changes in the numbers of people living in

large towns and cities compared with those living in the
country. Records of birth and death rates in cities and
rural areas can provide information about the health of
the people. Wage levels, when compared with the prices
of food, clothing materials and housing, can give us
information on peoples standard of living. All statistics
require interpretation, but when combined with other
evidence they can often add much to our picture of
the past.
Records of government inquiries

The rapid social changes taking place in Britain in the
nineteenthcentury sometimes prompted the government
to set up special inquiries to investigate the effects of
the changes. Written records include evidence given by
witnesses to these inquiries. Many of these witnesses
described their own experiences, while others gave
accounts of incidents and conditions they had observed.
The findings of these inquiries would later be published
in reports, and this material also survives today in official
government records.
Paintings and drawings of

contemporary artists
Given the dramatic impact of these events on peoples
lives, it is not surprising that artists were keen to
document the changes they saw happening around them.
Surviving paintings and drawings can give us further
insights into the conditions in which people lived.

1 What kinds of statistics would provide evidence of the
following trends?
a People moving away from the country to the city to
look for work
b Improvements in peoples health and standard of
living.
2 Charles Dickens novel Hard Times, set in the imaginary
industrial town of Coketown, deals with issues of
working conditions in factories. What impression
does the illustration on the cover of Hard Times
(see Source 1 ) give of life in Coketown?
3 Oliver Twist traces the story of a poor orphan in
nineteenth-century London. What does the illustration
inside the book (see Source 2 ) tell us about the
treatment of orphans at this time?
4 Why should historians be cautious when considering the
importance of individual witness statements provided to
government inquiries?
5 Coalbrookdale was a coalmining and iron-smelting
town in the English Midlands.
a From examining Source 3 , what do you think it
would have been like to live in this town?
b Do you think the artist had a favourable or
unfavourable opinion of the town? Explain your
answer.
biased account narrative or description in which a writer

presents only one side of an issue in an effort to convince the
reader
impartial observations comments and reflections that
recognise all sides and opinions relating to an issue or event,
leaving it to the reader to form his or her own judgement
65
3.2 The impact of enclosure

Changes in population
The enclosure movement and the accompanying

changes in agriculture led to an improvement in
the quality and quantity of food produced in Britain
(see spread 2.2). Not everyone benefited from
these changes, however. Farm labourers were
often worse off as a result of the changes.
Source 1

Urban and rural population growth in England and Wales, 17511861
Urban
increase
Rural
increase
Urban
increase
(%)
Rural
increase
(%)
75.00
(estimated)
33.84
66.16
1566000
1555000
108.52
35.92
7195000
40.04
59.96
1796000
1311000
59.69
22.28
7693000
8221000
48.34
51.66
2888000
1026000
60.10
14.26
11784000
8282000
58.73
41.27
4091000
61000
53.18
0.74
Total
Urban
Rural
population population population Urban (%)
Rural (%)
1751
57 72000
(estimated)
14 43000
(estimated)
4329000
(estimated)
25.00
(estimated)
1801
8893000
3009000
5884000
1821
12000000
4805000
1841
15914000
1861
20066000
Year
Source 2

While
wealthy farmers
benefited from
enclosure of their
farms, poor farm
labourers and
their families
often suffered.
66
Agricultural change that accelerated during the eighteenth century

enabled Britain to support a larger population. Most of this
population growth occurred in the growing towns and cities.
Population statistics tell us that from the second half of the
eighteenthcentury rural population growth slowed when
compared with urban population growth (see Source 1 ).
Source 3

From F. Moore,
Considerations on the Exorbitant
Price of Proprietors, 1773
In passing through a village near

Swaffham in the county of Norfolk
a few years ago I beheld the
houses tumbling into ruins, and
the common fields all enclosed; ...
I was informed that a gentleman
of Lynn had bought that village
and the next adjoining to it; ... he
had thrown one into three, and
the other into four farms; which
before the enclosure were in about
twenty farms; and upon my further
enquiring what was becoming
of the farmers who were turned
out, the answer was that some of
them were dead and the rest were
become labourers.
The impact on people in

the countryside
The owners of farms and large
estates throughout Britain benefited
enormously from enclosure and other
changes to agriculture. Running a
farm in a more businesslike manner
usually brought good profits, and
many landowners became very
wealthy during this period. On the
other hand, there is evidence to
suggest that many in the countryside
suffered greatly as a result of these
changes.
Before enclosure, labourers
living on rural estates had some
independence and did not rely only
on their wages. They were free to
gather firewood from the estate, to
keep a cow or pig they could graze on
common land, and to raise a small
crop of their own. Enclosure
removed all these benefits, so the

labourer was forced to rely on wages
alone. In addition, the opportunity to
earn extra money from spinning yarn
and weaving cloth disappeared with
the growth of textile factories.
Most farm labourers were
employed on a casual basis. They
were paid a daily rate, according
to how much work they did. If the
employing farmer had no work on
any particular day, the labourer did
not get paid. If crops were poor in
any given year, a smaller harvest
would result in less work for the farm
labourer.
than usual. This shortage led to

a steep rise in the price of wheat,
forcing up the cost of bread. High
prices led to protests, known as the
food riots, in various parts of the
country.
The food riots of 1795
Swing Riots of 1830
By the 1790s most country people

had to buy food using the wages
they earned working on the enclosed
farms. Bad weather in 179495
had seriously reduced wheat crops
throughout Britain. In addition,
Britain was at war with France, so
importing grain was more difficult
In the 1820s the increasing use

of labour-saving technology such
as the threshing machine (see
spread2.2) forced large numbers
of labourers and their families into
poverty. This placed pressure on
the systems in place to care for the
poor (see spread 3.6). In 1830 riots
Source 5

The food riots of 1795 involved

very little violence. In most cases
the rioters took control of the
distribution of food, selling it at
what they thought was a fair price,
and handing the proceeds over to
the owners.
From the Ipswich Journal, August 1795
... a band of women ... entered various houses and shops, seized all the grain,
deposited it in the public hall, and then formed a committee to regulate the
price at which it should be sold.
Source 6

Burning of haystacks at night was
one tactic of the Captain Swing rioters.
Source 4

From D. Davies, The Case
of the Labourers in Husbandry,
published in 1795
... for a dubious economic

benefit, an amazing number of
people have been reduced from
a comfortable state of partial
independence to the precarious
condition of mere hirelings ...
67
Source 7

Letters threatening to destroy threshing
machines were often signed by the fictitious Captain Swing.
broke out in the south and east of England. The rioters were
usually unemployed farm workers, who would burn down
haystacks and damage the farm machinery they blamed for
their hardship. The unrest became known as the Swing Riots
because wealthy farmers were sent threatening letters signed
by a Captain Swing. It was a name made up by rioters in
the county of Kent, but its use soon spread to other parts of
England.
The authorities came down very heavily on the rioters
when they were caught. Records show that 19 were executed
and another 505 were sentenced to transportation to the
Australian colonies.
The Speenhamland system
Source 8

The authorities actively hunted down
those involved in the Swing Riots of the early 1830s.
Food shortages and low wages in the 1790s meant that

many rural families were very poor, and often close to
starvation. As we will see in spread 3.6, looking after the
poor was very much a local problem, with each village
community required to look after its own. In 1795, in
the village of Speenhamland in Berkshire, in south-east
England, a system was devised to help the poor. It involved
providing a subsidy to poor families, calculated using a
formula based on the price of bread, the level of wages and
the number of children in a family.
The formula was used to calculate an amount by
which the wages of farm labourers could be topped up to
prevent the family from starving. The money was raised
by requiring landowners to pay an amount into a central
fund, controlled by the local overseer of the poor. In the
early stages it was quite successful and it was soon
copied by other villages throughout England.
The longer the Speenhamland system remained
in place, the less successful it became. Before long,
many wealthy farmers realised they could pay
low wages because they knew the overseer of the
poor would make up the difference. On the other
hand, some landowners were having to pay higher
and higher amounts into the central fund to cover
the increased subsidies to labourers. Many small
landowners had to sell their land to cover this cost,
and they became labourers themselves.
The system was very demoralising for labourers,
for no matter how hard they worked, their wages
were never sufficient to support a family, and this
forced them to rely on charity. More and more
people became dependent on the system, which cost
landowners increasing amounts. The Speenhamland
system was eventually abolished in 1834.
A surviving open-field village

Despite the widespread enclosure of farming land
in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
some examples of open-field farming survived. One
example is the village of Laxton in Nottinghamshire,
68
Source 9

The farms around the English village of Laxton were never
enclosed and still operate the traditional three-field rotation with strip
farming.
in the English Midlands. While farming is carried out

using some modern methods the tractor has long ago
replaced the horse-drawn plough many features of
the open-field system remain. The three open fields are
divided into strips as they were in medieval times, and
nearly everyone in the village has rights to some of the
land, with everyone having grazing rights on common
land. The village is said to be prosperous, and the villagers
are very proud of their heritage.
Student workbook
3.1

1 Examine Source 1 and provide evidence from the
statistics to answer the following questions.
a Was the rural population rising or falling in the
period from 1751 to 1861?
b During which period did the urban population
experience the greatest increase in actual numbers?
c Between 1751 and 1801 the urban and rural
populations grew by a similar amount a little
over 1.5million. Why does the table show such a
huge difference in the percentage increases in urban
compared with rural population growth during this
period?
d In approximately which year would urban and rural
populations have each formed 50per cent of the
population?
e If the trends shown in the table continued beyond
1861, what would you expect the statistics for 1881 to
show?
2 In what ways do Sources 2 and 3 demonstrate that
different groups of people were affected differently by
the enclosure movement?
3 How were farm labourers reduced from a state of
partial independence to the precarious condition of
mere hirelings, as suggested in Source 4 ?
4 What does the writer of the letter in Source 7 mean

when he says we shall commence our labours?

5 What was the aim of the Speenhamland system?
6 Why did the Speenhamland system ultimately fail?

7 From the information provided in this spread, do you
believe the food riots of 1795 were justified? Identify
one piece of information from the sources that would
convince you to either support or oppose the activities
of the protesters.
8 While the Swing Rioters may have felt justified in
destroying the threshing machines that were taking their
jobs (see Sources 7 and 8 ), why do you think they would
have engaged in burning haystacks as well ( Source 6 )?
9 Given the negative effects of enclosure on many of the
people, do you believe it would have been better to
retain the open-field system as the village of Laxton did?
Give reasons for your answer. (You may need to refer
back to material in chapter 2 to examine both sides of
this issue.)
69
3.3 Conditions in factories

and mines
Australian employees
today are protected by
Occupational Health and
Safety laws. These laws
place a legal obligation
on the employer to
provide a safe and healthy
workplace. At the time of
no such laws existed,
and workplaces such
as factories and mines
could be dangerous and
unhealthy places.
Source 1

An early nineteenth-century textile mill was
a dangerous and unhealthy place to work.
Inside a textile
factory
An early nineteenth-century
textile factory was a
dangerous and unpleasant
place to work. Long
working hours
12 hours or more per day
were common practice.
Poor light and ventilation
and excessive heat made
working conditions very
uncomfortable. Machines
were not fenced off and had
no safety guards around
moving parts, so workers
were always at risk of injury.
Children were often
employed to climb under or
between machines to keep
them operating, so they
were in particular danger.
children were employed as
A Some
scavengers: they would collect
loose pieces of cotton from under

were running.
70
would punish
C Overseers
anyone responsible for
slowing or stopping the

machines for any reason.
mall windows and lack of

B Sventilation
made the factory
air hard to breathe.
Source 2

From an interview with James Patterson,
a factory worker, before a parliamentary committee,
June 1832
were driven by belts attached
D Mtoachines
drive shafts that were powered by a
water wheel or steam engine.
had no safety fences

E Morachines
guards around them, so
workers were always at risk of
injury.
ust and other

G Dresidues
from the
cotton found their

way into the workers
lungs, causing
severe illness.
I worked at Mr. Braids Mill at Duntruin. We

worked as long as we could see. I could not say
at what hour we stopped. There was no clock
in the mill. There was nobody but the master
and the masters son had a watch and so we
did not know the time. The operatives were not
permitted to have a watch. There was one man
who had a watch but it was taken from him
because he told the men the time.
Source 3

From an interview with former factory
worker Sarah Carpenter, published in The Ashton
Chronicle, 23 June 1849
There was a young woman, Sarah Goodling,

who was poorly and so she stopped her
machine. James Birch, the overlooker, knocked
her to the floor. She got up as well as she could.
He knocked her down again. Then she was
carried to the apprentice house. Her bed-fellow
found her dead in bed. There was another
called Mary. She knocked her food can down
on the floor. The master, Mr. Newton, kicked
her where he should not do, and it caused her
to wear away till she died. There was another,
Caroline Thompson. They beat her till she went
out of her mind.
children were employed

H Sasome
piecers: they had to repair
broken threads on spinning
were still running.
Source 4

From the testimony of Dr Michael Ward
before a parliamentary committee, 25 March 1819
onstant bending and

F Cworking
in cramped
conditions often led to
physical deformities in
factory workers.
I have had frequent opportunities of seeing

people coming out from the factories and
occasionally attending as patients. Last summer
I visited three cotton factories with Dr. Clough
of Preston and Mr. Barker of Manchester and
we could not remain ten minutes in the factory
without gasping for breath. How is it possible
for those who are doomed to remain there
twelve or fifteen hours to endure it? If we take
into account the heated temperature of the air,
and the contamination of the air, it is a matter
of astonishment to my mind, how the work
people can bear the confinement for so great a
length of time.
71
Source 5

As shown in this nineteenth-century engraving, coalmines
were dark, dangerous places, where miners were exposed to many risks.
Working in the coalmines

Because of the hot working conditions in the coalmines,
miners wore little or no clothing. When Parliament passed
the Mines Act in 1842, the moral question of women and
men working together in these circumstances was an
important issue. The record of the debates in Parliament
indicates that the fact that young girls were working
in the presence of near naked men was seen to be a
bigger problem by members of Parliament than the harsh
working conditions.
Source 6

In the early days of deep-pit mining, human muscle was
used to hurry carts of coal through narrow passages, as shown in
this nineteenth-century artwork.
As the development of steam engines allowed for the

pumping of water from mines, these mines became much
deeper, and more hazardous for mine workers. Problems
included:
inadequate ventilation
the presence of explosive gases
the need to haul the coal greater distances to the
surface.
The lack of ventilation could lead to miners breathing
in poisonous gases or coal dust, both of which could lead
to serious lung disease. Other gases were likely to explode
when exposed to the flame of a miners lamp, causing
death through cave-ins of shafts and tunnels.
Who worked in the mines?

In the early days of deep-pit mining, coal was mined
and brought to the surface using human muscle rather
than machinery. Whole families were often employed
in coalmines. Fathers and sons would hew (cut) the
coal with picks, while mothers and daughters hurried
(carried) the coal to the surface. This was done in a
number of different ways. Sometimes the younger girls
would crawl along narrow tunnels, towing a small cart
loaded with coal. Older girls and women would climb
ladders and steps with baskets of coal on their backs.
These baskets were held in place by a strap around the
head, wearing away hair and skin.
72
The Mines Commission, 184042

In 1840 the British Parliament established a
commission to inquire into working conditions
in the mines. Over the next two years, many
mine workers were called to give evidence,
recounting their personal experiences. As a result
of the findings of the commission, Parliament
passed the Mines Act 1842. This changed the law
to prevent all girls and women, and boys under
10, from working underground in the mines.
Source 8

Testimony of Isabel Wilson, aged 38, before the 1842 Mines
Commission
I have been married 19 years and have had 10 [children]; seven are
[alive]. When [I worked in the mines] I was a carrier of coals, which
caused me to miscarry five times from the strains, and was [very] ill
after each ... [My] last child was born on Saturday morning, and
I was at work on the Friday night. Once I met with an accident; a
coal broke my cheek-bone, which kept me idle some weeks. I have
[worked] below 30 years, and so has my husband; he is getting
touched in the breath now.
Source 7

Older girls and women had the hazardous task of
hauling baskets of coal up narrow ladders.
Source 9

Testimony of Jane Johnson, aged 26, before the 1842 Mines
Commission
I could carry 2 hundredweight [just over 100 kilograms!] when

15years of age but I now feel the weakness upon me from the
strains. I have been married near 10 years and had 4 children; have
usually (worked) till within one or two days of the childrens birth.
Many women lose their strength early from overwork and get
injured in their backs and legs; was crushed by a stone some time
since and forced to lose one of my fingers.
Source 10
Testimony of Agnes Kerr, aged 15, before the 1842 Mines
Commission
... [I] make 18 to 20 journeys a-day; a journey to and fro is about

200 to 250 fathom [one fathom equals 1.8metres]; have to
ascend and descend many ladders; can carry 1.5 hundredweight
[approximately 76 kilograms]. I do not know how many feet there
are in a fathom...: know the distance from habit; it is sore crushing
work; many lassies cry as they bring up the burdens. Accidents
frequently happen from the tugs breaking and the loads falling on
those behind and the lasses are much (inflicted) with swelled ankles.
I cannot say that I like the work well; for I am obliged to do it.
Student workbook
3.2

1 Why would factory owners not want their employees to
have access to a clock or a watch (see Source 2 )?
2 How were factory workers punished for not following
factory rules?
3 Why did mining become more dangerous as mines
became deeper?
4 In what ways were all members of a family engaged in
coalmining?
5 What were the consequences of the inquiry by the Mines
Commission in the early 1840s?

6 In Source 8 , Isabel Wilson describes her husband as
being touched in the breath. What do you think she
means by this statement?
7 Use Source 1 to identify four dangerous or unhealthy
practices that occurred in a typical nineteenth-century
textile factory.
8 From the sources, identify two types of injury

or illness that factory workers could suffer from.
9 What evidence is there in the sources that
factory workers were expected to keep their
machines running at all times?
10 From the images in Sources 5, 6 , and 7 , identify and
explain three possible sources of injury to mine workers.
11 Did pregnant women receive any special treatment
while working in the mines? Support your answer with
evidence from the sources.
12 From information in Source 10 , calculate the total
distance that Agnes Kerr travelled each day while
working in the mines, and the total weight of the coal
that she hurried each day.

13 Would you regard the testimony of Dr Ward
(see Source 4 ) as reliable or unreliable? Give reasons for
your answer.
73
3.4 Child labour

In the eighteenthcentury it was normal practice
for children to work to help support their family.
In agricultural or domestic work situations this had
often been under the supervision of parents, who could
have some influence over the type of work carried out
by their children. This changed in the early years of
the Industrial Revolution. Children who worked in
factories and mines were subjected to harsh and
often brutal conditions.
Children in the textile factories

Owners of textile mills were quick to recognise that
they could employ children for lower wages than adults.
Indeed, children often outnumbered adults in factory
work. It has been estimated that in 1788 more than
two-thirds of employees in cotton mills in England
and Scotland were children. While older children and
teenagers could often take charge of running a spinning or
Source 1

From A Narrative of William Dodd, A Factory
Cripple, 1841
At the age of six I became a piecer each piecing

requires three or four rubs, over a space of three or four
inches; and the continual friction of the hand in rubbing
the piecing upon the coarse wrapper wears off the skin,
and causes the finger to bleed. The position in which the
piecer stands to his work is with the right foot forward,
and his right side facing the frame. In this position he
continues during the day, with his hands, feet, and eyes
constantly in motion the chief weight of his body rests
upon his right knee, which is almost always the first joint
to give way my evenings were spent in preparing for
the following day in rubbing my knees, ankles, elbows,
and wrists with oil, etc. I went to bed, to cry myself to
sleep.
Source 3

This sketch of a young person
pulling a truck full of coal was created c. 1842.
74
weaving machine, it was the work carried out by younger

children that was the most dangerous.
Piecers and scavengers

Children employed as piecers were required to lean over
the spinning machine and repair broken threads. They
had to do this while the machine was running, and often
had more than one machine to watch. It is estimated
that a piecer looking after a number of machines could
walk as much as 30kilometres a day. Other children
were employed as scavengers. They had to crawl under
machines collecting loose cotton and other waste. This
task, also performed while machines were running, was
particularly dangerous.
Children in the mines

Children in coalmines were employed as hurriers and
trappers. Hurriers were required to carry baskets or
tow trucks of coal to the surface. Girls as young as six or
seven could be employed in this way, and would continue
this work into their teens. The belt or chain around a
girls waist could damage the pelvic bones, and many
women who worked in the mines as children later died in
childbirth.
Source 2

From F. Trollope, Michael Armstrong, the Factory
Boy, 1840
A little girl about seven years old, whose job as scavenger

was to collect incessantly from the factory floor, the
flying fragments of cotton that might impede the work
...while the hissing machinery passed over her, and
when this is skilfully done, and the head, body, and the
outstretched limbs carefully glued to the floor, the steady
moving, but threatening mass, may pass and repass over
the dizzy head and trembling body without touching it.
But accidents frequently occur; and many are the flaxen
locks, rudely torn from infant heads, in the process.
Source 4

This sketch of a young trapper opening the door
for another child with his truck of coal was created c. 1842.
The British Parliament passed laws

in 1788, 1834, 1840 and 1864 that
aimed to control the employment of
climbing boys by chimney sweeps,
but most of these laws were
ignored. It was not until after 1875,
when the police gained the power
to enforce these laws, that the
practice of employing young boys
in this way was finally stopped.
Even younger children were

employed as trappers. Their job was
to open and close the ventilation
doors in the underground tunnels to
allow the hurriers pulling their carts
to pass through. Children as young
as four or five could be employed as
trappers, and they often sat in the
dark for up to 14 hours a day.
Source 5

Young boys
employed as chimney
sweeps worked in
dangerous and dirty
conditions.
The climbing boys

Another occupation that employed large numbers of children,
some as young as six, was that of chimney sweep. A sweep would
employ a number of young boys, known as climbing boys, to
climb up into chimneys and clean them with a hand brush or
metal scraper. It was a dangerous and dirty job. Many choked
to death from breathing in the dust and soot, while others were
injured by falling or by becoming
stuck in narrow chimneys.
Student workbook
3.3
Explanation and
communication
1 In rural communities children
had helped with many different
tasks, so the employment of
children was not new. Why did
child labour become more of a
problem during the Industrial
Revolution?
2 Why was the employment of
children so attractive to the
owners of textile factories?
3 Explain the roles of hurriers and
trappers in coalmines.

4 From Source 1 identify the main
types of injuries that could be
suffered by piecers in a textile
factory.
5 From the information provided in
Source 2 , explain why the job of
scavenger in a textile factory was
so dangerous.
6 What were the risks faced by
young girls employed as hurriers
in coalmines?
Perspectives and
interpretations
7 The artists who drew
Sources 3, 4 and 5 were attempting
to present the negative side of
child labour. Explain how each
artist has achieved this in their
drawings.
75
3.5 Urban conditions and

peoples health
Increases in population during the late eighteenth

and early nineteenthcenturies occurred mostly in the
Midlands and north of England and in the lowlands
of Scotland and southern Wales. Towns and
cities grew most quickly close to coal and iron
deposits, as these were also the major areas
of factory development.
Source 1

Most factory workers
lived in poor-quality, overcrowded
housing without sanitation.
ubbish was thrown

A Rinto
the street and
left to rot, as there
was no organised
rubbish collection.
ouses had small

B Hwindows
or no
windows at all.
Urbanisation and
overcrowding
Industrialisation led to the rapid growth
of British cities and large towns. In the
first 30 years of the nineteenthcentury,
cities such as Birmingham and Sheffield
doubled in population. Manchester,
Liverpool, Leeds and Glasgow more
than doubled in population during
this time. Towns and cities grew
without any planning or government
supervision. A large proportion of the
housing was built by the factory owners
to rent out to their workers. These
factory owners wanted to keep costs
down, so the housing was often poorly
constructed, with as many houses as
possible built on one site. Some families
rented older houses that had previously
belonged to the wealthier classes. In these
cases, each family was often crowded into
one room for cooking, eating and sleeping.
Housing and sanitation

Houses were built with the cheapest possible
materials and were often built back to back
without any gardens. Amenities that we take for
granted, such as water supply, were ignored. Streets
were narrow, with poor drainage, and were filled with
rubbish and raw sewage. There were no sewerage pipes
to remove waste and no council rubbish collection as we
know today. Groups of houses relied on cesspools for the
disposal of sewage, but overcrowding meant that these
frequently overflowed, contaminating rivers and wells that
were the only sources of drinking water. Diseases such as
cholera and typhus were common and spread quickly
through densely populated urban areas.
76
rime, such as
D Cpickpocketing,
flourished in these
squalid conditions.
was collected in cesspools, which were emptied

C Sewage
by nightmen, although not always as regularly or often as
necessary.
In 1696 the English Parliament had introduced a Window

Tax, which taxed all houses based on the number and
size of their windows. This tax was not removed until
1851, so most builders providing cheap housing in the
first half of the nineteenthcentury used as few windows
as possible. Lack of light and fresh air made living
conditions even more unhealthy.
Source 2

From Alexis de
Tocqueville, a French aristocrat
writing about Manchester in 1835
A sort of black smoke covers

the city. Under this half-daylight
300000 human beings are
ceaselessly at work. The homes of
the poor are scattered haphazard
around the factories. From this
filthy sewer pure gold flows. In
Manchester civilised man is turned
back almost into a savage.
ouses were of
E Hpoor
quality, built
using the cheapest

possible materials.
Source 3

From a letter to a
parliamentary inquiry in 1840, written
by Dr Roberton, a Manchester
surgeon
Manchester is a huge overgrown

village, built according to no
definite plan. The homes of the
work-people have been built in the
factory districts. The interests and
convenience of the manufacturers
have determined the growth of
the town and the manner of that
growth, while the comfort, health
and happiness [of the workers]
have not been considered.
Manchester has no public park or
other ground where the population
can walk and breathe the fresh air.
Every advantage has been sacrificed
to the getting of money.
amilies were often

F Fcrowded
into a single
room.
Student workbook
3.2
Explanation and
communication
1 Explain two ways in which the
builders of houses in the factory
towns kept costs down.
2 How did people living in these
areas get rid of their rubbish and
human waste?
3 Why would disease spread
quickly in towns such as
Manchester and Liverpool?

4 Use Source 1 to identify five
features of early nineteenthcentury industrial towns that
would make them unpleasant
places to live.
5 In Source 2 , what did the writer
mean by, From this filthy sewer
pure gold flows?
6 Why might crime have
flourished in the conditions
described in this spread?
7 What were the two main
criticisms that Dr Roberton
(see Source 3 ) expressed in
relation to the planning and
layout of Manchester?
8 How might the conditions
described in Source 4 have
contributed to the spread of
diseases such as cholera?
CHRONOLOGY, TERMS AND

CONCEPTS
9 What is meant by the term
urbanisation?
10 Why would you expect there
to be a strong connection
between industrialisation and
urbanisation?
here was no piped water supply, so water was

G Tcollected
from communal wells or nearby rivers.
treets were no more than narrow lanes, with
H Sopen
drains running down the middle.
Source 4

From Dr William Duncan, Report on the Sanitary Condition of Liverpool, 1839
In the streets inhabited by the working classes, I believe that the great majority
are without sewers, and that where they do exist they are of a very imperfect
kind unless where the ground has a natural inclination, therefore the surface
water and fluid refuse of every kind stagnate in the street, and add, especially in
hot weather, their pestilential influence to that of the more solid filth ...the only
means afforded for carrying off the fluid dirt being a narrow, open, shallow
gutter, which sometimes exists, but even this is very generally choked up with
stagnant filth.
cesspool a pit into which householders

with no toilets could empty their waste,
which was later collected by workers
known as nightmen
cholera a bacterial disease of the
intestines, causing vomiting and
diarrhoea. It is transmitted through
contaminated water and can lead to
death through dehydration.
typhus a fatal disease spread by the
bites of lice and fleas
77
3.6 Poor laws and workhouses

Various structures for helping the poor had existed in Britain since the Middle Ages. In the 1830s this system was
reformed, and relief for the poor was restricted largely to those who lived in special institutions called workhouses.
The Old Poor Law

By the time of the Industrial Revolution, the poor in
England were looked after by a system that had been set
up in the late sixteenthcentury. Each village or parish
had to take care of its own poor, and those who owned
property paid a special tax called the Poor Rate. Some of
the money was used to supply food or other necessities
for paupers living in their own homes. This was called
outdoor relief. In some villages or parishes, special
places were built to house and feed the poor. Known as
workhouses, they were often very crowded, unpleasant
places to live. Requiring the poor to live in these places
was called indoor relief.
The New Poor Law

Following the Swing Riots of 1830 (see spread3.2),
the British government set up a royal commission
to investigate the operation of the Poor Laws. The
commission made the following recommendations:
outdoor relief should be abolished
Source 1

This nineteenth-century painting
shows a family living in poverty. Under the
Old Poor Law system the workhouse was an
unpleasant place to live, but families could at
least stay together.
78
only those living in the workhouses should be entitled

to any assistance
the workhouse should be as unpleasant as possible to
discourage anybody capable of working from wanting
to live there.
In 1834 Parliament passed the Poor Law Amendment
Act to put these recommendations into effect. This set
up a system known as the New Poor Law, and 350 new
A scandal arose in 1845 over conditions in the workhouse

in the town of Andover. The Master, Mr McDougal, was
a bully and a drunk who savagely beat small children
and regularly raped women under his care. He had
kept rations to such a minimum that starving inmates
were found to be trying to eat animal bones they were
supposed to be grinding up for fertiliser. The story was
publicised in The Times newspaper in London and caused
a national outcry.
Source 2

Women in the workhouse could be put to work picking
oakum, as shown in this nineteenth-century photograph.
and is punished by being placed in solitary confinement.

Children were given very little education and were usually
apprenticed out to local employers at an early age. In
Dickens story, young Oliver Twist was to be apprenticed
to a chimney sweep but is eventually apprenticed to an
undertaker at the age of nine.
Source 4

Workhouse inmates were fed a minimal diet, and forced
to eat in silence, as shown in this nineteenth-century photograph.
workhouses were built by 1839. The workhouse system

continued into the early twentiethcentury.
Life in the workhouse

Conditions in workhouses were deliberately made as
unpleasant as possible. Under the Old Poor Law, families
in workhouses could stay together, but under the new
system families were split up. Men and women were kept
separate and their children were removed from their care.
All inmates of the workhouse, except for the very youngest
children, were put to work. This work usually consisted of
hand-grinding corn, breaking stones or picking oakum.
Imposition of strict rules

The workhouse was run by the Master, who was expected
to manage it on a very tight budget. Strict regulations
were imposed on the inhabitants of the workhouse, and
the Master had the power to impose savage punishment
on those who disobeyed the rules. Parents were rarely
allowed to see their children and outside visitors were not
allowed. Meals were kept to the bare minimum necessary
to sustain life and had to be eaten in silence. In Charles
Dickens Oliver Twist, young Oliver asks for more food
Student workbook
3.4

1 Explain two differences between the Old Poor Law and
the New Poor Law.
2 What was the Poor Rate?
3 Why was there a deliberate policy to make the
workhouse an unpleasant place to live?
4 In what types of activities were workhouse inmates
employed?
5 Explain how children were treated in the workhouse.

6 Using the material provided in the sources, describe
two ways in which workhouse conditions were kept as
unpleasant as possible.
7 What does the treatment of paupers under the New
Poor Law tell us about attitudes towards poverty in
nineteenth-century Britain?
Source 3

From a Rochester correspondent to The Times,
26December 1840
Upwards of half-a-dozen girls in the workhouse, some

of them verging on womanhood, have at times had
their persons exposed in the most brutal and indecent
manner, by the Master, for the purpose of inflicting on
them cruel floggings; and the same girls, at other times,
have, in a scarcely less indecent manner, been compelled
by him to strip the upper parts of their persons naked, to
allow him to scourge them with birch rods on their bared
shoulders and waists, and which, from more than one
of the statements from the lips of the sufferers, appears
to have been inflicted without mercy. One girl says, My
back was marked with blood.
indoor relief the provision of assistance to the inmates of the

workhouse
outdoor relief the provision of assistance to the poor while
allowing them to remain in their own homes
parish an area of local government centred on the local
church, which fulfilled some of the functions that local
municipal councils perform in our own society
pauper a very poor person
picking oakum unpicking short lengths of rope coated in tar.
Oakum would be rammed between the planks on wooden ships
to make them watertight.
royal commission a special public inquiry set up by
government to investigate a particular issue and to make
recommendations for changes in the law
workhouse an institution built to house the poor
79
3.7 Reformers and progress

The early years of the Industrial
Revolution were marked by appalling
working and living conditions
for factory and mine workers.
But changes and improvements
began to be introduced during the
nineteenthcentury. Laws passed
to protect workers were often the
result of determined campaigning by
prominent individuals.
Influential reformers
Many prominent citizens became
concerned at the working and living
conditions of ordinary working
people during the Industrial
Revolution. A number of them
sought to bring about change.
Robert Owen
Robert Owen bought a share in
the New Lanark cotton mills in
Scotland in 1800 and managed them
for the next 25 years. Owen disagreed
with the widespread attitude among
factory owners that workers had to
be paid low wages and treated poorly
to ensure the biggest profits. He
stopped employing children under
10 in his factories, provided schooling
for the younger children and limited
the working hours for children over
10 so they could also attend school.
He provided clean, comfortable
housing as well as a pleasant working
environment for his workers. His
business was very successful and he
travelled all around Britain
promoting his ideas.
He supported the Mines Act of

1842 that outlawed the employment
of women and young children in
coalmines (see spread3.3). Lord
Ashley was also responsible for setting
up the first free schools for poor
children.
Edwin Chadwick
Edwin Chadwick was a lawyer
who initially became involved in
both Poor Law reform and the
issue of child labour in the early
1830s. As a member of the Poor
Law Commission he was largely
responsible for the provisions of the
Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.
He also contributed to a government
report that recommended reductions
in working hours for children in
factories. Many of his ideas were
included in the Factory Act of 1833
(see Source 2 ). In 1842 he published
a report on the insanitary living
conditions of the working classes in
the overcrowded towns and cities.
He became a strong campaigner
for clean water supplies and proper
sewerage systems to improve levels
of public health.
Source 1

At Robert Owens New Lanark mill,
children were provided with an education,
including dancing classes.
Lord Ashley (later the

Earl of Shaftesbury)
As a member of Parliament Lord
Ashley promoted the passing of laws
to improve the working conditions
of ordinary working people. He was
responsible for introducing some of
the Factory Acts that restricted the
use of child labour in textile mills.
80
Factory reform
During the nineteenthcentury
Parliament passed a number of
Factory Acts, most of which were
designed to restrict the employment
of women and children in factories,
and to limit the number of hours that
could be worked in a day.
Public health reform

Edwin Chadwicks Report on the
Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring
Population of Great Britain in 1842
highlighted the need to improve
the living conditions of the poor
in major towns and cities. It took
years to achieve real progress. In
some parts of Britain, improvements
did not occur until well into the
twentiethcentury.
The Public Health Act of 1848

A Central Board of Health was set up,
with Chadwick as one of its members,
with the power to set up local boards
in areas where the death rate from
disease was particularly high. These
local authorities had the power to
manage street cleaning, collection
Source 2

Factory reform
Factory Act 1819 Limited the

hours worked by children to a
maximum of 12 per day
Factory Act 1833 Banned
employment of children under
9 and limited 1013-year-olds
to a 48-hour week in the
textiles industry. To enforce
this rule, factory inspectors
were introduced (although
there were initially only four
inspectors for all of England).
Factory Act 1844 Reduced the
maximum working hours for
women to 12 hours per day
Ten Hour Act 1847 Reduced
maximum working hours
for women and children to
10 hours per day
Factory Act 1850 Prohibited
women and children from
working in a factory before
6am or after 6 pm
Factory Act 1874 Set a maximum
of 56.5 hours of work per week
for all workers
of refuse, supply of clean water and

installation of sewerage systems. This
system led to improvements in some
towns but was not very effective
across the whole country.
London sets the standard

As the largest city in Britain,
London experienced particularly
bad sanitation problems. In 1847 a
Commission of Sewers was set up to
remove all the cesspits and replace
them with underground sewerage.
By 1865 a sewerage system had been
established for all of London.
The Public Health Acts of

1872 and 1875
These laws divided the whole
country into sanitary districts, setting
up local health boards to control
water supply and sewerage systems.
Further laws passed at this time gave
local councils the power to purchase
whole slum districts, demolish them
and replace them with improved
housing, including parks and
gardens.
Source 3

The construction of sewers in
London removed cesspits from the streets,
improving sanitation.
People living in crowded houses

would frequently empty their toilet
pot out the window, often from one
or two storeys above the street. To
warn anybody walking below, they
would call out the French, Gardez
leau! (Beware of the water!). This
came to be expressed as Gardey
loo! and is said to be the origin of
the word loo as an alternative term
for toilet.
Student workbook
3.5
Explanation and
communication
1 Outline the major achievements of
each of the following:
a Robert Owen
b Lord Ashley
c Edwin Chadwick.
2 Explain the improvements that
occurred as a result of the Public
Health Acts of 1848, 1872 and 1875.

3 From Source 1 , suggest some
of the classes other than dancing
that might have been taught at
Robert Owens New Lanark school.
4 Using the information in
Source 2 , describe how conditions
were gradually improved for
factory workers during the
nineteenthcentury.
5 Examine Source 3 and explain why
the provision of an underground
sewerage system can be regarded as
a major achievement.
Perspectives and
interpretationS
6 With only four factory inspectors
employed for all of England
(see Source 2 ), how well do you
think the Factory Act of 1833
was enforced? Give

CHRONOLOGY, TERMS
AND CONCEPTS
7 Draw a timeline to demonstrate
the improvements in urban living
standards that occurred in Britain
after 1830.
and research
8 Using the school library or the
internet, complete the following
tasks:
a Find two facts not already
mentioned in this spread about
the reformer Robert Owen. With
your teachers assistance, collate
your findings with those of the
rest of the class, and compile a
biography of Owen, highlighting
his activities and achievements.
b Investigate a reformer (other than
those described in this spread)
who had a significant impact on
improving working and living
conditions for workers and their
families during this time. Prepare
a brief report on that persons
achievements for presentation to
the class.
81
3.8 Social unrest and

tradeunions
As the industrial and agricultural revolutions progressed,

many factory, mine and farm workers were dissatisfied
with their working conditions. Initially this showed up as
protests and even riots, but as the nineteenthcentury
progressed, workers began to organise into unions to
work towards improvements in their working lives.
Source 2

An 1819 cartoon depicting the Peterloo Massacre.
The officer is calling to his men: Remember, the more you kill,
the less Poor Rates youll have to pay, so go to it, lads, show
your courage and your loyalty!
Social unrest, protests and riots

The social upheaval resulting from the agricultural
and industrial changes led to a number of protest
movements by ordinary working people in the early
nineteenthcentury.
The Luddites
Many skilled artisans of the old cottage textile industry felt
that the use of machines in factories had robbed them of
their livelihood. Between 1811 and 1817, groups of these
workers protested by destroying the new machines. They
were known as Luddites, after their probably fictitious
leader, King Ned Ludd. In 1811 more than one thousand
industrial machines were smashed. Between 1812 and
1813, 14 Luddites were executed and many more were
transported to the colonies for life.
Source 1

A nineteenth-century artwork of
Luddites using a sledgehammer and a crowbar
to smash power looms in a cotton mill
Peterloo Massacre
The most infamous incident of this period was known
as the Peterloo Massacre. In August 1819 a group of
around 50000 protesters gathered peacefully at St Peters
Fields near Manchester to demand economic and political
reform. Instead they were attacked by mounted troops,
with 15 killed and more than six hundred seriously
wounded. Incidents such as this helped awaken many to
the social problems that had arisen from the agricultural
and industrial revolutions.
Trade unions
Trade unions had first developed as associations of people
who worked in similar trades. They had very little impact
until the growth of factories brought large numbers of
workers together in the one place. Employers in these
factories were opposed to the formation of unions that
might have campaigned for improved wages or working
conditions. They convinced Parliament to pass laws
severely restricting union activity.
The Combination Acts

In 1799 and 1800 Parliament passed the Combination
Acts, which effectively banned workers from combining
to form unions. The Combination Acts were repealed
in 1824, but a series of strikes led to the passing of the
Combination Act of 1825. This allowed unions to bargain
with employers over wages and hours of work, but banned
them from using strike action.
82
The Chartists
The New Model Trade Unions
In 1836 a group of tradesmen who had been influenced

by the ideas of Robert Owen (see spread 3.7) formed
the London Working Mens Association. In 1837 they
published the Peoples Charter, which aimed to improve
the voting system to allow more working people to have a
say in parliamentary elections. Supporters of this charter
became known as Chartists. In 1842 large numbers of
workers went on strike in support of improved wages and
the principles contained in the Peoples Charter. Many
were arrested, and more than fifty Chartists were
sentenced to transportation to the Australian colonies.
In the 1850s groups of skilled tradesmen set up their

own unions, beginning with the Amalgamated Society of
Engineers in 1851. These unions provided their members
with a wide range of services, such as sickness benefits.
They attracted strong support, and soon became a model
for other groups of workers.
Many participants in the Eureka Rebellion at Ballarat,

Victoria, in 1854 (see spread 6.2) had been active Chartists
in Britain. The first President of the Ballarat Reform League
was Welsh-born Chartist John Basson Humffray. The
miners demands were inspired by Chartist ideals, and
Reform League members Henry Holyoake and Thomas
Kennedy had both been active Chartists in England.
Improved legal status

In response to the growth of unions, in 1867 Parliament
set up a royal commission to investigate trade unions.
The commission found that most new model unions
served a useful social purpose and should have legal status.
The Trade Union Act of 1871 gave unions many of the
same legal rights as businesses, including the right to
own property. In 1875 unions in Britain gained the legal
right to bargain on behalf of their members, including
the right to strike.
Student workbook
3.6
The Tolpuddle Martyrs

In 1834 six farm labourers in the village of Tolpuddle
in Dorset were arrested for swearing an oath of loyalty
to their union, the Friendly Society of Agricultural
Labourers. It was no longer illegal to belong to a union,
so they were prosecuted under an obscure law relating
to the swearing of oaths. They were sentenced to seven
years transportation to Van Diemens Land. Outraged
public opinion and the presentation of a huge petition
to Parliament led to their being pardoned in 1836.
They became an important symbol of the right of free
association for workers.
Source 3

Between 50000 and 60000 trade union
members gathered on 21 April 1834 in Copenhagen Fields
(outside London) to present a petition to the Prime Minister in
support of the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
1 Who were the Luddites (see Source 1 ), and what

activities did they engage in?
2 Why were factory owners opposed to the formation of
unions?
3 Explain the significance of each of the following in the
development of the union movement:
a the Tolpuddle Martyrs
b the Chartists
c the New Model Trade Unions.

4 Examine Source 2 . Identify three features of the cartoon
that tell you that the artist strongly opposed the actions
of the troops in the Peterloo Massacre.
5 What does Source 3 tell us about the nature of the
protest against the punishment of the Tolpuddle
Martyrs?

6 How can we tell that the British Parliament was more
strongly influenced by factory owners than by workers
and unions?
7 The activities of unionists and other protesters in Britain
influenced the growth of the union movement in
Australia. Suggest a reason for this influence.
8 Using information from this spread and spread 3.2,
draw a timeline that demonstrates the impact of social
unrest in Britain on the Australian colonies during the
nineteenth century.
Luddites a group of protesters who expressed their opposition

to industrialisation by smashing factory machines
repeal withdrawal of a law or set of laws by Parliament
strike attempt by employees to put pressure on their employer
by refusing to work
83
3.9 SkillBuilder
Recognising different perspectives
What is a historical perspective?
A historical perspective is a point of view from
which historical events, problems and issues can be
analysed. For example, the perspective of a factory
owner in the early nineteenthcentury would be
quite different from that of a child working in a
factory or coalmine. Also, the way we view events
today may be quite different from the way people
viewed them in the past. Our expectation today is
that all children attend school from the age of five
or six until their mid or late teens. Two hundred
years ago in Britain and most other European
countries only the children of the wealthy were
educated. Most children were expected to work
to help the family as soon as they were physically
able. Our perspective on child labour is completely
different from the perspective of those living in the
late eighteenth or early nineteenthcenturies.
How do we identify or
recognise ahistorical
perspective?
Why is it important to recognise

a historical perspective?
An example of the use of

historicalperspective
When examining any historical issue or event,

we should be trying to build up an accurate
picture of what actually happened in the past.
If we are relying on a primary source in the form
of an eyewitness report of an event, we need to
be aware of possible bias or prejudice on the part
of that eyewitness. If we know the particular
perspective or point of view of that eyewitness,
we can take any such prejudices into account
when assessing the accuracy of their account.
Gathering eyewitness reports from a number of
people, all with different perspectives of the events
in question, will help us form the most accurate
picture. In order to do this we need to know the
perspective of each eyewitness.
84
The more we know about the person providing

the evidence, the better able we are to identify
that persons perspective. We know a good
deal about factory reformer Robert Owen
from his writings and his actions. If we read
a report by Owen in which he praised the
management of a particular textile factory, we
would expect that the factory was being run in
a manner similar to that of Owens own New
Lanark mills. We know enough about Owen
to be able to recognise his perspective. If we
were to read the opinions of another factory
owner, we would want to find out as much as
possible about that person to determine their
perspective. This would allow us to assess their
opinions and identify any bias or prejudice.
William Blanchard Jerrold was a writer and

journalist. In 1869 he collaborated with French
artist Gustave Dor to produce a book called
London: A Pilgrimage. Published in 1872, this
book featured descriptions and drawings of
many of the poorest parts of London and its
most impoverished inhabitants. It included
180 engravings by Dor showing slum areas,
extreme poverty and the depressed state of
much of the population. Jerrold and Dor
were accused by many of showing only the
worst aspects of London, but they clearly
wanted to make their readers more aware of
the conditions suffered by the poor. Examine
Source 1 at right.
This illustration from Jerrold and Dors book
shows a poor family trying to sell a few trinkets
on the street. All the family look thin and poorly
clothed. The street looks dark and dirty. The
fact that the whole family is present suggests
they may be homeless. The whole scene is
designed to show just how distressing poverty
could be on the streets of London. When we
understand Dors perspective we realise that
he may have deliberately exaggerated the scene
to get his message across to the reader.
Source 1

This engraving by
Gustave Dor of a
scene in the London
street of Houndsditch
appeared in London:
A Pilgrimage in 1872.
Student workbook
3.7
Examine each of the sources below.
For each quote:
1 Find out as much as you can from
the school library or the internet
about the author of the quote, and
write a brief statement about that
persons perspective in relation to
child labour in mines and factories.
2 Explain how each quote
demonstrates that perspective.
Source 2

From Michael Sadler, in a speech in the House
of Commons, 16 March 1832
The parents rouse them in the morning and receive

them tired and exhausted after the day has closed;
they see them droop and sicken, and, in many
cases, become cripples and die, before they reach
their prime; and they do all this, because they must
otherwise starve. It is a mockery to contend that these
parents have a choice. They choose the lesser evil, and
reluctantly resign their offspring to the captivity and
pollution of the mill.
Source 3

Henry Orator Hunt, in a speech in the House of
Commons, 16 March 1832
The question is, whether the children of the

manufacturing poor should work for more hours than
human nature can sustain. If the honourable members
were to see hundreds of the poor, unfortunate
wretches employed in the cotton-mills in Lancashire,
they would feel the absolute necessity of adopting an
active interference. I say, let the manufacturer keep
double the number of workmen, but do not let him
destroy the health of the rising generation.
Source 4

Henry Thomas Hope, in a speech in the House
of Commons, 16 March 1832
The right honourable member [Michael Sadler] seems

to consider that it is desirable for adults to replace
children. I cannot concur with that opinion, because
I think that the labour of children is a great resource
to their parents and of great benefit to themselves.
I therefore, on these grounds, oppose this measure
...I believe that the bill will be productive of great
inconvenience, not only to persons who have
embarked large capital in the cotton manufactures,
but even to workmen and children themselves...
85

In this chapter we have studied the impact of
the agricultural and industrial revolutions on the
lives of ordinary people during the eighteenth
and nineteenthcenturies. This has included both
adults and children working on farms, in factories
and in coalmines. We have also examined living
conditions in the rapidly growing towns, the
way in which the poor were treated, and how
progress was eventually made in improving the
lives of the people.
Source 1

Average age of death in selected countries and cities in
England, 1842
Average age of death

Professional/
Gentry
Tradesmen
Labourers
Bethnal Green
45
26
16
Bolton
34
23
18
Derby
49
38
21
Kendal
45
39
34
Leeds
44
27
19
Liverpool
35
22
15
Manchester
38
20
17
Wiltshire
50
48
33
Place
Source: From Edwin Chadwick, Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great
Britain, 1842, www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PHchadwick.htm.
Quick quiz
1 How did the balance between urban and
rural population in Britain change during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?
2 Identify one major way in which agricultural
workers were disadvantaged by enclosure.
3 List three dangers to the health and safety of
workers in an early-nineteenth-century textile
mill.
4 List three dangers to the health and safety
of workers in an early-nineteenth-century
coalmine.
5 What jobs were carried out by hurriers and
trappers?
6 What jobs were carried out by piecers and
scavengers?
7 Who were the climbing boys?
8 Identify two reasons why housing for workers
during the early years of the Industrial
Revolution was of such poor quality.
9 Why was the incidence of disease so high
in factory towns in the first half of the
nineteenthcentury?
10 What was a workhouse? Why were more
workhouses built after 1834?
11 Why were workhouse conditions deliberately
made as unpleasant as possible?
12 What was the effect of the various Factory
Acts passed by the British Parliament in the
nineteenth century?
13 What were aims of the Combination Acts?
14 What legal status had trade unions gained by
1875?
86

1 Using the internet and your library, identify which of the
locations in Source 1 had large numbers of factories and
experienced rapid population growth during the Industrial
Revolution.
2 Which locations remained primarily rural during this period?
3 What is meant by the term gentry in the categories of people
included in the table?
4 Give examples of the types of occupations that would have
been included in each of the groups of people included in the
table.
5 Find out as much as you can about the Report on the Sanitary
Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain.
Identify and explain two recommendations Chadwick made in
this report that he believed would improve sanitary conditions
in the overcrowded towns and cities.

1 What conclusions can you draw about the sanitary conditions
and levels of disease in factory towns compared with areas
that were primarily rural? Give two examples from the table to
support your conclusion.
2 Which place appears to have had the worst health outcomes
in England at this time? Use figures from the table to support
your conclusion.
3 The average age of death for the professional/gentry group
in Bolton is the same as that for labourers in Kendal. Explain
why you believe this was the case.
The positives and negatives

of the Industrial Revolution
Consider the two following opinions:

Source 2

A negative view of the Industrial Revolution.
From J. L. and Barbara Hammond, The Rise of Modern
Industry, 1925, p. 232
England asked for profits and received profits. Everything

turned to profit. The towns had their profitable dirt, their
profitable slums, their profitable smoke, their profitable
disorder, their profitable ignorance, their profitable
despair ...
For the new town was not a home where man could
find beauty, happiness, leisure, learning, religion, the
influences that civilise outlook and habit, but a bare and
desolate place, without colour, air or laughter, where
man, woman and child worked, ate and slept ...
The new factories and new furnaces were like the
Pyramids, telling of mans enslavement rather than of his
power, casting their long shadow over the society that
took such pride in them.
Source 3

A positive view of the Industrial Revolution. From
T. S. Ashton, The Industrial Revolution (17601830), 1948, p.129
An historian has written of the disasters of the industrial

revolution ... [I]f he means that the technical and
economic changes were themselves the source of
calamity the opinion is surely perverse. The central
problem of the age was how to feed and clothe and
employ generations of children outnumbering by far
those of any earlier time. [England] ... was delivered
... by those who ... had the wit and resource to devise
new instruments of production and new methods of
administering industry. There are today [in the Third
World] men and women, plague-ridden and hungry,
living lives little better, to outward appearance, than
those of the cattle that toil with them by day and share
their places of sleep at night. Such ... horrors are the lot
of those who increase their numbers without passing
through an industrial revolution.
Student workbook
3.8, 3.9, 3.10
1 Using what you have learned in this chapter

and chapter 2, work in groups of three or four to
draw up two lists, one list of the positive effects of the
Industrial Revolution, and one of the negative effects.
Compare your lists with those of the rest of the class.
Your teacher can assist in collating complete lists of all
the positives and negatives identified.
2 After considering all the positives and negatives, write
your own opinion on whether or not the Industrial
Revolution was a positive or negative experience for
Britain and its people. Remember to justify your
opinion with evidence.
3 Many traditionally rural countries in Asia and Africa
are only now beginning to experience industrialisation.
Prepare a list of actions that could be taken by the
governments of such countries to try to avoid some of
the negatives of the Industrial Revolution in Britain in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

At the beginning of this chapter several big questions
were posed. Use the knowledge you have gained to answer
these questions.
1 How did the Industrial Revolution affect population
growth and where people lived?
2 What were the experiences of men, women and
children as workers on farms, and in factories and
mines?
3 What was the impact on towns and cities as people
moved away from the countryside to work in factories
and mines?
4 How were living and working conditions for workers
improved during the nineteenthcentury?
Think about your learning over this topic.

For each of the following statements tick the box that
best reflects your learning and briefly state your reasons.
Agree
Disagree
I can explain how enclosures contributed to population changes

in Britain.
I can describe examples of conditions experienced by factory and
mine workers during the Industrial Revolution.
I have learned how differently children were treated in the early
nineteenthcentury when compared with today.
I can explain the impact of the Poor Laws on the lives of poor
people in the nineteenthcentury.
I can identify examples of reform that improved peoples working
lives and living conditions during the nineteenthcentury.
87
CHAPTER
Movement of peoples
(17501901)
These days it is not unusual for families or groups of people to
migrate from one part of the world to another. It is emotionally
and physically exhausting to start a new life in a different
part of the world, and the situation in the eighteenth
and nineteenthcenturies was not so very different.
Political upheavals in Europe and the social and
economic dislocation brought about by the
Industrial Revolution changed how people
lived and worked. Rapid urbanisation forced
many people away from one region and
towards another sometimes voluntarily,
sometimes against their will.
Slaves
Today slavery is outlawed, but it still
occurs in some countries. Slavery
has existed in many cultures for
thousands of years, but it was during
the eighteenth and nineteenthcenturies
that it played a tragic role in the
development of the modern world.
The technological advances that gave
rise to the Industrial Revolution created
a need for cheap labour.
Convicts
A young migrant family leaves England, bound for a new life.

What do you think might be going through their minds as the
English coastline dissolves behind them?
There was nothing new about crime or about

criminals being banished from their native land.
Banishment had always been a severe punishment
because those sentenced to it were cut off from their
community and homeland. For many, banishment felt
worse than the death penalty. Very few of those sentenced
to transportation to Australia from Britain beginning in the late
eighteenth century would ever see their homeland again.
They were forced to create a new life and a new society in
a very different place.

the movement of peoples
from 1750 to 1901 with the
interactive timeline application
in your eBookPLUS.
eBook plus
A timeline of key
events relating
to movement of
peoples, 17501901
CE
1740
1742
The first blast
furnaces are used
in England.
1760
1769
James Watt invents the
steam engine.
1780
1788
The First Fleet arrives
in Botany Bay.
1793
Eli Whitney invents
the cotton gin.
1770
Captain Cook first
sights the east coast
of Australia.
1789
The French Revolution
begins.
1800
1807
The British Parliament
passes a Bill
abolishing the trading
of slaves in their
territories.
1820
Migrants
The decision to migrate is never taken lightly. Many
different factors need to be carefully considered, and
a successful adjustment is rarely assured. Nineteenthcentury migrants made this momentous decision for a
number of different reasons, but generally they shared
the same fate as convicts in at least one way: few who
made the journey would ever return to their homeland.
Those who were successful might be lucky enough
to be joined by their families, but many others simply
disappeared, never to be heard from again. All played a
part in building modern-day Australia.

1 How did technology and new ideas contribute to the
movement of peoples between 1750 and 1901?
1840
184557
A potato blight in
Ireland creates
widespread famine.
1860
1863
Abraham Lincoln
issues the
Emancipation
Proclamation.
1880
1847
Freed American slaves
found the Republic of
Liberia in West Africa.
1851
The Victorian gold
rush begins.
2 What was the significance of European imperialism

to slaves, convicts and migrants?
3 What conditions did slaves and convicts face when
they were put to work?
4 What sort of historical sources are most useful when
investigating slaves, convicts and migrants?
1861
The American Civil
War begins.
1865
The American Civil
War ends.
1 Does slavery still exist in the modern world? If so,

where?
2 Why do you think slavery continues in some parts of
the world?
1900
3 What do you already know about Australias convict

past?
1901
Australia celebrates
Federation.
4 Does your family have an immigrant background? If

so, do you know why your family members decided
to migrate to Australia?
Chapter 4: Movement of peoples (17501901)
89
4.1 The movement of peoples(1750 1901)

A wide range of historical sources reveal a great deal of
useful information about the years between 1750 and
1901. The Industrial Revolution changed the way many
people lived and worked. Governments and employers
kept records of the people who worked for them. Artists
and writers recorded their own impressions of the
period.
Historical sources
Historians have learned much about the period between
1750 and 1901 by studying a wide range of historical
sources. These include written sources such as personal
diaries and memoirs, official government reports and other
Source 1

A page from a ships log. It indicates the ships course and the
wind strength and direction, and allows room for comments by the captain.
90
publications. They also include visual sources such as

photographs (from the 1830s onwards) and illustrations.
Information about any historical period comes
from two main types of sources primary sources
and secondary sources. As you already know, primary
sources are first-hand sources produced by someone who
witnessed the event being studied. Secondary sources,
usually produced at a later time, interpret primary sources.
It is important to bear in mind that a primary source
is not necessarily more valuable than a secondary source.
Both have value and limitations for historians and history
students. Every source may be useful in some ways but less
useful in others.
Source 1 shows a page from a ships logbook. The
logbook provides useful information on the technical
Source 2

This page from a migrants diary is
a very different type of source from Source 1 .
Source 3

This nineteenth-century illustration
shows a slave being flogged. We dont know if
this specific event actually happened or whether it
represents a typical slave punishment.
aspects of the voyage, such as wind

speed and course (the direction the
ship is travelling). However, there is
information that it does not tell us. For
example, we dont know what the ship is
carrying, and we cannot discover what
the passengers and crew were thinking.
Source 2 offers very different
information from Source 1 . It gives an
insight into a migrants life and reveals
one individuals personal feelings, rather
than technical information.
Source 3 provides another interesting
perspective. It is an illustration that
shows a slave being punished. Although
this sort of punishment was certainly
common, it is difficult to know whether
the scene portrayed recorded an actual
event or depicted an event imagined by
the artist. Because of this it has both
value and limitations as a historical
source.

1 Identify whether each of the following would be
a primary or secondary source for the period
studied in this chapter.
a A diary of a migrant coming to Australia
b A photograph of slaves at work on an American
cotton plantation
c A newspaper report from 1863 notifying people
about a shipwreck
d A cartoon from a newspaper portraying life on
board a migrant ship
e A poster advertising an upcoming slave auction
2 Look back at the sources you were asked to identify
as primary or secondary. Could any of them be
both primary and secondary? Would classifying
them as one or the other depend on how the
historian wanted to use them? Discuss your ideas.
3 In what way is the illustration in Source 3 useful to
a historian? What limitations does this image have
as a source? Why is it important to study
other sources in addition to this one?
4 Is it true to say that what might be considered
a value by one historian could be considered a
limitation by another? Explain how this might come
about, referring to Sources 1 and 2 in your response.

5 How can the usefulness of a historical source
change depending on what the historian wants to
find out?
6 What sort of information might a historian who
finds Source 2 useful be looking for?
91
4.2 Overview of slavery

Slavery has existed for thousands
of years. Many different civilisations
around the world used slavery in
one form or another. But it was only
after the arrival of Europeans in the
Americas in the late fifteenthcentury
that the slave trade became an
intercontinental industry. Over the
next four hundred years millions
of slaves were transported from
Africa to support the industry and
economies of America and much
of Europe. Slavery helped build the
wealth of America and England, but
the slaves themselves saw none of
that wealth.
The origins of
the slave trade
When Christopher Columbus
reached the Caribbean island of
Hispaniola in 1492 he immediately
saw the prospective wealth that the
New World could bring to Europe.
After leaving Spain he had sailed
along the coast of Africa and he
already had Africans working on
his ship. As Spanish settlers began
to follow Columbus to make their
wealth in the Americas they needed
workers. In the early years of the
New World, when the Spanish were
the most numerous Europeans there,
many among the local populations
of Native Americans were killed or
reduced to slavery.
The slaves were used for labour in
South America and to help build the
empire of New Spain as it expanded
northwards. Most were put to work
in the goldmines. Facing 18-hour
days, six days a week, in terrible
conditions, thousands were worked
to death or died of starvation or
beatings. Thousands more died from
introduced diseases, brought by the
Europeans, against which the native
population had little resistance or
92
Source 1

Emanuel Downing, a plantation owner from Massachusetts, 1645
I do not see how we can thrive until we get a stock of slaves sufficient to do all
our business.
immunity. Replacements were needed

so African slaves, who had had
contact with Europeans already and
had built some resistance to European
diseases, were transported to New
Spain.
When the English began to establish
plantations in the Caribbean islands
and the American mainland to grow
sugar, cotton and tobacco, they too
imported slaves from Africa. They saw
the native population as unsuitable
for labour and besides, as in New
Spain, they were quickly being used up
through disease and overwork. African
slaves soon became a vital part of the
economy of the Americas.
Source 1 shows the importance
placed on slavery by one English
plantation owner. Some European
labourers and convicts were put to

work, but in general European servants
were hard to find. Most had come to
America to work for themselves, not
for someone else. Soon African slaves
became household servants as well as
manual labourers.
Kidnapped and
traded
Early European slave traders raided
the African coast and kidnapped
any able-bodied Africans they could
capture. Sometimes they tempted
their victims close to the ships with
displays of brightly coloured cloth or
decorated beads. Later they developed
trading arrangements with African
tribal chiefs who raided weaker tribes
Source 2

This map shows the route the
slave ships took in the Triangular Trade.
BRITAIN
London
EUROPE
NORTH
AMERICA
AT L A N T I C
CARIBBEAN
OCEAN
AFRICA
SOUTH
AMERICA
1000
2000
kilometres
3000
in the interior and brought the slaves

they captured to the coastal depots set
up by European slavers. Here slaves
would be held until there were enough
to fill a slave ship. Once sold, slaves
were branded with a red-hot iron
to indicate who had bought them.
Europeans established coastal forts to
protect the valuable trade.
Source 4

This plan of a slave ship from 1789 shows how tightly packed the slaves were.
The Middle Passage

The route taken by slave ships across
the Atlantic Ocean forms a rough
triangle, hence the Atlantic slave trade
is often referred to as the Triangular
Trade. Ships left Europe with goods to
sell in West Africa. There they sold the
goods and filled their ships with slaves.
This cargo was packed tightly in the
ships holds for the terrible Middle
Passage, crossing the Atlantic Ocean
to the Americas (see Source 4 ).
Conditions on slave ships were
appalling. Those who did not survive
Source 3

A poster advertising
an upcoming slave sale
the journey, perhaps as many as one quarter of the total, were

simply thrown overboard. For the final leg of the triangle the ships
were loaded with goods such as sugar, rum, cotton and tobacco to
be sold on their return to Europe. The map in Source 2 shows the
main route of the Triangular Trade.
Sold
As slave ships arrived at ports in the Caribbean and along the
coast of North America, plantation owners would gather to make
their purchases. Posters like the one shown in Source 3 advertised
upcoming ship arrivals, detailing the number of slaves available and
their state of health. There were generally two ways in which a slave
sale would take place. The first, referred to as a scramble, must
have been particularly terrifying for the slaves. Upon arrival in port
the slaves were herded together either on the deck of the ship or in a
nearby auction yard. Buyers paid a fixed amount before the sale and at
93
Source 5

A chart showing approximately when different countries
engaged in the slave trade
Portugal
1444
Spain
Brazil
1853
1479
1818
1552
1888
1562
England
North
America
(US)
1807
1619
1863
1625
Holland
1634
France
1815
1647
Sweden
1813
1697
Denmark
1400
1795
1500
1600
Year
1700
1835
1800
1900
Source 6

This painting by French artist Edmond Morin, titled Slave Market
in Richmond, dates from 1861 and illustrates what a slave auction in
Virginia may have looked like.
94
a given signal rushed at the slaves, grabbing as many

as they could. In the process families would often
be separated, husbands from wives, parents from
children.
The other type of sale took place at an auction at
which individual slaves were sold to the highest bidder
(see Source 6 ). Slaves were made to stand on a raised
platform so they could be inspected by prospective
owners. Their teeth would be examined to check their
health. Signs of beatings could lower the price because
they suggested a poor worker or potential escapee. In
reality, scars were more likely to be a sign of violent
abuse than of insolence. Sometimes unscrupulous
doctors would buy weak or sick slaves in the hope of
strengthening them and selling them on for a profit.
During the entire ordeal the slaves themselves
knew nothing of what was going to happen to them.
They did not speak the language of their captors and
had no knowledge of their world. They were alone,
usually separated from their families. Once sold they
were often branded a second time by their new owner
before being sent to work.
It is believed that at least 15million Africans
were forced from their homes and sold into slavery in
the Americas, the majority taken by Spanish slavers
to Brazil.
Source 7

A slave auction house in Virginia, c.1860.
The sign reads Price, Birch & Co., dealers in slaves.

Slave trade pp. 1545
intercontinental involving or
occurring between two or more
continents
New Spain Spanish territories in
the New World, including much of
North America
Student workbook
4.1
EXPLANATION and communication

1 Why did the English prefer to use slaves from Africa
rather than Native American people?
2 Why did slavery become a vital part of the American
economy?
3 Why is slavery in the Americas referred to as the
Triangular Trade?
4 Describe the two types of slave sale that took
place.
8 Interpreting graphs and charts is an important

skill for a historian. Use the chart in Source 5 to
answer the following questions:
a What was the first country on this chart to engage in
the slave trade?
b What country was the last to abolish the slave trade?
c What country practised the slave trade for the longest
time?
d For how many years did Britain practise the slave trade?
5 What is the attitude towards slavery of the plantation

owner in Source 1 ?
6 Sketch the map in Source 2 and then add labels to
indicate what the ships would be carrying on each leg
of the Triangular Trade.
7 What does Source 3 reveal about the way slaves were
regarded?
9 Why do you think it is difficult to gain a clear picture of

how many slaves were bought and sold in the Triangular
Trade?
10 Use Source 4 as a starting point to investigate the
conditions on board a slave ship. Did the slaves have a
chance to exercise? How much were they given to eat?
95
4.3 Slavery and the cotton trade

The Industrial Revolution improved the lives of millions of people around the world. Mass-produced goods
became more accessible and cheaper to buy. But while life was made easier for some, for many others
the changes meant only a life of back-breaking labour.
King Cotton
The Industrial Revolution resulted
in a massive boost to the textile
industry in Britain. As mechanisation
increased, the need for raw materials
grew. Textiles became Britains
largest export, and the textile mills
demanded more and more cotton.
Until the early 1800s Britains cotton
came mainly from India, but India
was now unable to keep up with the
demand. So Britain turned to the
southern states of the United States,
where cotton was a growing industry.
The long, hot summers and rich
soils of the South were ideal for
cotton production, but the work in
the cotton fields was brutal. After
the cotton was picked, slaves had to
separate the seeds from the cotton
fibre. This was very labour intensive:
a slave working from dawn until
dusk would be able to process about
half a kilogram of cotton. In 1793
an inventor named Eli Whitney
produced a machine that removed the
seeds automatically. With the cotton
Source 1

engine, or cotton gin as

it was called, a slave could seed
more than 20 kilograms of cotton
in a day about fifty times as
much as before the invention.
Whitney could not have foreseen
the negative consequences of his
invention. It certainly made cotton
processing easier for the slaves, but
this massive increase in production
meant the demand for slaves also
increased. Cotton quickly became
the backbone of the economy in the
southern United States, overtaking
both tobacco and sugar. The southern
states produced 75per cent of the
worlds cotton. The expression
King Cotton was used by southern
politicians to illustrate its economic
importance. Between 1820 and
1860 cotton production increased
seventeen-fold and the number of
slaves increased by 250per cent,
despite the fact that half of all
babies born to slaves died in infancy.
Interestingly, only around a quarter
of southern farmers actually owned
slaves, but slavery was so important to
Eli Whitneys cotton gin
often had
A Slaves
to build their own
small quarters.
B Baled
cotton was
transported
on carts.
the economy of
the South that any opposition
to it was regarded almost as treason.
Life on the plantation

Of every hundred slaves taken
captive, about twenty-five died before
being put to work. Another third of
Source 2

Description of a
flogging from C. Bull, Slavery in the
United States, 1836
I had often seen black men

whipped, and had always, when
the lash was applied with great
severity, heard the sufferer cry
out and beg for mercy but in
this case, the pain inflicted was so
intense, that Billy never uttered so
much as a groan. The blood flowed
from the commencement, and in
a few minutes lay in small puddles
at the root of the tree. I saw flakes
of flesh as long as my finger. When
the whole five hundred lashes had
been counted the half dead body
was unbound and laid in the shade
of the tree upon which I sat.
96
Source 3

A modern artists reconstruction of a typical cotton plantation
was also
C Cotton
transported on barges.
drivers
E Slave
oversaw work on
the plantation.
on a cotton
D Labour
plantation was
back-breaking.
those who survived long enough to

reach a plantation died within two
years. The survivors experienced
the process called seasoning during
which they learned their roles
and grew to fear the slave drivers.
Punishment for wrongdoing was
harsh. For any sign of resistance to
cruel treatment or for working too
slowly, slaves might expect to be
lashed or made to walk a treadwheel.
The other slaves were often forced
to witness the punishments as a
deterrent. Source 2 recalls one instance
of a slave being punished.
Slaves living quarters were very
simple. Sometimes the plantation
owner would provide basic quarters,

but often the slaves would have to
build their own. There was little
furniture and beds were simply straw
EXPLANATION and
communication
1 Why were the southern states of the
United States an ideal place to grow
cotton?
2 What were the negative effects of
the introduction of the cotton gin?
3 What percentage of slaves taken
captive survived the seasoning
process?

treadwheel a punishment device,
also called the everlasting staircase,
comprising a large, iron-framed, hollow
cylinder with wooden steps. As the
device rotated slaves were forced to
keep stepping forward.
4 What effect would the punishment

described in Source 2 have on
slaves who witnessed it?
5 Using evidence from this spread,
describe the treatment of African
slaves in the United States.
or rags on the ground. Slaves who

worked as house servants usually had
better quarters and food than those
who worked in the fields.
6 Analyse Source 3 . What

elements of this drawing illustrate
the value of cotton at the time?
Perspectives and
interpretationS
7 The cotton gin was regarded
by some as a revolutionary
invention but by others as a tool of
oppression. Outline some reasons
for each of these attitudes.
and research
8 Choose one of the people in
Source 3 . Write a short biography
outlining who they are and how
they came to be where they are.
97
4.4 The end of slavery?

Many of the people who supported the institution of slavery believed
it was an effective way to introduce Christianity, the values of
civilisation and the virtue of hard work to those under its control.
This made it difficult for opponents of slavery to have their voices
heard. But over time ideas and values began to change.
It was through the relentless efforts of a core of committed
people that slavery was eventually outlawed.
Early opposition
Supporters of slavery in the US argued that it was essential
to the economy of the southern states. Despite its being
banished in most northern states from 1787, the southern
states would stubbornly resist abolition. Reformers spoke
patiently at meeting after meeting about the terrible facts
of the slave trade. They presented petitions and lobbied
politicians to support their cause.
In 1772 a test case heard in England addressed the fate
of a runaway slave named James Somersett. An English
reformer, Granville Sharp, argued that under English law
all men are free, and the Chief Justice, Lord Mansfield,
agreed with him. The Mansfield Judgement declared
slavery to be illegal in England and Wales. Although there
was still much to be done to eliminate slavery, this case is
considered to be an important early step on the road to
abolition.
The movement gains momentum

Fifteen years after the Mansfield Judgement, the
abolitionist Thomas Clarkson formed the Society for
the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Its emblem, shown
in Source 1 , was a kneeling, shackled slave with the
question Am I not a man and a brother? around him.
Many supporters of slavery, who certainly did not think
of slaves as brothers, were incensed by the suggestion.
They maintained that ending slavery would bring about
economic ruin. This claim was challenged by a young
economist, Adam Smith, who argued that it cost more to
feed and house a slave than to employ a free man to do the
same work.
At about the same time as the Mansfield Judgement,
a young English member of Parliament named William
Wilberforce began to campaign against slavery. As a close
friend of the prime minister, William Pitt, Wilberforce
became a pivotal force in the abolition movement. He
knew that many politicians in England still did not care
about the fate of African slaves overseas, so instead he
focused on the terrible conditions that British sailors
endured in maintaining the trade. In 1807 the British
Parliament finally passed a bill abolishing the trading of
98
Source 1

The emblem
of the Society for the
Abolition of the Slave
Trade
slaves in British territories. This did not make it illegal to

own slaves, only to buy new ones. It wasnt until 1833 that
all slaves in the British Empire were freed.
Abolition in America
Despite abolition in Britain the southern plantation states
of the United States still clung to slavery. The plight
of slaves was highlighted in 1852 with the publication
of Harriet Beecher Stowes novel Uncle Toms Cabin.
The stories of runaway slaves who escaped to the north
with the help of the Underground Railroad a secret
network of sympathisers increased calls for abolition.
One such escapee was Frederick Douglass, who became a
famous orator and statesman who worked tirelessly for the
abolition cause.
On 1 January 1863 President Abraham Lincoln signed
the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all slaves
in the United States were henceforth and forever free.
There is no doubt that it was a political as much as a
moral decision. Lincoln knew that because the country
was in the middle of a bitter civil war between northern
During the American Civil War more than one hundred

thousand freed slaves fought in the Union army against
the southern states that supported slavery. The most
famous unit was the 54th Massachusetts Regiment,
commanded by Robert Gould Shaw. The volunteer soldiers
of the regiment were recruited by white abolitionists. The
story of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment was the subject
of the 1989 film Glory.
Source 2

The British Parliament debates slavery.
Student workbook
4.2
Source 3

A quote from
Frederick Douglass, 1852
What to the slave is the 4th of July?
and southern states, it would be

almost impossible to enforce.
However, it was an important step
towards ending slavery, and two years
later, at wars end, the Thirteenth
Amendment to the US Constitution
allowed neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude in the United
States. All slaves were now free. But
laws alone cannot change how people
think, and life for many freed slaves
remained harsh. Even today African
Americans face much disadvantage.
Chronology, terms and

concepts
1 Create a timeline of the events in
this spread that led towards the
abolition of slavery in England and
North America.
2 What do you understand by the
term abolition?
EXPLANATION and
communication
3 What was the outcome and
significance of the Mansfield
Judgement for the early antislavery movement?
4 Describe in your own words the
meaning of the words Am I not a
man and a brother?
5 Summarise the main arguments
against slavery.
6 Why was it difficult to enforce the
Emancipation Proclamation?

abolition the end of legal acceptance
of slavery
7 Look at Source 2 . Why do you

think it took so long for the British
Parliament to make
a decision to abolish slavery?
8 Research the meaning of 4 July for
the United States and explain the
meaning of the Frederick Douglass
quote in Source 3 .
Perspectives and
interpretationS
9 Adam Smiths argument against
slavery was based on economics
rather than morality. Do you think
this would make slave owners
more or less likely to listen to him?
Why or why not?
Historical questions and

research
10 Choose one of the following
people to conduct further
research on: Frederick Douglass,
John Newton, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, Nat Turner, John Brown
or Harriet Tubman. Write a short
summary of their significance to
the Abolitionist cause.
99
4.5 Crime and punishment

Between 1788 and 1868, around 160 000 British and
Irish convicts were transported to the Australian colonies
as a punishment for crime. Given the nature of the
crimes of many of them, such as pickpocketing, petty
theft and forgery, the punishment appears harsh. How
had British society come to this? Why were punishments
for seemingly minor crimes so severe? The answers lie in
the nature of society at the time.
New society, old solutions

The Industrial Revolution transformed the British
economic base from agriculture to industry. In a process
called enclosure (see chapter 2), wealthy landowners
bought up small farms and fenced off common land
to combine into single, large estates, forcing poor
farmers from their homes and livelihoods. Similarly, in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Scotland,
thousands of country people were forced from their homes
during the infamous Highland Clearances by landlords
eager to improve the agricultural output of their land.
With more efficient and mechanised farming practices,
fewer agricultural workers were needed. As employment
opportunities in the rural areas of Britain declined, the
towns filled with those seeking work. Even with the
industrial boom, however, there simply were not enough
jobs. Some turned to gambling or alcohol in search of
Source 1

100
escape. For the desperate, petty crime became a way to

survive.
The governments response to these growing social
problems was simply to make criminal punishments
harsher. About two hundred different crimes drew the
death penalty. Yet the threat of hanging did not have the
effect the government desired. Public hangings, intended
to serve as a warning, took on a carnival atmosphere.
Thousands of people gathered to watch, even bringing
their children to the spectacle. A bulletin called The
Newgate Calendar, subtitled The Malefactors Bloody
Register, was published each month with the names of all
those executed. It soon contained biographies and stories
of criminals and became a regular bestseller.
While many crimes were punishable by hanging, others
carried a sentence of transportation. In some cases, the
death penalty might be commuted to transportation.
This meant being banished from England to serve out
their sentence in one of Britains distant colonies. In the
1700s most convicts were sent to America to work on the
cotton or sugar plantations, but this was not popular with
plantation owners, who found slaves more manageable.
The American Revolution brought this traffic to an end.
For a time convicts were dispatched to West Africa on
the ships sent out to pick up their human cargo in the
Triangular Trade, but disease, starvation, desertion and
mutiny took their toll on convicts and military personnel
alike. The plan was a disastrous failure.
An eighteenth-century artwork showing a public hanging at Londons notorious Old Bailey prison
Student workbook
4.3
Source 2

A prison hulk moored in the Thames River,
London. This artwork dates to c. 1848.
EXPLANATION and
communication
1 Why did so many people
in England turn to crime
in the eighteenth and
nineteenthcenturies?
2 Why were punishments for
crimes so harsh in eighteenthcentury England?
3 Why did plantation owners
prefer slaves to convicts?
4 What made Africa an
inappropriate place to send
convicts?
5 What was a hulk and why were
they necessary?
What to do?
Despite harsh punishments, the numbers
of people in Britains prisons remained
a concern for the government. While
convicts were not being transported, the
hangman was kept busy and prisons were
overflowing. In an attempt to address
this problem, old decommissioned naval
ships were turned into cramped, stinking,
ratinfested floating prisons called hulks.
As a short-term fix the hulks were a
success, but they merely delayed the
inevitable. Soon enough they too were
impossibly overcrowded. The government
urgently needed a long-term solution.
Source 3

This artwork from c. 1809 shows a trial
in session at the Old Bailey courthouse in London.
In eighteenth-century England
about two hundred crimes
were punishable by the death
penalty. They included:
murder
pickpocketing
poaching
highway robbery
stealing horses or sheep
cutting down young trees.
Children were often among
those sentenced to death.
6 Describe the scene in Source 1 .

If the intention was to make an
example of the people being
hanged, do you think it would
have been effective?
7 Look at Source 2 and make a list
of reasons why the conditions
on a hulk were so terrible.
Perspectives and
interpretationS
8 What was the effect of the
American Revolution on the
transportation of convicts from
England?
9 A common belief during
the eighteenth and
nineteenthcenturies was that
people who were poor brought
it on themselves because they
were idle and did not work
hard. How accurate do you
think this view was?
and research
10 Do you know the definitions
of the capital crimes listed in
the Did you know? box? If
not, conduct some research to
discover what they mean. What
other crimes would have been
on the list in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries?
commute to change a penalty to one

less severe
hulk the body of an old ship that
serves as a prison rather than a sailing
vessel
malefactor a person who does bad or
illegal things
101
4.6 Transportation to Australia

In the 1770s the British
government faced a
major social problem. The
countrys prisons were
overflowing, and the newly
independent United States
refused to take any more of
Britains unwanted convicts.
The hangmans noose was
not proving to be an effective
deterrent. New prisons were
considered too expensive to
build, and not many people
really cared enough about
the problem anyway. As
the situation worsened one
distant possibility began to
emerge as a real option.
Source 1

A solution
presents itself
In 1770 Captain James Cook
had sighted and charted much
of the eastern coastline of
Australia. But Britain, at war
with France and distracted
by her increasingly rebellious
American colonies, was already
under financial strain and did
not follow up Cooks expedition.
With the loss of the American
colonies, however, the possibility
of transportation to New South
Wales began to gain support.
Joseph Banks, a botanist who
had sailed with Cook in 1770,
enthusiastically agreed and
thought that Botany Bay would
be an ideal place for a settlement.
It was soon recognised that
a British colony in New South
Wales would serve several useful
purposes. It would go some way
towards compensating for the
loss of the American colonies. It
would provide Britain with an
important military and imperial
102
A handwritten report of convicts under sentence of transportation
Source 2

A portrait of Captain
Arthur Phillip painted in 1786
fleet weighed anchor. Among the

officials were Captain Phillip, a
judge, a doctor, a surveyor and a
chaplain. The ships crews numbered
about 450. Just over two hundred
marines sailed with the fleet,
their purpose to protect the
fleet in the event of attack
and to control the convicts.
Twenty-seven dependants of
the marines wives and
children were also on board.
Finally there were the convicts
themselves. Numbering 759,
they accounted for half the
complement of the fleet. There
were roughly three male convicts
for every female.
Bound for Botany Bay
presence in the southern Pacific

region. It would also be a dumping
ground for convicts, whose labour
could be used to help build the
colony. In August 1786 the British
government made the decision to
establish a convict settlement in
New South Wales.
Gathering the fleet

Once the decision was made, the
fleet had to be assembled. Captain
Arthur Phillip, an experienced naval
officer, was chosen to lead the fleet. It
was his job to prepare the 11 ships for
the 20000-kilometre voyage. It took
six months to complete the
preparations and, by May 1787, the
fleet had assembled at Portsmouth on
the south coast of England.
The convicts walked through the
town to the docks, to the dismay of
many townspeople, and were rowed
out to the waiting ships in small
boats. The fleet left with little fanfare
at three oclock on the morning of
13May 1787.
Nearly 1500 men, women and
children were on board when the
Todays cruise liners can sail around

the world without needing to put into
port, but in the eighteenthcentury it
was a very different story. The ships of
the First Fleet were small and needed
to regularly resupply. The fleet made
three stops on the voyage to take on
food and water and tend to repairs.
On their final port of call, the Cape
of Good Hope on the southern tip
of Africa, they also secured a range of
plant seeds for food crops in the new
settlement.
Captain Phillip knew that the

long voyage across the Indian Ocean
could be the most treacherous of all.
It would also be the most frightening
for both crew and convicts because
they were sailing into largely
unknown waters. Phillip decided
to split the fleet so the better sailers
would not have to wait for the slower
ships. For nine weeks the ships were
battered by the winds of the Roaring
Forties. Livestock were thrown
about and injured, and even some of
the most experienced seamen were
seasick. Conditions for the convicts
below deck were most likely terrible.
A late change
With what must have been great relief
the fleet sailed into Botany Bay on
18 January 1788, but neither the bay
nor the land surrounding it met their
expectations. The bay was shallow
and offered little protection from
storms; the soil was sandy; and there
was no good, easily accessible supply
of fresh water. For a moment Captain
Phillip must have thought that the
entire voyage might end in disaster.
All was not lost, however. In 1770
Captain Cook had sailed past another
bay a few kilometres to the north
and had named it Port Jackson. He
Source 3

Captain Arthur Phillip raising the British Union
Jack at Sydney Cove. This artwork was painted in 1937.
103
Source 4

A map tracing
the First Fleets voyage
ARCTIC
OCEAN

Convict transportation to Australia pp. 1667
Arctic Circle
BRITAIN
Portsmouth
ASIA
A T L A N T I C Tenerife
Tropic of Cancer
OCEAN
PAC I F I C
AFRICA
OCEAN
Equator
SOUTH
AMERICA
INDIAN
Rio de Janeiro
Cape Town
1500
3000
OCEAN
Tropic of Capricorn
AUSTRALIA
Botany Bay
4500
kilometres
did not explore it but recorded that

it appeared to be a good harbour.
Phillip left the fleet at Botany Bay
to survey Port Jackson for himself,
finding it the finest harbour in the
world. The rest of the fleet soon
transferred to Port Jackson, anchoring
in the cove within it that Phillip
named after Lord Sydney, Britains
Home Secretary and the man who
had appointed him. The water at
Sydney Cove was deep enough for
ships to anchor close to the shore,
and there was a good supply of fresh
water. The new colony was officially
proclaimed on 26 January1788.
The hungry years

It was an uncertain beginning for
the settlement, however, for despite
its obvious other advantages, the
soil around Port Jackson proved as
unsuitable for planting as Botany Bay,
and the first crops withered and died.
In the first two years the settlers at
Sydney Cove grew desperately short
of food. Rations were reduced to
104
stretch food supplies, and a supply

ship that was sent from England
failed to arrive. For Captain Phillip,
now the governor of New South
Wales, failure, once again, seemed a
real threat. Some measure of relief
came in mid 1790 with the arrival of
the Second Fleet. With it came fresh
supplies, but more than a quarter of
the convicts on board had died on
the terrible journey and most of the
survivors were too weak to work.
At last fertile soil was found and
cultivated at Parramatta on the edge
of the settlement, and the crops
successfully grown there finally
guaranteed the long-term survival
of the colony. In 1792 poor health
forced Governor Phillip to resign and
return to England. He took with him
kangaroos, dingoes, native plants and
two Aboriginal men to show to the
king. Phillips firm but fair command
of the colony had ensured its survival.
When food was scarce he made
sure that rations were distributed
equitably, with no privileges for rank,
thereby alleviating resentment and

potential convict revolt. By the time
he left in December 1792 the colony
was securely established and growing.
Rebellion
In 1804 the authorities in New South
Wales faced the first serious challenge
to their rule. A group of convicts,
mainly from Ireland, began a largescale rebellion against the British
authorities in Australia. Two convicts,
Of the 759 convicts on board

the First Fleet, 23 died during the
voyage, which for a fleet of this size
would have been an acceptable
loss. In addition, six children were
born during the voyage, although
two of these died before reaching
New South Wales. Compared with
the Second Fleet, the survival rate
of convicts on the First Fleet was
very impressive.
Phillip Cunningham and William Johnston, planned

to lead a band of convicts against the British and create
their own empire, with Cunningham as its leader. The
plan was for the initial two hundred convicts from Castle
Hill to meet with others at another convict settlement
at Hawkesbury, bringing the group to more than one
thousand. From there they would march to Parramatta
and finally on to Sydney.
On the evening of 4 March 1804 the rebellion began.
With cries of Liberty or death!, the rebels overpowered
the small garrison that guarded them. They began
recruiting more convicts from surrounding farms,
eventually gathering a force of around 600.
However, word of the uprising had spread to
Parramatta and Sydney, and a force of British soldiers
marched through the night to intercept the rebels. Forced
into retreat, Cunningham struggled to maintain control
over the unruly, and often drunk, convicts. The British
force soon caught up with them, and at a place called
Vinegar Hill the British attacked. Despite being armed,
the rebels offered almost no resistance to the professional
soldiers. The battle was over within a matter of minutes.
In the aftermath nine rebels were executed and many
others flogged or sent to places of secondary punishment.
The whole rebellion had lasted only three days. It was,
nonetheless, the largest convict rebellion in Australian
history.
Source 5

A painting by an unknown artist depicting the final battle of
the uprising at Vinegar Hill
Student workbook
4.4

1 How long did the voyage of the First Fleet take?
2 Which do you think was the most dangerous leg of the
voyage? Why?
3 How many years after Captain Cooks voyage was it
before the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay?
4 How would you describe Arthur Phillips opinion of Port
Jackson?

5 Examine Source 1 carefully and answer the following
questions.
a What is the approximate age of the convicts on this
page?
b Where are they now being held (e.g. in a prison or on
a hulk)?
c What is the most common length of their sentence?
6 Is it possible to determine if Sources 3 and 5 are primary
or secondary sources? If you are unsure, what other
information would help you decide?

7 How would you describe Phillips leadership of the first
settlement? Do you think he did a good job? What
evidence would you provide to support your point of
view?
8 Some people mark 26 January as Invasion Day. Why is
this? How appropriate do you think this view is?

9 Use Source 4 and an atlas to find out the latitude of
the final leg of the First Fleets voyage. Explain why the
winds are called the Roaring Forties.
105
4.7 Convict life

The penal settlement at Sydney
Cove was isolated from other
European settlements and, as
a result, made a unique openair prison. Surrounded by an
endless, alien and menacing
wilderness, chains and
walls were scarcely needed.
Nonetheless convict punishment
was brutal.
Source 1

Mary Reibey, an ex-convict, now
appears on the Australian $20 note.
Convicts turned good

Convicts who had skills such as
carpentry were put to use building
the new town and others that were
growing around it. Many convictbuilt buildings still stand in Sydney
today. Building projects, such as the
Great North Road that runs between
Sydney and Newcastle, were also
built using convict labour. Working
conditions for most convicts were
brutal, not least because the climate
of New South Wales was so much
hotter and drier than England.
Some convicts, nonetheless, made a
good life for themselves in New South
Wales. Mary Reibey, for example,
was transported for seven years for
stealing a horse. She worked as a maid
in New South Wales and was allowed
to marry. After she had served out
her sentence she became a respected
businesswoman and one of the
wealthiest people in Sydney. Today she
is featured on the Australian $20 note
(see Source 1 ).
Another example of a successful
convict was the architect Francis
Greenway. Transported for forgery, in
the colony he used his creative talents
to design government buildings.
Some of these buildings can still be
seen today, among them the graceful
Hyde Park Barracks (see Source 2 ).
many others for whom the convict

life was a living hell. Those judged
to be unmanageable or defiant might
be sent to even more isolated places
of secondary punishment. The most
notorious of these were on Norfolk
Island and at Port Arthur in Van
Diemens Land (Tasmania).
Norfolk Island was characterised
by brutal physical punishment. Lying
1700kilometres off the coast of
New South Wales, escape was not an
option. Floggings and beatings were
common and convicts were worked
beyond the point of exhaustion.
Source 2

Hyde
Park Barracks
in Sydney. This
building was
designed by the
convict architect
Francis Greenway.
Secondary punishment
Unfortunately, for every Mary Reibey
or Francis Greenway there were
106
There was no effort to reform

prisoners sent to Norfolk Island
this was a place of punishment, not
rehabilitation. Following a mutiny in
1834 a clergyman was sent to comfort
those convicts sentenced to death. In
an illustration of how terrible Norfolk
Island was, the minister recorded that
each man who heard his reprieve
wept bitterly, and each man who
heard of his condemnation to death
went down on his knees and thanked
God. Eventually the penal settlement
on Norfolk Island was closed down,
partly due to the notoriety of the
conditions.
Source 3

Pinchgut Island
in Sydney Harbour was
one of the earliest sites of
secondary punishment.
In 1828 a census was taken in New South Wales to record

all inhabitants of the colony, both convict and free. It found
that half the population were convicts and that former
convicts made up nearly half of the free population. In
1828, then, about 75per cent of the population of New
South Wales either were, or had been, convicts!
Source 5

The chapel at Port Arthur prison.
Even here the convicts would not be able to
see each other from their individual booths.
Port Arthur, on the other hand, was a new type of

prison. Established as a penal settlement in 1833, here
psychological cruelty took precedence over physical
brutality. Convicts spent long periods in isolation. When
in the company of others they wore hoods so they could
not recognise anyone and they in turn could not be
recognised. The aim was to enforce anonymity and take
away any sense of individuality. At the time this was
thought to be a more effective rehabilitation technique
than purely physical punishment.
Over the 80 years from 1788 until the last convicts
arrived in 1868, approximately 160000 convicts were
transported to the Australian colonies.
Source 4

Many convicts had tattoos, possibly in
an effort to regain some degree of individuality after
having been reduced to a number.

1 Give two reasons why Sydney Cove became an openair prison.
2 Look at Source 4 . Why did convicts tattoo themselves?
3 Why did it take some time for convicts to get used to the
conditions in New South Wales?

4 Look at Source 3 . What advantages does Pinchgut
Island have as a place of secondary punishment?
5 What effect do you think the image of a cross like that in
Source 4 would have had on a flogger who was about
to punish a convict?

6 Describe the difference in punishment regimes at
Norfolk Island and at Port Arthur. Do you think one
would have been a more effective deterrent against
crime than the other?

7 Look at Source 1 . Conduct some research on the life of
Mary Reibey. Decide for yourself whether you think her
image should appear on the $20 note and give reasons
for your response.
107
4.8 Emigration to Australia

Convicts were unwilling migrants. They were sent to
Australia against their will as punishment for criminal
convictions. As the colonies grew, they attracted free
settlers people who made a conscious decision to
start a new life in Australia. In the eighteenthcentury
these settlers came mainly from Europe, and they came
for a range of different reasons.
Push and pull factors

The decisions of migrants to travel thousands of
kilometres from their homelands in Europe to Australia
were based on a variety of factors. There were often good
reasons for them to leave home (push factors), and there
were also reasons to choose Australia as a destination (pull
factors). Both of these forces tended to operate at the same
time.
Source 1

Here and there;
or, emigration a
remedy, a cartoon
from the English
magazine Punch in
1848
108
Europe in the first half of the nineteenthcentury

was an uncertain place. Wars and revolutions had
left many people in desperate straits. In Britain the
Industrial Revolution had made life unbearable for
some. Unemployment, rising rents and taxes, and grim
conditions in factories and in overcrowded cities led many
to dream of a better life across the sea. In Scotland the
notorious Highland Clearances had forced many people
from their land, leaving them with few options for feeding
their families. In Ireland in the 1840s the failure of the
potato crop led to widespread starvation and despair.
Until 1850 most emigrants from Europe still travelled
to the United States or Canada. These countries were
more settled and the voyage cost only a fraction of a ticket
to Australia. For this reason, those who came to Australia
often did so with government help. Assisted migration
to Australia was encouraged to help the colonies grow.
Unassisted migrants, who paid their own way, made up
Source 2

This painting from 1865 depicts the expulsion
of a family during the Highland Clearances in Scotland.
about one-third of migrants to Australia in the first half of

the nineteenthcentury. Some of them were tradespeople
who were keen to establish a business in one of the new
towns. Others were from wealthy families who believed
their money would go further in Australia than in Britain.
Many were encouraged by the promise of government
land grants and convict labour.
The level of government assistance for migration
followed economic cycles. For example, during the 1830s
the government decided to sell land rather than give it
away to migrants free of charge. The money earned by
the government was used to help fund further migration.
In contrast, 1841 was a depression year for New South
Wales. The price of wool had fallen and unemployment
rose. Migrants were not encouraged in the 1840s. In
the 1850s, however, the gold rushes resulted in massive
immigration. Another depression in the 1890s brought
immigration to an abrupt halt.
The voyage
For migrants travelling from England to Australia, the
voyage was faster, if only slightly more comfortable, than
those of the convicts. Those who could afford it paid

for a private cabin, but 90per cent of migrants had to
endure steerage class. This was the cheapest passenger
accommodation, typically at the stern of the ship. It was
usually confined, foul-smelling and crowded, offering no
privacy. Meals were simple, based around oatmeal, rice
and the occasional meat stew, but migrants had to supply
their own plates and cutlery. The tedious voyage could
take up to four and a half months plenty of time for
migrants to wonder whether they had made the right
decision!
Although steerage lacked privacy and comfort, it
did create a new sense of belonging for many migrants.
With nothing but time on their hands, people from
many different backgrounds mingled. A blacksmith
from Liverpool might find himself talking to a
businessman from Edinburgh or a small farmer from
Kent. For many migrants this was the first time they had
travelled more than a few miles from their own village.
Of course, the absence of privacy in the long weeks at sea
could also leave tempers frayed and tensions sometimes
boiled over.
109
Source 3

Emigrants at dinner, a scene from
a migrant ship of the nineteenthcentury
Arrival
Safe arrival in Australia did not mean the end of a
migrants worries. If they did not have jobs organised
before leaving England they would have to find work,
which was more of a challenge if they had arrived with
their families. Employers did not want to support children
who did not work. As the coastal towns grew and became
crowded, migrants were sent inland to work on farms.
Others moved from place to place in search of work. The
Henty family emigrated to Australia in 1829 to breed
sheep. They arrived first at the Swan River colony, now
Perth. Finding the land poor they decided to try Van
Diemens Land, but they missed out on free land there so
moved again to the south coast of the Port Phillip District
and established a settlement at Portland. In doing so they
became the first permanent European settlers in what
would become the state of Victoria in 1851.
Tyranny of distance
With family members so far away, those back in England
looked forward to any news of how their loved ones were
faring in the Australian colonies. Unlike todays world in
which emails from around the world are received almost
instantly, letters took months to reach the other side of
the world. To send a letter and receive a reply could take a
whole year.
During the mid eighteenth century a range of different
British publications encouraged, or at times discouraged,
migration to Australia. Books promoted emigration,
highlighting the potential of the colonies as a migrant
destination. Despite periodic negative news of economic
depression and the shadow of transportation hanging over
110
The Aboriginal people can be regarded as the first

migrants to Australia. Evidence exists that Aborigines
have been on the continent for at least 50000years,
with some researchers suggesting that it could be more
than 100000years. Over that time the Aboriginal people
became very diverse: around 300 different languages
were spoken across Australia when the Europeans first
arrived in 1788.
the colonies, many in England saw the colonies as sources

of opportunity, wealth and power. A less than perfect
image of the colonies would certainly not dissuade many
of those with family already in Australia from wanting to
make the journey themselves.
Source 4

From a letter written by James Henty, quoted in
R.Broome, The Colonial Experience, 2009
I have almost come to the conclusion that New South

Wales will do more for our family than England ever
will. What can we do with ten thousand pounds among
all of us? It would be idle to suppose we can live many
years longer on less than two hundred pounds a year,
unless indeed we chose to descend many steps in the
scale of Society, having at the same time an opportunity
of doing as well and perhaps considerably better in New
South Wales, under British Dominion and a fine climate.
Immediately we get there we shall be placed in the
first Rank in Society, a circumstance which must not be
overlooked.
Student workbook
4.5
The old world in the new

The vast majority of migrants who
came to Australia in the 1800s
were from the British Isles. They
brought with them what historian
Richard Broome calls their cultural
baggage, including ideas about
society, religion, class and gender.
As a result, British institutions and
clubs were firmly established in
colonial Australia. At the same time,
this cultural heritage was being
influenced and reshaped by the new
world. That new world was being
populated more and more by people
born in Australia, rather than those
born overseas and, while they still
considered themselves British,
many increasingly associated
themselves with the land in
which they were born.
Source 5

George Baxters painting from the
mid nineteenthcentury News from Australia
depicts a family in England receiving news
from a loved one in the colonies.

1 What is your understanding of the term cultural baggage?

2 Explain why Britain wanted the Australian colonies to grow.
3 What sort of people did the British government encourage to migrate?
4 Explain why the level of government assistance for migrants varied over the
decades of the nineteenthcentury.
5 What were the advantages of assisted travel over unassisted travel?

6
7
8
9
10
What is the message of Source 1 ?

How realistic do you think the here and there scenes in Source 1 are?
Do you think Source 1 is trying to appeal to a particular type of person?
Describe what is happening in Source 2 .
Read Source 4 carefully and identify the push and pull factors for the Henty
family.

11 Imagine you are one of the emigrants in Source 3 . Write a diary entry for
part of your journey describing your interaction with some of the other
migrants.
12 How important do you think letters from loved ones, like that depicted in
Source 5 , would have been in encouraging other family members to follow
them to Australia?

European migration to
Australia pp. 1701
111
4.9 Migration to the goldfields

In 1851 Edward Hargraves returned to Australia
after prospecting for gold in California. He noticed
that in parts of Australia the land was similar to areas
where gold was discovered in California, and he was
convinced that gold could be found here too. That same
year he was proved right. It marked a turning point in
Australias history.
The beginnings of a rush

Hargraves discovered gold in New South Wales in April
1851, but because news then took some months to travel
overseas, for the first year or so the diggings were worked
exclusively by local diggers or those from other Australian
colonies. As news of the discovery spread around the
colonies, people seemed to go crazy with excitement.
The discovery of gold in Victoria a few months later
only added to the hysteria. Husbands left their families,
shepherds their flocks. Ships were stranded in port
when their crews deserted en masse for the diggings.
Teachers, labourers, lawyers, even government officials and
policemen, made a dash for the goldfields.
From the start, the early goldfields were characterised
by a sense of egalitarianism. The class system that
dominated England had no place there. It was clear from
the beginning that on the goldfields luck played a more
important role than money or social position. Everyone
had an equal chance of success if they worked hard. This
levelling effect challenged the traditional social structure
from which the diggers had sprung. Some people were
alarmed, fearing social collapse with the lower classes
challenging the traditional hierarchy. Many historians
trace the Australian idea of the fair go back to the
goldfields. One miner from Poland, Seweryn Korzelinski,
describes the multicultural scene in Source 1 .
Yet while the diggers may have abandoned some
of their customs and cultures, their prejudices often
remained. As one example, Source 2 describes what
happened when Korzelinski inquired about a fellow
diggers test mineshaft.
Word spreads
Soon after news of the gold rushes reached England, in
January 1852, the towns of Ballarat and Bendigo became
better known than Melbourne or Adelaide. A new rush
of migration followed as Britons of all classes decided to
try their luck. The result was a population explosion in
Australia that the colonies were unable to cope with. In
the two years following the discovery of gold more people
arrived in Australia than all the convicts that had been
transported in the previous 64 years. In just one week
112
Source 1

Polish miner Seweryn Korzelinski describes the
egalitarianism on the goldfields.
This society comprises men from all parts of the world,

all countries and religions all mixed into one society,
all dressed similarly, all forced to forget their previous
habits, learnings, customs, manners and occupations.
Their outward appearance does not signify their previous
importance, worth or mental attainments. A colonel
pulls up the earth for a sailor, a lawyer wields not a pen
but a spade; a priest lends a match to a Negros pipe; a
doctor rests on the same heap of earth with a Chinaman;
a man of letters carries a bag of earth. Many a one would
not, a short while before, bother to look at a fellow
with whom he now works. Here we are all joined by a
common designation: digger. Only various shades of skin
colour and speech denote nationality and origin, but it is
impossible to guess previous station in life or background.
Source 2

miner.
Korzelinski describes an encounter with an English
The report I received was very encouraging so I went on

digging. During a break a compatriot of mine passing by
stopped for a chat. My English neighbour was listening in
and came up to me later asking in what language I was
conversing. My native Polish I replied. My neighbour
explained with a great deal of embarrassment that his
test hadnt shown any trace of gold and that he had
misled me because he thought I was a German.
of October 1852 Melbourne received nearly 8000 new

arrivals. In four months during 1853, at a time when the
population of the city was only 23000, 50000 migrants
landed at Melbournes docks.
Source 3

Population growth of New South Wales and Victoria
at the height of the gold rushes
Year
New South Wales
Victoria
1840
110000
10291
1850
189341
76162
1860
348546
538234
Source: From R. Broome, The Colonial Experience, 2009.
Melbourne was unable to absorb the sea of new arrivals

and a massive city of tents called Canvastown was set up
on the banks of the Yarra River to try to accommodate
them. It was a smelly, dirty place where outbreaks of
disease were common. The extracts in Source 4 give
an impression of Melbourne during the height of the
migration rush. As more people arrived in Victoria the
crime rate increased, a problem made worse by the fact
that 80per cent of Melbournes

police had themselves taken off to the
goldfields.
Source 4

Two extracts from letters
written to newspapers in 1852
Extract A
One of the most striking
peculiarities here to a new arrival
is the immense encampments that
surround Melbourne. The vast
number of tents that stud the open
ground in every direction conveys
a clear idea of that enormous
emigration to Victoria, which
requires the erection of canvas
suburbs, where the hordes of
adventurers may find a temporary
shelter on landing, ... before
starting to the great storehouses of
Mount Alexander and Ballarat.
Extract B
People are flocking in from all
countries now, and there is not
accommodation for a tenth of
them. Some have to sleep in sheds
who never knew anything but a
feather-bed in England. We have
had very heavy rains lately; several
people have been drowned on
their way to and from the diggings
in attempting to swim the creeks,
as the Government does not think
of putting any bridges where
required; indeed, the people are
beginning to murmur against the
abominable way in which our
government is carried out.
Source 5

Student workbook
4.6
New Gold Mountain

In 1853 large numbers of Chinese
men arrived on the goldfields.
They would eventually account for
one in every five miners. Those who
came straight from the Californian
gold rushes referred to the Victorian
goldfields as New Gold Mountain.
Others came directly from China,
fleeing war and famine, and seeking
a chance to strike it rich, like all
the other diggers. Culturally they
stood out on the goldfields and as a
result were subject to racial violence.
The Australian and British diggers
resented the Chinese both for their
difference and because they generally
worked harder than other miners.
They worked claims that had been
abandoned yet still managed to
extract enough gold to make a
living. The Chinese on the goldfields
were almost exclusively men, and
the other miners chose to believe
they would steal their women. To
control Chinese immigration, the
Victorian government introduced
a ten-pound arrival tax to be paid
by all Chinese migrants at their
Victorian port of entry. To avoid this
tax, the Chinese arrived at Adelaide
or Sydney and travelled overland to
the diggings. What became the
White Australia Policy began on
the goldfields.
Prospecting, a sketch by S. T. Gill
EXPLANATION and
communication
1 What was the influence of the
gold rushes and subsequent
immigration on the structure of
Australian society?
2 Why was it that during the
first year of the gold rushes
the diggings were populated
entirely by local diggers and
those from other Australian
colonies?
3 What fears did some people
have about the effect of the
gold rushes on society?
4 Why were the Chinese the
targets of racial abuse?
5 Why did some Chinese
migrants disembark at Adelaide
and walk to the Victorian
goldfields from there?

6 Using quotes from the sources
in this spread, describe how
the goldfields were a social
leveller.
7 Describe in your own
words what happened in
the exchange described in
Source 2 .
8 Plot the information in
Source 3 in a graph and
describe the population growth
in Victoria and New South
Wales.
9 Using quotes from the extracts
in Source 4 , describe what
is happening to the city of
Melbourne.
10 What is the grievance towards
the government expressed in
extract B of Source 4 ?
11 How does the image in
Source 5 support the idea of
the goldfields as egalitarian?
Perspectives and
interpretationS
S.T. Gill
1818 England
Australia 1880
Prospecting 1865
From The Australian
Sketchbook (Melbourne:
Hamel & Ferguson, 1865)
Lithograph, printed in colour,
from multiple stones
12 Some people claim that the

gold rushes signalled the start
of Australian multiculturalism,
but others suggest that it
was the beginning of racial
intolerance. What evidence
can you find in this spread to
support each of these points of
view?
egalitarianism equality of all people
113
4.10 SkillBuilder
Planning a history essay
What is a
history essay?
A history essay is a logical
argument that demonstrates
historical knowledge, skills
and understanding. A number
of points are put forward,
and each one is supported by
relevant details and evidence.
Why is planning an
essay important?
Good essays are nearly
impossible to write without
an initial plan. Planning your
essay lets you shape your point
of view and decide whether it
is appropriate and convincing.
It also lets you identify the key
knowledge and information
you will need to support your
ideas, and whether you need to
undertake further research to
strengthen your points of view.
How to plan an essay

For this practice task we will look at an essay
that answers the following question:
The movement of peoples between
1750 and 1901 were carried out mainly
against the wishes of those who
moved. Discuss this statement, showing
clearly whether you agree or disagree.
Your response should be about
600 words.
This essay topic will give you an opportunity
to look back over all the spreads in this
chapter, so it will act as a useful revision tool
as well as a chance to develop your essaywriting skills.
Step 1
Read the question carefully to make sure you
understand what is being asked. Be sure to
check command terms to clarify what you
need to do. In the sample essay question
the command term asks you to discuss.
In other questions you could be asked to
explain, analyse, compare or assess.
Youll notice that this essay has two parts to
it. Firstly you need to discuss the information
but it also asks you to show whether you
agree or disagree.
Source 1

An illustration published in 1869
showing American slaves using a cotton gin
Step 2
Circle key words in the question. This will
help keep you on track and ensure you do
what is required. Words in this question that
could be circled are:
The movements of people between
1750 and 1901 were carried out mainly
against the wishes of those who moved.
Discuss this statement, showing clearly
whether you agree or disagree.
Step 3
Decide which point of view you will take
in your response. In history essays it is rare
to entirely agree or entirely disagree with
statements, but you should decide which
side of the argument you will mainly
support. This practice essay will, for the
moment, agree with the statement in the
question.
Step 4
Plan your answer by deciding on the main
ideas in each paragraph that is, what
information each paragraph will cover.
You will need to research in order to gather
evidence for each paragraph. Think about
the sequence of your points and arrange
them in a way that is logical and suits your
argument. Usually the strongest points come
first. There is no set rule for the number of
paragraphs to include in an essay, but five
or six body paragraphs plus an introduction
and a conclusion is a good starting point.
Remember, the purpose of the essay is to
support your point of view with details and
evidence. Your plan for this topic might look
like this:
1 Introduction
2 Native American slaves
3 Slaves from Africa
4 Transportation of convicts
5 Migrants from Britain
6 A disclaimer paragraph acknowledging the
other side of the argument
7 Conclusion.
Step 5
Write a first draft, which you can then check,
revise and improve on when writing the final
draft.
114
Student workbook
4.7
Task
Write a planned essay by following the steps below.
Step 1
Read the guidelines and examples in the following table.
Guidelines
Examples
Introduction (about 70 words)

Focus on the key words in the question. You need to show
that you understand the question. State your point of view
clearly and outline the points that support your statement in
the order they will appear in your essay.
The years between 1750 and 1901 saw the movement of

large numbers of people around the world. Most of these
migrations were carried out against the wishes of the
people involved. First, Native Americans and, later, Africans
were kidnapped or sold into slavery in the Americas. Later,
British convicts were transported overseas. Even voluntary
migrants often had little choice but to seek a new life in a new
country.
Paragraph 2 (about 100 words)

Discuss the Spanish need for labour and the use of Native
American slaves. You should also mention the population
decline that led to a demand for a new source of labour. In
every paragraph you should start with a topic sentence that
clearly outlines what you will be covering in that paragraph.
As soon as the Spanish had colonised the Americas they

needed a large workforce for their mines and plantations.
The Native American population provided a ready source of
labour, so they were forced to work for the Spanish. Workers
were taken against their will to travel with the Spanish
during the expansion of their colonies in America. European
diseases took a heavy toll on the Native American population
because they had no natural immunity to them. As the native
population declined through disease and abuse, the Spanish
were forced to look elsewhere for workers.

Discuss how the African slave trade worked and its
importance to America. (Describe how slaves were sometimes
kidnapped, sometimes bought.)
Write this paragraph yourself, using only information that

supports your point of view.

Discuss the British decision to transport criminals to overseas
colonies. (Point out that the convicts had no choice but to
go.)


Discuss migration from Britain during the nineteenthcentury.
(Point out that many had been forced from their homes.)

Paragraph 6 (disclaimer paragraph, about 70 words)

This paragraph should acknowledge the other side of the
argument, while still defending your position. You could
point out that not everyone made the journey against
their will, but it was less common to travel back and
forth freely. You might also point out that after the mid
nineteenthcentury more and more people were moving
voluntarily.
While it appears that most people who took part in these

mass migrations during the period between 1750 and 1901
did so against their will, there were some who made the
decision voluntarily. The Hentys, for example, decided to start
a new life in Australia. However, even many migrants were
left with little choice but to move because of economic events
over which they had little control.
Conclusion (about 70 words)

Do not introduce any new ideas here. Briefly summarise the
points you have made in the essay. Restate that you agree (or
disagree) with the statement and briefly remind the reader of
your reasons.
Write this paragraph yourself. Summarise your argument

without introducing new elements.
Step 2
Following the guidelines in the left-hand column, write paragraphs 3, 4, 5 and 7.
Check and revise your draft before completing your final draft.
115

In this chapter we have investigated the movement of peoples around the world between 1750 and 1901. We
have seen that this movement was sometimes involuntary, as in the case of slaves and convicts, and sometimes
voluntary, as in the case of migrants. However, we have also discovered that migration was often prompted by
events beyond the control of those who chose to leave their homeland. In addition, we have studied the impact
these movements had on the modern world.
Quick quiz
1
2
3
4
What was the Middle Passage of the Atlantic slave trade?

How did the cotton gin affect slavery in America?
Why was slavery abolished in America?
Why could England no longer send convicts to America
in the late eighteenthcentury?
5 What was a hulk and why were they used?
6 In what year did the First Fleet arrive at Botany Bay?
7 How many convicts sailed with the First Fleet?

1 Many people regard the printing press as one of the
most historically significant inventions of all time.
Discuss in groups whether you think the cotton gin
should be regarded in a similar way. Explain your
thoughts and reasoning.
2 Research the origins of the steam engine and explain
what role it played in the movement of peoples during
the Industrial Revolution. Do you think it should be
regarded as one of the most significant inventions of all
time? Explain.
3 The British Empire was described in the nineteenth
century as the empire on which the sun never sets.
What do you think this quote means? Was it an
accurate statement in the nineteenthcentury?

1 Look at Source 1 and answer the following questions.
a Is this a primary or a secondary source?
b Do you think this is intended to be a literal portrayal
of events? Why or why not?
c What is the message of this cartoon? When
answering, you should refer to specific details in the
image that help explain your thoughts.
2 Look back to the spreads on migration to Australia
and the goldfields. Summarise in a copy of the
following table the different push and pull factors
at work. Find evidence to support your viewpoints.
116
8 What was secondary punishment?

9 Describe the difference between push and pull factors.
10 How did the government in Great Britain encourage
migrants to come to Australia?
11 What were some of the push and pull factors for Chinese
migrants coming to Australia during the gold rushes?
12 What was Canvastown and why was it such an unhealthy
place to live?
Push factors
Evidence
Pull
factors
Evidence

1 What two symbols are featured in the flag in Source 2 ?
Why do you think they were chosen?
2 Do you feel those two symbols still reflect Australia
today? Why or why not?

questions.
1 How did technology and new ideas contribute to the
movement of peoples between 1750 and 1901?
2 What was the significance of European imperialism to
slaves, convicts and migrants?
3 What conditions did slaves and convicts face when they
were put to work?
4 What sort of historical sources are most useful when
investigating slaves, convicts and migrants?
Discuss these questions in small groups and present your
thoughts to the rest of the class.
Student workbook
4.8, 4.9, 4.10
Source 1

Gin Lane, an eighteenth-century
engraving by William Hogarth, illustrates society
falling apart because of the effects of cheap gin.
1 You have used a variety of different

sources to draw conclusions
about the movement of peoples
between 1750 and 1901. What
other historical sources could you
investigate to further deepen your
understanding of the topics in this
chapter?
2 Throughout this chapter there
have been cases in which an
event has been interpreted in very
different ways for example,
egalitarianism and racism on
the goldfields.
a How do you think different
people can have such different
views of the same events?
b What role do you think cultural
baggage has on attitudes
towards people and events?
c Think of a time when you had
a different attitude towards an
issue from someone else you
know. Did you take the time
to consider their point of view?
Did your point of view change
after considering a different
view?
Source 2

This flag represents the Australasian Anti-Transportation League, an organisation created
in the mid nineteenth century to oppose convict transportation to Australia.
117
eBook plus
Using ICT
Scenario
Female convicts
Your task
Write a short story designed to inform readers about
the lives and treatment of female convicts in Australias
early European settlements.
The Female Factory Historical Society has launched

a new competition aimed at helping people to better
understand Australias convict history and the hardships
faced by female convicts. Participants in the competition
are asked to write a short story of approximately
600words based on research conducted into the life
and times of a female convict from the period.
Your story must be based on factual events, but
should elaborate on the information to educate readers
about the lives and treatment of women in the female
factories. You might like to choose a female convict with
the same last name as you. The weblinks in your Media
Centre will take you to long lists of Australias female
convicts.
Process
Your introductory video lesson includes a

visit to Tasmania, where you will see the
remains of a number of female prisons,
known as factories.
118
Open the ProjectsPLUS application for this chapter in

your eBookPLUS. Watch the introductory video lesson
and then click the Start Project button and set
up your project group. Although you will write
your story individually, you should first invite
members of your class to form a group and
share your research. Save your settings and
the project will be launched.
Navigate to your Research Forum where you
will find four research topics loaded:
locations and conditions of female factories
the daily life of female convicts
significant female convicts
your selected female convict.
Use your eBookPLUS as a starting point to research

these topics. A template containing the key questions
you need to answer for each topic should be
downloaded from your ProjectsPLUS Media Centre.
Weblinks are also provided to help you with your
research. You need to make notes about interesting
and relevant facts under each of the topics. As
you research, it is important that you note the
bibliographic information for the sources you have
used to find your information.

When your research is complete, write your short

story. Use the information you have gathered to
ensure your work is historically accurate.
Review your short story, remembering to double
check your spelling and grammar, and make any
final adjustments.
hand it in to your teacher.
DIGITAL
Suggested software
ProjectsPLUS
Microsoft Word
Media Centre
key research questions for each topic
weblinks to research sites
MOVEMENT OF
PEOPLES TIMELINE
Use this fun interactivity to create a visual
timeline of key movement of peoples between
1750 and 1901.
Searchlight ID: INT-2964
Investigator: free settlers

to learn about the extraordinary conditions faced
by the people who freely chose to settle in Australia
for a new way of life. This learning object will
provide you with all the information you need and
help you create a summary report on your findings.
SEARCHLIGHT ID: LO-0305 (PC ONLY)
119
CHAPTER
Depth study 2: Australia and Asia
Making a nation Australia (17501918):

(I) Colonisation and conflict
On 13 February 2008 in Federal
Parliament in Canberra, Kevin Rudd,
then Australias newly elected Labor
prime minister, delivered a longawaited apology to Australias Stolen
Generations. These were the many
thousands of Indigenous Australians
who had been removed from their
parents by state governments
throughout Australia from early in the
twentiethcentury. Vast crowds gathered
on the lawns outside Parliament House
and in cities throughout Australia to
watch this historic event live on big
television screens.
In taking this step, Kevin Rudd had
broken with the attitude of the previous
LiberalNational Coalition government
led by John Howard, who for more than
a decade had resisted public pressure to
make such an apology. Rudd had taken
an important step on the path towards
reconciliation (an aim adopted by the
federal government in 1991 to promote
understanding between Indigenous
Australians and the wider community).
Did the National Apology mark a turning
point in relations between Australians?
Members of the crowd

around a big television
screen outside Parliament
House, Canberra, as
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
made his historic Apology
to the Stolen Generations
on 13 February 2008

Making a nation Australia (17501918) is covered over two
chapters because of the wide range and complexity of the
curriculum content. This will make it easier for students to study
this fascinating topic. Teachers should select the material from
both chapters that best meets the needs of their students, rather
than attempting to cover all the content from both chapters.
Create a visual timeline

of key events in the
colonisation of Australia until
1901 with the interactive timeline
eBook plus
A timeline of
contact and conflict
to 1901
CE
1780
1790
17901802
Pemulwuy leads
Aboriginal resistance
in the Sydney area.
1800
1810
1814
Governor Macquarie
organises the first
annual Aboriginal
conference at
Parramatta, near
Sydney.
1832
The 203 Aboriginal
Tasmanian survivors
are transferred to
Flinders Island, in
Bass Strait.
1838
The Myall Creek
massacre takes place
in New South Wales.
1820
1830
1788
The British colony of
New South Wales is
established.
1804
Aboriginal
Tasmanians are killed
at Risdon Cove.
1816
Macquarie sends the
military to crush
resistance by the
Darug people.
1824
The Black War
begins in Tasmania.
is crushed on the
Bathurst Plains in
New South Wales.
1840
It may still be too early to say, but it is important to

understand why it was welcomed by most Australians,
including Indigenous people. The apology derived
from a movement in Australia since the 1960s to
acknowledge and address the injustices suffered by the
First Australians. To see how far-reaching these injustices
were and how devastating their consequences, we
need to understand what took place in Australia in the
firstcentury and more after colonists from Britain first
arrived at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788.

1 What were the experiences of Indigenous
Australians between the late eighteenthcentury and
the beginning of the twentiethcentury?
2 What policies did the colonisers adopt towards
Indigenous peoples?
1850
1860
1837
A report of the British
Parliament criticises
Australian colonial
policies towards
Aboriginal peoples.
186768
An Aboriginal cricket
team tours England.
3 Why did racial conflict occur?

4 How did Aboriginal people resist the occupation of
their lands, and what were the consequences of
resistance?
1870
1880
1884
The Kalkadoon
people make their last
stand in Queensland.
1901
The Commonwealth
Parliament passes
the Immigration
Restriction Act.
1890
1900
1881
Victoria and New
South Wales restrict
Chinese immigration.
188890
continues in Western
Australias Kimberley
region.
1 Australias national day, Australia Day, is celebrated

each year on 26 January. What do we celebrate on
this day?
2 Why might Indigenous Australians object to
celebrating what this day commemorates?
3 Do you think Australia should choose a different
national day?
4 How would you feel today if a foreign power took
control of Australia?
5 What more do you think can be done to achieve
reconciliation in Australia?
Chapter 5: Making a nation: (I) Colonisation and conflict
121
5.1 Race relations in colonial Australia

In this chapter you will study the consequences of
contact between Indigenous peoples and Europeans
in Australia up to the early twentiethcentury. Some
consequences were intended and others were
unintended. In both cases, they were usually disastrous
for the First Australians. Non-European immigrants also
suffered discrimination during this period. Most hostility
was directed against the Chinese who came to work on
the goldfields from the 1850s, but there was also strong
prejudice against Pacific Islanders who were brought
over to work on Queenslands sugar plantations.
Source 1

A letter from Arthur Phillip, the first governor of New
South Wales, to the Marquis of Lansdowne in England
My Lord
... the few extracts from my journal, is all the information
I am able to give your Lordship, at present, of the Natives;
who never come to us & with whom I have never been
able to remain but a very short time ...
It has been my determination from the time I landed,
never to fire on the Natives, but in a case of absolute
necessity, & I have been so fortunate as to have avoided
it hitherto ... They do not in my opinion want [lack]
personal Courage, they very readily place a confidence &
are, I believe, strictly honest amongst themselves ...
A Phillip, Sydney Cove, July 3d. 1788
Written sources
Most of our written sources for these events, including
official reports, diaries, letters and newspaper articles,
derive from the colonisers. This means that for many
events we have heard only one side of the story. We
have to be wary of bias in such sources. However, it is
Source 2

The annual meeting of the native tribes at Parramatta,
New South Wales, the Governor meeting them, a watercolour
painting by Augustus Earle, c. 1826. From 1814, under Governor
Macquarie, Aboriginal people were invited to annual feasts and
conferences at Parramatta, near Sydney. Hundreds of Aboriginal
people attended the gatherings, which continued into the 1830s.
122
important to remember that even the most biased sources

can be useful because of what they might tell us about the
attitudes of the people who created them.
We also need to be aware of gaps in our evidence. When
settlers were killed by Aboriginal people, such killings
Source 3

From Captain John Hunters Journal (1793), in which
he described contacts in the new settlements first week. Hunter
was the second governor of New South Wales.
In the different opportunities I have had of getting a little

acquainted with the natives, who reside in and about this
port, I ... think that it will be no very difficult matter ...
to conciliate their friendship and confidence ... whenever
we have laid aside our arms, and have made signs of
friendship, they have always advanced unarmed ... I am
inclined to think, that by residing some time amongst
them, or near them, they will soon discover that we are
not their enemies; a light they no doubt considered us in
on our first arrival.
were recorded and usually punished by white authorities.

Many killings of Aboriginal people by settlers went
unrecorded and unpunished, or were recorded in ways
that distorted the truth.
Also, we should not assume that all Europeans saw
these events in the same way. Among those who came to
Australia in the late eighteenth and nineteenthcenturies

there were people who recognised the injustice suffered
by Indigenous peoples and other non-Europeans and who
were angered by it.
Oral history
For some events we have records that were handed down
by word of mouth through generations of Aboriginal
people. These records tell of loss of land, massacres and
other injustices. In many cases there is other evidence to
support such records.
Visual records
Because Aboriginal art was mainly concerned with
spiritual beliefs we have few Aboriginal artworks that
record contacts and conflict with Europeans. The fate of
Indigenous peoples did not interest most European artists.
However, some paintings and drawings by European
artists do provide useful evidence. From the mid
nineteenthcentury we also have photographic evidence.
Source 4

The Persecuting White Men, a lithograph thought
to be made by George Hamilton between 1848 and 1858

1
is an extract from a letter written by

Governor Phillip less than six months after he arrived in
Australia.
a How does Phillip say he intends to conduct relations
with Aboriginal people?
b What impressions had he formed of Aboriginal people?
2 Describe the scene portrayed in Source 2 .
3 Explain what Governor Macquarie might have intended to
achieve by holding these feasts.
Source 1
4 What does Captain Hunter hope for in Source 3 ?

5 Do you think it would be possible to be friends with
people at the same time that you are seizing their land?
6 Describe the scene in Source 4 and explain what this
sketch suggests about the reasons for this violence.
7 What doesnt the sketch tell us?
8 How does the incident shown here differ from the
intentions described or shown in Sources 13 ?
9 Whose views are not represented in these four sources?
123
5.2 Beginnings of conflict

For tens of thousands of years before British colonisation Indigenous Australians lived undisturbed in a range of
different landscapes and climates. The seeds of conflict were sown soon after the first colonists arrived because the
British authorities had no understanding of the relationships between Aboriginal peoples and their land.
Source 1

From Captain James Cooks journal of his first
expedition (1770)
They may appear to some to be the most wretched

people on earth, but in reality they are far happier than
we Europeans ... [The] earth and sea ... furnish them
with all the things necessary for Life ... [They] live in a
fine Climate and enjoy a very wholesome Air, so that
they have very little need of Clothing ... [They] ... set no
Value upon anything we gave them ... this in my opinion
argues that they think themselves provided with all the
necessarys of Life.
The British arrive

As you already know, some Indigenous Australians had
contact with people from overseas from at least the start
of the seventeenthcentury. Macassans (from Indonesia)
had often visited Australias northern coast and some
Torres Strait Islands for fishing and trade. Also, some
Dutch and English explorers made landings in Australia
in the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies. The last was
Captain James Cook, who charted the east coast in 1770.
Cook named the country New South Wales and claimed it
for the English king, George III.
Source 2

A colonial artists depiction of the response of the Indigenous people of Botany Bay to
the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1770. This colour lithograph was made in 1872.
124
Source 3

A View of Sydney Cove, New South
Wales, engraved by Frances Jukes in 1804
Occupation begins
The First Fleet from England to colonise Australia is
believed to have carried 759 convicts and 206 marines.
However, historians estimates vary. Its commander,
Captain Arthur Phillip, was to be the first British governor
of New South Wales. He explored Port Jackson (Sydney
Harbour) and founded the first British settlement there on
26January 1788.
Eight days earlier the Cadigal Aboriginal people
had seen the British fleet at Botany Bay. They had also
witnessed the arrival of two French ships commanded by
La Perouse. The French fired upon an Aboriginal band in
February but sailed away on 10 March. The local people
could not have known that the arrival of these strange
Europeans would eventually lead to the destruction of
Aboriginal societies across Australia.
Respecting Natives
New South Wales was founded as a penal colony, a
dumping ground for Britains unwanted convicts. The
early colonial governors had wide powers, like those of
someone controlling a prison. However, their orders from
Britain were to cultivate friendly relations with Aboriginal
people and to offer them the protection of British law. In
1807 the third Governor of New South Wales, P. G. King,
wrote a memo for his successor titled Respecting Natives.
In this advice he stated that he had been unwilling to force

the Indigenous people to work because he regarded them
as the real Proprietors [owners] of the Soil.
The myth of terra nullius

Aboriginal lifestyles varied widely, as did the ways in
which different Aboriginal language groups managed
the land. However, because of the kinds of plants and
animals that are native to Australia, semi-nomadic hunting
and gathering was the only kind of economy that could
develop. The British saw only that Australias land was not
used in the European way; that is, it was not farmed. So
they described Australia, in the language used by British
law, as terra nullius. This term meant unused or waste
lands that could be taken without asking permission.
Colonists produced food by farming, and powerful people
soon discovered that wealth could be produced by grazing
sheep for wool. Both activities required the taking of
Aboriginal land.
Culture clash
Before long the people of the main language groups
around Sydney the Darug, Kuringgai and Dharawal
people saw the new arrivals clearing land, fencing
waterholes and hunting grounds, fishing without
permission and trampling around sacred sites. They
125
Source 4

First Government House, Sydney, a watercolour
painted by John Eyre around 1807
were breaking laws that Indigenous people had lived by

throughout many ages. They were clearly invaders, not
visitors.
For their part, Europeans had a range of reactions to
Aboriginal people. In line with the ideas of the time,
the more educated Europeans tended to see Indigenous
people as noble savages, primitive people who lived in
harmony with the natural world (see Source 1 ). However,
most of the new arrivals were uneducated convicts and
soldiers who probably feared the people whose land they
had entered. These Europeans could not understand
Aboriginal kinship systems or why they did not behave
like Europeans and have farms, towns and churches.
The British did not consider the fact that different parts
of the country belonged to different language groups.
They assumed that Aboriginal people could simply move
on to another area when their land was taken. Later, when
Europeans gained some understanding of such matters,
they continued taking land regardless.
Early encounters
In May 1788 Aborigines killed two convicts at
Rushcutters Bay, and there were several other clashes. At
126
first Governor Phillip was willing to blame the convicts

rather than the Indigenous people for such clashes.
Phillip wanted to develop contacts between cultures.
When Aboriginal people continued to avoid the
settlement, he resorted to kidnapping Aborigines in
the hope that these individuals could be influenced to
encourage their people to accept British ways. Arabanoo
was the first to be captured, but within six months he died
of smallpox. In November 1789 Bennelong and Colebee
were captured. Colebee escaped but Bennelong was later
sent to England. Tragically, on his return to the colony
in 1795 he was unable to fit into either Aboriginal or
European society. He died in 1813.
Unlike Europeans, Aboriginal people had no resistance

to smallpox, a disease that arrived with the colonists. In
April 1789 smallpox began to kill many Aboriginal people
around Sydney. As the people retreated from the disease
it spread inland. Probably half the Indigenous population
of the Sydney area was wiped out by this epidemic by
1790.
Source 5

From David Collins, An Account of the English Colony
of New South Wales. The event described occurred in March
1788.
Several convicts came in from the woods; one in

particular dangerously wounded with a spear ... these
people denied giving any provocation to the natives; it
was, however, difficult to believe them; they well know
the consequences that would attend any acts of violence
on their part ... any act of cruelty to the natives being
contrary to his Majestys ... intentions.
Source 6

From a report of events in January 1800 by
Governor John Hunter
Two native boys have lately been most barbarously

murdered by several of the settlers at the Hawkesbury
River, not withstanding orders on this subject have been
repeatedly given pointing out in what circumstances only
they were warranted in punishing with such severity.
Student workbook
5.1

1 Explain what the British understood by the term
terra nullius.
2 How would the idea of terra nullius have affected
Aboriginal rights to land?

3 What different ideas about Indigenous Australians were
held by educated and uneducated Europeans?
4 Describe the consequences of the smallpox epidemic
up to 1790.

5 Describe Cooks views on Aboriginal people in
Source 1 .
6 Using Sources 5, 6, 7 and 8 as your evidence:
a describe the attitudes of colonial authorities towards
Aboriginal people
b explain how and why relations between Aboriginal
people and colonists changed between 1788 and
1816.
Rising tensions
In the first few decades of the colony, tensions grew on
both sides. Aboriginal people were shot at when they
crossed European farmland to hunt and gather food. But
these farms had been established by taking Aboriginal
land. In retaliation, Aboriginal warriors attacked European
settlers and convicts. More and more Europeans arrived
and ever more Aboriginal people died of smallpox and
other introduced diseases including whooping cough and
influenza.
Source 7

From the Sydney Gazette, 25 June 1814
The mountain natives have lately become troublesome

to the occupiers of remote grounds. Mr. Coxs people at
Mulgoa have been several times attacked within the last
month and compelled to defend themselves with their
muskets, which the assailants seemed less in dread of
than could possibly have been expected. On Sunday last,
Mr. Campbells servants at Shancomore were attacked
by nearly 400.
Source 8

In this extract from his journal of 10 April 1816,
Governor Lachlan Macquarie gave his reasons for sending
expeditions to crush Aboriginal resistance in that year.
I therefore, tho very unwillingly, felt myself compelled

from a ... sense of public duty ... to inflict terrible ...
punishment upon them without further loss of time; as
they might construe any further forbearance or lenity
[leniency] on the part of this Government [as] fear or
cowardice.
7 Select one of Sources 2, 3 or 4 and answer the following

for your selected source:
a Is this a primary or secondary source? Why?
b Describe the appearance of the Aboriginal people in
the art.
c What does this tell you?
d What evidence does the art contain about relations
between Aboriginal people and Europeans?
e Is there any suggestion of bias on the part of the
artist? Explain.

8 Working in small groups, use the National Library
of Australias internet search engine to find another
example of colonial art that depicts Indigenous people.
Searching by the artists name, you could look for
Augustus Earle, William Bradley, Joseph Lycett, John
Eyre, Benjamin Duterrau or S. T. Gill.
9 Analyse the artwork you found by asking the following:
a What is the main subject of the painting?
b What overall impression does this painting convey
about the impact of colonisation on Indigenous
ways of life?
c If an Aboriginal artist of the time had painted the
same scene, how do you think that painting would
differ from the painting you found?

Cook and the First Fleet
pp. 1645
convict a person imprisoned for a crime

kinship relationships between members of an extended family
penal colony a settlement for convicts
127
5.3 Resistance
Many stories about the conflict between European colonists and Indigenous people suggest the latter were easy
targets. Indigenous people may not have had the guns of the Europeans, or often their manpower, but they did not
lack courage or skill. Their bush skills, for example, could not be matched by the Europeans. Here are the stories of
two Indigenous men who fought back.
Pemulwuy
The Bidjigal warrior Pemulwuy, sometimes called the
Rainbow Warrior, belonged to the Eora language group
(the coastal area in Sydney). Between 1790 and 1802, he
led many attacks against colonial farms and settlements,
some of which were highly organised, large-scale guerrilla
operations. He and his men fought fiercely in a battle in
1797 near the newly settled town of Parramatta.
Source 1

Pimbloy: Native of New Holland in a canoe of that
country, a print from an engraving by S.J. Neele. The man in the
picture is believed to be Pemulwuy. Despite being continually sought
by soldiers, Pemulwuy kept eluding them; once he escaped from a
hospital still in leg irons. He also survived repeated wounds, being hit
in one attack by seven bullets. Some Indigenous people believed he
escaped by turning himself into a bird.
At first, his tribe lived in harmony with the Europeans,

who had established a colony on the Swan River in 1829.
However, arguments soon arose over land and resources.
The British mistook the Nyungar tradition of burning
the land as an act of aggression. In 1831 a Nyungar was
shot while taking potatoes from a settlers garden. The
settler saw it as theft; the Nyungar would have seen it
as taking the lands resources, to which he was entitled.
Yagan sought revenge for this killing. After more battles, a
reward was offered for his head.
When Yagan was finally captured, a European named
Robert Lyon fought hard to spare his life. He admired
Yagans courage and wished to study him. Yagan was exiled
to a small rocky island, but escaped after six weeks. The
colonists were angry about this; as punishment, they killed
Yagans father and brother, and increased the reward on
Yagans head.
For 12 months Yagan managed to avoid capture,
continuing to fight for his people. Then, in July 1833,
Source 2

This statue of Yagan
was erected on Herrison Island
in the Swan River.
Governor King became increasingly frustrated by

Pemulwuy. He offered rewards, including a free pardon,
to any convict who would bring him his head. That
happened in 1802; Pemulwuy was murdered. His
decapitated head was sent to England to be studied
by scientists. They had heard a lot about the native
Australians, but had never seen one. Although glad he
was dead, Governor King had a grudging respect for
Pemulwuy. He said of him: Altho a terrible pest to the
colony, he was a brave and independent character and an
active, daring leader of his people.
Yagan
Yagan was part of the Nyungar tribe of south-western
Western Australia. A tall man (described as being over
1.8 metres), he was both feared and admired by the British
colonists.
128
Source 3

The head
of Yagan, painted by
Robert Havell
EXPLANATION AND COMMUNICATION

1 Why did Pemulwuy develop a supernatural reputation
among his people? Explain.
2 What evidence is there in this spread to suggest that
both Pemulwuy and Yagan were both feared and
respected by some European colonists?
PERSPECTIVES AND INTERPRETATIONS

3 Look at Source 4 below. It was taken on 3March 2005
in the North Head Sydney Harbour National Park. The
remains of a number of Indigenous people that have
been handed back to their people are being buried.
Source 4
a How do you think the Indigenous people in the
photograph might be feeling?
b Why were Indigenous remains, such as these and
he approached two shepherds he knew, asking for

flour. When his back was turned, one of them,
William Keats, shot him. A reward was given for
the killing of Yagan, but the editorial of The Perth
Gazette described it as a wild and treacherous act:
We are not vindicating [forgiving] the outlaw, but,
we maintain it is revolting to hear this lauded
[praised] as a meritorious [good] deed.
Yagans head was sent to England in 1835.
The hair was combed, and black and red cockatoo
feathers were tied to the head as decoration. It
was exhibited in Liverpool until 1964 when it
was buried in Everton Cemetery. In 1997, almost
165years after being sent to England, Yagans head
was returned to Australia for a proper burial.
Until recently, the remains of many Indigenous Australians

were still held in several British museums, causing great
distress to Indigenous communities who believe the
souls of their ancestors cannot rest until their bodies are
returned. In recent years, some British museums have
commenced the process of returning such remains to their
communities.
Yagans and Pemulwuys heads, not given a proper

burial in the first place? Why might museums be
interested in wanting to continue to display such
remains?
c How would you feel if the remains of a member of
of your family were displayed in a museum? What
underlying beliefs do you have that make you feel
this way?
4 a From the list of adjectives (describing words) below,
select those you think most European colonists in the
early nineteenth century might have used to describe
people like Pemulwuy and Yagan. Then select those
most Indigenous people might have used to describe
them.
troublesome insubordinate wild brave
violent fearless savage rebellious bold
clever uncontrollable courageous irritating
noble intelligent motivating
b Write two paragraphs about one of these Indigenous
men from each point of view. Build your adjective

word choices into what you say.
c What does this task teach you about how emotional
words can be used to support a point of view?
5 Work in small groups to design/create a
monument to commemorate the life of Pemulwuy.
It might be a lifelike statue, similar to that of Yagan
in Source 2 , or a more contemporary piece that
symbolises his life (based on the information in this
spread). Allocate tasks according to group members
abilities and interests. Present your completed work to
the class as a group, providing and accepting feedback
on its likely cultural impacts.
129
5.4 Tragedy in
Van Diemens Land
In 1816 Aboriginal resistance

around Sydney was crushed
by military expeditions sent by
Governor Macquarie. By this time
British settlements had already been
founded beyond the Sydney area.
In 1803 and 1804 the settlements
of Hobart Town and Port Dalrymple
(later Launceston) were established
in Van Diemens Land, which
became a separate colony in 1825.
A people destroyed
There is no reliable evidence of how
many Indigenous people lived in
Tasmania before colonisation. The
most common estimate is between
4000 and 7000 people. But by 1832
there were just 203 survivors and
by 1856, when Van Diemens Land
was renamed Tasmania, there were
even fewer. Some historians regard
what happened there as genocide
(the deliberate wiping out of a race).
So complete was the destruction
of Tasmanias tribes that todays
surviving indigenous Tasmanians are
mostly the descendants of Aboriginal
women who were kidnapped and
enslaved by white sealers. How could
almost an entire population disappear
in such a short time?
Hundreds of Aboriginal
Tasmanians were killed in 1803,
when they attempted to stop soldiers
and convicts building huts near the
present site of Hobart. Over the next
few years, gangs of escaped convicts
raided Aboriginal camps, killing
men and kidnapping women. There
were killings and kidnappings by
lawless kangaroo hunters, sealers and
whalers. European diseases also took
a heavy toll. Another problem for
the first Tasmanians was that whites
slaughtered the native animals that
130
Source 1

From Keith Windschuttle, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One:
Van Diemens Land 18031847, Macleay Press, pp. 130, 351, 362, 364, 371, 386
The Aborigines were never starving or even seriously deprived of traditional

food ... How many Aborigines died violently at the hands of colonists in Van
Diemens Land? ... Over the entire period from 1803 to 1831, they [Aborigines
killed by colonists] average just four deaths a year ... far fewer than the
colonists who died at Aboriginal hands ...
The orthodox story is that Aboriginal society was devastated by the arrival of
the British colonizers ... [We] should regard the total pre-colonial Aboriginal
population of Tasmania as less than 2000 ... Hence it was not surprising that
when the British arrived, this small, precarious society quickly collapsed ...
were their main source of food. There

were reports of shepherds being
speared and attacks on settlers huts.
Settlers often shot any Aboriginal
people who came near their dwellings.
into the Tasman Peninsula, where

they could be kept away from the
settlers. Despite the scale of this
operation, only two Aborigines were
captured.
War in the 1820s
Exile, disease and despair
Official government policy was

to treat Aboriginal Tasmanians
with friendship but, by the 1820s,
there was a state of war in eastern
Tasmania. In 1828 Governor Arthur
ordered Aboriginal people out of all
settled districts. In 1830 more than
two thousand soldiers, convicts and
settlers were formed into lines for a
drive to capture all the Aboriginal
people in the area of conflict or drive
them through the narrow strip of
land that forms Eaglehawk Neck and
From 1829 to 1834, George Augustus

Robinson, a Methodist lay preacher,
Source 2

In 182324 Musquito, an Aboriginal

man from the Sydney area, led a
group from the Oyster Bay tribe. In
a wave of attacks, his fighters killed
several settlers and convicts before
Musquito was captured, tried and
executed in February 1825.
From Henry Reynolds, Fate of a Free People, Penguin, 1995, pp. 4, 812, 185
How many Aborigines were killed by the settlers? We will never know with any
certainty ... There is no doubt that in the earliest years of settlement from 1804
to 1824 the Europeans took more lives than the Aborigines. But in the period
of the Black War from 1824 to 1831 the mortality rate on each side was
more even: perhaps somewhere between 150 and 250 Tasmanians were killed
in conflict with the Europeans after 1824 (with another 100 to 150 dying before
that date), while they killed about 170 Europeans ...
It seems very likely that the mortality rate on Flinders Island was merely
a continuation of a catastrophic pattern of death [from diseases] which had
begun even before the first permanent settlements in 1803 and 1804 ... As
Robinson traveled across Tasmania he was told by his Aboriginal companions of
whole tribes, or clans, which had become extinct.
Source 3

Proclamation to the
Tasmanian Aboriginal people in 1816
Source 4

From journals written by George Augustus Robinson in the 1830s
The [Aboriginal] children have witnessed the massacre of their parents and their
relations carried away into captivity by these merciless invaders, their country
has been taken from them and the Kangaroos, their chief subsistence, have
been slaughtered wholesale for the sake of filthy lucre [money]. Can we wonder
then at the hatred they bear to the white inhabitants? ... We should make
atonement for the misery we have [caused] the original proprietors of this land.
Source 5

Mount Wellington and Hobart Town from Kangaroo Point, painted by John
Glover (England 1767Australia 1849) in 1834, oil on canvas, 76.25 152.4 cm. Glover
was in Hobart in 183132, when Robinson brought in the last of the people of the Big
River and Oyster Bay regions. Just 10 days after arriving in Hobart, they were shipped to
Flinders Island.
working on behalf of the government,

travelled among the survivors.
Robinson believed that they would
be wiped out if they remained in
Tasmania and he convinced some of
them to agree to what they believed
would be a temporary move to an
island off the Tasmanian coast. They

were deceived. Between 1821 and
the early 1840s survivors from many
different language groups were moved
to Flinders Island, where they were
guarded and forced to wear European
clothes and to attend sermons on
Christianity. By 1847 most had died

of disease and despair. Forty-seven
survivors were resettled at Oyster Bay
near Hobart but they continued to
die. From 1869 Truganini was the
only survivor at Oyster Bay. She died
in 1876.
Student workbook
5.2

1 Make a timeline of significant events in Tasmanian
Aboriginal history from 1803 to 1876.

2 List the causes of conflict between Aboriginal Tasmanians
and Europeans.

3 Henry Reynolds ( Sources 2 ) and Keith Windschuttle
( Source 1 ) represent different sides of the debate about
the fate of the Aboriginal Tasmanians.
a List the causes of the destruction of Aboriginal
Tasmanians identified by Reynolds.
b Windschuttle uses official government records to
estimate numbers of deaths on both sides. Do you
think such records would be trustworthy? Give reasons
for your answer.
c Outline the main differences in the views
of these historians and what you think are the

reasons for their different interpretations.

4 Read
Source 4
Sources 1 and 2
. For which interpretation in

could this source provide supporting
evidence?
5 The poster ( Source 3 ) was intended to tell Aboriginal
people that they had the same protection as Europeans
under British law. Using the evidence in this spread,
design your own poster showing what you think really
happened.
6 Look closely at Source 5 . It depicts the Oyster Bay and
Big River people who came into Hobart to celebrate a
negotiated peace. How would these people have felt
when they found out that they were to be removed from
their homeland?
131
5.5 Blood on the frontiers

One after another, Aboriginal groups across Australia fought to save their land. By the end of the nineteenthcentury
Europeans controlled most land that was of any use to them. In several areas this was achieved through much
bloodshed.
Expansion and resistance

From the 1820s wealthy immigrants were attracted to
Australia by government offers of land grants and convict
labour and the promise of profits to be made from
grazing sheep for wool. As trails were forged into the
inland, squatters took more Aboriginal land. Trees were
cut down to clear land for grazing and native animals
were shot as pests. In some areas Aboriginal food supplies
were completely destroyed. Many Europeans regarded
the land they gained as their private property and they
were reluctant to allow its original owners to use it for
hunting, gathering and ceremonies.
A pattern of conflict was repeated across the continent.
Some settlers tried to live peacefully alongside Aboriginal
people but others killed them, drove them away or
exploited them. In retaliation for rapes and other acts
of violence committed against their people, Aboriginal
At times Aboriginal resistance forced squatters to

abandon their runs. However, some squatters killed entire
Aboriginal bands by poisoning their waterholes or giving
them poisoned flour to eat.
Source 1

Batmans Treaty with the Aborigines at Merri Creek, 6 June
1838, painted by John Wesley Burtt, c. 1875
132
groups speared stock and shepherds and attacked

homesteads. At times soldiers and police were used to
crush resistance. Colonists also organised armed bands,
supposedly to punish the attackers but often killing any
Aboriginal people they could find.
Batmans treaty
In 1835 John Batman was financed by a group of
businessmen from Van Diemens Land to find good
grazing land around Port Phillip Bay (around present-day
Melbourne). Batman signed what he called a treaty with
several Kulin Aboriginal men. It gave him 234000hectares
of land in return for clothes, blankets, flour, tools and
mirrors. New South Wales Governor Sir Richard Bourke
declared the treaty illegal. Clearly the arrangement was
meant to defraud the Kulin, who would have believed that
it simply allowed temporary use of land for food. This was
not Bourkes reason for rejecting it, however. Rather, he
was implementing the doctrine of terra nullius, according
to which the land belonged to no-one before the British
government took possession of it.
By 1840 Melbourne had around 4000 European
inhabitants and in 1851 it became the centre of the
new colony of Victoria. By 1863 only about 250 Kulin
survived, living on the fringes of pastoral stations and
missions.
Source 2

Mounted police and blacks, a lithograph print by Godfrey
Charles Mundy, published in London in 1852. The print depicts British
troops killing Kamilari warriors on the Liverpool Plains in northern New
South Wales in 1838. Reports of the number of Indigenous people killed
ranged from 60 to 300. None of the troopers were killed.
Godfrey Charles Mundy

Mounted Police and Blacks 1852
Lithograph on paper
10.9 cm 18.2 cm (Image) 30 cm 43.8 cm (Sheet)
Australian War Memorial (ART50023)
Windradyne and the

Wiradjuri massacre
Source 3

A native
chief of Bathurst,
a hand-coloured
print by R. Havell &
Son, 1820. The man
pictured is believed
to be Windradyne.
In the Bathurst Plains in New South

Wales in the 1820s a leader named
Windradyne led resistance by the
Wiradjuri people (see Source 3 ).
Governor Brisbane declared martial
law in 1824. During that year probably
two-thirds of the Wiradjuri were killed
by groups of settlers and soldiers. At
least a hundred were killed in a single
massacre. The skulls of 45 of the
victims were shipped to England.
Major Nunns massacre

In the early 1830s the Liverpool Plains
district, west of modern-day Tamworth,
was settled and the Kamilari people
resisted the loss of their land. In 1838
the Mounted Police, led by the colonys
senior military officer, Major Nunn,
massacred at least a hundred of them at
Vinegar Hill on the Namoi River (see
Source 2 ).
133
The Myall Creek massacre

The Myall Creek massacre is unusual
because it marked the first, and
almost the last, time that whites who
murdered Aboriginal people suffered
consequences under British law.
In 1838 more than thirty women,
children and elderly men of the
Kwianbal group were camped on
Henry Dangars Myall Creek Station
near Inverell in northern New South
Wales. They were friendly with the
local whites and the young men of
the group were away helping another
station owner to cut bark. The station
manager, William Hobbs, was also
away, moving cattle to better pastures.
Two assigned convicts, George
Anderson and James Kilmeister, were
the only Europeans left at the station
on 9 June when 11 armed stockmen,
also mostly assigned convicts or exconvicts, rode up.
The armed men claimed that they
were hunting Aboriginal people to
punish them for frightening cattle.
With Kilmeister joining them, they
rounded up the defenceless Kwianbal,
tied them together, dragged them
away and murdered them. Anderson
did not take part and he managed to
hide one small boy and save his life.
Most of the victims were butchered
with swords. The next day the killers
returned to burn the bodies and
remove as much evidence as possible.
They probably never imagined that
they might be punished. This was
because they knew that, as nonChristians, any Aboriginal witnesses
could not be sworn in to give
evidence in court. However, in this
case four things made it possible
for the killers to be brought to trial.
Anderson wanted to give evidence
against the killers. Hobbs, the station
manager, reported the murders to
a magistrate. The magistrate acted
properly, and New South Wales
Governor Gipps wanted justice.
public outrage that the government

should want to punish white men for
killing Aboriginal people. At the first
trial the accused were supported by
many wealthy squatters, including
a magistrate, and were found not
guilty. However, seven of the men
were then charged with the murder
of an Aboriginal child whose remains
were found at the massacre site. At
a second trial the seven were found
guilty and they were hanged in
December 1838.
One outcome of these hangings
was that others who committed
Source 4

The
memorial stone
marking the site
of the Myall Creek
massacre, in
which at least thirty
Kwianbal women,
children and
elderly men were
murdered in 1838.
The Myall Creek trials

When 11 of the Myall Creek killers
were brought to trial, there was
134
massacres made sure that no witnesses

lived to give evidence. Killers could
still avoid justice. Major Nunns force
had massacred more people than the
Myall Creek killers in the same year,
but attempts to get evidence for a trial
had been unsuccessful.
A massacre in
Gippsland
Gippsland in Victoria was another
area of frontier conflict. In July 1843
Ronald Macalister, nephew of a
prominent local settler, was speared to
Source 5

Aboriginal prisoners in chains at Heavitree Gap police
camp, Alice Springs, on 23 June 1906. Charged with stealing beef,
all ten men were sentenced to six months in Port Augusta jail.
death near Port Albert in Gippsland. Angus McMillan,

an explorer and local squatter, led a party of whites to
avenge his death. Although McMillans party probably
murdered about 60 people at Warrigal Creek, the massacre
was kept secret. McMillan later became a member of the
Victorian Parliament and a statue was erected to honour
him as a pioneer.
How many killings?

About 2000 Europeans were killed by Aboriginal people
during the colonial period. Historians estimate that
at least 20000 Aborigines were shot or poisoned by
Europeans. There were also several Aboriginal men hanged
for murders of Europeans. Massacres of Aboriginal people
continued into the twentiethcentury. The last occurred
in the 1920s in Western Australia and the Northern
Territory. Both of these massacres were committed by
police and in both cases the atrocities went unpunished.
Source 6

From a letter in the Sydney Gazette, 26 August 1824
[The Aboriginal people] are governed and defended

by the same laws as ourselves so far as those laws are
applicable to their condition. The general rule of our
conduct towards the blacks must therefore be, to treat
them in precisely the same manner as we should treat
any other British subjects in like circumstances.

1 Describe the circumstances that led to the massacres at:
a Bathurst Plains
b Liverpool Plains
c Myall Creek
d Warrigal Creek.
2 What was unusual about the Myall Creek massacre?
3 What lesson did those who wanted to commit such
massacres learn from the trials following the Myall
Creek massacre?

4 Study Source 1 and suggest reasons why Batmans
treaty could more accurately be described as a fraud.
5 Look at Source 2 .
a Describe the scene.
b What advantages and disadvantages would each side
have had in such clashes?
c Why do you think there are very few visual records of
such events?

6
Source 4 marks the site of the Myall Creek massacre.

As there were many such massacres during Australias
colonial history, why do you think there are not many
more memorials?
7 What do you think the men in Source 5 would have
thought of the kinds of ideas expressed in Source 6 ?
squatters colonists who leased and occupied large tracts of

what had been Aboriginal land
135
5.6 SkillBuilder
Identifying gaps in evidence
What are gaps in
evidence?
We say that there are gaps in our
evidence when we do not have
enough clues from primary sources
to completely solve a puzzle or give a
complete explanation of an event or
development in the past.
Why is it important
to recognise gaps in
evidence?
History is the scientific study of
the past. To try to explain past
events, historians use evidence
from primary sources in order to
create secondary sources. To do this,
historians have to locate information
in primary sources and interpret that
information to produce a possible
explanation of what happened.
Whatever sources we use, we have to
keep in mind the following factors:
Some evidence will not have
survived to the present. For
example, even when there were
witnesses to the kinds of massacres
we studied in the preceding
spread, they might not have
written down what they saw and
their knowledge might have died
with them.
Some evidence will be unreliable
or contradict other evidence we
might want to use.
Some primary sources will be
only opinions that may not be
supported by facts.
All of this means there will often
be gaps in our evidence for any
particular event or issue. We need to
recognise that our conclusions might
not be the final word on any matter,
but this should never stop us from
trying to explain the past.
136
How to recognise
gaps in evidence
Step 1
We can recognise the importance
of gaps in evidence by studying a case
in which those gaps were filled. The
following source is an extract from the
evidence given by George Anderson
at the trial of the Myall Creek
murderers.
Filling the gaps

Anderson was the only witness to
events surrounding the Myall Creek
massacre who could be sworn in to
give evidence at the trials that followed
Source 1

From the evidence of
George Anderson at the Myall
Creek massacre trials
While master was away, some

white men came on a Saturday
evening, about ten in number
... armed with muskets and
swords, and pistols ... I heard
the crying of the blacks for
relief or assistance to me and
Kilmeister ... The party then
went away with the blacks ...
all the blacks were tied together
... There was a little child at the
back of the hut ... but I took
hold of it and put it into the hut
and stopped it from going ...
Kilmeister ... went with them on
horseback, and took the pistol
... About a quarter of an hour
[later] ... I heard the report of
two pistols ... Next morning,
three of them, after they had
breakfast, took fire-sticks out of
the hut ... Foley drew one of
the swords out of the case and
showed it to me; it was all over
blood ... I saw smoke in the
same direction they went.
it. If he had been unwilling to give

evidence, the gap in the evidence would
have meant that the trial would not
have been held and the accused would
never have been convicted. Had there
been no trial, we would probably know
as little about the details of the Myall
Creek massacre as we do about many
other events.
Step 2
For many events in the past, evidence
may not have been available at the
time or it may have had too many gaps
for a court to use in a trial. However, it
may still be very useful for historians.
Sources 2 and 3 provide examples of
such evidence.
Student workbook
5.7
Using the evidence

Hamiltons evidence from his memoirs ( Source 2 ) was not
made public until almost seventy years after the events
he described. Hamilton may not have spoken about these
events at the time and may have sympathised with those
who killed the Aboriginal people. Calverts engraving
( Source 3 ) depicts an incident in South Australia in 1866.
It provides no exact details except for the location, the
numbers involved and weapons used. However, for
Source 2

From J. C. Hamilton, Pioneering Days in Western
Victoria, a squatters memoirs, first published in 1914
Mr. Adam Smith ... had a partner called Brown, who

was murdered by the blacks ... It was necessary to
teach the blacks a lesson, and the station people met
and decided to take the law into their own hands.
This would be in the year 1845 ... The horsemen
came up [on a group of Aboriginal people] in the
ranges ... They opened fire ... and many of the
blacks went under.
Source 3

Conflict on the
Rufus, South Australia, a print
from a wood engraving created
by Samuel Calvert, 27 July 1866
a historian Sources 2 and 3 provide the kinds of

evidence that help to fill in the picture of the
pattern of massacres that took place in colonial times.
Read the following primary sources for the massacres that
took place on the Bathurst Plains in 1824. Explain how these
sources provide contradictory evidence and identify the
kinds of sources that would help you to fill the gaps.
Source 4

From a description by W. H. Suttor, a Bathurst
settler, of a massacre near Bathurst in 1824
... a party of soldiers was dispatched ... Negotiations,

apparently friendly, but really treacherous, were
entered into. Food was prepared and was placed
on the ground within musket range of the station
buildings. The blacks were invited to come for it.
Unsuspectingly they did come, principally women
and children. As they gathered up the white mens
presents they were shot down by a brutal volley
without regard to age or sex.
Source 5

From Governor Brisbanes proclamation of
11December 1824 ending martial law in Bathurst
... the judicious and humane Measures pursued

by the Magistrates assembled at Bathurst ... have
restored Tranquillity without Bloodshed: Now
Therefore ... I do direct that Martial Law shall cease.
137
5.7 Reserves, missions and

broken promises
How were people to survive without

their land? The British governments
view was that Aboriginal Australians
were British subjects and British law
applied equally to everyone. But this
law assumed that only European
ways of using land were legitimate.
The British wanted Aboriginal people
to become Christians, to become
civilised, to obey British laws and
work in European ways.
Becoming civilised
In 1816 Governor Macquarie set
aside five areas around Sydney for
Aboriginal people who wished to
become farmers. The offer provided
government assistance for six months
and some Aboriginal farmers were
also provided with convict labour.
Macquarie wanted to end Aboriginal
resistance by encouraging them to
take up British ways. Several Darug
families were granted land in western
Sydney in an area that came to
be known as the Black Town. An
Aboriginal fishing village was also
set aside at Elizabeth Bay. But, much
later, after Macquarie left the colony,
Elizabeth Bay was given to wealthy
settlers.
Schools and missionaries

In 1814 Governor Macquarie
set up an Aboriginal school at
Until about the 1970s Australian

school textbooks did not mention
Aboriginal resistance leaders,
such as Pemulwuy and Yagan. In
fact, some school texts ignored
Aboriginal history almost entirely.
138
Source 1

The Parramatta Native Institution Admission List: 1814 to 1820
Parramatta Native Institution Admission List:

10 January 1814 to 28 December 1820
No. Date of
admission
1 28 Dec 1814
2 28 Dec 1814
3 28 Dec 1814
4 28 Dec 1814
5 10 Jan 1815
6 6 Jun 1816
7 6 Jun 1816
8 12 Aug 1816
9 12 Aug 1816
10 12 Aug 1816
11 12 Aug 1816
12 12 Aug 1816
13 12 Aug 1816
14 23 Aug 1816
15 23 Aug 1816
16 23 Aug 1816
17 9 Sep 1816
18 28 Dec 1816
19 28 Dec 1816
20 28 Dec 1816
21 1 Jan 1818
22 1 Jan 1818
23 17 Jul 1818
24 25 Sep 1818
25 15 Jan 1819
26 1 Mar 1819
27 20 Dec 1819
28 20 Dec 1819
29 20 Dec 1819
30 30 May 1820
31 30 May 1820
32 6 Jun 1820
33 28 Dec 1820
34 28 Dec 1820
35 28 Dec 1820
36 28 Dec 1820
37 28 Dec 1820
Names
Supposed age
(in 1821)
Maria
13
Kitty
12
Fanny
9
Friday
12
Billy
12
Nalour
Doors
Betty cox
15
Milbah
15
Betty fulton
16
Tommy
11
Peter
Pendergrass
Amy
8
Nancy
10
Charlotte
John
6
Davis
Dicky
9
Judith
13
Jenny mulgaway
7
Joe marlow
Neddy
6
Wallis
10
Jemmy
4
Henry
4
Maria (margaret)
11
Nanny
Sukey
Joseph
3
Billy george
Polly
16
Martha
10
Peggy
8
Charlotte
10
Caroline
7
Anna
1
Tribe
Richmond
Prospect
Cattai creek
Portland head
South creek
Hawkesbury
Cowpastures
Cowpastures
Hawkesbury
Botany bay
Botany bay
Cattai creek
Mulgoa
Mulgoa
Prospect
Prospect
Newcastle
Newcastle
Kissing point
Source 2

From Governor
Macquaries report to Lord Bathurst,
Secretary for Colonies in the British
government, 1822
Source 4

A sketch of Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, by Edward Mason,
1853, showing bark huts for the local Aboriginal people
I deemed it an act of justice, as well

as humanity, to make at least an
attempt to ameliorate [improve]
their condition, and to endeavour
[try] to civilise them.
Source 3

From Two Years in New
South Wales, by Peter Cunningham,
published in 1827
You must absolutely secure the

young, wean them from parental
influence, and infuse [fill] them
with new ideas and opinions ...
We had an institution here, in
Governor Macquaries time, where
the native children were educated,
and turned out of it at the age of
puberty good readers and writers;
but ... their native instincts and
ideas still remaining paramount
[strongest], they took to their old
ideas again as soon as freed ...
Parramatta, calling it the Native

Institution. Macquarie thought
that once Aboriginal people were
educated, they would abandon their
traditional lifestyles and stop resisting
colonisation.
The Native Institution gave
Aboriginal children elementary
schooling, job training and lessons in
Christianity. It had successes, such as
Maria Locke, an Aboriginal girl who
won first place in the Anniversary
Schools Examination in 1819, ahead
of 20 other Aboriginal children and
100 white students. But generally
when students went back to their
communities they found very little
of what they had learned had any use
or meaning for their lives. By 1833
the only remaining Aboriginal school
in the colony had just four pupils.
Similar schools operated briefly in
the colonies of Western Australia and
South Australia.
By the 1830s Christian
missionaries were taking on the
role of bringing Christianity and

European ways to Aboriginal people.
They concentrated on converting
children whom they separated from
their parents on mission stations.
At least one missionary resorted to
kidnapping children.
The Native Police Forces

As more colonies were founded,
British law failed to protect
Aboriginal people. By the middle of
the nineteenthcentury Aboriginal
populations across much of Australia
had been greatly reduced through
violence and disease. The survivors
Source 5

despaired at the loss of their land and

their traditional ways as they were
forced to become dependent on white
society.
Some young Aboriginal men found
a place in this changing world by
joining the Native Police Forces that
were established in Port Phillip in
1842, New South Wales in 1848 and
Queensland in 1859. In Queensland
especially, Aboriginal troopers
were used to kill people from other
Aboriginal groups, and they played a
brutal role in the defeat of resistance.
But this still did not win them
acceptance in white society.
Native Police at Coen, Queensland, in the 1890s
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Neg. no.: 8944
139
The Port Phillip

protectorate
In the 1830s the British government
was increasingly concerned about
the treatment of Aboriginal people,
especially in the Port Phillip District.
A protectorate system was set up.
Four Protectors were appointed to
investigate crimes committed by
settlers against Aboriginal people,
but in this they had little success.
In each Protectorate, land was set
aside for a station where people of
the surrounding Aboriginal groups
were encouraged to stay. Those who
accepted the offer did so only to
escape the brutality they suffered at
the hands of some settlers.
Source 6

The Kulin people at Coranderrk grew and sold arrowroot,
hops and vegetables. As well as tending their fields, they earned money
working on nearby properties.
Coranderrk
One of the most successful schemes
to turn Aboriginal people into
farmers was the Coranderrk Reserve,
set up near Healesville in Victoria in
1863. The Kulin people who moved
to Coranderrk cleared and fenced the
land and, by the 1870s, they were
successfully growing hops, raising
cattle and running a dairy. Despite
this, the law did not recognise the
people as the owners of this land.
When the Board for the Protection
of Aborigines attempted to close
Coranderrk in 1874, its Kulin
residents marched in protest to the
Victorian Parliament. Their action
saved Coranderrk, but only for a
time. From 1886, under the
Victorian Aborigines Act, many
people of mixed descent were
forced to leave the reserves. This cut
Coranderrks workforce to a level that
was too low to run the farms. Finally,
in 1924, Coranderrk was closed.
Secretary of State for the Colonies.

At first he insisted that colonists
should use only unoccupied land,
but he compromised and agreed that
South Australia
The colony of South Australia was
founded in 1836, just two years after
slavery was abolished throughout
the British Empire, and the British
government instructed the colonys
founders to safeguard Aboriginal
rights. Lord Glenelg was the British
140
Source 7

House of Commons, Select
Committee on Aboriginal Tribes
(British Settlements), 1837
[The] native inhabitants of any land

have an incontrovertible right to
their own soil; a plain and sacred
right. Europeans have entered
their borders uninvited, and, when
there, have not only acted as if they
were undoubted lords of the soil,
but have punished the natives as
aggressors if they have [tried] to
live in their own country.
Source 8

A historians judgement
on South Australias attempt to
provide justice for Aboriginal people.
From C. D. Rowley, The Destruction of
Aboriginal Society, 1970
In no Australian colony, in the first

decades, was there so sincere and
determined attempt by authority
to ensure that justice and law were
established.
Aboriginal land could be taken and

sold on condition that a fifth of all
land sold would be used to provide a
fund for Aboriginal people.
All the rights of

British subjects?
South Australias governor, John
Hindmarsh, proclaimed that the
Aborigines of South Australia had all
the rights of British subjects. Despite
such intentions, Aboriginal land was
sold without consent just as it had
been in other colonies, and only
small areas were set aside as reserves.
It was hardly surprising that conflict
soon developed, with killings on
both sides. Because they were not
Christians, Aboriginal people had
not been allowed to give evidence in
colonial courts. To give Aborigines
more protection under the law, in
1843 the British government allowed
the courts to accept Aboriginal
evidence. As a result, in 1846 a
European was hanged for the murder
of a South Australian Aboriginal
man. Despite this, squatters
continued to use violence to drive
Aborigines off the land.
Source 9

45 Natives driven to the Police Court by the Police for Trespassing,
a watercolour/drawing by W. A. Cawthorne, 1845
incontrovertible certain, undeniable

1 List the lifestyle changes that colonial authorities wanted
Aboriginal people to make.
2 Do you think the Parramatta Native Institution was a
success or a failure?
3 Why do you think Coranderrk was so successful?

4 What was a protectorate system and why was one set up
in the Port Phillip district?
5 Why did many Aboriginal people live on Protectorates
and missions?
6 Why did the British government allow a change in laws
on evidence in 1843?

7 Study Source 1 .
a Calculate the average number of children admitted to
the Parramatta Native Institution each year.
b What conclusions can you draw about the institutions
popularity among Aboriginal people?
c What conclusions can you draw about how much the
people who ran the institution understood Aboriginal
culture? (Hint: Consider names given to children and
tribes.)
Student workbook
5.3
8 Explain what Sources 2 and 3 tell us about

the attitudes of Macquarie and Cunningham
to the needs of Aboriginal people.
9 Why was the land shown in Source 4 set aside for
Aboriginal people, and why do you think it was later
taken from them?
10 What was the main role of the Native Police Forces
( Source 5 )?
11 Look carefully at Source 6 . What does this photograph
tell you about Coranderrk and its people?

12 What does Source 7 tell you about the views of the
members of the British Parliament who prepared the
Report of the Select Committee on Aboriginal Tribes
(British Settlements), 1837?
13 How does Source 8 judge South Australias attempt to
provide justice for Aboriginal Australians?
14 Using Sources 8 and 9 as your evidence, explain why
South Australia failed to achieve the aims described in
Source 7 .
15 Conduct a role play of an argument between one of the
people being driven to court in Source 9 and the people
accusing them of trespassing.
141
5.8 The last frontiers

By the late nineteenthcentury Aboriginal resistance
had been crushed in most places. The Aboriginal
population had been reduced from about 750000 to
50000. Surviving Indigenous people were forced to live
like serfs, beggars and fringe dwellers in lands that had
been their own. On the last frontiers in the north and
west of the continent, where Aboriginal tribes were still
seen as a threat to European occupation of the land, the
violence continued.
In an act of revenge, they speared a soldier. The colonial

governor, James Stirling, then led an armed expedition
against the Binjareb and attacked a camp of around
80 men, women and children. In a clash that lasted
over an hour, Stirlings men killed possibly half of
the Binjareb people.
Source 1

A modern artists impression of
the Pinjarra Incident, based on eyewitness
descriptions
The Pinjarra Incident

A convict colony was set up at Albany in
Western Australia in 1827. It was soon
abandoned but only two years later
a free settlement was founded on
the site of modern Perth. Violence
soon erupted. In 1834 people of
the Binjareb tribe raided a flour
mill at South Perth. Calyute and
other leaders were arrested
and flogged.
at the Murray River near Pinjarra, Governor Stirling sees

A Arriving
an Aboriginal camp of about 80 men, women and children
on the other side of the river. He sends troops to secure the

river fords (places where a river can be crossed more easily).
Governor Stirling, Captain Meares, Thomas Peel and others wait
out of sight, ready to close the trap.
Aborigines who
C The
emerge from the river
are met by Stirling and

11 armed men. Many
are shot. Those who
hide underwater and
float downstream are
shot at the ford. The
wounded are shot.
No male prisoners are
taken.
Oakleys
Brook
J. S. Roe and four soldiers with

B Mr
pack horses are sent to guard the ford
downstream.
142
Source 2

From Howard Pedersen, transcript, First Australians,
SBS television series, Episode 5, 2007
In 1888, the Western Australian Government responded

to the incidents of resistance right throughout the
Kimberley by putting ... a whole network of police
stations, to try and quell this growing Aboriginal
opposition to European settlement. By the early 1890s a
quarter of the whole Western Australian police force is
based in the Kimberley, where theres only oneper cent
of the European settlement population.
and two others are sent to

D Athecorporal
upper ford.
Log across river
Island
Aboriginal
camp
The Killing Times

As Europeans spread into more distant parts of Western
Australia, resistance grew and violent clashes continued
for almost a hundred years. So many Aboriginal people
were killed in the Kimberley district between 1881 and
around 1905 that Indigenous people of the region have
called it the Killing Times. The last Kimberley massacre
took place in 1927, when police murdered at least twenty
Aboriginal people and possibly many more.
Violence in Queensland
Colonisation of Queensland began in 1825 and
it became a separate colony in 1859. Between the
1860s and the 1890s detachments of Queensland
Native Police led by white officers made several
brutal attacks on Aboriginal camps, killing
indiscriminately. Where they could, Aboriginal
people fought back. The largest battle occurred
in 1884.
From the 1860s squatters had begun
to occupy land between Cloncurry and
Camooweal in western Queensland.
This was the land of the Kalkadoon people,
who waged a guerrilla war of resistance
for 13 years. At Battle Mountain in 1884
around 600 Kalkadoon warriors made their
last stand against 200 armed whites and
Native Police. The Kalkadoons fought
bravely but spears, stones and boomerangs
were no match for repeating rifles and
revolvers. Almost 85per cent of the
Kalkadoons were killed.
Ellis, Mr Norcott and three

E Captain
mounted police are sent to circle
behind the camp. They charge into

the Aboriginal camp, killing some.
The remainder of the Aborigines rush
to the river.
Direction of
water flow
Ford one metre

deep (approx.)
A royal commission in Western Australia found in 1905

that it had been the practice for the past 30 years to keep
Aboriginal prisoners in heavy neck chains for the entire
length of their sentences. It also found that Aboriginal
women on cattle and sheep stations were often captured
by white stockmen, raped and used as slave labour.
143
Exploitation and protection policies

After the Australian colonies gained self-government
from 1856, the new colonial parliaments showed much
less concern for Aboriginal people than had the British
government. An enormous amount of Crown land was
now held by squatters in the form of pastoral leases.
On many of these leases, squatters exploited Aborigines
as cheap labour. Often, they were treated like slaves and
those who fled were hunted down by police.
Rather than protect the rights of Aboriginal people to
use their land, the colonial governments preferred to force
them onto reserves. From the late nineteenthcentury
Protection policies were introduced in most of the
colonies (or, from 1901, states). Under these policies,
many Aboriginal people were controlled by reserve or
mission administrators. Protection policies were based
on the belief that Aboriginal people were dying out
and that all that could be done for them was to prevent
unnecessary suffering. From as early as the 1880s some
Aboriginal children were taken from their families under
these policies.
Gradually, colonial and state governments
passed laws that gave themlegal rightsto remove
or separateIndigenous children from their families
withouthaving to showgood reason in a court. Such
lawsoperated in Queensland from 1897, in Western
Australia from 1905, in South Australia
and the Northern Territory
Source 3

The defeat of the Kalkadoons at
Battle Mountain marked the end of effective
Aboriginal resistance in Queensland.
Mountain lies about

A Battle
80 kilometres north-west
of Mount Isa. The country

is rocky and hilly. Boulders,
giant termite mounds and
tufts of porcupine grass
pepper the landscape.
Source 4

From The Queenslander, 23 May 1885. The
Queenslander was the leading weekly Queensland newspaper
in the 1880s, when it ran a courageous campaign for more
humane policies towards Aborigines.
On all stations ... in this western portion of Queensland

a certain number of ... [Aborigines are] employed ... The
vast majority receive no remuneration, save tucker
and clothes. They are ... talked of as my, or our niggers,
and are not free to depart when they like ... Cases have
occurred where blacks belonging to both sexes have
been followed, brought back and punished for running
away from their nominal employers.
Source 5

From a dispatch of Earl Grey, British Secretary of
State, to Governor Fitzroy in 1848
These [squatters] leases are not intended to deprive the

natives of their former right to hunt over these Districts,
or to wander over them in search of subsistence [food
and other needs] ... except over land actually cultivated
or fenced in for that purpose.
landowners were often heavily

D The
armed, carrying both .45 Colts and
carbines. Native troopers carried

carbines but were not trusted to carry
revolvers.
detachment in
C Each
the native police force
comprised about six native

troopers headed by a
European officer.
prepared for
B Warriors
battle by painting three
stripes around their upper

arms and legs and a
boomerang shape on
their chest. The leader
wore a thick string around
his neck, tied to another
around his waist, and
a white feather-down
headdress.
144
from 1911 and in New South Wales from 1915. As early

as 1910, Inspector Thomas Clode, a South Australian
police officerwho was given the position ofSub-Protector
of Aborigines,described such policies as nothing short
of kidnapping. Children takenaway under these laws
Student workbook
5.4
In 1848 the British Secretary of State, Earl Grey, informed

the Governor of New South Wales that Aboriginal people
must keep the right to use their land for traditional
purposes. In 1996 the High Court of Australia found that
the rights referred to by Earl Grey still existed. This was the
famous Wik judgment, a landmark decision on Aboriginal
land rights.
were deprived of ties with their families, communities,

cultures and languages, and many also suffered abuse and
exploitation.
Aboriginal voting rights

How did Aboriginal people fare as Australias colonies
gained democratic rights? All adult white men gained
the right to vote for the lower house of parliament in
New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia during
the 1850s. After campaigns for equal rights, adult white
women also gained voting rights between the 1890s and
the first decade of the twentiethcentury. Federation took
place on 1 January 1901. It marked the creation of a nation
from the six British colonies in Australia (see chapter6).
In the first federal elections in 1901, South Australian
Aboriginal men and women could vote, Aboriginal men
of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania could vote,
but not the Aboriginal people of Queensland and Western
Australia. The Franchise Bill was proposed to extend
voting rights at federal elections to women and Aboriginal
people in all states. However, most elected members of
the Federal Parliament opposed Aboriginal voting rights.
They extended the right to vote at federal elections to
all women but not to Aboriginal Australians. Instead,
many Aboriginal people who had voted in the first federal
election had that right taken away from them during the
following two decades.
Kalkadoon warriors were described as the elite of the
E The
Aboriginal warriors and as tall, muscular men of magnificent
physique and endurance, many of whom towered over their
European opponents.

1 Fill in the blanks to complete the following sentences:
a At Pinjarra in __________ an armed expedition
attacked a camp of Binjareb men, women and
children, killing around ______ of their number.
b In the Kimberley, the period from 1881 to around
______ is known as the _______ Times because
___________________________________
c At _____ Mountain in 1884, around 600 ________
warriors made their last stand against armed
whites and _______ Police. Almost ____ per cent of
the Kalkadoons were killed.
d Some squatters treated Aboriginal workers like
_____ and those who fled were hunted down by
______ who forced them to return.
e From the 1880s some __________ were taken from
their families under ______ policies.
2 In which states did Aboriginal people suffer the worst
treatment? Why?

3 Make a timeline of events in this spread that were
significant for Aboriginal Australians.

4 Examine Source 1 . As a class, discuss whether you
think the Pinjarra incident should be called a battle or
a massacre.
5 What does Source 2 suggest about the scale of
resistance in the Kimberley?
6 Why do you think there was such strong resistance?
7 Using Source 3 , explain how the Kalkadoons were
defeated.
8 Read Source 5 and explain:
a what Earl Grey wrote about the rights of Aboriginal
people to continue using lands that had become
part of pastoral leases
b what problems Aboriginal people would have faced
without such rights.

9 Working in small groups and using Source 4 as your
evidence, discuss whether you think Australia has a
history of slavery.

10 Use your library and the internet to investigate the
experiences of Aboriginal children who were taken
from their families during the late nineteenth century
until 1918.
Bill a proposal to change the law by Act of Parliament

pastoral lease land that is leased for the purpose of grazing
sheep or cattle
remuneration pay or reward such as wages
tucker traditional Australian slang term for food
145
5.9 The Torres Strait Islanders

The Torres Strait Islands are the hundreds of islands, many tiny, scattered between the tip of Cape York, in
Queensland, and Papua New Guinea. Many have been inhabited for thousands of years. Their Indigenous people
are a culturally unique group, distinct from the Indigenous Aborigines of mainland Australia.
Before the Europeans arrived, it is known that the Torres

Strait Islanders (hereafter called Islanders) traded with
Cape York Aborigines and the people of Papua New
Guinea. They also had their own religious cults; some
practised calling up the spirits of the recently dead, ritual
beheadings and cannibalism.
Here come the visitors

Initial European contact was made in 1606 when the
Spanish navigator Luis Vaez de Torres sailed through what
is now called the Torres Strait.
After 1770, when Captain Cook proclaimed part of
Australias eastern coast as Crown land, many British
ships favoured Torres Strait as a passage to the Pacific.
It was not long, therefore, before European pearlers and
fishermen began occupying the resource-rich waters.
Source 1

146
Village at Darnley Island, 1845
Their competition with Islanders for the seas resources

caused many confrontations.
There was no significant European impact on Islander
life until the arrival of the London Missionary Society on
Darnley Island in 1871. The Islanders generally embraced
Christianity; but this decision had a significant impact
on the way they lived. For example, women now had to
completely cover their bodies; they risked being disciplined
by the mission court if they did not conform.
Missionary teachers also discouraged traditional songs
and dances in order to minimise adherence to the old
ways. Some destroyed Islanders artefacts, sold them to
passing ships or buried them.
Islanders were also required to take a second name.
These were selected in a number of ways: some because
they were European names (for example, Joe or Tom),
some by a connection with a type of job (for example,
Cook or Captain) and some from

the Bible (for example, David or
Matthew).
In 1878 the government of
Queensland claimed the Torres
Strait Islands in the name of the
Crown. Initially, the Islanders
enjoyed more independence under
European control than did mainland
Aboriginal people. This was mainly
because the then Queensland
Government Controller, John
Douglas, would not allow Islanders
to be classified as Aboriginal people
under the Queensland Aborigines
Protection Act 1897. However, this
changed with his death in 1904.
Thursday Island, for example, then
became a European settlement that
Islanders could now only visit, and
only during the day.
Discrimination and
rebellion
The Queensland government in the
early twentieth century systematically
discriminated against Islanders,
deliberately limiting their freedom.
They were not, for example,
permitted to enter bars, and were not
allowed to have sexual relations with
anyone outside their race. Those of
mixed descent were transferred to the
islands of Moa and Kiriri. The
government also appointed
representatives for the Islanders, but
these were ineffective and were later
replaced with elected Island
Councils.
Frustrated by the loss of ability
to run their own affairs, Islanders
working on government-owned boats
rebelled against the Queensland
government in 1936 by staging a
strike. It lasted nine months; the
outcome was that Island Councils
were allowed to have more substantial
input into the management of their
boats and other affairs.
artefact an object made by humans
cannibalism eating ones own species
cult a branch of religious worship
Source 2

Created around 1845, this painting shows the meeting
of an Islander canoe and strangers near the Murray Islands.
Student workbook
5.7

1 When were the Torres Strait Islands claimed in the name of the Crown, and
what did this mean?
2 What was John Douglass contribution to the history of the Torres Strait
Islands?
PERSPECTIVEs AND INTERPRETATIONS

3 a Copy and complete the following table to document the impact of the
arrival of European settlers on the Islanders. Take the viewpoint of a typical
European settler.
Change to way of
life
Positive outcome
from change
Negative outcome
from change
b Now draw a similar table in your notebook. This time, take the point of
view of a typical Islander.
c Discuss your two completed tables with a partner to identify similarities
and differences. To what extent did this exercise help you to understand the
different viewpoints that may exist in a multicultural society?
d Explore, through discussion, what values you think are needed to support a
society made up of different ethnic groups.

4 What can you tell from
Islanders?
Sources 1 and 2
about the way of life of Torres Strait
HISTORICAL QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH

5 Use the internet and other resources to discover more about one of the larger
Torres Strait Islands of your choice. Investigate any issues it currently faces,
and what is being done to address these. Evaluate the extent to which the
arrival of the Europeans has affected peoples way of life there and write a
short report on your findings.
147
5.10 Attitudes to Asians:

Chinese diggers
In an age of empires, racism

was part of the outlook of most
Europeans. To justify taking other
peoples lands, Europeans had
to believe that those people were
lesser human beings. Along
with Indigenous Australians,
non-white migrants suffered
racial discrimination in Australia
throughout the nineteenthcentury
and much of the twentiethcentury.
Source 1

Flemington, Melbourne, by S. E. Brees,
a painting of Chinese travelling to the goldfields.
It was painted around 1856.
Chinese arrive on
the goldfields
The gold rushes that began in the
1850s saw different nationalities
mainly British and Irish, but also
Germans, Italians, Canadians and
others band together to fight
injustice. But such comradeship
was never extended to the Chinese
diggers. These non-European
migrants generally encountered
suspicion and hatred on the
goldfields.
As news of the gold discoveries
spread around the world, many
thousands of Chinese men travelled
to Australia, hoping to earn enough
to take back to their families. The
Chinese usually had their own
areas on the goldfields. Rather
than competing directly with other
miners, they often worked over
tailings abandoned by European
diggers.
working very long hours for little

return, and many European colonists
feared that when the gold ran out the
Chinese might take their jobs. Most
Europeans looked down on Asians.
They resented the Chinese working
on Sundays. They were offended by
their use of opium, although it was
then legal, and were appalled by the
clothes and pigtails of the Chinese.
Although most Chinese intended to
return to China as soon as the rush
Hostility towards
Chinese diggers
The Chinese gold seekers were very
different from the colonists and the
European gold rush migrants in their
appearance, dress, language, religion
and customs. They were used to
148
The worst anti-Chinese riots were

at Buckland River in Victoria, in
1857, and in 1861 at Lambing Flat,
the site of the present-day town
of Young in New South Wales. In
1881 New South Wales and Victoria
passed laws stating that any ship
coming to Australia could carry only
one Chinese passenger for every
100 tons of cargo.
was over, most white diggers believed

that the Chinese had no right to
be there at all and there were many
violent protests against them.
Source 2

Victorian Goldfields Commission of
Enquiry, 1855
Their [Chinese immigrants]

generally filthy habits are repulsive
to the Christian population. The
question of ...such large numbers
of a pagan and inferior race is a
very serious one.
Source 3

From R. W. Dale,
Impressions of Australia, published
in 1889
... the virtues of the Chinaman,

rather than his vices, provoke
the popular hostility against him.
His ... industry, his patience, his
powers of endurance ... make him
a very formidable person.
Student workbook
5.5
Source 4

Chinese on their way to the diggings,
a drawing made by Charles Lyall, c. 1854
Explanation and
communication
Source 5

From the Sydney Morning Herald,
20 July 1861
... the crowd of rioters took the road to

Lambing Flat ... every Chinese resident
in the township on whom hands could
be laid was attacked and maltreated ...
Unarmed, defenceless, and unresisting
Chinese were struck down in the most
brutal manner by bludgeons ... and
by pick handles ... every article of the
property ... they had endeavoured [tried]
to take with them was plundered [stolen].
Jacaranda World
History Atlas
Chinese Diaspora
pp. 1589
tailings a mixture of dirt and

stones left on the diggings after
an area had been mined
vices immoral habits
virtues admirable moral
qualities, goodness
Source 6

A sketch of the Lambing Flat riots, published in the Illustrated Sydney News,
5August 1880. Although many Chinese diggers were brutally attacked, none were killed.
1 Form small groups to work out

your answers to the following
questions:
a List the reasons European
diggers found to object to the
Chinese.
b Which of these reasons could
be racist and which could be
due to other motives?
c How might the behaviour and
values of the Chinese diggers
have benefited Australia if they
had been accepted by the
other diggers?
d What do you think is meant by
the term multiculturalism?
e How are the attitudes of todays
multicultural society different
from attitudes during the gold
rush era?
f Describe the experiences of any
more recent group of migrants
who have encountered
attitudes similar to those
experienced by the gold rush
era Chinese.
2 Create a mind map of race
relations on the goldfields. You
can use Word or another software
program to do this.

3 Look closely at Sources 1 and 4 .
List everything you can see in
these sources that made the
Chinese seem different from
European diggers.
Perspectives and
interpretationS
4 Read and compare Source 2 and

Source 3 .
a What reasons are given by each
of these sources for hostility
towards the Chinese?
b Account for the different
perspectives of these two
sources.
a To what extent do these two
sources provide supporting
evidence on what took place
during the Lambing Flat riots?
b In what way do they provide
conflicting evidence?
c Which source do you think
is more accurate? Give the
6 Imagine you are a Chinese digger.
Write a letter to your family in
China giving an account of your
experiences on the goldfields.
149
5.11 White Australia
and the outside world
As we have already seen, Aboriginal people

suffered greatly because of racist attitudes, and so
did Chinese diggers. In the late nineteenthcentury
many white Australians also showed hostility to other
non-Europeans, including Pacific Islanders. Racism
and the fear of invasion by a cheap labour force
combined to make support for a white Australia
among the most common of all Australian values.
Source 1

An anti-Chinese cartoon from the Boomerang, 14 July 1888
The crimson thread of kinship

After the gold rush, colonial governments
encouraged and assisted a smaller but steady
stream of British migrants to come to Australia.
This helped to preserve what was referred to as
the crimson thread of kinship, the close
cultural and sentimental ties between Britain
and Australia.
Racial fears
Most Australians felt loyal to Britain and fearful
of their Asian neighbours. But ties to Britain did
not mean that all Australians had faith in the British
Empire. Some Australians feared that Britain might
put the interests of her multiracial empire ahead of
the interests of white Australia. Increasingly, colonial
governments became determined to exclude
non-European migrants. In 1888 the colonial leaders
united in an appeal to Britain to stop Chinese
immigration to Australia.
Pacific Islanders in Queensland

Many Pacific Islanders, mainly from Vanuatu (then
called the New Hebrides) and the Solomon Islands, were
kidnapped or tricked into leaving their homes and brought
to work in the sugar plantations of North Queensland.
This trade was called blackbirding and the Islanders were
referred to as Kanakas. Most were on three-year contracts,
Between 1863 and 1903 about 48000 Pacific Islanders

were brought to Queensland. Some blackbirding ships
had holes cut through the decks so the crew could shoot
any Islanders who tried to break out.
150
Source 2

Pacific Islander women cutting sugar cane at Hambledon,
Queensland, c. 1891
Source 3

From a popular
Australian verse of the 1890s.
Niggers was a racist term for black
people.
Its just as clear as figgers,

Sure as one and one makes two,
Folks that make black slaves of
niggers
Want to make white slaves of you.
Source 4

Edmund Barton speaking
in support of sending troops to
aid Britain in the Sudan, reported
in the Sydney Morning Herald,
21 February 1885. Barton was later
to be Australias first prime minister.
... I want to know whether we

want to consider ourselves English
or not? ... If her quarrels are not to
be ours, when are our quarrels to
be hers? [Cheers.] When the time
of trouble comes and we do not
stand shoulder to shoulder with
our fellow subjects of Great Britain
can we expect them to do so for
us? ... we will rally round the old
flag, and we will recollect that the
cause of the Empire is our own.
[Cheers.]
after which they were returned to the

islands. Workers and other people in
cities and towns accused plantation
owners of creating slavery but the
North Queensland planters were even
prepared to secede, or separate, from
the south in order to keep this cheap
labour.

Non-European migration
to Australia pp. 1689
move because of Queenslands dreadful

record in dealing with native peoples.
But in 1884 Britain took possession
of eastern New Guinea shortly before
Germany seized northern New
Guinea.
Fighting the empires wars

Each Australian colony developed its
own defence forces, but it was also
generally believed that if Australians
fought for Britain, then Britain would
come to white Australias aid if it was
threatened. Australians first took part
in the wars of the British Empire
during the Sudan Campaign in North
Africa in 1885. When New South
Wales sent 734 troops to this conflict,
many people saw it as a chance
to prove loyalty to Britain. Much
the same reasoning saw Australian
colonial forces involved in Britains
wars in South Africa and China at the
end of the century.
annex to take possession of a territory
Student workbook
5.6
Explanation and
communication
1 Which peoples did most latenineteenth-century Australians
want to exclude from Australia?
2 Why were most Australians in
favour of fighting in Britains
wars?

concepts
3 Explain the meaning of the
following terms: racism, white
Australia, multiracial empire.

4 Using Sources 1, 2 and 3 , form a
hypothesis to explain why most
Australians wanted to exclude
non-Europeans. (Hint: Was it
racism, fears that cheap labour
could threaten workers wage
levels or both?) Use the sources to
support your hypothesis.
5 Study Sources 4 and 5 . What was
Edmund Bartons argument for
sending troops to support Britain
in its war in the Sudan? Do you
think his view would have been
popular? Why?
Perspectives and
interpretationS
6 Hold a class debate on the topic
of how far Australian attitudes
on race have changed since the
nineteenthcentury and why this
change has come about.
Source 5

The departure of the Australian contingent for the Sudan, painted by Arthur
Collingridge in 1885. It has been estimated that two-thirds of Sydneys population
gathered to farewell the Sudan Contingent.
Defence fears
AWM ART16593
Most white Australians felt isolated

and fearful of invasion. Believing that
Australia could rely on the British
Navy for protection, they clung
to Britain and to the empire. The
colonists and their governments were
alarmed when France annexed New
Caledonia in 1853. From the 1860s
to the 1880s sensational stories of
possible Russian invasion appeared in
the colonial press. In 1883 Queensland
hoped to stop German expansion in
the south-west Pacific by annexing
New Guinea. Britain opposed this
151

In this chapter we have investigated the impact of contact between Europeans and Indigenous Australians up to
the beginning of the twentiethcentury. We have studied the origins of conflict, ways in which Indigenous Australians
resisted and the impact of colonisation in each of the Australian colonies and in the Torres Strait Islands. We have
also seen how racism influenced white Australian attitudes to non-European migrants.
Source 1

This poster depicts the Aboriginal cricket team that toured England in 1868.
The team scored better than the first white Australian cricket team to tour England.
Quick quiz
1 Was Australia really terra nullius?
2 Name two Aboriginal resistance
leaders.
3 Why did Governor Macquarie
set aside areas of land for
Aboriginal people?
4 What happened to Tasmanias
Aboriginal people between 1803
and 1832?
5 Who claimed to have bought
vast areas of land from the Kulin
people?
6 What was unique about the
Myall Creek massacre?
7 In what decade did the
last recorded massacres of
Aboriginal people occur?
8 Why were the Native Police
formed?
9 What was Coranderrk?
10 Why has the period from 1881
to 1905 been called the Killing
Times in the Kimberley district?
11 Did the self-governing colonies
of Australia show more or less
regard for Aboriginal rights than
the British government?
12 When did Queensland claim the
Torres Strait Islands?
13 What were two findings of the
royal commission in Western
Australia in 1905?
14 Why were white Australians
hostile to Chinese diggers?
15 What were the reasons for
opposition to Pacific Islanders in
Australia?
152
Student workbook
5.8, 5.9, 5.10
Source 2

These comments were made by Jimmie Barker
who was only 11 when he was recruited in 1911, along
with other Aboriginal children, to work as a stockman. His
recollections of how he was treated by white stockmen and
station managers were recorded in Kevin Gilbert, Living Black:
Blacks Talk to Kevin Gilbert, Penguin, 1977.
I learnt ... that an Aboriginal ... was little better than an

animal; in fact, dogs were sometimes to be preferred.
As I was less then twelve years old it was impossible to
disbelieve men of authority who were much older. I tried
to stop their remarks from bothering me too much, but it
was hard to adjust to being treated with such cruelty and
contempt.

1 Use your library and the internet to compile a report
on the Aboriginal cricket team that toured England in
186768.
2 For most of the two previous centuries, Australians
commonly referred to colonisation as settlement. In
more recent times, some historians have called it an
invasion. Conduct a class discussion on the question:
Should we describe Australias colonisation as invasion
or settlement?
To do this you will need to consider the everyday
meanings and use of these terms. You might consider,
for example, which of these terms we would use today
if people from another land came to Australia against
our wishes, imposed their lifestyles and laws on us and
gradually took control of the entire country.
1 How was Jimmie Barker treated by the white stockmen

and station managers?
2 Find one other source in this chapter that refers to
the way Aboriginal workers were treated on rural
properties.
3 How does the source that you found support the
evidence of Source 2 ?
4 How are the Aboriginal cricketers depicted in
Source 1 ?
5 What conclusions can you draw from this source
about white Australian attitudes in the late
nineteenthcentury?

posed. You can now use the knowledge you have gained to
answer these questions.
1 What were the experiences of Indigenous Australians
between the late eighteenthcentury and the beginning
of the twentiethcentury?
2 What policies did the colonisers adopt towards
Indigenous peoples?
3 Why did racial conflict occur?
4 How did Aboriginal people resist the occupation
of their lands, and what were the consequences of
resistance?
Think about your learning over this topic. Tick the box for each of these statements that you think is correct for you,
and briefly state your reasons.
Agree
Disagree
I learned many new things about the consequences of

Australias colonisation.
I was able to recognise different perspectives in sources.
Working with primary sources aided my understanding.
I was shocked by some things I learned.
I understand why there may often be gaps in our evidence.
I can understand the differences between intended and
unintended consequences.
This chapter has changed some of my ideas about Australias
history.
153
eBook plus
Using ICT
The Panter, Harding

and Goldwyer memorial
Your task
Write two blog entries arguing the addition of a new
plaque to the Panter, Harding and Goldwyer memorial.
One entry should argue for the addition and one should
argue against it.
Indigenous people of the

area or the possibility
that the explorers
might have broken
a sacred law
and insulted the
Indigenous people.
These community
members want an
additional plaque
added to the memorial,
acknowledging these things.
A blog has been created entitled A new plaque
for the Panter, Harding and Goldwyer memorial. You
will play the role of one of four characters and write
two blog entries on this issue. In order to come up with
informed arguments, you will first have to investigate
the history of the complicated relationship between
European settlers and the Indigenous people in the
area around Broome.
It is important to develop an understanding of:
European settler attitudes towards Indigenous
Australians at the time of the Panter, Harding and
Goldwyer expedition
the importance of local areas to Indigenous
Australians
the impact of European settlers on local Indigenous
people
Indigenous resistance to European settlement.
Process
Your introductory video lesson sets the
scene for this History Mystery and includes
footage from the real Panter, Harding and
Goldwyer memorial in Western Australia.
Scenario
It is the 1990s and the Fremantle City Council has
been debating whether or not to alter the explorers
monument that commemorates the ill-fated 1800s
expedition of Panter, Harding and Goldwyer to the
Roebuck Bay area around present-day Broome. At
present the monuments plaque records the deaths of
these explorers as murdered by treacherous natives.
There are many in the community now who feel that
this does not acknowledge the wrongs done to the
154
Open the ProjectsPLUS application for this chapter

in your ebookPLUS. Watch the introductory video
lesson and then click the Start Project button and
set up your project. You will write your blog entries
individually but first form groups to share research
in your ProjectsPLUS Research Forum. Save your
settings and the project will be launched.
Navigate to your Research Forum. Topics have
been pre-loaded to provide a framework for your
research. To help you discover extra information,
you should find at least three sources other than the
textbook. At least one should be an offline source,
such as a book or encyclopaedia. The weblinks in
your Media Centre will help you get started.
When your research is complete and you are ready
to provide an educated argument on this issue, it is
time to choose the character that you would like to
portray in the New plaque for the Panter, Harding
and Goldwyer memorial blog. Pictures of each of the
characters are provided in your Media Centre that

you can use as icons in your blog.
This blog should now be set up in your favourite
blogging website, ready for each class member to
post his or her entries.
Create your blog entries, remembering that you are
writing in character and can use personal pronouns.
Your first entry will include your characters feelings
on the issue. Your second entry may be in response
to another class members entry.
Review your final blog and make final
adjustments. Remember to check your spelling
and grammar.
Print out your research report from ProjectsPLUS
and hand it in to your teacher.

Suggested software
ProjectsPLUS
An online blogging site
Media Centre
images of the four characters for your blog
weblinks to research sites and blogging sites
Characters
Kimberly, 23 years old
Brian, 17 years old
James, 21 years old
Sarah, 22 years old
Kimberly was born and raised

in Fremantle. She doesnt really
know who her ancestors are
because her mum was taken
away from her family to a
mission when she was very
young. Kimberly knows her mob
was from near Broome, but has
never been able to learn their
language or the traditions and
customs of her tribe.
Kimberly is very proud of her
Indigenous heritage and blames
the European settlers to the area
for destroying so much of this
culture. She wants a new plaque
added to acknowledge that
the European settlers were not
innocent in any frontier conflict.
Brian was born and raised in

Perth, near Fremantle. Brians
family is wealthy. His father is a
stockbroker of European descent
and his mother is a doctor
of Aboriginal descent. Brian
has had very little exposure to
the culture of his Indigenous
heritage and most of his friends
are of European descent. Brian
believes the past should be left
alone and that people are better
off focusing on the future. When
issues like this are in the media,
Brian feels it makes it harder
for him to fit in with the rest of
his mates. He would prefer the
monument to be left alone.
James was born and raised

in Fremantle. His father is a
university professor and his
mother is an active campaigner
for Aboriginal rights. He has
been dating Kimberly for the
past two years. James has seen
the hardship that Kimberly has
faced throughout her life and
how difficult it has been for her
to connect with her heritage.
Often James is ridiculed for
his relationship with Kimberly.
Many of Jamess friends are
of Indigenous descent. He
has learned a lot about their
culture and appreciates being
welcomed into Kimberlys family.
He would like to see a new
plaque added to the monument.
Sarah is 22 years old and was

born and raised in Fremantle.
Her ancestors were among the
first free settlers to the area and
once owned a great deal of
property around Broome. Sarah
is very proud of her familys story
of arriving in Perth and helping
to settle the harsh land and
give the indigenous people of
the area a chance at a better
lifestyle with houses, jobs and a
formal education.
Sarahs great-great-uncle
was William Goldwyer; naturally
she feels very strongly that her
ancestor was killed without just
cause and wants to keep the
monument as it is in order to
preserve her relatives memory.
Interactivity
C olonisation and conflict
in Australia timeline
Use this fun interactivity to create a visual timeline of
key events in the colonisation of Australia until 1901.
155
CHAPTER
Making a nation Australia (17501918):

(II) From colonies to nationhood
Green and gold are the national
colours worn by sports teams
representing Australia internationally.
They are based on colours of the
continents landscape. Australia is
the only modern country to occupy
an entire continent, but it has been
a nation only since 1901. Before
that there were six separate British
colonies on the continent. Nationhood
was something that came along
with other great changes in the late
nineteenthcentury.
Today Australia is a constitutional
monarchy. Since 1901 our laws
have been made by Australian
Commonwealth and state parliaments,
but our head of state is the monarch
of Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth II.
Many people are puzzled by these
overlapping frameworks. Why do we
have state governments as well as
a national government, and which
level of government is responsible,
for example, for education and health
care? To understand such matters,
you need to know how the Australian
colonies united and what kind of a
nation they wanted to create. You will
also learn that there were alternative
visions of what Australia might
become.
Lucas Neill, then captain of the Socceroos,
Australias national soccer team, leaps to
head the ball during a match against Japan.
Create a visual timeline of key

events in Australias development
as a nation from the 1850s until
1901 with the interactive timeline
eBook plus
A timeline of
Australia,
1850s1913
CE
1850
1854
Thirty diggers are
killed at the Eureka
Stockade.
1860
186061
The first free
selection Acts are
passed in Victoria
and New South
Wales.
1870
1880
The bushranger Ned
Kelly is hanged in
Melbourne.
1891
The Federal Convention
in Sydney proposes a
constitution. The first
Labor members of
Parliament are elected
in New South Wales.
1880
1883
Premiers agree to the
setting up of a federal
council to work out a
federal constitution.
1890
1894
South Australia leads
the way in granting
womens voting rights.
1898
The First Constitution
Bill Referendum is
held.
1907
The basic wage is
established.
Looking at Australia in the late nineteenthcentury helps

us to understand the society in which we live today. This
period saw the growth of a strong labour movement
that fought for workers rights, the emergence of
political parties, the struggle of women to gain a share
in political rights, and a growing sense of national
identity. Some people began to identify what they called
Australian values and characteristics of the typical
Australian. Today there is ongoing debate about what
it means to be Australian and whether it is possible in
a nation made up of people from all over the world to
identify Australian values.
1900
1910
1913
The foundation stone
of Canberra, the new
national capital, is laid.
1920
1890
The Great Strikes of
the 1890s begin and
continue to 1894.
1892
Gold is discovered at
Coolgardie in
Western Australia.
1899
Australian colonies
send troops to the
Boer War.
1901
Commonwealth
inauguration marks
the birth of the nation.
Commonwealth
Parliament opens in
Melbourne and passes
the Immigration
Restriction Act.

the 1870s and 1913?
conditions?
Australian nation?
1 Do you think most people in Australia today regard it

as home?
2 Explain what you think is meant by a sense of
national identity.
3 Do you think most modern Australians have a sense
of national identity?
4 How would you describe Australian values?
157
6.1Late colonial and early twentieth-century Australia

In this chapter we will investigate living and working
conditions in Australia in the late nineteenth and early
twentiethcenturies. We will also explore the ideas,
events and conditions that led to the creation of the
Australian nation and the main characteristics of the
nation before the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
Official sources
Following the gold rush of the 1850s each of the
Australian colonies gained responsible government. This
meant they had parliaments that were accountable to the
electors. From 1901 Australia had a national Parliament,
whose official name is the Commonwealth Parliament,
along with the six state parliaments that replaced the
colonial parliaments. The records of debates held and laws
passed in these parliaments tell us a lot about the issues
that concerned Australians in that period.
Mass media and personal records

In the late nineteenth and early twentiethcenturies there
were many more newspapers than there are today, even
though we now have a much bigger population. This was
because newspapers and magazines were the only form of
Source 1

A family
in front of their
house at Walloon,
near Ipswich in
Queensland, in
1885
158
mass media before the invention of radio, television and

the internet. Libraries in Australia hold many issues of
these old newspapers and some of them can now be read
online. We can also learn a lot about this age through
letters and diaries. Some people who lived at the time
wrote their memoirs and some of these survived.
Visual sources
There are many visual sources for this age. Artists have
left a valuable record in their paintings and drawings.
Cartoons and sketches were widely used in newspapers
and magazines. Cartoons especially say a lot about popular
attitudes and opinions.
This was the first period of history for which we
have evidence from photographs. The first photographs
in Australia were taken in 1841. They were called
daguerrotypes. The images were printed on a silvered
plate, and only still objects could be photographed
because this method of taking pictures needed an exposure
time of 20 minutes in full sun. From the 1850s a new
method called wet plate photography gradually replaced
daguerrotypes. Wet plate photography did not need
such long exposure times and enabled copies to be made
from the originals. Taking pictures became even simpler
Source 2

A protest meeting of alluvial
miners in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia,
on 12 March 1898
with the development of dry plate

photography from the late 1870s.
Throughout the latter half of the
nineteenthcentury, photographers
were capturing images of gold rush
scenes, colonial towns, buildings,
ships, trains, parades, protest
demonstrations, and people at work
and play.
Source 3

Soldiers of the Victorian
Scottish Regiment No.22 parading
through Melbourne in 1899 on their
way to the Boer War in South Africa

1 Look closely at Source 1 . If you knew this was a typical family, what
conclusions could you draw about the size of late-nineteenth-century
Australian families, their houses and their clothing?
2 What are the miners doing in Source 2 ?
3 From what you know about the earlier gold rushes, why would these miners
be protesting about being banned from digging below ten feet (about
threemetres)?
4 The volunteer soldiers in Source 3 were going off to fight for Britain in the
Boer War in South Africa. What might this tell us about Australian attitudes to
the British Empire in 1900?
5 Use the evidence from these three sources to write a short description of the
following aspects of life in late nineteenth-century Australia: families; houses
and other buildings; types of transport; clothing; and attitudes to war and the
British Empire.
159
6.2 Towards democracy:
Eureka and political rights
The Eureka Rebellion of 1854 is seen by many historians as a milestone in the

struggle for democratic rights and a more equal society. It was partly a conflict
over what kind of society Australia should be. Today it is still seen as a symbol
of resistance. The rebellion took place during the gold rushes of the 1850s. The
gold rushes marked a turning point in Australias history, prompting a massive
scramble of people from overseas to the Australian goldfields. The population
trebled in the first decade of the rushes and wealth from gold raised living
standards. These developments paved the way for more democratic rights and
colonial self-government. Australia came to be seen as a land of opportunity,
but the rushes also had other consequences, including violent political protests.
Source 1

A visitors description
of what was happening on the
goldfields by the mid 1850s,
from W. Howitt, Land, Labour
and Gold or Two Years in
Victoria, published in 1855
... hundreds have already

gone back [from the diggings]
again, cursing those who sent
such one-sided statements of
the goldfields ...
Migrant democrats
Growing discontent
The great majority of gold rush immigrants were British and Irish, like the
convicts and migrants who had come to Australia before the 1850s. But the new
migrants also included people from many other countries, including the Chinese
who you learned about in chapter5. The British, Irish and European gold rush
migrants included many who had been involved in movements for workers rights
and political reform in their own countries.
Life on the goldfields was hard,

and for every digger who found
riches there were many more
whose backbreaking work
yielded very little. From 1851
the New South Wales and
Source 2

Some of the main goldfields in Australias south-east

R iv
Gulgong
er
Wellington
Ri v e
Hill End
Ophir
Turon
rli
ng
Bathurst
NEW SOUTH WALES
L
Da
h
ac
la
Sydney
Murru
m
bid g
ee
R i ve
M
u
rr
ay
Rive
r
Chiltern
Beechworth
Wedderburn
St Arnaud
Stawell
Maryborough
Ararat
Ballarat
Bendigo
Heathcote
Castlemaine
VICTORIA
Blackwood
Melbourne
160
Key
Turon
Goldfield
State border
50
100
kilometres
150
Source 3

Administering the Oath, Eureka
Stockade, 1854, a wood engraving made in 1888.
During a protest meeting held on 30 November
the diggers solemnly swore to stand together.

Democratic reform
pp. 1745
Victorian governments passed laws demanding

that anyone digging for gold buy a licence for 30 shillings
a month. This fee had to be paid in advance and gave a
digger the right to work only a small area. For diggers
who were not British subjects, licences cost twice as much.
Many diggers did not buy licences because they could not
afford them, so the gold commissioners sent troopers to
catch them.
because diggers incomes were getting smaller

as less surface gold was found. Mines sunk more than
30metres required expensive machinery that individuals
or small groups of diggers could not afford. When
Victorias governor, Lieutenant-Governor Sir Charles
Hotham, ordered licence hunts twice a week in September
1854, digger anger became explosive.
Licence hunts and protests
The gathering storm
Diggers caught without licences were fined and had their

huts and equipment destroyed. Some were sent to jail.
Following angry protests, in 1853 New South Wales
reduced the fee to 10 shillings a month. Victoria reduced
it to one pound (20 shillings), but this was still too high
Even an unrelated incident could have provoked a riot.

On 6 October 1854 a digger was bashed to death at
the Eureka Hotel at Ballarat in Victoria. When charges
against the hotels owner, James Bentley, were dropped,
many miners concluded that this was because Bentley had
161
done favours for the police. On 17 October around 4000

furious diggers protested against this police corruption.
They rioted and burned the hotel to the ground.
The Ballarat Reform League

On 11 November, at a further protest meeting at Bakery
Hill, the diggers formed the Ballarat Reform League. Its
demands included:
abolition of licence fees
parliamentary representation through voting rights
for adult men
payment for members of Parliament
abolition of property requirements for members of
Parliament.
These last two demands were made so men who were not
rich could afford to serve in Parliament.
Digger resentment increased further when news came
that on 27 November Governor Hotham had refused
to release the men arrested over the hotel burning and
instead had ordered more troops to be sent to Ballarat. By
30 November Bentley was no longer the issue, but feelings
were running high when Commissioner Rede ordered
another licence hunt.
On 30 November, 12000 diggers gathered at Eureka,
where many burned their licences in protest. They
appointed an Irishman, Peter Lalor, as their leader. They
created a new flag, the Eureka Flag, with stars on a white
cross against a blue background, and swore a solemn oath
to stand together. They built a stockade at Eureka and
began collecting weapons.
Source 5

Anger and resentment finally exploded on 3 December
1854 in an unexpected dawn attack by troopers on the diggers
barricaded in the Eureka Stockade.
Source 4

Raffaello Carboni, a diggers leader, describes
events on 30 November 1854.
Whats up? A licence hunt ... Whats to be done? Peter

Lalor was on the stump, his rifle in his hand, calling on
volunteers to fall in into ranks as fast as they rushed to
Bakery-hill, from all quarters with arms in their hands,
just fetched from their tents. I went up to Lalor, and the
moment he saw me, he took me by the hand saying, I
want you, Signore: tell those gentlemen, pointing to old
acquaintances of ours, who were foreigners; that, if they
cannot provide themselves with fire-arms, let them each
procure a piece of steel, five or six inches long, attached
to a pole, and that will pierce the tyrants hearts ...
The SOUTHERN CROSS was hoisted up the flag-staff
... There is no flag in Europe half so beautiful as the
Southern Cross of the Ballarat miners ...
Some five hundred armed diggers advanced ... the
captains of each division making the military salute to
Lalor, who ... exclaimed in a firm measured tone:
WE SWEAR BY THE SOUTHERN CROSS TO STAND TRULY
BY EACH OTHER, AND FIGHT TO DEFEND OUR RIGHTS
AND LIBERTIES.
biased prejudiced, leaning to a one-sided view

parliamentary representation the representation of
peoples views and interests in Parliament through elected
delegates
shilling a unit of Australian currency until decimal currency
was introduced. There were 12 pence to a shilling and 20
shillings to a pound.
stockade a fortified enclosure
of angry miners gathered at the stockade after

B Hundreds
the meeting of 30 November. But the resistance was not well
coordinated by the evening of Saturday 2 December, only
about 150 men remained. Even these men might have left
had the troops not attacked.
30 November meeting,
A Atall the
present swore allegiance
to the Southern Cross flag.

Holding a rifle in one hand,
and pointing towards the
flag with his other, Peter
Lalor said: We swear by
the Southern Cross to stand
truly by each other and fight
to defend our rights and
liberties. His men removed
their hats and replied Amen.
162
Eureka Stockade was built by the diggers

C The
as a fortification against trooper attack.
Student workbook
6.1
In The Eureka Stockade, first published in 1855, Raffaello

Carboni, an Italian revolutionary, provided a first-hand
account of the Eureka rebellion. As a fluent speaker of
English, Italian, French, Spanish and German, Carboni
became such a prominent leader of the diggers that he
was tried for treason after the rebellion was crushed.
The battle at the Eureka Stockade

Before dawn on 3 December there were just 150 diggers
in the Eureka Stockade when a force of 270 well-armed
soldiers and police attacked. The fierce battle lasted
only 20 minutes and the diggers were defeated. At least
25diggers and three troopers were killed.
The outcome of Eureka

The diggers lost the battle at Eureka but they
achieved many of their aims. Juries did not convict the
13 ringleaders who were tried for treason, finding instead
that they had acted in self-defence. In 1855 the gold
licence was replaced by a miners right costing just
one pound a year and giving its holder the right to vote.
Peter Lalor eventually became a member of the
Victorian Parliament.
25 diggers were killed in
on the Ballarat
D About
E Diggers
the dawn raid and 30 wounded.
goldfields included
Only three troopers were killed.
The troopers were heavily
armed with guns and bayonets;
the diggers had only limited
weapons.
Germans, Americans,
Italians and Canadians,
as well as people from
England, Ireland and
France. The involvement of
non-English diggers in this
struggle was resented by
some.

1 Make a timeline of events leading up to the Eureka
Stockade battle.
2 Use your timeline to identify points at which
bloodshed might have been avoided.
3 Explain what could have been done at any one of
those points to avoid violence.

4 Explain the reasons for the demands made by the
diggers at their meeting on 11 November 1854.

5 How does Source 1 help you to understand digger
opposition to licence fees?
6 Locate Ballarat in Source 2 .
7 Using Sources 3 and 4 , describe the mood and spirit of
the Ballarat diggers by 30 November.
8 Raffaello Carbonis book ( Source 4 ) is the only
complete first-hand account of the Eureka Rebellion.
a What skills would have made Carboni a very useful
diggers leader and ally for Peter Lalor?
b What can you tell about how the diggers were
organised and armed?
c What chance would they have stood against trained
soldiers?

9 Would Raffaello Carbonis book be a biased source?
Explain your answer.
10 Study Source 5 . Imagine you are a newspaper
reporter in 1854. Write a report on the battle and
events that led to it. Include short comments from
representatives of both sides.

11 Enter Eureka Stockade into a search engine and make
a reference list of 10 books, articles and films that have
been written or made about the Eureka Rebellion.
Lalor and another ringleader,
F Peter
George Black, escaped after the attack.
163
6.3 Whose Australia?
Free selectors vs squatters
After the clash between the diggers and the

Victorian authorities at the Eureka Stockade,
the next conflict between social classes in
colonial Australia was over land. It was a
conflict with roots that went back to earlier
times when wealthy free settlers had been
granted big parcels of land and convict
labour to work it, while poor immigrants and
ex-convicts received small land grants on
which most were unable to make a living.
By the time of the gold rushes, squatters
controlled most of the land and used it for
grazing.
Conflict over land

The gold rushes hugely increased the colonial
population. As alluvial gold ran out, thousands
of people, including ex-diggers, demanded that
wealthy squatters be made to give up some of
the land they leased. This would free up land
so other people could become small farmers.
Although laws were made for this purpose in
each colony, Australia did not become a land of
small farmers.
Source 1

From John Sadleir, Recollections of a Victorian Police Officer,
George Robertson & Company, Melbourne, 1913, pp. 11415
It was also in the early sixties that the quiet of Hamilton was
disturbed ... The first Duffy Land Act, providing for free selection
of Crown Lands, had just come into force, and the momentous
question of parceling out the fertile lands of the Western District had
to be faced. It was an anxious time for the existing occupiers the
squatters ... There was another crowd, too, but of persons quite
unknown in the neighbourhood, and who appeared to be acting
under some sort of leadership ... It seemed ... as if the strangers
held possession, and the squatters were shut out while being
stripped of all they possessed.
But there were wheels within wheels ... Communication passed
between the squatters and the leaders of the strange crowd ... with
the result that the squatters continued in undisturbed possession of
their holdings, while not a single stranger was known to settle in the
district at this time ... The first Duffy Land Act was a failure.
selections. The only land they could not select was land on which
squatters had made improvements.
Results of the free selection acts

In each Australian colony, squatters gained more from these laws than
did the people whom the laws were designed to assist. Why did this
happen? The squatters found many ways of defeating the aims of the
Source 2

An engraving, c. 1873, showing free selectors
Free selection
Many ordinary people hated the inequalities
that existed between rich and poor in Britain
and Europe. Australia seemed to offer them
the chance to gain independence as small
farmers. In the 1850s a popular movement
developed calling for free selection. The first
free selection Act was passed in the Victorian
Parliament in 1860. In New South Wales free
selection acts were passed in 1861 and similar
laws were made in the other colonies.
These free selection laws allowed anyone to
select land whether or not it was leased by a
squatter. For example, in New South Wales a
person could select from 40 to 320acres (16
to 129hectares) of land and buy it on time
payment at onepound an acre. Free selectors
could occupy the land they had selected after
paying a quarter of its price, and they could
lease three times as much land adjoining their
164
Samuel Calvert 18281913

Free selectors pegging out 1873, engraving, 17.6 cm 22.6 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Source 3

A photo-lithograph of a free selectors hut, c. 1886
Explanation and
communication
1 Why was there a popular
demand for land during the
1850s and 1860s?
2 What was the aim of the free
selection acts?
3 Why did the acts fail to create
a land of small independent
farmers?
Analysis and
use of sources
laws. One method was called peacocking, which made the rest of the area
useless to selectors. Another method was to use dummies who later sold land
they selected back to the squatters.
The result was that Australia did not become a land of small independent
farmers. Large landowners continued to control most of the country. Many
selectors who stayed on the land lived in poverty. In many places soils were too
poor, rainfall too unreliable and the selections too small. Women often had to
run these small properties while the men went away for much of the year to
work for squatters as drovers or shearers.
4 Read Source 1 .
a Why would the passing
of free selection acts have
caused an anxious time for
the squatters?
b What were the wheels within
wheels and who do you
think was employing the
strange crowd referred to by
the police officer?
c Was this an example
of peacocking or using
dummies?
5 Study Source 2 .
a What are these men doing?
b Why would the task be so
urgent that they would do it
by torchlight?
c Why is it possible that they
might not be genuine free
selectors?
6 How do Sources 3 and 4 provide
evidence of hardships faced by
free selectors?
Source 4

Perspectives and
interpretationS
Nicholas Caire, 1837 United Kingdom Australia 1918

Selectors hut, Gippsland, c.1886
Albumen silver photograph, image 15.1 cm 19.6 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
An etching of a free selectors daughter, c. 1935
7 Imagine you are either the

selector or his daughter pictured
in Source 4 . Write a letter to
a friend in the city describing
the difficulties you face on your
selection.
8 How do you think small selectors
would have felt seeing wealthy
squatters defeat the intentions of
a law aimed at helping selectors?
Lionel Lindsay, The Free Selectors daughter 1935

Etching, printed in black ink, from one plate, plate-mark 14 cm 21.4 cm, sheet 18 cm 27.8 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Bequest of Alan Queale, 1982
dummies people, secretly acting for

squatters, who selected land and later
sold it to the squatters
grazing pasture to feed cows and
sheep
peacocking buying up land around
creeks and rivers to make the rest of the
area useless to selectors
165
6.4 An Australian legend

A nation under the British Crown was not the dream
of everyone who came to Australia during the
nineteenthcentury. Ireland was Britains oldest colony
and about one-third of all convicts sent to Australia
were Irish. Many had been transported for small crimes
committed just to survive the grinding poverty in which
they lived. Others had been sentenced for rebelling
against British rule. Many free Irish immigrants were
also fleeing poverty, especially during the terrible
famine of the 1840s. Such people made up large
numbers of the free selectors of north-eastern
Victoria, and many of them sympathised with
Australias most famous outlaw bushranger during
what came to be called the Kelly Outbreak.
Source 1

A portrait of Ned Kelly taken the
day before he was hanged
The Kelly legend

Australians complimenting someones courage used
to say that person was as game as Ned Kelly. Kelly
has been the subject of a play, a ballet, songs, poems
and novels. Artist Sydney Nolan portrayed the Kelly
legend in a series of paintings. Both Mick Jagger and
Heath Ledger played his part in movies. Why did an
outlaw win such a place in Australian folklore?
Early years
166
Edward Ned Kelly (born 1855) was the first son of

John Kelly, an ex-convict from Ireland, and Ellen Kelly,
whose family, the Quinns, had come from Ireland as
poor assisted migrants. Ned grew up in north-eastern
Victoria in a time of conflict between struggling selectors
and squatters. The selectors viewed corrupt police as
the squatters allies. In 1865 John Kelly was jailed for
possessing a stolen cow hide. When he died in 1866 the
family moved to a small selection near Greta, where they
lived in poverty.
In 1869 and 1870 Ned faced three charges of robbery;
all were dismissed through lack of evidence. But in late
1870, aged just 15, he received six months hard labour
in Beechworth jail for assault and three years for horse
stealing. Three years after his release, Ned joined his
stepfather in horse and cattle stealing. In 1878 arrest
warrants were issued for Ned and his youngest brother,
Dan.
a shot at him. Neds version of events was very different

(see Source 3 ). Warrants were issued for the arrest of Ned
and Dan for attempted murder. Ellen was sentenced to
three years in prison, and this enraged Ned and Dan.
They hid out in the Wombat Ranges but offered to give
themselves up in exchange for their mothers freedom.
Police parties were sent out to hunt for the Kellys.
Constables Scanlan, Lonigan and McIntyre and Sergeant
Kennedy arrived at Stringybark Creek in the Wombat
Ranges in October 1878. When Ned attempted to capture
and disarm them, three police were killed. Only McIntyre
escaped alive.
The turning point
Outlaws
On 5 April 1878 Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick visited

the Kelly house. According to Fitzpatrick, he arrested Dan
but Ellen Kelly assaulted him with a shovel and Ned fired
The Kellys were declared outlaws who could be shot on

sight. In December the gang, now consisting of Ned,
Dan and their friends Steve Hart and Joe Byrne, robbed
Source 2

Kelly country
Key
Greta
Bank robbed and town

taken over by Kelly Gang,
February 1879
City/town
State border
Railway
Jerilderie
Deniliquin
NEW SOUTH WALES
Murray
Br o k
Main road
Tocumwal
Ri v
Railway line
removed
Riv
Euroa
HBO
GIE
Port
Phillip
Creek
ve
Mansfield
Ned Kelly born, 1854
Ned Kelly in court, 1880.

Sympathisers held in jail.
Murder of three policemen,

Lonigan, Scanlan and
Kennedy, October 1878
VICTORIA
Kilmore
Melbourne
RA
S Stringybark
Ri
T
ST R A
WOMBAT
RANGES
E
NG
er
Ki n g
Kelly homestead
First bank robbery,

December 1878
Eldorado
Beechworth
Glenrowan
Greta
Benalla
Faithfuls Creek Station held up [or robbed]
Wallan
Albury
er
Destruction of Kelly
Gang, 28 June 1880
Ned Kellys father

in jail, 1865
R iver
ns
Ove
Echuca
The final showdown
Aaron Sherritt shot, June 1880
Yarrawonga
en
EA
IV
ID
NG
RA
NG
Ned Kelly hanged,

11 November 1880
0
20
40
a bank at Euroa without firing a shot.

In February 1879 they raided Jerilderie,
locking the police in their own cell and
robbing the hotel and bank. During
these operations the gang entertained
their prisoners and Ned spent much
time telling people how injustice had
caused him to become an outlaw.
60
kilometres
Source 3

Part of an 8300-word statement (known as the Jerilderie Letter) handed
over by Ned Kelly during the hold-up at Jerilderie in 1879
... there was never such a thing as justice in the English laws but any
amount of injustice to be had ...
If a poor man happened to leave his horse or a ... calf outside his
paddocks they would be impounded.
I have known over 60 head of horses impounded in one day ... all
belonging to poor farmers ...
The trooper [Fitzpatrick] pulled out his revolver and said he would blow
her [Ellen Kellys] brains out if she interfered in the arrest [of Dan Kelly] ...
The trooper ... invented some scheme to say that he got shot which any
man can see is false ... the Police got credit and praise for arresting the
mother of 12 children one an infant on her breast ... I heard nothing of this
... I being over 400miles from Greta when I heard I was outlawed ...
... they must remember those men [Kennedy, Scanlan, Lonigan and
McIntyre] came into the bush with the intention of scattering pieces of
me and my brother all over the bush and yet they know ... I have been
wronged ...
Edward Kelly
Police imprisoned many Kelly

sympathisers and announced that such
people would be barred from getting
selections. The result was increased
support for the outlaws. From June
1880, the gang made suits of armour
from ploughs and supplied firearms
to their supporters. They planned
to lure the police to travel by train
from their headquarters at Benalla to
Beechworth. This would take them
through Glenrowan, where there were
many Kelly sympathisers. The plan was
to derail the train, capture the police and
demand Ellens freedom in exchange for
theirs.
On the evening of Saturday,
26June, to set the police on the track
to Beechworth, Joe Byrne shot and
killed his old friend Aaron Sherritt, a
police informer. Meanwhile Ned and
Steve forced railway workers to remove
a section of track almost 800metres
north of Glenrowan railway station.
Joined by Dan and Joe, they took
over Mrs Joness Glenrowan hotel and
waited for the train.
Ned made two fatal mistakes. When
Thomas Curnow, a schoolteacher, asked
permission to take his sick wife home,
Ned agreed. Shortly after two oclock
on Monday morning Curnow stopped
the train, which was carrying ten police
and several Aboriginal trackers. Ned had
also assumed that the police would not
suspect an attempt to derail the train.
But well ahead of the engine pulling
the police carriages there was another
engine. Had it been derailed, the second
engine would have stopped safely.
The gang could have retreated into the
hills. Instead they chose to stay and fight
(see Source 4 ).
167
Source 4

The siege at Glenrowan

gang fell back to the hotel. During
C Tthehe 12-hour
siege 35 men, women
and children threw themselves onto
the floor as police bullets crashed
through the thin walls.
lenrowan railway station

A Gwas
about 100metres in
front of the hotel. The train

was meant to be derailed
800metres up the line.
3am the outlaws,

B Ainround
heavy armour, first
exchanged shots with the

police at the railway station.
Ned and Joe were wounded.
168
fired on the hotel from a number of positions including

D Paolice
trench between the hotel and the railway station. They were
reinforced through the night. Their fire killed a 13-year-old boy,

and other people were wounded, including some who tried to
flee. At 5am Joe Byrne was fatally wounded.
Trial and execution

With Neds capture, the police finally allowed civilians to leave the hotel.
Left inside were Dan and Steve and a badly injured Martin Cherry, who
died later of his wounds. Shooting continued until 3 pm, when police set
fire to the hotel. Dan and Steve chose to commit suicide rather than be
taken alive.
Neds trial for the murder of Constable Lonigan commenced in
Melbourne on 28 October. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by
Justice Redmond Barry. No sympathisers had joined the fight at Glenrowan,
but more than 60000 people signed a petition to save Ned from hanging
and thousands attended a protest meeting the night before his execution.
Neds last words, at 25years of age, as he stood on the gallows at 10am on
11November 1880, were Ah well, I suppose it has come to this.
Explanation and
communication
1 Why do you think as game as Ned
Kelly was used as a compliment?
Chronology, terms
and concepts
2 Make a timeline of the main events in
Ned Kellys life.
3 Working in groups, try to identify
points on the timeline where Ned
might have been able to make
different choices.
4 Suggest how events might have
unfolded if he had made different
choices.
collapsed from loss of blood as

E Nheedwalked
firing through police lines.
Determined to save Dan and Steve,

he staggered back through the heavy
dawn mist and a continuous hail of
bullets, firing at the police. He was
captured after being brought down
by a shotgun blast to his unprotected
legs.
5 Read Source 3 .
a What did Ned say about poor
selectors, police and squatters?
b How does this help to explain why
the Kellys had many supporters?
c How does Neds version of
events on 5 April 1878 differ from
Fitzpatricks story?
d What evidence would we need to
know the truth of this incident?
e How does Ned explain the deaths
of Kennedy, Scanlan and Lonigan?
6 Use Sources 2 and 4 to answer the
following questions:
a Why was Glenrowan a suitable
place to ambush the police?
b What went wrong with Neds plan?
c Considering the positions occupied
by both sides at Glenrowan, who
do you think was most to blame
for casualties suffered by innocent
people?
Perspectives and
interpretations
7 Why do you think Ned Kelly became a
folk legend?
8 What does the fact that many people
admired Kelly tell us about social
conditions in his time and later?
and research
Fearing fresh outbreaks among Kelly sympathisers, police reinforced stations

throughout north-eastern Victoria. A royal commission investigated police
handling of the Kelly outbreak. It resulted in several officers being dismissed
or reduced in rank.
9 Find a full copy of the Jerilderie Letter.

Use it to explain how Ned Kelly
saw his actions as part of a struggle
between rich and poor, oppressors
and oppressed. After reading it, give
your opinion on whether he should
be remembered as a hero or as a
murderer.
impound to confiscate
169
6.5 City life

In the major cities of the Australian colonies a world was emerging that was very different from the world of
selectors, squatters and country towns. Since the first European settlements, most Australians have lived in coastal
cities and big towns. Melbourne was founded in 1837 and named after the then British prime minister, Lord
Melbourne. By the 1880s it had grown to be one of the most commercially important and elegant cities in the world.
English journalist George Sala was so impressed he called it Marvellous Melbourne.
In the same year that Melbourne was named, Robert

Hoddle designed the grid layout of the citys central
business district. Outside this grid, land was set aside
for large areas of parkland. Both are still features of
Melbourne today.
Over the next 20 years Melbournes status grew. In 1847
it was officially declared a city through the appointment
of its first Church of England bishop. Victoria became
self-governing in 1851, when it separated from the colony
Source 1

A modern artists
impression of Marvellous Melbourne
in the late nineteenth century
precincts were set
A Retailing
up around Swanston and
Elizabeth streets. Other parts

of the city catered for specific
businesses and activities.
Warehouses stood by the
river, legal practices were
established in the west end
of Bourke Street and doctors
were found in Collins Street
east. Many of these precincts
still exist today.
of young men, called

B Gangs
larrikins, roamed the streets.
Prostitution and crime also

flourished. The western
boundary of the city was well
known for its brothels and
sleazy hotels.
clothing styles were

C Mens
quite similar for rich and poor,
although fabrics and tailoring

differed. Womens clothing
was a different matter. A wife,
the experts agreed, must
dress according to her position
in society indeed, the status
of a man was often assessed
by the clothes his wife wore.
ladies showed off the latest

D Well-to-do
fashions by doing the block, walking in
the fashionable Collins Street precinct.

Wealthy women had access to silks and
satins imported from Europe. Workingclass women often made do with handme-downs or mended clothing.
170
police
E Aforce
was
established
in the 1830s
to keep order
in the city.
of New South Wales. The establishment of the University

of Melbourne and the Public Library in 1853 showed the
citys commitment to education.
One of the most striking features of Melbournes history
is its rapid population growth, from just over 3500 in
1839 to nearly 80000 in 1851. After the gold rushes,
diggers flocked to the city, and immigrants brought with
them new ideas and a demand for goods and services. By
1880, half a million people called Melbourne home.
Wrought iron lacework was used to
F decorate
the verandahs and balconies
of middle-class homes and public

buildings. During the 1880s it symbolised
the citys prosperity. Even today,
Melbourne has more decorative wrought
iron than any other city in the world.
the 1880s
G ByMelbournes
skyline
featured elegantly
decorated domes
and spires.
Student workbook
6.2
Cup day
One of Melbournes premier sporting events, the Melbourne Cup, was first held
in 1861. Today the Melbourne Cup Carnival is enjoyed as much for its party
atmosphere as for the race itself. Visitors from interstate and around the world
flock to Flemington to have a flutter, picnic on the lawn and parade their outfits,
both fashionable and outrageous. Nothing much has changed since 1888, when
over 100000 people spread out their food and beverages underneath the gum
trees to watch the race.
Source 2

An artists impression of the Melbourne Cup, 1888
lifts allowed
the elegance of Marvellous
H Hydraulic
I Behind
buildings of up to
Melbourne were serious health
12 storeys to be built.
Only New York and
Chicago then had
buildings as high as
Melbournes.
and hygiene issues. By the 1880s,

overcrowded inner-city housing in areas
like Little Lon meant that diseases such
as typhoid and diphtheria spread.
The Royal
J Exhibition
Building
was completed for

the International
Exhibition held
in Melbourne in
1880. Exhibits and
inventions from
all over the world
were displayed.
The exhibition ran
for eight months
and attracted
more than a
million people.
EXPLANATION AND
COMMUNICATION
1 Choose an event from
Melbournes history for each of
these dates:
1837
1888
1880
1847
1861
1853
Justify which event most added

to the citys status as a most
liveable city.
2 In what ways was Marvellous
Melbourne not so marvellous?
3 To what extent was the way
we live in cities today evident
in Melbourne city life
100 to 150 years ago? Has
anything changed? Explain.
4 Study Source 2 carefully.
a What evidence suggests that
the Melbourne Cup in 1888
was (i) a family event, and
(ii) attended only by the
wealthy?
b Discuss the sounds you would
have expected to hear at this
event.

5 Work in small groups. Use
Source 1 to help you design
an advertising campaign for
Marvellous Melbourne in the
1880s. It needs to be appropriate
for the audience. This campaign
will need three elements: a
catchy jingle, a symbol or logo
of the spirit of the city and a
series of postcards highlighting
Melbournes attractions.
HISTORICAL QUESTIONS
AND RESEARCH
waste and nightsoil
K Household
were dumped into the Yarra River.
The stench in some parts of the city

prompted a Sydney writer to rename
it Marvellous Smellbourne. In 1891
the Melbourne and Metropolitan
Board of Works was established to
try to rectify some of these problems.
trams were
L Cable
established in Melbourne
in the 1880s. They allowed

the growing middle classes
to commute to the city from
their homes in less polluted
suburbs. Transportation
by horse and buggy was
also common. By the
1890s, Melbourne had an
established rail network.
6 Use the internet to find out

how the city of Melbourne
promotes itself to visitors today.
Make a list of what you regard
as Melbournes top historical
attractions. Give reasons for each
of your choices.
central business district (CBD)

the business centre of a city
larrikins term used in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
for unruly youths
Little Lon name (after Little Lonsdale
Street) given to the north-eastern part
of the CBD known for its slums
nightsoil human waste
precinct a district of a city
171
6.6 Working in cities and towns

After the 1850s many people who had tried their luck on the goldfields flocked to towns and cities to look for work.
As a result, commerce, industry and investment grew, and the public service expanded. Developments in transport,
technology and communication also contributed to changing work patterns.
Many nineteenth-century factories,

mills and shops in the colonies were
little more than sweatshops. Dressed
in heavy, multi-layered clothing (then
the fashion), workers of both sexes
sometimes worked 10 to 16 hours
per day, six days a week, in
temperatures that could reach the
high 30s. Many had to walk long
distances to get home.
Employers had all the power,
sometimes refusing to implement
government directions to improve
conditions. Employees were often
afraid to object or to report employers
for non-compliance, for fear of losing
their jobs. Neither did they enjoy the
entitlements workers do today, such
as sick leave. Most could be expected
to work until they were 65. It was not
much of a life for many people in the
working class.
Even children worked under these

harsh conditions, sometimes 50 to
60hours per week. Because they were
smaller, they could often do tasks
adults could not. As well, employers
had to pay them only a fraction of an
adult wage. In 1911, 46169 children
between the ages of 10 and 14 were in
the workforce.
Social divisions
By the 1880s, apart from wealthy
landowners and pastoralists, bankers
and merchants were among the
highest earners in the colonies. They
established businesses close to the
wharves to take advantage of the
growing import and investment
sectors. These businesses provided
employment for accountants, clerks
and shopkeepers.
Source 1

An 1882 wood
engraving depicting scenes at
Beath, Schiess and Companys
Victorian clothing factories
Local industries: Messrs.

Beath, Schiess and Co.s Clothing
Factories
May 13, 1882
print: wood engraving
Reproduction rights owned by
the State Library of Victoria.
172
Professionals such as doctors

and lawyers also earned high wages.
Most came from wealthy families, and
had been educated at private schools
and universities in the colonies and
overseas.
High-wage earners tended to build
spacious homes in leafy suburbs away
from the grime and pollution of the
inner-city areas. Domestic servants
were employed to maintain these
homes and the wealthy families who
lived there.
Until the 1880s most domestic
servants were poor Irish immigrant
girls working to help support their
families. Many men and women
preferred factory work, though,
because it often paid better and it
gave workers some independence.
This preference led to a shortage
of domestic workers in the 1880s.
As the shortage grew, domestic

workers were able to push for higher
wages, more free time and better
working conditions.
New technologies
By the 1880s new technologies meant
the growth of new types of jobs.
The expansion of manufacturing
resulted in an increase of engineers,
who helped to develop machinery
for factories. In many trades (for
example, bootmaking), mechanised
processes replaced manual labour.
The typewriter created new office
jobs. Up to the 1880s, typists were
mainly men, although the number
Source 2

of female typists increased after

this. New methods of copying and
bookkeeping were also changing
office work.
Telegraph and telephone services
became more common in the 1880s.
The number of telegraph stations
in the central business district of
Melbourne doubled from 1880 to
1890. By 1890, there were almost
2000 telephone subscribers. New
forms of communication required
workers to develop new skills.
One of the most influential
developments in the late nineteenth
century was electricity. For some,
however, electric lights just meant
longer working hours.
Inside the workshop of John Faul, Ironmonger at Bendigo in 1890
Source 3

Most servant girls
endured demanding, and often
harsh, working conditions.
She is wanted at 6 am, or before,

and keeps busy all day till bed
time at 10 or 11 pm. No followers
allowed, not even a brother or
sister, lest they should eat or drink
something, or take something
home. The poor girl cannot sit
with the family she is only a
servant, and therefore has only
the kitchen to sit in if she has any
leisure. If there are any grownup sons, she is liable to instant
dismissal if one of them is seen
speaking to her, and the daughters
order her about as if she were a
convict.
Missus From Sarah Janes point
of view in The Bulletin, 23 June 1883
bookkeeping keeping records of

financial accounts
telegraph device for sending
messages over long distances

Living and working in Australia
pp. 1767
Student workbook
6.3

1 Explain why many workers had to put up with very long
working hours during the nineteenth century.
2 Why did employers often employ children? What benefits
did this give them?

3 Read Source 3 . According to the writer, why is domestic
service difficult work? Try to give four or five reasons in
your own words.
4 Look closely at Source 1 and Source 2 . Using these
sources as your evidence, write a description of what
factory work would have been like for men and women
in the late nineteenth century.
5 In what ways did developments in machinery,

technology and communication change working
patterns in the late nineteenth century?

6 How would you have coped being a factory worker
in the late 1800s, dressing as they did, and living,
say, five kilometres walking distance from your workplace?
a What aspects (physical and/or psychological) would
you have found most difficult?
b What sort of qualities of character do you think
teenagers generally had then, working under these
conditions? What does it say about their attitudes and
values?
173
6.7 Trade unions
and political parties
Most nations believe that there are characteristics

that make their people distinctive. In the late
nineteenthcentury many Australians came to believe
the most important part of the Australian identity the
most typical Australian characteristic was mateship,
which was demonstrated by ordinary people standing
by each other in the struggle to overcome tough
conditions and injustice. For those who thought this way,
the development of trade unionism was a continuation
of a tradition that went back to the Eureka Stockade.
Australian trade unions develop

Trade unionism has been a very important influence on
Australian life. Trade unions are formed by employees
within an occupation or industry to bargain with
employers for improved wages and conditions. They
Source 1

A banner for the United Operative Masons of Melbourne,
commemorating this unions achievement of an eight-hour working day
174
also try to ensure that any previously gained social

improvements are kept. Australia inherited its trade
union traditions from Britain, and for much of the
twentiethcentury Australia had one of the highest levels of
trade union membership in the world.
The first Australian trade unions were formed in the
1840s. They were temporarily broken up by the gold
rushes but were soon reorganised. By the 1850s many
trade unions had been formed. This growth brought
about the establishment of the Melbourne Trades Hall
Committee, a central organisation of affiliated unions.
Its first meeting in 1859 was held in Lygon Street in
Melbourne at the site where the Victorian Trades Hall
Council building now stands.
Tactics and policies

Unions used strikes and pickets to win their objectives.
The first full-scale union picket was staged during the
Source 2

Trade unionists with their banner in
Broken Hill, NSW, around 1911
Bootmakers Union strike in 1884. Unions also held

strikes to protest against businesses employing Chinese
workers, who were paid at much lower rates than
Europeans. At its first meeting, in Sydney in 1879, the
Inter-Colonial Trade Union Congress (later the Australian
Council of Trade Unions or ACTU) unanimously
opposed Chinese immigration.
Exploitation of women
Women were exploited even more than men. They
experienced harsh working conditions, long hours and
lower rates of pay. The first colonial womens trade union
was the Melbourne Tailoresses Union. Founded in 1882,
it campaigned against wage cuts for already poorly paid
female workers in the clothing industry. Its campaign led
to a parliamentary inquiry into sweated labour, and the
establishment of boards to ensure that standards were in
place for wages, working hours and conditions.
interests of businesspeople. The issue of free trade versus

protection of local industries (by charging duties on
imports) deeply divided the colonies. In New South Wales
there was strong support for free trade while Victoria
supported protection.
Political parties began to emerge in the late 1880s as
the protectionists and free traders became more organised.
The most significant step in the development of political
parties, however, was the birth of the Labour parties.
Since its inception, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) has
had links with the trade union movement. Formed in
1891, it is the oldest political party in Australia, and one
of the oldest labour parties in the world.
The great strikes of the 1890s

Trade unions achieved many of their goals up until the
end of the 1880s. However, when a severe economic
Factions and political parties

Workers could have improved their conditions by electing
representatives to fight for their rights in the colonial
parliaments. At first, however, factions and pressure groups
dominated colonial politics. The main groups were the
protectionists and the free traders. Both represented the
In 1855 unions commenced a campaign for an eighthour working day. This was first won by stonemasons
in Melbourne in 1856, reducing their working hours to
48hours a week.
175
Source 3

A portrait of shearers as unionist
prisoners. This photograph was taken at
Barcaldine, Queensland, in November 1893 to
mark the gaoling of 13 shearer union leaders.
depression began in 1890, employers organisations fought

back. Employers said they were fighting for freedom of
contract, the right to hire workers who were not union
members and to pay them less than the wages that had
been won by the unions.
The result was a series of great strikes between 1890
and 1894. The 1890 maritime strike affected all the
eastern colonies and involved wharf labourers, seamen,
ships officers, transport workers and shearers. The 1891
shearers strike saw armed clashes between shearers on
the one hand and strike-breakers, the army and police on
the other at Barcaldine in Queensland. The strike ended
after four months; thirteen of its leaders were arrested
and sentenced to three years hard labour. These strikes
were followed by the Broken Hill miners strike in 1892
and a further strike of shearers and other bush workers in
189394.
Electing workers representatives

The strikes failed because the employers were able to find
strike-breakers to carry out much of the work and could
use the law against the strikers. The failure of the strikes,
the support the employers had from governments and
the gaoling of union leaders made unionists realise they
needed new tactics. They now thought they would have
to get workers representatives into parliament to change
the laws. Labour parties were set up in each colony.
Unionists believed that Labour party candidates elected to
parliament would defend the interests of the workers who
put them there.
Forming the ALP
Source 4

This news report describes what happened when
unionists attempted to stop strike-breakers working at Port
Adelaide during the 1890 maritime strike.
About 6 a.m. a large body of unionists had assembled

on the wharfs, but nothing serious occurred until about
8oclock, when some non-unionists were returning from
work along Maclaren wharf and proceeding to the labour
bureau for breakfast. They were surrounded by a body
of unionists, who commenced to hoot, jeer, and illtreat
them. One of the men being rather roughly handled
drew a revolver, which he pointed at the unionists, but
happily did not fire. The police arriving on the spot
arrested three of the unionists and took the weapon away
from the non-unionist, but the owner [of the revolver]
was not apprehended...
Published in The Advertiser (Adelaide),
29 October 1890
176
Australias first labour government indeed the first

labour government in the world was elected in
Queensland in 1899. It lasted only seven days. A minority
government had been formed, with Anderson Dawson
as the states first labour premier. It ended a week later
when motions enabling it to continue to govern were
defeated.
In their formative years, the colonial labour parties were
influenced by the trade unions, but were not restricted
to only trade union interests. The parties also wanted
the support of farmers, small business and non-union
employees, including white collar workers. The influence
of the trade unions on policy, however, remained high.
The Australian Labour Party entered federal politics at
federation, following the first Commonwealth elections
in 1901. It comprised 16members who had been elected
to the first sitting of the House of Representatives and
eight Senators. It was not until 1908 that the spelling of
the partys name was changed to Labor. The American
spelling recognised that many of the ideas of the American
labor movement were dominant internationally and
influenced the early tactics of the ALP.
Source 5

Townsville Mounted Infantry in Hughenden,
Queensland, during the 1891 shearers strike
Source 6

Wives of unionist miners attacking strike-breakers with sticks and
broom handles during the re-opening of the Broken Hill mines in 1892
affiliated unions unions linked with other unions

through a wider umbrella organisation
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) the
peak union organisation in Australia
minority government a government that
has fewer than half the seats in a lower house of
parliament
sweated labour workers exploited by being
employed for long hours and low pay
Jacaranda World
History Atlas
Workers reforms
pp. 1723

1 What were the aims of trade unions?
2 What tactics did they use to fight for these goals?
3 What economic reasons did trade unions have for
opposing Chinese immigration?
4 From what you have learned about racism during the
gold rushes, do you think racist ideas could also have
motivated unions to oppose Chinese immigration?
5 Whose interests did Free Traders and Protectionists
represent, and what was the main difference between
these two parties?
6 Work in small groups to suggest reasons why employers
chose a time of economic depression to try to break the
unions.
7 List the reasons for the failure of the Great Strikes of the
1890s.
8 What benefits did unionists expect to gain by having
Labour representatives in colonial parliaments?

9 Look carefully at Sources 1 and 2 .
a What event is commemorated in Source 1 ?
b Why would a union regard this event as worthy of
commemoration?
Student workbook
6.4
c Describe the appearance of the unionists in
Source 2 and explain why they might have dressed

this way. (Hint: What image of unionism is suggested?)
d Why might the slogan on the banner in Source 2 have
been chosen?
10 Using Source 4 as your evidence, suggest reasons why
unionists might have felt that the government and police
were on the side of the employers and strike-breakers.

11 We live in a time of falling trade union membership.
Using the information in this spread, design a leaflet that
could be used by the union movement to encourage
todays young workers to join unions.
12 Imagine you are a reporter in the 1890s.
a Using the information and sources in this spread as
evidence, write a newspaper report on the strikes of
the 1890s.
b Make a list of other evidence you would need to fill in
the gaps and present a more complete account of the
causes, events and results of the great strikes of the
1890s.
13 In small groups, discuss what issues workers face today
and whether you think they benefit from having Labor
governments in power.
177
6.8 Nationalism and
Australian identity
By the late nineteenth century two very different kinds of

nationalism existed in Australia. A majority of Australians
were what historians have called imperial loyalists.
They thought of themselves as Australian Britons and
felt deep loyalty to Britain and the British Empire. A
different kind of sentiment was felt by Australians
whom historians have called radical nationalists.
Such nationalists believed that Australia should be
independent from Britain and should create a society
that was fairer and more egalitarian than Britains.
Radical nationalists saw the typical Australian as a
bush worker, like the gold rush diggers and the unionist
shearers and drovers. He was seen as independent,
opposed to class distinctions and English snobbishness,
and loyal to his mates. Women usually had very little
part in this image. Many Australian short stories, poems
and artworks of the 1880s and 1890s depict such
typical Australians.
Source 2

178
The golden fleece, painted by Tom Roberts in 1894
Source 1

Extract from Banjo Patersons 1889 poem Clancy of
the Overflow
In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy

Gone a-droving down the Cooper where the
Western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind
them singing,
For the drovers life has pleasures that the townsfolk
never know.
And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their
kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains
extended,
And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars.
I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the
houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness
over all.
Racism
Racism was part of both kinds of
Australian nationalism. Imperial
loyalists believed that Britain had the
right to rule over other races they
believed were inferior to the British.
Radical nationalists wanted to create
a workers paradise in Australia, but
they thought this dream could be
achieved only by keeping out nonEuropeans, who they believed did not
share their values and whose cheap
labour would be used to destroy the
gains won by Australian workers.
Literature
Even before stories and poems about
the bush were published, there were
traditions of storytelling and singing
among rural itinerant workers. These
had developed from old convict
ballads and Irish songs. Writers such
as Andrew Banjo Paterson drew on
these traditions to create ballads about
the bush and its heroic characters.
Patersons works include Waltzing
Matilda, Clancy of the Overflow and
The Man from Snowy River.
Henry Lawson also wrote about
people living in the bush. His mother,
Source 4

Extract from The Drovers
Wife by Henry Lawson
She is not a coward, but recent

events have shaken her nerves. A
little son of her brother-in-law was
lately bitten by a snake, and died.
Besides she has not heard from
her husband for six months, and is
anxious about him...
...She is used to being left alone.
She once lived like this for eighteen
months. As a girl she built the
usual castles in the air, but all her
girlish hopes and aspirations have
long been dead. She finds all the
excitement and recreation she
needs in the Young Ladies Journal,
and Heaven help her! takes a
pleasure in the fashion plates...
...One of the children died while
she was here alone. She rode
nineteen miles for assistance,
carrying the dead child.
Louisa, was an early Australian

campaigner for womens rights, and
her strong influence is seen in some
of the female characters that feature
in Lawsons stories. The Drovers Wife
depicts a brave and resilient woman
protecting her children while her
husband is away for long periods.
Paterson and Lawson both
contributed to a literary journal called
The Bulletin. It promoted political
ideas such as republicanism and
white superiority. Its slogan was
Australia for the White Man.
Source 3

Henry Lawson
Source 5

Written by Henry Lawson,
published in The Bulletin in 1887
A Song of the Republic

Sons of the South, awake! arise!
Sons of the South, and do.
Banish from under your bonny skies
Those old-world errors and wrongs
and lies.
Making a hell in a Paradise
That belongs to your sons and you.
Sons of the South, make choice
between
(Sons of the South, choose true),
The Land of Morn and the Land of
Een,
The Old Dead Tree and the Young
Tree Green,
The Land that belongs to the lord
and the Queen,
And the Land that belongs to you.
...
Sons of the South, aroused at last!
Sons of the South are few!
But your ranks grow longer and
deeper fast,
And ye shall swell to an army vast,
And free from the wrongs of the
North and Past
The land that belongs to you.
Student workbook
6.5
Chronology,
terms and concepts
1 Explain the differences between
the ideas of imperial loyalists and
radical nationalists.
Explanation and
communication
2 What qualities were associated
with bush workers?
3 What political ideas did The
Bulletin promote?
Analysis and use

of sources
4 Form small groups to discuss the
way the lives of bush workers are
depicted in Sources 1 and 2 .
5 How do such depictions help
you to understand why, while
most Australians lived in cities
and towns, the white, male bush
worker was seen as the typical
Australian?
6 What does Source 4 suggest
about the qualities of bush
women?
7 Read Source 5 and answer the
following questions:
a What kinds of old-world
errors and wrongs and lies do
you think Lawson wanted to
banish?
b Which countries do you think
Lawson was referring to as
The Land of Morn [morning]
and the Land of Een [evening]
and The Old Dead Tree and
the Young Tree Green?
c What kind of Australia was
Lawson calling for in this
poem?
and research
8 Use your library and the internet
to find out more about Henry
Lawson. Evaluate his contribution
to creating a sense of Australian
identity.
egalitarian believing in equality

republicanism the belief that a
country should be a republic (where
the country has an elected or appointed
head of state), not a monarchy (where
the head of state is a king or queen)
179
6.9SkillBuilder
Analysing cartoons on social issues
What are cartoons?
Cartoons are usually ink drawings
created for newspapers or
magazines to provide humorous
or critical comment on current
events and issues. The Bulletin
(see previous spread) often used
cartoons to promote its ideas about
republicanism, race, bush values,
nationalism and trade unionism.
Strong political cartoons also
appeared in trade union newspapers
such as The Sydney Worker and
The Brisbane Worker.
Why are cartoons useful

as historical sources?
Cartoons are interesting primary
sources for a study of Australia in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. They provide us with
information about what some people
thought about events and issues of
their times. Cartoons often:
use caricatures (exaggerating some
characteristics) to make fun of
particular groups or attitudes
use humour to make serious
comments about events and issues
employ symbolism and other
artistic techniques.
180
How to analyse a cartoon

To effectively analyse a cartoon, you need to understand the techniques used
to create such art. You should begin by examining a cartoon in much the same
way as any other source. You need to ask:
who created the cartoon and who published it?
when and where was it published?
what is the significance of the publisher, the time and the place?
why was it created? (What events or issues is it concerned with?)
what is its message? (This may be biased. It may come partly through the
drawing and partly through the caption.)
how does it convey its message? (What are the features of the drawing that
convey the message? Is it done through caricature or some other device?)
The following cartoon deals with an issue in spread 6.7. The annotations
opposite explain how the cartoon is designed and how it conveys its message.
Source 1

The Labour Crisis. Capital: See here, my man, one of us must either go back or
else lie down and let the other walk over him. Now which of us shall it be? (And that is now
the question.)
The Bulletin, 16 August 1890
Student workbook
6.6
Who?
The signature in the bottom right corner shows that it was
drawn by Hop (Livingston Hopkins), The Bulletins first
cartoonist and that it was published in The Bulletin.
When and where?
Source 2

ENVY AN EVERYDAY STREET SCENE
What is the crowd about?
Oh, one man has actually managed to get work and the rest of
them are assembled to marvel at the strange sight.
The Bulletin was published in Sydney, Australia,

and was considered a radical (taking an
extreme position) journal at the time.
The time and place are significant
because this was the year that Australia
experienced the maritime strike,
involving workers from a range
of industries, over the issue of
freedom of contract versus
union rights.
The Bulletin, 6 October 1894
Why
The cartoon was created
to comment on this
confrontation between
workers and employers.
What is the message?

Hop is saying that the
confrontation between
workers and employers will
be huge and unavoidable.
Only one side can win and
the outcome is yet unknown.
How does it convey

its message?
The two figures are both
caricatures, not of individuals but
of social types. They are stereotypes
(images that someone may have
based on preconceived ideas).
Note their dress, build and position
of hands and heads.
a The fat man represents the
employers or Capital. His
dress, build and body language
suggest he is greedy, powerful,
arrogant and used to getting his
own way.
b The well-built man represents the workers or Labour. His
clothing, including rolled up sleeves, the position of his head
and hands and the way he stands suggest he is honest, hard
working, strong and determined to stand up for his rights.
c They are positioned on a narrow bridge labelled Capital and
Labor issues. Below them is a deep gorge. Only one can go
forward and if neither backs down, then one or the other is sure
to be seriously harmed by his fall. The bridge is already buckling
under their weight, suggesting a speedy resolution is needed.
d Hops sympathies are made clear by the contrast between the
two figures the defiant figure of the worker and the bloated,
arrogant figure of the employer.
e The caption simply reinforces the message already represented
in the drawing.
Task
Ask and answer the questions that were used to
analyse Source 1 to carry out your own analysis of
Source 2 above.
1 Who?
2 When and where?
3 Why?
4 What is the message?
5 How does it convey its message?
181
6.10 Voting rights for women

During the nineteenthcentury there was
great social inequality between the sexes.
Most rewarding jobs were closed to women,
who usually had to give up their jobs when
they married. Women were expected to
devote their lives to their family, yet they had
little power within marriage. Many people
came to see that womens suffrage was
needed as a first step towards overcoming
such inequalities.
Source 1

The front cover of The Womans Sphere, 8 April 1903
Women in the workforce

In the paid workforce, women were paid
much less than men even for the same
work. In the clothing trade, women worked
up to 90 hours a week. Female domestic
servants received very small wages, board
and leftover food for working 14-hour
days with only occasional weekends off.
A skilled tradesman earned five times
as much but even his wage was barely
enough for rent, food and other essentials
for a family.
Fighting for womens

political rights
Laws on marriage, divorce, property
and custody of children all favoured
men. Change could come only
through political action. In the late
nineteenthcentury women formed
organisations in each Australian colony
to campaign for the right to vote.
Many hoped that womens votes would
force governments to make better laws
to protect the rights of women and
children.
In New South Wales in 1888
Louisa Lawson (the mother of Henry
Lawson) founded a newspaper called
The Dawn to make people aware of
womens issues. In 1889 she founded
the Dawn Club to campaign for
womens suffrage. In 1891 womens
suffrage societies presented the
Victorian Parliament with a petition
with more than 30000 signatures
supporting votes for women. Vida
182
Goldstein was an equally important

campaigner for womens rights. She
was born in 1869 in Melbourne,
where she worked for slum clearance,
prison reform and votes for women.
In 1899 she became president of the
Womens Suffrage League.
In 1894 South Australian women
gained the vote. New Zealand women
had led the way, gaining voting rights
in 1893. Women won the vote in
Western Australia in 1899, federal
government elections and New South
Wales in 1902, Tasmania in 1903,
Queensland in 1905 and Victoria
in 1908.
Women in
Parliament
Only South Australia and the
Commonwealth had given women
the right to stand for election
to Parliament as well as to vote.
The right of women to stand for
election to Parliament was won in
New South Wales in 1918, Western
Australia in 1920, Tasmania in 1921
and Victoria in 1923. In 1921, with
her election to the lower house of
Western Australia, Edith Cowan
became Australias first female
member of Parliament.
Vida Goldstein supported trade

unions and socialism. During the
First World War (191418) she
campaigned for peace even though
this lost her many supporters. In
1919 she represented Australia
at the Geneva Womens Peace
Conference. She died in 1949. An
electorate in Melbourne is now
named after her.
Source 3

Here, you
man! Wheres that
vote you promised
me? This cartoon
was published
in The Worker, a
Queensland trade
union newspaper, on
17 November 1900.
Source 2

A portrait of Vida Goldstein,
painted in 1944 by Phyl Waterhouse
Vida Goldstein fights on

Vida Goldstein ran two magazines for
womens rights: The Womans Sphere
(190005) and The Woman Voter
(190919). She stood for election to
the Senate on five occasions without
success. However, she received many
votes from men and women, and
her election campaigns increased
awareness of the unfair way women
were treated. In 1903, she was guest
speaker at a womens meeting in the
United States and, from 1911 to
1913, she helped the British womens
suffrage movement. In Britain the
vote was not extended to all adult
women until 1928.
socialism a political system in which
governments control the economy to
ensure greater equality
suffrage the right to vote in elections

concepts
Perspectives and
interpretations
1 Create a timeline of developments

in the struggle for womens political
rights between 1888 and 1921.
4 What does Source 1 say about

discrimination against women?
5 Look at Sources 1 and 2 . Imagine
you are Vida Goldstein and you
have just read a newspaper article
ridiculing your work. Write a letter
to the editor arguing for your views.
Explanation and
communication
2 How were women disadvantaged in
political rights, in families and in the
workforce?
3 How did Louisa Lawson and Vida
Goldstein contribute to the struggle
for equal rights?

6 Use the five questions provided in
the SkillBuilder spread to analyse
the cartoon in Source 3 .
183
6.11 Federation
By 1880, the six British colonies were getting closer
to merging as one nation. For the next 20 years, the
issue of Federation dominated political discussion
between the colonies until, on 1 January 1901, the
Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed.
Source 1

This 1891 newspaper cartoon (with colour added)
summed up the way many people saw the colonies at the time.
The stone walls were more than just custom duties, though. There
were many other factors separating the colonies.
Between 1855 and 1860 all colonies

except Western Australia had their own
governments. However, they governed
independently of each other. For
instance, laws concerning trade and
tariffs, postal services, railway line
widths, internal telegraph systems and
defence forces differed from colony to
colony.
These differences caused many
frustrations, especially for those
conducting business. Mindful of this,
politicians began debating the pros and
cons of having a government for the
whole country that had some common
functions and laws, while allowing certain
powers to remain with the colonies.
Why federate?
National defence
By the 1880s, three security issues worried the colonial
governments in Australia.
1. The French had been interested in the country
from the 1770s, and had a colonial presence in New
Caledonia. This was close enough to the Australian east
coast for French warships to create problems if relations
between Britain and France ever worsened.
2. Germany had established colonial outposts in Northern
New Guinea and Samoa, posing a potential threat to
colonial sea routes.
3. Russias Pacific Fleet was especially a potential threat
after the Crimean War. Fortifications had been built to
protect many Australian ports and harbours.
Common railway gauges
Immigration concerns
Countdown to Federation
There was growing suspicion about the large number of

non-Europeans coming into the country. The experience
of the gold rushes had made many wary of the Chinese.
When South Sea Islanders were brought into Queensland
(as virtual slave labour), many colonists feared this meant
they would lose jobs or have reduced wages. (These forced
immigrants worked for much less than colonist workers.)
This unrest allowed politicians to argue for a national
policy enforcing Australia as a white British outpost.
184
The width of railway lines differed between colonies. This

meant people had to change trains and goods had to be
transferred from one train to another at the borders. Also,
it was argued that a common railway gauge would be vital
in any military crisis.
Reliable communications
As the population grew, the demand for reliable,
coordinated postal and telegraph services strengthened.
Only a national government could guarantee this.
A A Federal Council meets
1886
The Federal Council of Australasia was set up, and a

meeting attended by delegates from all six colonies, and
from New Zealand and Fiji.
The main purpose of the meeting was to agree to ask

Britain to guarantee it would defend the colonies if they
were ever threatened.
BHenry Parkes talks to Tenterfield locals
EFederal Constitutional Convention
Sir Henry Parkes (18151896),

an outspoken and controversial
politician, was a prominent
supporter of Federation.
He was premier of New South

Wales five times.
From this convention (attended by representatives from colonies

chosen by the people), a draft constitution was taken back to
the five colonial governments. The draft plan saw a two-house
federal parliament with an upper house of review that would
represent states equally and protect rights.
In August 1889, en route to

Sydney from Brisbane by train,
he stopped in Tenterfield. He
spoke to a hall full of locals at a
function, challenging them (and
all colonists) to think national.
Delegates re-assembled in Sydney in September (and again

in January 1898 in Melbourne) to consider amendments from
the colonial parliaments. Free trade between states, and the
national management of immigration and defence were key
issues.
On 16 March 1898, the convention agreed on a draft constitution

to be put to the voters of all colonies. (Western Australian and
Queensland parliaments were still to agree at this point.)
1889
do see very clearly that there may come a time and that
... Itime
not very remote, when the Australian colonies may
be brought more into the position of one great and united

people. We should have an
outline of Empire, such as
we could never hope for as
isolated colonies, and our
place would be admitted in
the rank of nations.
189798
FThe referendum
1899
April
1900
to July
Votes were cast. After some revotes and a delayed vote

in Western Australia, the referendum was completed by
July1900. The majority of voters gave their support for a
national government, the Commonwealth of Australia,
to be set up in line with the terms laid out in the draft
constitution.
State (formerly colonial) constitutions were recognised in the

proposed federal constitution; however, federal laws would
overrule any state law where there was a common issue.
Referendum vote on the Commonwealth bill, 18991900
C A national constitution drafted

1891
By the 1890s, it was increasingly apparent to politicians and

businessmen that colonists shared a common language and
values. A national identity was emerging.
Name of colony
New South Wales
Victoria
Tasmania
South Australia
Northern Territory
Queensland
Western Australia
Total
Date
20.6.1899
27.7.1899
29.4.1899
6.5.1899
2.10.1899
31.7.1900
An Australasian Convention was held, attended by leading

politicians from the six colonies and from New Zealand.
The purpose was to draft a national constitution.
The referendum result
The draft for a constitution proposed a federal government

and state governments, free trade between the colonies and a
national defence force. However, due to the 1890s depression
and strikes, the federation issue was put aside.
DThe Corowa Conference

1893
Economic issues were the focus at this conference of

politicians and businessmen.
The issue discussed most fiercely was the import/export
tariffs each colony imposed. People and goods on trains were
searched at borders, as a change of train was required, to
ensure no smuggling was taking place and that appropriate
customs duties were paid.
Delegate Quick from Victoria proposed that colonial
governments ask their voters to elect representatives for a
Federal Constitutional Convention.
Commonwealth referendum
Yes
No
Total
82741
190161
107420
152653
9805
162458
13437
791
14228
65990
17053
83043
38488
44800
422788
30996
19691
161077
69484
64491
583865
A majority of votes were cast for Federation but only 61% of

those who had the right to vote took part. So, in fact, less
than half the colonys voters actually voted for Federation. This
demonstrates that many Australians were confused or uncertain
about its meaning.
G Australia becomes a nation
1900
A group of delegates (one notable politician from each colony)

travelled to London to have the draft constitution passed by the
British Parliament. The British State Secretary responsible for
colonies wanted to make amendments but the delegates stood
firm.

The Australian Constitution was passed by the British

Parliament, with the British monarch, Queen Victoria, giving
it royal assent in September 1900. It set out the rules and
principles for governing Australia and outlined the powers of the
federal parliament and some powers of state parliaments.
185
HFederation

1901
The Governor-General representing Queen Victoria swore in Sir Edmund Barton and eight chosen ministers on 1January 1901.
(They would act as a caretaker government until the first national elections could be held in March 1901.)
After this swearing in, the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed by Sir Edmund Barton in Centennial Park, Sydney.
The Commonwealth of Australia now existed. However, it was still a British Dominion. Australias allegiance to the British monarch
was indicated by the role of the Governor-General, who represented the monarch.
All over Australia on 1 January 1901 there were celebrations. Public buildings were decorated and special arches built over city
thoroughfares. There were parties, dances and sports meetings. In the evening, the action continued with fireworks displays.
Source 2

The badge of the
Australian Federation League of New
South Wales between 1898 and 1901
Source 3

The opening
of the first
Commonwealth
Parliament at
the Exhibition
Building,
Melbourne,
9 May 1901
186
Source 4

Queen Victorias
royal assent for the creation
of the Commonwealth of
Australia in September 1900
Since 1901
Source 5

Federal government and state
governments in Australia today, as described
under the Constitution
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Governor-General
House of
Representatives
Senate
Governor-General
Executive Council
Prime Minister
Cabinet
Ministers
High Court
Federal Courts
Family Court of
Australia
STATE AND TERRITORY GOVERNMENTS

Governor
Legislative Assembly
(House of Assembly in
SA and Tas.)
Legislative Council
(neither Qld nor the ACT
have an upper house)
State responsibilities include:

Health (hospitals) Police services
Tourism Housing State roads
Education (primary and secondary
schools) Aboriginal welfare
Environment protection
Governor
Executive Council
Premier
Chief Minister
Cabinet
Ministers
KEY
Parliament
Executive
Judiciary
Supreme Courts
County or District Courts
Magistrates Courts
Special courts
Tribunals
Federal responsibilities include:

Employment Trade Defence Airports
Immigration Pensions Taxation Shipping
Aboriginal welfare Foreign affairs
Health (Medicare) Education (universities,
colleges, grants to schools)
Australia ceased being a British

Dominion in 1941, and the last
legal ties were severed with Britain
in 1986. But Australia still has the
British monarchs representative,
the Governor-General, giving royal
assent (approval) to all federal laws.
The Australian Constitution can
be changed only by a referendum and
then only if the majority of voters
and the majority of states vote for the
proposed change to the Constitution.
The biggest challenge for
Australians in the future is whether
our country will become a republic,
with a new constitution, flag and bill
of rights.
British Dominion a self-governing
territory belonging to the British Empire
Crimean War war fought between
Britain and its allies and Russia, 185356
Federation movement of colonies to
form a nation
tariff a duty charged on imports
Student workbook
6.7

1 Why was the idea of national unity becoming more
popular among colonists from about the 1880s on? List
four primary concerns.
2 Imagine you are a businessperson in 1893 who is
becoming angry and frustrated by differences between
the colonies. Write a letter home to your family
explaining the problems of a particularly stressful week.
7
8
9
3 Use the information in this spread to construct a timeline

of the key events leading up to Australias Federation.
PERSPECTIVE AND INTERPRETATIONS

4 Use information in this spread to make a for and against
Federation poster. It must list reasons for each case, and
be visually attractive. You may need to carry out extra
research. Set yourself a realistic plan to produce it, and
monitor your progress.

5 Study Source 1 carefully. Explain the posture or actions
of the characters in each state. What do these suggest
about state attitudes in 1891 to Federation?
6 Look closely at Source 2 :
a What was the message of this badge?
b Do you think Federation would really have made all
10
people in Australia feel they were one

people with one destiny?
c Which groups would have had good reasons not to
think so?
Why are Sources 3 and 4 important sources of evidence
about Federation?
Why was Western Australia singled out for special
consideration in Source 4 ?
Look carefully at Source 5 , and answer these
questions.
a List three responsibilities of:
i the federal government
ii state governments today.
b Find an area of responsibility shared across the federal
government and state governments, and explain how
the responsibilities are divided. Why do you think this
is so?
c Why do you think the federal government is
responsible for defence and immigration?
Examine the statistics presented in the referendum
voting table on page 185.
a Which colony had the highest percentage of:
i yes votes
ii no votes?
Can you suggest reasons?
b Explain why these statistics meant that the
referendum proposal was approved.
187
6.12 The early Commonwealth

By 1914 many people regarded the newly formed
Australian nation as a workers paradise. They believed
Australians were fairly equal and Australia was different
from older societies. This view was based on reforms
that took place between 1904 and 1912 and on
Australian workers living standards. But was Australia
really so egalitarian?
Working-class living conditions

In 1901 Australias population of less than 4 million was
mostly concentrated in New South Wales and Victoria.
Thirty-sixper cent of the New South Wales population
lived in Sydney and forty-oneper cent of Victorias
population lived in Melbourne. In working-class innercity suburbs many people lived in rows of cramped
slums near factories. Semi-skilled and unskilled workers
rarely earned enough to buy houses, so most paid rent all
Source 2

188
Slum housing in Gloucester Street, Sydney, in 1900
Source 1

From Irene Moores, Rabbit-O, Bottle-O, Pennies
from Heaven: Hugo Street, 1909, Sydney Morning Herald,
23January 1982
Forty cramped terraces ranged on each side ... their

balconies overhanging the absurdly narrow footpaths ...
Each day began with the sloshing of the houses sills with
buckets of water. This cleansed away the sooty factory
outfall ... A good meal could be made with the addition
of waste vegetables outsize cabbage leaves and such,
salvaged from the markets and brought home in billycarts ...
The shopkeepers adjusted to the sale of commodities in
the smallest amounts. Deftly-folded paper cones held the
[small] weightings of sugar, salt, flour, rice, sago and the
quarter-pound package of tea, butter, cheese and cold
meats comprising one meal at a time ...
At the end of the day a sickly street lamp lit the
stage for each nights unpredictable drama. Invariably,
arranged fights took place in the lanes.
Source 3

Protesting workers in Albert Square,
Brisbane, during the 1912 general strike.
The strike lasted 18 days. It began when the
Tramways Company refused to permit workers to
wear their union badges.
their lives for cramped dwellings that were overcrowded

and unhealthy. In contrast, wealthier suburbs had large
houses with spacious grounds. There was an equally wide
disparity in living standards in the bush.
Despite such inequalities, skilled workers enjoyed
better pay and conditions than workers in Britain, Europe
or America. Many less skilled employees worked long
hours for low pay but Australia led the world in working
conditions, industrial relations and social welfare.
A growing economy
Reforms were possible because this was a time of
economic growth. Australia was a big exporter of
primary products such as wheat, wool and frozen meat.
Manufacturing was a small part of the economy except
in Victoria and New South Wales, where the factory
workforce grew from 132000 to 239000 between 1901
and 1913. This contributed to the growth of cities. But
Australian manufacturing could not compete with cheaper
imported goods and depended on government tariffs for
protection against foreign competition.
Industrial and welfare reforms

After Federation, the Australian Labor Party (ALP)
used its influence in Federal Parliament to bring about
industrial and welfare reforms. Such reforms included:

the creation of the Commonwealth Court of
Conciliation and Arbitration in 1904 to solve disputes
between workers and employers
the establishment in 1907 of the principle of a basic
wage or minimum wage, to which any worker should
be entitled (see Did you know? below). Australian
wages were based on this principle for the next 60 years.
the introduction of Commonwealth old age and invalid
pensions in 1908
the payment of compensation for federal government
employees injured at work (from 1912)
The idea of the basic wage came about when Justice

Higgins of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and
Arbitration had to determine whether H. V. McKays
Sunshine Harvester Company was paying a fair wage and
was therefore entitled to be protected by tariffs. Higgins
decided that a fair minimum wage would provide for
the normal needs of the average employee regarded as
a human being living in a civilised community. Higgins
determined that this meant a wage of 7 shillings a day for
an unskilled worker. A skilled worker had to be paid more.
189
the Maternity Allowances Act 1912,

or Baby Bonus, which provided
a payment roughly equal to two
weeks pay to a mother on the birth
of her child to make sure she could
afford proper medical attention.
However, workers still suffered
disadvantages and there were many
industrial disputes. Rising prices
resulted in several big strikes. In some
cases the unions won their demands,
but the experiences of these years left
many workers disillusioned.
Source 5

Surf bathing at Manly beach, Sydney, c. 1905
Political parties
and reforms
The ALP was the main influence
behind these reforms. The two nonLabor parties were the Protectionists
and the Free Traders (who changed
their name to Anti-Socialists in
1906). The Protectionists provided
Australias first two prime ministers,
Edmund Barton and Andrew Deakin.
These parties differed over the issue
of free trade versus protection. Until
1908 the Protectionists supported
the ALP to achieve social reforms and
Labor supported the Protectionists
Source 4

From Albert Metin, a
Frenchman who visited Australia at
the turn of the century
The Australian workman has

become a Gentleman ... He
changes out of his working clothes
at the end of the day, he lodges
well, he behaves like a member of
decent society. If he has to go to a
meeting he will be freshly shaved,
neatly dressed and conscious of his
appearance ... Many keen Labour
men say grace at every meal ...
Everyone can read and libraries are
plentiful ... Cricket, football, sports
of all kinds have their exponents
... I was in Melbourne and Sydney
at the time of one test [cricket]
series and the crowds waiting for
the results were nearly as large
as those waiting for the result of
a federation referendum which
was being decided at the same
moment.
190
when they wanted to increase tariffs

on imported goods. Both Labor and
the Protectionists linked protection of
Australian manufacturing employers
to protection of Australian workers.
This cooperation ended in 1909
when the Anti-Socialists combined
with the Protectionists to form
the Liberal Party. The new party
opposed further social reform.
Reforms carried out between 1910
and 1913 were the work of a federal
Labor government.
Lifestyles and leisure

There were enormous differences
between the early 1900s and the way
we live today. Most working-class
people had little time or money for
recreation, and there were few laboursaving devices for housework. The
main recreation of many men was
drinking in hotels. More respectable
forms of entertainment included
family picnics, short train and ferry
trips, dancing, sing-songs around the
piano and sporting events, especially
cricket and football.
Some technological changes were
starting to affect Australians lives.
People with enough money could
send telegrams, have gas lights in their
homes, travel by steamship and even
ride in motor cars. Air travel was only

just beginning, with experiments in
1903. The film industry was also in its
infancy but the worlds first feature film,
The Story of the Kelly Gang, was made
in Australia in 1906 (see Source 6 ).
Federal laws and

white Australia
One of the first laws passed by
the federal government was the
Immigration Restriction Act of 1901.
It was designed to prevent nonEuropean migrants from coming to
Australia. Under this law, anyone
the government wanted to keep out
could be given a dictation test in
any language. No matter how many
languages an intending migrant knew,
officials could always give the test in
another language the person did not
know.
The Pacific Islanders Labourers Act
was also passed in 1901. It allowed
the Commonwealth Government to
deport Pacific Islanders. Only those
who had lived in Australia since
1879 and those born in Australia
were allowed to stay. About 48000
Islanders had been brought to
Australia to work on sugar plantations
in the late nineteenthcentury. At the
end of 1909 only 1654 remained.
Fear of Asia
Most Australians feared Asias vast population and closeness
to Australia. Australias small numbers and isolation from its
British motherland fuelled these fears. World events such
as the Russo-Japanese War of 190405 added to these fears.
During this conflict Japan defeated Russia. To many

white Australians this defeat of a white nation by Asians was
unthinkable, even though Japan was Britains ally.
Some wondered whether Britain could be trusted, but
they also felt they needed Britains protection.
Source 6

A 1910 poster for the worlds first
feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang

1 Complete the following sentences by filling in the
blanks.
a Around the early twentiethcentury many Australian
workers lived in _____________, near _________.
b Most workers paid rent all of their lives because they
were too _____ to _____.
c Upper-class suburbs usually had ______ houses
with __________________.
2 How was protection meant to help Australian
manufacturing?
3 Explain how party politics changed in 1909.
4 How was the dictation test used to discriminate
against non-European migrants?
5 Why were Australians so fearful of Asia?

6 Make a timeline of social reforms of this period.

7 Read Source 1 .
a Explain why people began the day by sloshing
their window sills.
b What do you think billy-carts were and how were
they made?
c Why do you think people bought food in very small
amounts?
d What was done for entertainment at night?
8 How does Source 2 provide supporting evidence for
Source 1 ?
9 What does Source 3 suggest about the influence of
trade unionism in this period?
10 Using Sources 4, 5 and 6 as your evidence, write a
report on leisure and recreation in the first decade of
the twentiethcentury.

11 Design a poster that people could have made to
protest about their living conditions.
12 Using the guidelines in spread 4.10, the SkillBuilder on
planning a history essay, prepare a plan for a sevenparagraph essay answering the following question:
Although the early Australian Commonwealth led the
world in industrial and welfare reforms, it was far from
deserving to be called a workers paradise. Discuss this
statement, indicating whether you agree or disagree.
In your plan, remember that your first paragraph
will state your viewpoint and outline points that will
support your argument.
deport to forcibly remove someone from a country
191

investigated changes that took
place in Australia between the
1850s and the early years of
the twentiethcentury. We have
studied rebellion against social
conditions and authority, from
the Eureka Stockade to the
strikes of the 1890s. We have
looked at living and working
conditions. We have also studied
the development of a sense
of national identity, Australian
attitudes to other races and the
outside world, Federation, and
the social and political character
of the new Australian nation.
Source 1

This handkerchief was made as a souvenir of Australian Federation. Lord Hopetoun
came from Britain to be Australias first Governor-General. The Duke and Duchess of York came from
Britain to represent Queen Victoria at the opening of the first Commonwealth Parliament in 1901.
Quick quiz
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
192
How was Ned Kelly captured?

In what year did Melbournes population reach half a million?
What is a trade union?
Which trade union was the first to win an eight-hour working day?
Why did trade unionists support colonial Labour parties from the
1890s?
Name two Australian writers who contributed to a sense of national
identity.
Which newspaper wanted Australia to become a republic in the
1880s?
Who was Vida Goldstein?
Which Australian colony led the way in womens voting rights?
What was Federation?
How did Federation change Australia?
What was the basic wage?
Why was introduction of the basic wage a significant reform?
Name two other reforms that contributed to the idea of Australia as a
workers paradise?
Name Australias two main political parties from 1909.

1 What is the main message of Source 1 ?
2 Why does this source feature pictures
of Queen Victoria and four English
aristocrats?
3 What conclusions can we draw from this
source about the way most Australians
saw Australias relationship with Britain
and its empire?
4 What is happening in Source 2 ?
5 What reasons would the people in
Source 2 have for celebrating Australian
Federation?
6 How would they have felt about the
Immigration Restriction Act of 1901?
7 In 1901 most Australians would not
have regarded the people in Source 2
as Australian. Why did they have such
attitudes?
Student workbook
6.8, 6.9, 6.10
Source 2

Chinese celebrating Australian
Federation in Melbourne in 1901
1 Form small groups to visit the website of the Australian

War Memorial. Each group should research one of the
following conflicts:
a the Sudan conflict (North Africa, 1885)
b the Boer War (South Africa, 18991902)
c the Boxer Rebellion (China, 1900).
Report to the class on:
why Britain was involved in that conflict
how and why Australians took part in it
criticisms that were made of Australias involvement.
Accompany your report with a data show presentation
illustrating the nature of the conflict and Australias
role.

questions.
the 1870s and 1913?
conditions?
Australian nation?
Tick the box for each of these statements that you think best reflects your learning.
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly disagree
I was able to use photographic evidence to draw conclusions

about this period.
I made connections between this era and modern Australia.
I have a better understanding of how to analyse a cartoon.
I understand why people have different perspectives on
issues and events.
Working with sources increased my understanding of
significant changes in Australian society.
193
eBook plus
Using ICT
Your task
Eureka an interview
Scenario
Time Travellers is a well-known radio series that
features fictional but historically credible interviews
between real historical figures and a time-travelling
journalist named Gus. The Royal Australian Historical
Society wants you, a respected historian, to construct
this kind of historically accurate interview for part of a
program about the Eureka Stockade.
Your introductory video lesson includes a

visit to Sovereign Hill a re-creation of a
goldmining area from the 1850s. It also
includes an explanation of the conditions
faced by the prospectors who migrated to
these areas in search of gold.
194
Write and record an imaginary radio interview, lasting

3 to 4 minutes, with one of the key figures involved
in the Eureka Stockade. Your primary responsibility
is to ensure the interview is historically accurate
in terms of facts, dates and attitudes.
Your potential interview subjects are:
Peter Lalor
George Black (another of the Eureka Stockade
ringleaders)
Peter Martin (who accompanied James Scobie on
the night of Scobies death)
Lieutenant-Governor Sir Charles Hotham
James Bentley (owner of the Eureka Hotel).
You could also interview an invented
character who was present at the Eureka
Stockade during the rebellion. For
example, you might be interviewing
an officer in charge of arresting
the ringleaders. Check with your
teacher to see if your invented
character is acceptable.
Process
Open the ProjectsPLUS application for this chapter
in your eBookPLUS and watch the introductory video
lesson. You should complete this project in pairs.
One member should click the Start Project button
and set up the project, then invite his or her partner
to join the project group.
Navigate to the research forum where your potential
interview subjects have been pre-loaded as topics
to provide a framework for your research. Enter key
information about each individuals role in the Eureka
Stockade.
When your research is complete, select a character
on which to centre your groups interview. You may
need to do further research on this character.
Navigate to your Media Centre and download
the Character chart template. Completing this
document will help you explore your character
and plan their responses.
When you have fleshed out your character,

download and read the
Interview planner, which
will help you prepare your
interview and frame effective
journalistic questions. It also
includes sections on what
makes something newsworthy?
and writing dialogue that
sounds real. Remember your
audience and purpose to create
a simulated radio interview so that the
listener feels like the events are current and
newsworthy. You are a journalist named Gus and
your interview is being conducted in 1854 or very
early in 1855.

Suggested software
ProjectsPLUS
Microsoft Word
software
Media Centre
images of the four charcters for your blog
weblinks to research sites and blogging sites
DIGITAL
From Colonies to
Nationhood timeline
Use this fun interactivity to create a visual timeline
of key events in Australias development as a
nation from the 1850s until 1901.
INVESTIGATOR: THE KELLY

GANG HEROES OR THIEVES?
Download this interactive learning object to
investigate the infamous Kelly Gang. How did the
hardened criminal Ned Kelly become a national
icon? This learning object will provide you with all
the information you need and help you create a
summary report on your findings.
SEARCHLIGHT ID: LO-0307 (PC ONLY)
Write the first full draft of your interview (it should

be about 3 or 4 minutes longs or between 2 and
3 double-spaced typed pages). Your teacher may
allow you some time to peer-edit someone elses
interview. It is a good idea to peer-edit an interview
with a different character from yours. Re-draft your
interview, based on any constructive feedback you
receive.
Rehearse and record your interview.
Print your research report from ProjectsPLUS and
hand it in to your teacher with a copy of your audio
file and interview transcript.
195
CHAPTER
Asia and the world:

China (1750 1918)
Links to our times
Today China has the worlds second
largest economy and is Australias most
important trading partner. Australia
exports raw materials such as iron
ore and wool to China, and imports
clothing, computers, telecommunications
equipment and many other goods.
Chinas trade with foreign countries began
to flourish in the nineteenth century,
but it was not always as amicable and
organised as it is today. Foreign ignorance
of Chinas Confucian-based culture, and
Chinas long isolation from the rest of the
world, resulted in more than a century of
strained international relations.
The Qing dynasty, 1644 1911

For two thousand years, up to 1911,
China was a unified empire governed
by successive generations of ruling
dynasties. The Qing dynasty, also
called the Manchu dynasty, was
established after the fall of the Ming
dynasty in 1644. The Qing was the last
imperial dynasty to rule China. When it
collapsed in 1911 after a series
of revolutions, more than
two thousand years of
imperial rule came to
an end.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard,
accompanied by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao,
receiving a guard of honour during an official visit
to China. Chinas relations with the West have not
always been as amicable as they are today.

key events in China from
1750 to 1918 with the interactive
timeline application in your
eBookPLUS.
eBook plus
A timeline of key
events in China,
17501918
CE
1790
1800
1792
Britain sends Sir
George Macartney to
China in an attempt to
encourage diplomatic
relations.
1810
1820
1830
1838
The First Opium War
begins.
184752
Natural disasters
strike China, placing
great strain on
the government.
1861
The new Empress
Dowager Cixi comes
to power.
1840
1850
1860
1870
1842
The First Opium War
ends with the signing
of the Treaty of Nanjing.
1850
The Taiping Rebellion
begins.
Conflict with the West

The period of Qing rule coincided with Europes
expansion of trade and acquisition of colonies. The
Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French and British were
acquiring territory in the Americas, Africa and Asia.
At first the Qing emperors, suspicious of European
traders, rebuffed foreign government delegations. In
the eighteenth century the southern Chinese port of
Guangzhou (Canton) was opened to limited foreign
trade, and Western influence began to spread among
the people of China. As the Qing dynasty attempted to
restrict foreign access, conflict with foreign countries
became inevitable.
1856
The Second Opium War
(Arrow War) begins.
1860
The Second Opium War
(Arrow War) ends.
1864
is finally subdued.

1 How did military technology and new ideas
contribute to conflict and change in China?
2 What was the significance of European imperialism
in nineteenth-century China?
1880
3 What were the main political, economic and social

effects of warfare on the Qing dynasty?
1890
18945
Sino-Japanese War
18991901
Boxer Rebellion
1911
Revolutions erupt
across much of China.
1900
1910
1920
1898
The Hundred Days of
Reform attempts to
introduce reforms.
1908
The Dowager Empress
Cixi dies.
1 For what reasons might countries change their

systems of government?
2 Why do you think people leave one country to live in
another?
1912
Pu Yi, the last Chinese
emperor, abdicates.
Chapter 7: Asia and the world: China (17501918)
197
7.1C olonisation, conflict and change in China (17501918)

During the period when China opened up to foreign
influence, traders engaged in commercial activity and
international diplomats negotiated treaties. As a result,
this period is richly documented in both primary and
secondary sources. The many written sources give
us the opportunity to study many aspects of Chinese
society during this vibrant age. The development
of photography during the nineteenth century also
provided a new medium through which to study many of
the key events.
so they provide a range of perspectives of the same event.

The Chinese belief in the mandate of heaven imposed a
limitation on the dynastic histories, however. A dynasty
collapsed, it was believed, because the gods were displeased
with the emperor. So the histories sometimes examined
the various reasons for the downfall of the previous
dynasty. This provided the current emperor with a kind
of moral compass, a guide to follow to avoid the fate of
earlier emperors. Despite this limitation, the dynastic
histories are very valuable documents.
Chinese sources
Information about China spread to the world beyond its

borders mostly by way of Western visitors, who tended
to see in China a reflection of more familiar European
empires. The emperor was seen as a king who ruled over a
nation of loyal subjects. The writings of Jesuit missionaries
such as Francis Xavier in the sixteenthcentury were
important in influencing the attitude of foreigners towards
China. But as relations between China and the West
deteriorated in the nineteenthcentury, the portrayal of
the Chinese became more unfavourable. The view of the
emperor changed from that of a noble king to that of a
power-hungry despot. Despite these changing views, there
are still many documents from the time that are useful to
historians. These include letters, diary entries and copies
of the treaties that were signed.
Traditional Chinese society placed great importance on

the study of history, in the belief that knowledge of the
past influenced present behaviour. As a result, historians
of China are able to draw on a diverse range of sources.
Foremost of these are the dynastic histories, written
by educated scholars to record the events of preceding
dynasties. Many different scholars worked on the histories,
Source 1

This image shows a page from the Han Dynastic
History, a classical Chinese history text completed in 111 CE.
Foreign sources
Source 2

This painting from 1742 shows a romanticised view of China
that was common in Europe in the eighteenthcentury. Compare it with
the portrayal of China in Source 3 in spread7.4.
198
Source 3

A picture tells a thousand words.
This photograph of Canton harbour in the mid
nineteenthcentury is more evocative than
most written descriptions could be.
Photographs
The invention of photography in
the nineteenthcentury provided a
completely new medium through
which to interpret historical events.
It gives an opportunity to observe,
almost unfiltered, the events being
studied. The Second Opium War was
one of the first wars to be recorded
photographically. Much can be
learned from photographs that other

sources cannot reveal. Even everyday
scenes take on a new dimension when
seen in a photograph. A common
error, however, is to assume that
photographs are necessarily reliable
historical sources because they show
real events. It is important to keep
in mind that behind every camera is
a photographer with his or her own
intentions and perspectives.
Source 4

This photograph shows the aftermath of a battle
in 1860 during the Second Opium War. Before photography,
scenes like this could only be imagined by most people.
Student workbook
7.2

1 Give three reasons why the dynastic histories, like that
shown in Source 1 are useful to historians.
2 How and why did foreign portrayals of China change in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?
3 In what ways could photographs like those shown in
Sources 3 and 4 be unreliable?
4 What can photographs reveal that other sources cannot?
5 It is often said that photographs do not lie. Is this
actually true? Discuss in groups and explain your
thoughts to the class.
6 Why might photographs be as difficult to rely on as
other historical sources?
despot a ruler with almost unlimited power who uses it

unfairly or cruelly
mandate of heaven the idea that heaven blessed the rule of a
just emperor but could rescind that blessing if the emperor ruled
unjustly
199
7.2 Qing China

Until the seventeenth century China was largely
unknown to the European world. There had been
sporadic trade with other countries and regions, and
Chinese explorers had undertaken voyages throughout
the region but, outside China, little was known of
Chinese beliefs, cities and society. Yet within its borders
China was a diverse country with a very large population
and a complex culture.
Source 2

This
illustration shows
the Kangxi emperor,
the fourth emperor
of the Qing dynasty.
It is from a silk
scroll that today
hangs in the Palace
Museum, Beiijing.
Isolation
One reason that China remained isolated was its
geographic location. To the east lay the vast Pacific Ocean;
to the south lay mountain ranges and dense jungles; in
the north was the desolate Gobi Desert; and to the west
towered the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau the
roof of the world. In addition, the territorial extent of
the Qing dynastys rule played an important part. Its
borders stretched further than at any other time in Chinas
history. Its vast size gave it access to a wide variety of
natural resources and arable land. It did not need to look
elsewhere for materials or goods because it could support
its growing population on its own. Its unique location
and self-sufficiency allowed Chinese culture to develop in
isolation from outside pressures and influences, and also
helped nurture a feeling of superiority over foreigners.
Confucianism
At the core of Chinas traditional beliefs was Confucianism.
The philosopher Confucius (551479 BCE) came from a
Source 1

This map illustrates the geographical extent of the Qing Dynasty.
Gobi Deser t
QING DYNASTY
T i b etan Plateau
PAC I F I C
OCEAN
0
500 1000 1500

kilometres
200
noble but poor family. His father

died when he was young and
Confucius struggled to acquire
an education. As he grew older
he developed strong beliefs about
society. He taught that the family
was the basic building block of
society and that it was the duty of
the ruler to behave like a father to his
people. He believed that each person
should adopt and live by certain
moral values. People should respect
and obey their parents, and rulers
should be chosen because of their
wisdom, rather than their wealth.
Confucius taught the five virtues:
humanity, honesty, knowledge,
integrity and manners. With its
focus on harmonious relationships,
Confucianism disdained military

pursuits and war, believing they were
not needed when Confucian values
were in balance.
Over time Confucian values
began to become dominant in
China, supplanting Daoism as the
main belief system by the second
century BCE. Confucian beliefs
dominated Chinese society from
the second century CE and were
incorporated into the way both the
family and the state were run. With
such a rigid philosophical system in
place rebellion or discontent seemed
unimaginable, yet there were many
rebellions, uprisings and dynastic
changes over the centuries.
Source 3

The flag of the Qing dynasty
rigorous examination process to

ensure the most talented candidates
were chosen. Specific knowledge of
the area they were assigned to was
not always deemed to be necessary,
however. There was no foreign office
because foreigners were considered
barbarians with whom contact should
be restricted.
In 1644 the last imperial dynasty
to rule China, the Qing (also known
as the Manchu) dynasty, came to
power. Under the Qing the country
was divided into 18 provinces,
each ruled by a governor. The
provinces, in turn, were divided into
districts. At district level a district
magistrate governed a group of local
neighbourhoods, each made up of
roughly one thousand homes. It was
expected that households would
report local crimes, as a whole
neighbourhood could be severely
punished if such crimes were not
reported. Similarly, an entire
village could be held responsible
for the lawlessness of a few. This
climate of fear helped to dissuade
would-be rebels.
The artful Qing

Government
In traditional Chinese society the
emperor ruled with the mandate
of heaven. This meant his rule was
legitimate so long as the gods judged
his actions to be in harmony with
the natural order of the universe. He
had to rule with fairness and wisdom
or risk a loss of his mandate. Famine
caused by crop failure due to flood
or drought might indicate a loss of
mandate, justifying the emperors
overthrow.
Helping the emperor maintain
power were the Grand Council, made
up of the nobility and high-ranking
bureaucrats, and the six Boards of
Civil Office that controlled various
aspects of daily life revenue,
punishment, war, work, ceremonies
and civil affairs. Holders of these
offices were selected through a
During the reign of the Qing dynasty,

art, architecture and literature became
more diverse than under previous

dynasties. New materials such as
glass and enamel were now used in
artworks, but at the same time many
craftsmen turned to very old themes
and shapes for their art. Painters of
the time learned new techniques
that Jesuits had developed in
Europe during the Renaissance. The
technique of perspective and the use
of oil-based paints became common
during the Qing dynasty.
Economy
In 1750 Chinas economy was strong.
There had been a period of conflict
after the overthrow of the previous
Ming dynasty, but as the Qing gained
power over all of China, peace was
restored. The era of peace, combined
with the introduction of a range
of new foreign food crops, meant
the population grew. The export of
silk, tea and manufactured goods to
Europe gave rise to a time of general
prosperity. Although trade with
foreign powers was regarded with
suspicion, within China people were
encouraged to participate in local
markets. Until the mid nineteenth
century, the Qing economy could be
described as active and growing. But
this was to change dramatically.
Student workbook
7.1

1 In what way did geography influence the isolation of China?
2 Explain the basic ideas of Confucianism in your own words.
3 What was the mandate of heaven, and how might an emperor lose this
mandate?
4 Draw a diagram illustrating the division of power in the traditional imperial
system.
5 What role did fear play in keeping the population obedient?

6 Examine the clothing of the emperor in Source 2 . What might this reveal
about Chinese society at the time?
7 Look at Source 3 . Why do you think a dragon was chosen for the flag of the
Qing dynasty?
8 As can be seen in Source 1 , the Qing dynasty covered a vast area. What
challenges do you think would face the ruler of such a large empire?

9 Use the internet to research the significance of the colour yellow in
traditional China.
201
7.3 Living under the emperor

You have already learned many
things about China under the Qing
dynasty. For example, it was strongly
influenced by Confucianism; the
emperor ruled with the mandate
of heaven; and the country was
divided into provinces and districts.
But what did this actually mean for
the men, women and children who
lived their lives under the emperor?
Source 2

A bride on her way to her wedding in the earliest twentieth
century. The basket was used to obscure the brides face in the same way
that a veil is used in Western weddings. It was customary that the brides
face would not be seen until she was in her new husbands home.
Women in traditional
China
Confucianism holds that the family
is the basic building block of society.
Subsequently, women held a largely
domestic role in traditional Chinese
society and were considered inferior
and subordinate to men. Such was
the status of women in China that in
popular traditional literature a female
character might even say that in a
previous life she was a man but had
been reborn a woman to punish her
for sins committed in that life.
The ideal life of a woman in China
was seen in terms of the three
Source 1

A 1911
photograph of a woman
reveals the effects of
years of foot binding, in
which her feet would
have been bound
and sometimes
crushed or
broken, to
form the
shape
of a lily.
202
subordinations; firstly to her father

when growing up, secondly to her
husband and lastly to her eldest son
after her husbands death.
Marriage in China was less a
union between a man and a woman,
and more like a union between two
families. Therefore, it was organised
by the parents of those being married.
Their domestic role meant that
women were never the head of the
household in China; however, a
womans important role in the house
was seen as compensation for her
exclusion from public affairs.
The subservient status of women
in traditional Chinese society was
also reflected in the practice of
foot binding. Its origins remain
unclear but it is thought that
the practice was begun to
imitate the appearance of
a favourite concubine of a
ninth-century emperor. In any
case, foot binding spread from
the upper classes and was widely
practised across China.
In spite of these disadvantages
some women made their mark on
traditional China. These women
included scholars and poets, but
also leaders. The Dowager Empress

Cixi ruled China when her very
young son inherited the throne in
1861. She eventually ruled on her
own until 1908.
Source 3

Chinese peasants of the Qing dynasty.
This print dates from around 1830.
Source 4

A photograph of a
Chinese man with his children, taken
in the mid nineteenth century
Throughout the tumultuous

times of the nineteenth century, the
demand for womens rights became
a powerful factor for unrest. Large
numbers of women fought during
the Taiping Rebellion in the 1850s
(see spread 7.5), and at the turn
of the twentieth century the Boxer
Rebellion (see spread 7.7) saw groups
of women called the Red Lanterns
support the cause of the Boxers. At
times, the women even fought. A
song from the time celebrated their
involvement in the rebellion with
the line The Red Lanterns and the
Boxers are brothers and sisters in
revolt; with one heart they fight the
foreign officials.
Men in traditional China

the four occupations
Social organisation in imperial
China was similar in some ways to
Europes feudal system. All classes
concubine a woman who lives with
a man she is not married to and has a
lower social rank than his wife
subordinate having a lower or less
important position
were subservient to the emperor. The

hierarchical class structure categorised
the population into the four
occupations. In order of importance,
these were:
Shi aristocrats, philosophers
and government
administrators
Nong farmers; considered
important because they
grew the food that fed the
nation
Gong artists and craftsmen;
also valued because they
produced goods essential to
society
Shang merchants; placed at the
lowest recognised level
because they did not
produce anything but
rather profited from others
work.
The four occupations did not
formally recognise many other groups
in society. These included soldiers,
priests and other religious clergy,
domestic servants, and any labourers
other than those who worked for
farmers or artists.
Prior to the mid nineteenth

century, the four occupations would
be almost exclusively occupied by
men.
Children
In China, sons were much more
highly valued by their family than
daughters. This was because when
they married, a son would stay
in the family and contribute to
its success, but a daughter would
not. During times of hardship or
famine, a boys health and wellbeing
would be put ahead of that of a girl.
Subsequently, many more girls died
during harsh times than boys.
At a young age children were
schooled in the Confucian virtues
of humanity, honesty, knowledge,
integrity and manners. Upon
reaching about five years of age,
peasant boys began helping in the
fields and girls began taking part
in household chores. For those of
higher social standing education
continued, although learning was
strictly in line with Confucian
ideals.
Student workbook
7.2

1 Why were male children preferred to female children in traditional China?
2 Explain the impact that favouring the wellbeing of boys over girls would have
on Chinese society.
3 Why were merchants considered to belong to a low social class in Chinese
society?
4 How did upbringing differ for boys of the peasant classes compared with those
of higher social standing?

5 Read the line from the Boxer song celebrating the role of the Red Lantern
women. Explain how this reflects the changing role of women in China.
6 Explain how Source 1 reflects the social standing of women in traditional
China.
7 Compare the clothes of the Kangxi emperor shown in the previous spread
with those of the peasants in Source 3 in this spread. What information does
this provide about traditional Chinese society?
8 Explain how photographs like those in Sources 1, 2 and 4 provide information
to historians in a way that paintings or written sources cannot.

9 Use your library and the internet to select a range of appropriate sources to
further research the question, How did Confucianism affect the lives of men,
women and children in Qing China?
203
7.4 Arrival of the foreigners

Foreign influence and interference, beginning in
the eighteenth century, had an enduring effect
on China. It played a major part in the eventual
downfall of the dynastic system and helped
bring about the beginning of a new era in
Chinese history. It also brought great
suffering to a large part of the population,
especially through the forced opium trade
and the rebellions that arose against
foreign influence in China.
Source 1

An archer from one
of the emperors
Banner Armies
Attitudes to foreigners
The combination of Chinas self-sufficiency and the
central role played by the rigid ideals of Confucianism
generated a feeling of disdain towards foreigners. The
Qing dynasty believed that China was at the centre of
the world and that foreigners could offer nothing
of value. Charged with defending the land
against foreign interference were the
Banner Armies, the framework for
the Qings military organisation.
The Banner Armies defended
the empire against foreign
intervention and helped
the emperor crush internal
rebellion.
The first Westerners

The Ming dynasty, which
preceded the Qing, was
equally scornful of foreigners.
Until the sixteenthcentury
the only foreigners to venture to
China were merchant adventurers
who followed the famous Marco
Polo or missionaries hoping to spread
Christianity. Small in number, they were
regarded as posing no threat; indeed, they were
usually looked on merely as curiosities. But in 1514
an interesting convergence occurred. The Portuguese,
who had discovered the sea route to the Spice Islands
of the East Indies, were regularly trading in South-East
Asia for the valuable spices found there. At the same
time Chinese merchants were travelling south through the
same region to trade silk, porcelain and other items and
often used the same harbours as the Portuguese. Impressed
with what they saw, and keen to establish trading ties with
the Chinese, the enterprising Portuguese followed the
junks back to China.
Initially their approaches were rebuffed, but as relations
improved the Portuguese were permitted to establish a
trading post south of the city of Guangzhou (Canton)
that became known as Macao. This system of opening a
limited number of ports to foreign trade became known as
the Canton System. Foreigners continued to be regarded
as barbarians, but the Portuguese were tolerated largely
because they were prepared to pay tribute to the emperor,
who saw this as an acknowledgement of their inferiority.
204
Source 2

A sixteenth-century Chinese junk
looked similar to this.

China in the nineteenth century
pp. 1567
Source 3

A caricature of Lord Macartneys
visit to China in 1792, published in Britain
the same year. The emperor is portrayed as
cunning while Macartney, it is suggested,
maintains his composure.
205
Source 4

From the letter Emperor Qian Long of China sent to
George III in 1793
As your Ambassador can see for himself, we possess all

things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious,
and have no use for your countrys manufactures.
Source 5

An excerpt from Lord Macartneys journal of his
mission to China
...such exquisite workmanship, and in such profusion,

that our presents must shrink from the comparison and
hide their diminished heads.
Source 6

A naval battle during the First Opium War, at Ansons Bay,
7 January 1841. On the left is the British East India Company steam
ship Nemesis. The longboats are also British, while the ships in the
background are Chinese war junks.
206
Opium trade
Once the Portuguese had established trading posts in
China, other rival European powers wanted to do the
same. The Spanish, Dutch and British also wanted to
trade in silk, porcelain, tea and other goods, but their
efforts were generally seen by the Chinese as little more
than a nuisance. By the late 1700s the British had
established themselves as the key foreign trader in China.
Their base in India, as well as the popularity of tea in
Britain, meant they had both the market and the ships
needed to maintain busy trade routes.
The Chinese had traditionally severely restricted and
regulated foreign trade and travel in China. The British,
determined to expand operations in China, resented these
rules. For example, foreign trade was restricted to the city

of Guangzhou between October and May. Merchants were
also forced to pay various taxes and tariffs that appeared to
change without notice and often seemed excessive.
In an effort to force a diplomatic breakthrough,
in 1792 the British sent an ambassador, Sir George
Macartney, to Beijing (see Source 3 ). The mission was
ultimately unsuccessful. Initially this was explained by
Macartneys insulting refusal to kowtow in the presence
of the emperor. A broader explanation points to the
incompatibility between the world views held by the
British and the Chinese. The Chinese were an inwardlooking nation, content with minimal trade, while the
British were determined to expand to establish British
traditions around the world. Subsequently the emperor
sent a letter to Englands George III in which he pointed
out that China already had everything it needed and saw
no value in or use for the items Britain wanted to trade
(see Source 4 ).
The Chinese saw Macartneys failed mission as
providing further proof of their superiority over foreigners.
For the British, it merely signalled a small delay in their
plans.
The First Opium War

In the early 1800s the British increased their trade
and, despite an import ban on opium, they began to
smuggle large amounts of it into China. Corruption
was widespread and Chinese officials were easily bribed,
making the trade easy. As more of the population became
addicted, the illicit trade grew. The social and economic
impact of the opium trade forced the emperor to act.
In 1838 the British trading post at Guangzhou was
besieged to force a surrender of the opium stocks, which
were then destroyed. Despite this apparent success for the
Chinese, tensions with the British remained high. When
a Chinese man named Lin Weixi was killed in Kowloon
by a British sailor and the culprit could not be found, the
Chinese demanded that someone anyone should
be handed over to the authorities for punishment. This
was not unusual in China, where the community was
held responsible for its lawbreakers, but to the British
it was unthinkable, and they refused. The Chinese then
confronted the British fleet with a fleet of war junks and
again demanded the handover. The British again refused
and shots were exchanged, signalling the start of the First
Opium War.
Militarily, the Chinese were technologically outclassed
by the British forces. Their ships were inferior to the
British navys, and Chinas soldiers were only a part-time
force armed mainly with bows and arrows and knives,
whereas the standing British army was made up of
well-trained troops armed with modern muskets. The war
ended in 1842 with the signing of the infamous Treaty of
Nanjing. Under the terms of the treaty the Chinese were

forced to open a number of ports to British trading ships,
Hong Kong was ceded to the British (it remained a British
colony until 1997), and China was forced to pay several
million silver dollars to the British as compensation for
the opium destroyed at the beginning of the war and for
the cost of the war to the British. The treaty was the first
of a number of what the Chinese called unequal treaties
because the British, for their part, faced no obligations
under the terms.
The Sino-Japanese War

Importantly, it was not only European powers that were
looking to expand their influence into Qing China. Later
in the nineteenth century, Japan, too, had ambitions
of territorial expansion. They fought with China over
control of Korea in 1894 and 1895. For centuries Koreas
geographical location had made it strategically important
in the region, surrounded by two very powerful nations.
Japan was victorious in the war with China, and almost
more important than the loss of the territory was the Qing
dynastys loss of prestige. The failed war demonstrated just
how weak the Qing dynasty had become over the previous
century, and Japan now replaced China as the most
dominant power in the region.
Student workbook
7.3

1 How did Confucianism influence Chinese attitudes to
foreigners?
2 What were the Banner Armies and what was their role?
3 Describe how luck played a role in the 1514 contact
between Portuguese and Chinese traders.
4 Why were Portuguese traders tolerated by the Chinese
emperor?

5 Look at Source 3 . Why do you think the British artist has
portrayed the Chinese emperor in this way?
6 In what ways do Sources 4 and 5 agree? Does this
support the reliability of each source? Why or why not?
7 What advantages does the British ship have over the
Chinese junks in Source 6 ?

8 Why were British and Chinese world views incompatible
in the eighteenth century?
junk Chinese sailing ship

kowtow to kneel and touch the forehead to the ground in deep
respect for an emperor
Marco Polo merchant from Venice who travelled through Asia
in the thirteenth century; generally credited with introducing
Europeans to China and Central Asia
207
7.5 Effects of foreign influence

on China
The impact of foreign influence

on China was far reaching and
long lasting. The Opium Wars with
the British had exposed the Qing
dynastys weaknesses, which were
exploited not only by foreign powers
but by the Chinese people as well.
Either directly or indirectly, foreign
interference in China in this period
caused many deep changes.
Source 1

This nineteenth-century French political cartoon shows China being carved up
by foreign powers from left to right, Britain, Germany, Russia, France and Japan. The
Qing emperor is protesting in the background.
Internal problems
Historians still debate whether the
First Opium War was a direct cause
of the Taiping Rebellion. The Qing
dynasty already faced a number of
problems, including internal social
conflict, economic stagnation and
a population growth rate that was
putting a heavy strain on resources.
The country also suffered a major
drought in 1847 and disastrous
floods in 1849 and 1852. All these
problems, compounded by their
humiliating defeat at the hands of
the British in the First Opium War,
were simply too much for the
Chinese government to deal with.
The Taiping Rebellion began
in 1850 and spread over most of
southern China before finally being
suppressed in 1864. It was led by
Hong Xiuquan who, after religious
visions experienced during an illness,
was inspired to preach a new form of
Christianity in China. The aim of
the rebels was to overthrow the
Qing dynasty and replace it with
a new kingdom in which all land
belonged to the state and women
were given a more equal status
with men. It is estimated that some
20million people died over the
course of the rebellion, making it one
of the deadliest conflicts in human
history.
208

and the Arrow War
While the rebellion raged, the Second
Opium War broke out with Britain,
this time allied with France. Also
called the Arrow War, it began when
Chinese authorities boarded a ship

called the Arrow and arrested the crew
under suspicion of piracy. Unable
to manage the crisis of the Taiping
Rebellion at the same time as this
new conflict, China was forced to
sign another humiliating treaty. Over
the two decades of the 1840s and 1850s China signed no

fewer than six separate treaties with France, Britain, Russia
and the United States, each one forcing more concessions
to the foreigners. In an effort to protect their new gains,
the British and French sided with the Qing against the
Taiping rebels, supplying weapons and soldiers. Although
this helped crush the rebellion, it also further cemented in
the minds of many Chinese an image of Qing weakness
and submission to foreign influence.
Source 2

The Empress Dowager Cixi. She ruled
China from 1861 to 1908.
A new empress
In 1861 the Xianfeng emperor died. Because his five-year
old son was too young to rule on his own, a group of
regents was formed to take over his duties. Soon, though,
the young emperors mother, Cixi, eliminated the other
members of the group and established herself as the new
ruler of China the Empress Dowager.
During the time of Cixi, although without her backing,
there arose some hopes for reforms of the more rigid
aspects of dynastic rule. The scholar Kang Yuwei
planned and implemented a series of reforms with
the help of the new Guangxu emperor. In 1898
the Hundred Days Reform (discussed in the
next spread) was intended to introduce radical
decrees that would help modernise China, but the
powerful and conservative Cixi, who still effectively
ruled, rescinded almost all the reforms. She had
the emperor arrested and many of the reformers
executed. Her absolute rule was once again
established over China, yet the problems she faced
did not go away.
Source 4

From the Guangxu emperors Reform Decree of 1898
I shall never feel that my duty as Sovereign is fulfilled

until I have raised them all [the Chinese people] to a
condition of peaceful prosperity. Moreover, do not
the foreign Powers surround our Empire, committing
frequent acts of aggression? Unless we learn and adopt
the sources of their strength, our plight cannot be
remedied.
Student workbook
7.4

1 Create a timeline of the problems facing the Qing
dynasty between the 1840s and the 1860s.
2 How did the unequal treaties (see Source 3 ) affect the
way the Chinese people viewed the Qing?

Source 3

Some of the unequal treaties imposed on China by
foreign powers in the nineteenth century
Year
Treaty of
Imposed by
1842
Nanjing
Britain
1844
Wangxia
USA
1844
Whampoa
France
1858
Tianjin
Britain, France
1858
Aigun
Russia
1859
Beijing
Britain, France
3 What challenges did the Qing dynasty face in the first

half of the nineteenthcentury?
4 What were the aims of the Taiping rebels?
5 Why did the foreign powers help the Qing government
against the Taiping rebels?
6 How did Cixi come to rule China?

7 Explain the message of Source 1 in your own words.
8 What does the table in Source 3 illustrate about
the influence of foreign powers in China in the
nineteenthcentury?
9 What does Guangxus Reform Decree call for in
Source 4 ?
209
7.6 Social effects

The impacts of foreigners on Chinese society since their first arrival in the sixteenthcentury varied widely.
Missionaries spread the ideas of Christianity to many parts of the land; the trade of western goods introduced new
ideas; but perhaps no foreign import had a greater social impact than opium.
Effects of forced trade

Economic
The signing of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 may have
ended the Opium War, but it did not end the opium
trade. In fact, the trade increased because trade with
the British was forced upon China opium meant
business, and business was booming. In return for the
opium that the British imported to China, tea and silk
were exported back to Britain. In the years from 1843
to 1855 the export of tea increased from 7000 tons
to 42000 tons. In the same period, silk exports rose
from 2000 bales in 1843 to 56000 bales in 1855.
On the surface, this may seem like a positive
aspect of the trade. Certainly, tea- and silkproducing regions close to the trading ports did
expand and benefit from the trade. But a closer
look will reveal that these benefits were short term.
As demand for these two commodities, known in
economic terms as cash crops, increased, production
shifted away from food crops and so less food was
being produced. This shortage of food crops pushed
prices up and so the poor, who could not trade with the
foreigners, simply became poorer.
The trade in silk had a further long-term effect.
Chinas textile industry had a very long history as
far back as 3000 BCE. It had undergone a variety of
developments over the centuries, but ironically it was
the high quality of local textiles that caused the industry
to decline. In addition to bringing in opium, Western
countries also introduced cheaper, machine-produced
textiles with which to trade. This caused a decrease in
the demand for locally made goods and crippled the
local textile industry. Many areas in China reported
an increase in crime as rising poverty took hold.
Even Chinas traditional trade routes were
suffering. Under the Canton System, foreign goods
arrived at port and were then transported through
inland waterways and coastal roads. The opening
of other trading ports meant goods were now
transported from one port to another by sea, so
those people who relied on inland traffic for their
income suffered.
Social
As the trade in opium continued, a drug that had
been used medicinally in China for centuries soon
210
Source 1

The sap of the opium poppy flower is harvested
and refined to produce the drug.
Source 2

An opium den in Canton, China, c. 1900
Source 3

A British observers remarks on the effects of opium,
from 1847
Those who begin its use at twenty may expect to die at

thirty years of age; the countenance becomes pallid, the
eyes assume a wild brightness, the memory fails, the
gait totters, mental exertion and moral courage sink ...
atrophy reduces the victim to a ghastly spectacle, who
has ceased to live before he has ceased to exist.
became a drug of dependency for a large proportion of

the population. As the quantity of opium coming into
China increased, the product became cheaper. It was soon
available not just to the wealthy but to a wide crosssection of society. At the turn of the nineteenth century,
about 2500 tons of opium was being imported into China
annually. By the middle of that century, the figure had
increased almost tenfold to 23000 tons. It is estimated
that at the height of opium usage in China, almost all men
used it and about a quarter of the entire male population
was addicted.
Access to opium and high unemployment due to
the economic situation in China made a devastating
combination. Opium dens like the one in Source 2
became popular. Patrons reclined and smoked opium
through long pipes. Some dens were highly ornate and

richly furnished; others were simple rooms. But in each
case, the dcor reflected the social standing of those who
used the rooms. This also reinforces the widespread use of
opium in the community. The effects of long-term use of
opium are described in Source 3 . Despite attempts to ban
the drug and threats of harsh punishments for trading,
illustrated in Sources 5 and 6 , trade and use of opium
continued.
Eventually some British politicians saw the
responsibility they had for the disastrous situation in
China. Some sixty years after the end of the Opium War,
Lord Justice Fry of the British Court of Appeal expressed
his views, seen in Source 4 . However, by then the damage
had been done.
Source 4

Lord Justice Frys comment regarding Britains moral
responsibility for the situation in China, from around 1908
We English, by the policies we have pursued, are morally

responsible for every acre of land in China which is
withdrawn from the cultivation of grain and devoted
to that of the poppy; so that the fact of the growth of
the drug in China ought only to increase our sense of
responsibility.
211
Source 5

Edict following the ban on
opium in 1839
Source 6

An 1804 engraving
of a wooden punishment collar
as described in Source 5 .
The writing indicates the crime
being punished.
Let the buyers and smokers of opium be

punished with one hundred blows, and
condemned to wear the wooden collar
for two months. Then, let them declare
the sellers name, that he may be seized
and punished.
Foreign ideas
The Jesuit missionaries of the
sixteenthcentury brought with
them not only Christianity but also
European inventions and technology.
They shared their European views
with the Chinese and returned to
Europe with tales of Chinas wonders.
Yet their numbers were small and
any ideas or new technology they
conveyed tended to remain within
the emperors circle rather than being
circulated throughout the country.
Some missionaries, however,
became trusted within the emperors
court and played an important role in
early Chinese and European relations.
Matteo Ricci and Adam Schall von
Bell were two early examples. They
learned the language and translated
classical Western texts into Chinese,
which helped to spread the ideas of
European scholars such as Galileo.
Particularly in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, the Jesuit
missionaries promoted what was the
first example of cultural exchange
between China and the West.
As the inflow of foreigners in
China increased in the eighteenth and
nineteenthcenturies the spread of
Western ideas also began to increase.
During this time, Chinese citizens
began to travel abroad and brought
home with them new ideas in the
fields of science, technology and social
reform. The nineteenth century had
seen such unrest in China that more
and more people were beginning to
question their traditional beliefs. The
Qing dynasty appeared to be losing
the mandate of heaven.
In 1898, many of these ideas were
brought together and promoted in
212
what became known as the Hundred Days Reform. The reformers, led by
Emperor Guangxu, decided that for China to become strong again a range
of changes were needed. They thought that reforms must be accompanied
by fundamental changes to institutions and ideology. The ideas included the
modernisation of the education system, reforming the structure of the military
in order to strengthen it and modernising Chinas industrial capability.
The Hundred Days Reform failed when conservative opponents, supported
by Empress Cixi, removed Guangxu from power. The conservatives did not
oppose the modernisation of China; rather, they feared that the intended
reforms would only increase foreign influence.
Source 7

This
photograph from the
early twentiethcentury
shows two Chinese
labourers at work in the
Australian outback.
Source 8

Chinatown
in Melbourne. This
community was
originally established
in the 1850s during the
gold rushes.

Chinese Diaspora
pp. 1589
Student workbook
7.4
The Chinese Diaspora

During the nineteenthcentury a large number of Chinese
decided, or were forced, to emigrate. This was known as
the Chinese Diaspora and was caused by different factors.
Famines in the southern coastal provinces of Fujian and
Guangdong, combined with the effects of the Opium
Wars and the Taiping Rebellion, disrupted agricultural and
economic activity in many areas, putting further strains
on Chinese resources. Around the same time slavery was
being abolished in many parts of the world, creating labour
shortages. In North America, Chinese migrants replaced
African slaves as a major source of labour. The large-scale
emigration would have alarmed the Qing but there was
little they could do about it; the unequal treaties forced the
government to allow emigration to colonial regions.
While many Chinese migrated to other Asian countries
in search of work, a great number travelled further afield
to the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. In
1849 gold was discovered in California, and when merchants
brought news of the find to China a wave of migration
to Gold Mountain occurred. The Australian gold rushes
of the 1850s provoked similar migrations and New Gold
Mountain, as the Australian goldfields became known,
saw the beginning of a long period of Chinese migration
to Australia.
Across the world Chinese emigrants established what
has become the most visible result of the Diaspora the
Chinatown. Chinatown is the generic name given to that
area of a city outside China in which Chinese businesses and
restaurants predominate. There are about twenty Chinatowns
in Australia, and many of them are thriving areas used as
a focal point for traditional celebrations such as Chinese
New Year. Source 7 shows Melbournes Chinatown.

1 Explain what you understand by the term
diaspora.
2 What sorts of changes was the Hundred Days
Reform movement hoping to achieve?

3 How did the British change the way opium was
used in China?
4 Why do you think the British and Chinese traders
ignored the 1839 ban on opium?
5 List some of the factors that brought about the
Chinese Diaspora in the nineteenthcentury.
6 On a world map, mark the countries and regions
to which Chinese migrants primarily travelled.

7 Why would the Qing government be concerned by
the image in Source 2 ?
8 Summarise the detrimental effects of opium as
expressed in Source 3 .
9 How does the attitude in Source 4 differ from most
British attitudes towards the opium trade?
10 What do Sources 5 and 6 illustrate about the Qing
governments attitudes to opium?
11 Which negative effects of opium outlined in
Source 3 can you identify in Source 2 ?
12 What does Source 7 suggest about the extent and
scale of the Chinese Diaspora?

13
Source 7 shows two Chinese labourers in Australia

in the early twentieth century. What personal
characteristics do you think they would have
needed to undertake such a journey from their
homeland?
213
7.7 Resistance in China

Confucianism helped generate a
view in China that foreigners were
little more than barbarians. It was
believed that there was little that
could be gained from contact with
the outside world. Many people
and organisations in China actively
sought to get rid of foreigners once
and for all.
The Boxer Rebellion

The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, commonly known as the
Boxers, was a secret society that called for a return to traditional values in China
and an expulsion of foreigners. They were both anti-foreign and anti-Christian
and resented the gunboat diplomacy that had been forced on China. The
Boxers, who embraced Daoist and Buddhist ideas, believed that through a
combination of martial arts training and spirit possession they would become
impervious to guns and cannon. Special womens groups such as the Red
Lanterns and the Cooking Pot Lanterns helped feed the fighters. They also won
over provincial officials to their program of helping the Qing expel foreigners.
Source 1

This map from 1912 shows that the foreign legations were concentrated in a small
area in Peking (as they had been in 1900), providing focus points for anti-foreign sentiment during
the Boxer Rebellion.
214
Source 2

A Boxer fighter from around 1900 with a spear and flag
In 1899 the Boxers began to

attack Christian missionaries in
protest of the increasing numbers
of missionaries in China and their
interference with traditional Chinese
life. A common sentiment in China
was that missionaries were yet another
attempt by foreign powers to divide
and colonise China. The European
extraterritoriality clause meant that
Europeans in China were exempt
from most Chinese laws and were
considered under the jurisdiction of
their own countries laws.
The Boxers also targeted telegraph
lines and iron centipedes (railway
tracks). In the face of such lawlessness
the Qing government had to act,
but it faced a dilemma. The foreign
powers demanded that Cixi suppress
the uprising but, while she publicly
condemned the Boxers, secretly the
Dowager Empress supported their
cause. In June 1900 the Boxers
arrived in Beijing, laying siege to the
foreign legations. A foreign attack on
the Taku Forts in north-eastern China
forced Cixis hand. Unable to oppose
the Boxers for fear of losing further

Chinese support, on June 21 she
formally declared war on the foreign
powers.
The Eight Nation Alliance of
foreign powers comprised Japan,
Russia, Great Britain, France, the
United States, Germany, Italy and
AustriaHungary. The Australian
colonies, not yet federated into the
Commonwealth, offered support to
the British, and troops from Victoria
and New South Wales were formed
into naval brigades.
Australias first contingents,
mainly men from Victoria and New
South Wales, sailed for China on
8August 1900. Troops from the
Eight Nation Alliance were already
fighting in China and, by the time
the Australians arrived, most of
the major fighting was over. They
were then engaged in mopping
up operations or simply guarding
prisoners. Six Australians died in the
Boxer Rebellion, but none were the
result of enemy action all were
from sickness and injury.
One of the most significant

episodes of the uprising was the
siege of the legations. This was
the area of Beijing in which the
foreign powers had their diplomatic
legations or embassies. The siege of
the foreign legations in Beijing lasted
55 days. When they were relieved
on 14August 1900, 66 foreigners
had been killed with many more
Christians killed across China. Cixi
fled Beijing but returned when peace
terms were arranged.
Yet again superior foreign military
forces had quickly defeated China.
Yet again a punishing peace treaty
was forced on China, resulting in
more reparation payments and the
further deployment of foreign troops
in China. And, yet again, the Qing
governments weakness against foreign
powers had been demonstrated. Cixi
finally realised that reform offered the
only hope for the survival of the Qing
and of China. Most of the reforms
that had previously been resisted by
Cixi were now initiated.
The Boxer Rebellion was actually
not a rebellion at all. Rebellion
suggests the Boxers wanted to
overthrow the dynasty, but this was
never their intention. In fact, the
Source 3

The aims of the Boxers as
expressed in a rhyme in 1900
No talented people are in sight;

There is nothing but filth and
garbage,
Rascals who undermine the
Empire,
Leaving its doors wide open.
But we have divine power at our
disposal
To arouse our people and arm
them,
To save the realm and to protect it
from decay.
Our pleasure is to see the Son of
Heaven unharmed.
Let the officials perish,
But the people remain invincible.
Bring your own provisions;
Fall in to remove the scourge of the
country.
215
Source 4

This photograph from around 1900 shows the public execution
of a captured Boxer rebel fighters.
Empress Dowager Cixi had some sympathy with the

rebels: she too wanted an end to foreign influence in
China. She chose to describe it as a rebellion to give the
impression that she opposed it in the hope of reducing
the harshness of the peace terms imposed by the foreign
powers.
Finally, reform
Among the reforms introduced by the Qing government
under the terms of the Boxer Protocol were major
educational changes. Modernisation of the curriculum
began and for the first time western subjects were
introduced. While this might have helped placate some of
the people, for example those who promoted the Hundred
Days Reform, it had some negative effects for the
government. The new curriculum introduced beliefs and
values that conflicted with traditional Confucian beliefs.
Those who went through the new system tended to be
more critical of the dynasty and were hungry for further
change. In losing control of the education system, the
Qing lost a key area of popular support.
In 1908 work began on a constitution in which the
emperor would retain control over the armed forces,
foreign policy and the judicial system but would extend
the administrative control of provincial and local leaders.
216
The military was also decentralised, equipped with

western weapons and trained in western tactics.
Despite, or perhaps because of, these reforms, the
Qing dynasty was doomed. The reforms were intended
to modernise China and restore faith in the government.
They only half succeeded. While they did manage to
modernise China, they also provided a new degree of
freedom for many of its people, a level of freedom never
before known in China. With this freedom came a
demand for further change and, eventually, a demand
for the Qing government to be removed from power
altogether. A new sense of nationalism was evolving and
people began to dream of a new, independent China free
from foreign interference.
Source 5

Sentiments expressed by Prince Kung of the
Imperial Qing Court around 1900 about the foreign presence in
China
Take away your opium and your missionaries, and you

will be welcome! ... Do away with your extraterritoriality
clause and missionaries may settle anywhere and
everywhere; but retain it and we must do our best to
confine you and our troubles to the treaty ports.
Student workbook
7.5
Revolution
Over the course of the nineteenthcentury the Chinese
people had witnessed the Qing dynastys powerlessness
to stop foreign encroachment into China. The violent
upheavals of the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion and
the Boxer Rebellion repeatedly demonstrated the weakness
of the Qing and the dynastys inability to resolve pressures
both from within and from outside China. Many Chinese
came to believe that revolution, rather than reform, was
the only way to save the country. This belief would be
violently expressed in 1911.
Before her death in 1908, the Empress Dowager
had nominated the three-year-old Pu Yi to be the next
emperor. Pu Yis father, Prince Jun, was himself not
considered worthy of rule but would act as regent until
Pu Yi was old enough to rule on his own. However, one
man in particular had no time for a new emperor. His
name was Sun Yixian and he would become a key figure in
modern China.
Sun wanted to transform China into a republic and
had already tried to overthrow the Qing in 1895. After
this attempted coup failed he fled into exile but, in 1911,
he saw a new opportunity, and this time he was more
successful. Dissatisfaction with the Qing governments
apparent weaknesses in the face of internal problems
and foreign intervention had boiled over into open
rebellion in many provinces. The imperial army refused
to oppose the rebels unless the government granted the
long-awaited constitution. When it refused to do so,
the downfall of the Qing became only a matter of time.
Without the army on its side there was no hope for the
dynasty.
On 12 February 1912, Pu Yi was forced to abdicate
and Sun Yixian was confirmed as president designate.
However, Sun had a rival General Yuan Shikai with
very different goals for the new China. Many areas of the
country were still under the control of local warlords.
Source 6

A photograph from the collection of the Australian War
Memorial showing two officers of the Australian Naval Brigade in
China around 190001

1 Draw and label a timeline showing the key events in
China from 1900 to 1912.

2 Why did Cixi secretly support the Boxers?
3 Why did Cixi refer to the Boxer crisis as a rebellion
rather than an uprising?
4 What role did education play in maintaining Qing rule
over China and its people?
5 Why did the reforms introduced after the Boxer
Rebellion help to bring about the downfall of the Qing
dynasty?
6 How did Sun Yixian and Yuan Shikai differ in their
ambitions for China?

7 Read Source 3 and answer these questions:
a Who do the Boxers refer to when they speak of the
Son of Heaven?
b Who were the scourge of the country?
c What is this document asking Chinese people to do?
8 What does Source 4 suggest to you about the nature
of the fighting during the Boxer Rebellion?
9 Give reasons why the Chinese official held the opinion
of the British expressed in Source 5 .
10 What does Source 6 reveal about Australias
involvement in the Boxer Rebellion?
11 In what way could Source 6 be limited as a historical
source?

12 Do you think it could be said that the reforms
introduced by the Qing government actually helped
bring about its downfall? Discuss your opinions as a
class, and use evidence from this spread to help you
write a paragraph in response.
Despite being provisional president, Sun did not have the

military power to bring order to strife-torn China. That
power rested with Yuan, so to avoid civil war Sun Yixian
stepped down.
The declaration of a republic in China ended 267 years
of Qing rule and some 2000 years of the imperial system.
But this fundamental political change still did not bring
peace to China.
Daoist ancient Chinese philosophical/religious tradition
emphasising simple living in harmony and balance with the
universe
gunboat diplomacy a coercive form of diplomacy in which
a country threatens the use of military force to achieve its
objectives
legation a foreign countrys diplomatic office, similar to an
embassy
spirit possession an alleged supernatural event in which a
spirit or god takes control of the human body, creating changes
in behaviour
AWM P00417.003
217
7.8 Consequences
The China that emerged from the nineteenth century
was barely recognisable compared with that of a
century earlier. For many countries, that period was
a time of great change but, for China in particular,
the consequences of the events of the nineteenth
century would affect it well into the next century, with
devastating effects.
Source 2

Yuan Shikai,
first president of the
Republic of China
A new emperor?
In 1911, after the revolution that ended the Qing dynasty,
a new style of government was created under the rule of
General Yuan Shikai. But after coming to power it seemed
that his true ambitions became clear. He had avoided civil
war when Sun Yixian had stepped down from power, but
China now found itself with two opposing political parties
Sun Yixians Guomindang (GMD) or Nationalist Party,
and the Jinbudang or Progressive Party. Both were formed
in 1912. When Yuan organised the murder of a GMD
leader in 1913, Sun launched a Second Revolution to
remove Yuan from the presidency. Yuan responded by
declaring the GMD illegal and suspending Parliament.
He also began to talk about making himself emperor.
Had China gone through so much turmoil to end
the old imperial system only to have it replaced with
Source 1

Sun Yixian,
founder and first leader
of the Guomindang
a new one? Yuan put the question to the vote, but only
those who were specially selected were allowed to cast
a ballot. Unsurprisingly, the vote was unanimously in
favour of the proposition. But Yuan would never become
emperor. In defiance of the vote, eight provinces declared
independence and the spectre of civil war emerged.
In 1916 Yuan finally accepted that his imperial dream
was out of reach and announced a return to republican
government. He died that same year, leaving China
once again in political turmoil. For millions of peasants,
however, life continued as usual, with cycles of famine,
drought, floods and unjust taxes.
China and the First World War

In 1914 the new Chinese republic, only three years old,
found itself an ally of the British and French in the First
World War. The move away from a monarchy was seen as
a positive step by the West and China was certainly keen
to improve its standing on the world stage. While officially
neutral until declaring war on Germany in 1917, from the
start of the war China sent more than 100000 volunteer
labourers to the Western Front to help dig trenches, work
in factories or engage in other support work. But China
gained little by being an ally of the British and French.
218
At the end of the war, when the

Treaty of Versailles was forced upon
Germany, the decision was made to
confiscate all of Germanys overseas
colonies. Some of these were in China
and had been leased to Germany
by the Qing government. However,
these colonies were not returned
to China but instead handed over
to Japan Chinas more powerful
neighbour. The Allied powers were
happy to humiliate a weaker country
if it meant placating a stronger
one. The subsequent renewal of
anti-foreign sentiment in China
created conditions that would play
a role in the creation of the Chinese
Communist Party in 1921.
Source 3

The May Fourth Movement of 1919 was a protest by thousands of Chinese
students against the governments failure to protect Chinese interests following the First World
War. Widespread strikes from the working class, as well as support from the media, showed
that many Chinese people agreed with the protest. This photograph, taken in Nanning, marks
the 90th anniversary of that event.
The Chinese
Communist Party
In July 1921 the Chinese Communist
Party was founded. Its members
wanted to revolutionise China and
establish a classless society. They
regarded the Taiping Rebellion as a
peasant revolution. The future leader
of the party Mao Zedong was one
of its earliest members. Initially the
Guomindang formed an alliance with
the communists but, under Jiang
Jieshi, who took over the leadership
after Sun Yixians death in 1925,
the Guomindang turned against
them. Violence followed as GMD
forces attempted to wipe out the
communists but, after two decades of
further unrest, the communists won
control of China in 1949.
Positive outcomes?
Over the course of the nineteenth
century the Chinese people had
witnessed the Qing dynastys
powerlessness to stop foreign
encroachment into China. The
violent upheavals of the Opium Wars,
the Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer
Rebellion repeatedly demonstrated
the weakness of the Qing, and the
dynastys inability to resolve pressures
both from within and from outside
China.
Making any value judgement

about positive or negative effects of
particular events is difficult when
studying history. Inevitably those
judgements are highly subjective
and will be different depending
on the source or the historian.
However, few historians disagree
that during the nineteenth century
there were not many positive effects
of foreign influence on China. They
highlight the Opium Wars, the
Taiping Rebellion and the unfair
treaties as evidence. However, most
historians also agree that there
were some advantages in the long
term for China. The exposure of
Qing weakness and the continued
oppression from both their own
government and that of the foreigners
made them argue for change. People
realised that the emperor did not
necessarily enjoy the mandate of
heaven and, for better or worse,
many came to believe that revolution,
rather than reform, was the only way
to save the country.
Student workbook
7.6
Explanation and
communication
1 Summarise the key events in
China between 1911 and 1918.

2
Source 3 shows Chinese

students commemorating the
90th anniversary of the May
Fourth Movement. Using this
photograph as evidence, suggest
whether the 1919 protest might
be considered a positive or
negative event in China today.
Justify your response.
Perspectives and
interpretationS
3 Why do you think Yuan Shikai
wanted to make himself emperor?
4 Use the internet to research the
May Fourth Movement in 1919
and compare it to other protests
against foreign interference in
Chinese affairs in this chapter. Do
you think the attitude towards
foreign powers had changed
a great deal since the mid
nineteenth century? Explain.
219
7.9 SkillBuilder
Analysing cause and consequence
When studying history it is important to remember that
events dont just happen. Many factors combine to bring
about historical events. Being able to analyse cause and
consequence is an important historical skill.
What is cause and consequence?

Cause and consequence (C&C) underlies all history
and historical events. Every event occurs for a variety of
reasons and leaves behind it a range of consequences.
This is equally true for both the smallest and the
How to analyse C&C

1 To begin thinking about the causes of an event, start by
asking the question, Why did this event happen? This
can be a deceptive question because the answer is usually
more complex than it might appear at first. Brainstorm
and write down all the reasons you can think of. Try to
classify them into long-term causes and short-term causes
or sparks.
2 Next, for consequences, ask, What happened because of
it? Once again, brainstorm and then write down all the
Source 1

The signature page of the Treaty of Nanjing
largest events. But the causes are not always easily

identified and the consequences are not always obvious
either.
Why is it important to analyse C&C?

Analysing cause and consequence helps us evaluate the
importance of different events within historical periods.
For example, we might come to the conclusion that one
particular event was more significant to a period of change
than another.
things you can think of, trying to separate the short-term or
immediate consequences from the long-term consequences.
3 Now organise the results in a way that makes them easier to
analyse. One of the most effective ways to analyse cause and
consequence in history is to use a graphic organiser such
as that shown in Source 2 . As you can see, there is room in
the centre for you to indicate the event you are analysing,
and there is room on each side to list a number of different
causes and consequences, both long and short term.
4 Once you have set out your initial thoughts, you can start to
consider the significance of the event you are studying.
Ask yourself these questions:
How different was the situation
after the event from before it?
Was the event I am analysing
a key factor of change in the
historical period I am studying?
An example of
analysing C&C
The example here uses the First
Opium War to outline how to analyse
cause and consequence.
1 Why did the First Opium War
happen? After brainstorming some
ideas, long-term factors identified
were the confrontation between
British and Chinese cultures, and
the social effects of the opium
trade in China. Short-term causes
or sparks that set off the First
Opium War were identified as the
destruction of British opium stocks
by the Chinese authorities and the
murder of Lin Weixi.
2 What happened because of the
First Opium War? Short-term
consequences were the signing
220
Student workbook
7.7
Source 2

An effective way to identify and analyse cause and consequence

Causes
Long-term
Confrontation
of different
cultures
Consequences
Short-term
Murder of
Lin Weixi
Short-term
Long-term
Treaty of Nanjing
Continued
encroachment of
foreigners into
China
Weakness of
Qing exposed
Further resistance
to foreign influence,
and rise of
anti-Qing sentiment
The First
Opium War
Social effects
of opium
Destruction of
British opium
of the Treaty of Nanjing and the exposing of Qing

government weaknesses. Long-term consequences
were increased encroachment into China by foreign
powers and further popular resistance to foreigners
and to the Qing government.
3 The causes and consequences have been put into the
diagram, making it easier to identify and categorise
them. Of course there may be more branches,
depending on the historical event being analysed.
4 By analysing the diagram and considering both
the causes and consequences of the First Opium
War, it becomes clear that it was a significant event
in nineteenth-century China. In the long term, it
played an important role in the changes that China
experienced in the nineteenthcentury.
Source 4

The Guangxu emperor, who
initiated the Hundred Days Reform
Now you have seen an example of how to analyse cause
and consequence, copy into your workbook (or use
a graphic organiser tool on a computer) the diagram
in Source 2 . Then identify the causes and consequences
of one other event discussed in this chapter. For example,
you might choose the Taiping Rebellion, the Boxer
Rebellion or the 1911 revolution.
Source 3

Opium being destroyed in China
221

investigated the effects of foreign
interference and influence on
China between 1750 and 1918.
We have analysed the different
cultural ideas of the Chinese and
the foreigners and how these
came into conflict, and have
studied the forms of resistance
that arose in China against the
foreign powers. We have also
seen how a variety of different
factors helped bring about
fundamental political change
in China in the early twentieth
century.

1 Identify five challenges facing the Qing dynasty in the nineteenthcentury.
2 Choose one of the emperors of the Qing dynasty, such as the Jiaqing or
Guangxu emperors, and research their period of rule. What challenges did
they face? Would you consider their rule successful or unsuccessful?
3 Work in small groups to compare the position and power of China in
relation to Japan, Russia and England in 1900. Compare the form of
government, type of economy and relationships with other nations. You
could draw up a table like the one below to organise your initial research.
Country
Form of
government
Type of
economy
Relationship with
other nations
China
Japan
Quick quiz
1 Between which years did the
Qing dynasty rule China?
2 Who was the last ruler of the
Qing dynasty?
3 Which luxury goods were traded
between China and Europe
during the Qing dynasty?
4 What factors led to Chinas
isolation before the
eighteenthcentury?
5 What were the aims of the
Taiping rebels?
6 Which nations traded
with China in the
nineteenthcentury?
7 Why were spices so valued in
Europe in the seventeenth and
eighteenthcenturies?
8 Why was India an important
link in the trade routes between
Britain and China?
9 Why did China face an uncertain
future in 1911?
10 What was the mandate of
heaven and how could it be
lost by an emperor?
222
Russia
England
When you have filled in your information into the table as a group,
individually prepare a report that describes the changing nature of Chinas
position in relation to the other countries.

1 Look at Source 1 and use it to answer these questions:
a Why has a dragon been chosen to represent China?
b What is the historical context of the cartoon? (What had been happening
in China at the time the cartoon was created?)
c What is the message of the cartoon?
d What are some of the values and limitations of this source for historians?
Student workbook
7.8, 7.9, 7.10
Source 1

This Western cartoon from
1900 is entitled The real trouble will
come with the wake (a wake is a
gathering after a funeral to talk about
the person who has been buried). The
cartoon shows animal personifications
of the countries that had a strong
influence in China.
2 Using the following table, note your thoughts on the

values and limitations of different types of sources.
Some have been filled in for you.
Type of
source
Values
Photographs
Limitations
Can be cropped
or set up to
exclude or include
certain things
Might be posed
Cartoons,
drawings
Letters,
diaries
Can offer insights

into personal
feelings because
they tend to be
private
Can reveal what
life was like at the
time
3 Using your complete table from activity 2, select three

different sources from this chapter and assess their
values and limitations.

At the beginning of this chapter several big questions
were raised. Use the knowledge you have gained about
the changes in China from 1750 to 1918 to answer the
following questions.
1 How did military technology and new ideas contribute
to conflict and change in China?
2 What was the significance of European imperialism in
nineteenth-century China?
effects of warfare on the Qing dynasty?
1 If you looked at only one source for a particular

topic, do you think you would get a clear, reliable
idea of what happened? For example, do you think a
single British source on the First Opium War would
necessarily be fair and balanced? Why or why not?
2 Why is it important for historians to study a wide
range of sources when researching a particular historical
period or event?
3 Think back to the beginning of your study of China.
a Did you have any preconceived ideas about what
you might discover?
b Were those ideas challenged as your understanding
of the topic developed?
223
CHAPTER
Depth study 3: World War I
World War I (19141918)

In 2007 the bodies of 250 Australian
and British soldiers were discovered in a
mass grave near the town of Fromelles
in northern France. The site was close
to where they had fallen in 1916 during
one of the bloodiest battles of World
War I. In 2010, on the ninety-fourth
anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles,
the last of these soldiers was finally
given a proper burial at a new military
cemetery in France. For Australians this
was a reminder of the terrible losses
suffered by the young Australian nation.
Each year on 25 April we commemorate
Anzac Day, marking the day in 1915
on which soldiers from Australia
and New Zealand first landed on
Turkeys Gallipoli Peninsula. Each
year on 11November we observe
Remembrance Day, the day that war
ended in 1918. If you have travelled
around Australia, you may have
noticed that every city, most towns
and many older suburbs have
memorials that were first built
to honour Australians who died in
World War I. Perhaps you have
wondered why, in a country so far
from the battlefields, that conflict
had such a lasting impact.
The Shrine of Remembrance
in Melbourne. Inset: World War I
memorial in Cairns, north Queensland.
The clock is stopped at the time of the
first landing of the Anzacs at Gallipoli.

key events in World War I
from 1914 to 1918 with the
interactive timeline application in
your eBookPLUS.
eBook plus
A timeline of
World War I
CE
1880
1882
Germany,
AustriaHungary and
Italy form the Triple
Alliance.
1907
Britain, France and
Russia form the
Triple Entente.
1915
25 April: The Anzacs
land at Gallipoli.
December: The Allies
withdraw from
Gallipoli.
1910
13 August: Germany
declares war on
Russia and France,
and invades Belgium.
4 August: Britain
declares war on
Germany.
1916
MarchJune: The AIF
joins the fight against
Germany on the
Western Front. The
Australian Light
Horse remains in
Egypt to fight
Turkish forces.
1 July: The British
and French launch a
big offensive in the
Somme Valley on the
Western Front.
1914
28 July:
AustriaHungary
declares war on
Serbia.
510 September:
French and British
armies halt the
Germans in Belgium
and France.
15 September: Trench
warfare begins in
Western Europe.
7 November:
Revolution in Russia
leads to Russian
withdrawal from
the war.
20 December: The
second conscription
referendum is lost
in Australia.
1920
1 Why was Australia involved in World War I?

2 What was the significance of the Gallipoli and
Western Front campaigns?
3 How did the Anzac legend influence our national
identity?
5 How did the war affect Australians on the home

front?
28 October: The first

referendum on
conscription is held
in Australia.
31 July: The third

battle of Ypres
(Passchendaele) is
launched by the
Germans in Belgium.


effects of the war?
1915
1917
6 April: The USA
enters
the war.
World War I was a turning point in Australias history,

and learning about it can help us understand much
about our country. But it was also a turning point for
the world. It brought about death and destruction on a
massive scale, saw the rise of communism and the fall
of empires, and planted the seeds of fascism. Wars have
terrible consequences, but they do not simply happen.
They can be investigated and understood, and learning
from the past could help us to avoid war in the future.
1918
21 March: The last
German offensive on
the Western Front is
launched.
1 Why are there World War I memorials all over

Australia?
18 July: Australian
forces lead the first
successful large Allied
attack in France.
2 What do you think and how do you feel when you

visit a war memorial and read the names of the
fallen?
The Armistice, signed

on 11 November, ends
the fighting.
3 Why is Anzac Day commemorated each year in

Australia?
4 Do you think we can we learn from the past so as to
avoid wars in the future?
225
8.1 World War I

In this chapter we will be investigating World War I,
especially Australias involvement in it. The human cost
of World War I was horrific for Australia, as for many
other nations. Almost 9 million soldiers on both sides
died in this terrible conflict. More than twice that number
were wounded, including many who were terribly
disfigured or who lost limbs, were blinded or were
driven mad.
Because of its global scale and impact, there is an

enormous range of sources of evidence for World War I.
Australias population during the war years was under
5 million, yet around 60000 Australians died on active
service. As a result, Australia has among the worlds most
extensive collections of sources from the war.
Written sources
Thousands of books and articles have been written
about World War I over the many years since it
ended. There are also vast quantities of written
primary sources. These include campaign maps,
Source 1

Australian 2nd Division monument
near the town of Peronne in the Somme Valley,
northern France
226
World War I (the First World War), at the time called the
Great War, was sometimes described as the War to
End All Wars. However, in almost a century since World
War I there has hardly been a time when war was not
taking place somewhere in the world. Increasingly the
main victims have come to be civilians. As many as
231million people died in wars and other conflicts during
the twentiethcentury. Since the beginning of this century,
many more have died.
soldiers military records, letters, diaries, memoirs and

propaganda for and against conscription for the war.
Many of these sources can now be read on line through
the website of the Australian War Memorial.
Visual sources
Several countries, including France, Belgium and
Britain, have great museums dedicated to World
War I. Yet none of these surpasses the outstanding
collections of the Australian War Memorial. Its
holdings include many thousands of photographs
and artworks, weapons, equipment and dioramas
depicting specific battles. Many documentary
films and several excellent websites are dedicated
to the subject.
The following sources will give you an idea
of the variety of evidence that we have for this
conflict.
Source 2

Part
of the World War I
military service
record of Private
Elmer Motter of the
33rd Australian
Battalion
Source 3

Part of Second Lieutenant
C. C. D. St Pinnocks account of the
aftermath of fatal charges against
Turkish lines by soldiers of the
Australian Light Horse at Gallipoli,
Turkey, on 7 August 1915. Pinnock
himself was killed in action just one
year later.
... you can imagine what it was

like. Really too awful to write
about. All your pals that had
been with you for months and
months blown and shot out of
all recognition. There was no
chance whatever of us gaining our
point, but the roll call after was
the saddest, just fancy only 47
answered their names out of close
on 550 men. When I heard what
the result was I simply cried like a
child.
Analysis and use

of sources
Source 4

Behind the arches along both
sides of the Commemorative Courtyard of the
Australian War Memorial, the Roll of Honour
lines the walls. It displays the names of all
Australians who have died in war since 1885
(more than 102000 names). More Australians
died in World War I than in all other conflicts
combined.
1 What can you tell from Source 1

about one place where Australians
fought in World War I?
2 How would you account for
the renaming of the street in
Source 1 as Avenue des Australiens
(Avenue of Australians)?
3 Study Source 2 . Elmer Motter
died of wounds in France on
2 September 1918.
a How long was he in action
before he was first wounded?
b What conclusions might be
drawn from this fact about the
dangers soldiers faced during
World War I?
4 Read Source 3 .
a When and where did the event
described in this source occur?
b What percentage of the
550men had survived to
answer their names after the
attack?
5 Whose names are inscribed on the
walls in the Commemorative Area
of the Australian War Memorial
( Source 4 )?
6 What kinds of evidence are
represented by these four
sources?
7 What could you learn about
Australias role in World War I
from just these four sources?
227
8.2 What caused the

Great War?
Glorifying war
The immediate trigger of World War I was the

assassination of the heir to the throne of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire on 28 June 1914. Five
weeks later the great powers of Europe, along with the
countries of their empires and some other small nations,
were at war. When the war began, most people thought
that it would be over within a few months. Instead it
raged for four years, causing great destruction and
unimagined suffering. Such conflicts rarely have one
simple cause. To understand how and why the Great
War happened we need to look well beyond the event
that triggered the fighting.
Source 1

Today we know that war is always terrible, cruel

and destructive, and that it often has unforeseen
consequences. However, most people did not understand
this in early 1914. At school and in popular books,
newspapers and magazines war was often presented as a
heroic adventure. Most people thought of wars as short,
exciting, noble and glorious. At the same time, there
was an arms race in Europe. Between 1870 and 1914
the great powers increased their military spending by
300per cent and all the continental European powers
adopted conscription. Some historians have described
Europe in 1914 as a powder keg waiting for a spark to
ignite an explosion.
European alliances at the beginning of 1914

NORWAY
SWEDEN
NORTH
B A LT I C
DENMARK
SEA
SEA
250
500
750
kilometres
UNITED KINGDOM
RUSSIAN
NETHERLANDS
Rh
London
EMPIRE
Berlin
GERMAN EMPIRE
AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN
EMPIRE
SWITZERLAND
Danub e
FRANCE
River
Paris
in e
BELGIUM
LUXEMBOURG
Belgrade
ITALY
P O RT U G
AL
CORSICA
SPAIN
GREECE
Triple Alliance
SEA
SARDINIA
MED
Triple Entante
BLACK
Constantinople
ALBANIA
Key
228
Rome
ROMANIA
Bucharest
BOSNIA
R i ve r
Sarajevo
SERBIA
BULGARIA
MONTENEGRO
Sofia
ITER
RA
NE
AN
Athens
SICILY
SE
CRETE
OTTOMAN
EMPIRE
France finds allies
Source 2

From a statement in 1914 by Sir Edward Grey,
Britains foreign minister from 1905 to 1916
The cause of anxiety now in public opinion here as

regards Germany arises entirely from the question of the
German naval expenditure ... if she had a fleet bigger
than the British fleet, obviously she could not only defeat
us at sea, but could be in London in a very short time
with her army.
Long-term tensions
As you learned in the chapter 1 Overview, imperialism
and nationalism had caused international tensions and
conflicts long before 1914. Fear and suspicion of their
rivals drove nations to seek security through alliances with
others. Leaders came to believe that their countries would
be safer if they could rely on others to come to their aid
if ever they were threatened. But such alliances could also
drag countries into conflicts.
Germanys alliances
From 1888 Germanys foreign policy took a new direction.

When Germany failed to renew a treaty with Russia in
1890, France found an ally in Russia. In the 1894 FrancoRussian Alliance each agreed to help the other if attacked
by Germany. The new German ruler, Kaiser Wilhelm II,
wanted to create a colonial empire and took steps to build
up the German navy. This raised concerns in Britain,
whose own empire depended on the Royal Navys absolute
superiority over any rival. Alarmed by Germanys move,
Britain signed the Entente Cordiale with France in 1904.
When Britain and Russia settled their differences in 1907,
Britain, France and Russia linked up in the Triple Entente.
Conflicting French and German interests in North
Africa and conflicting Russian and Austrian interests in
the Balkans led to increased tensions. However, it was in
the Balkans that these tensions would erupt into war.
The Balkans powder keg

Nationalism was an especially strong force in Europes
Balkan peninsula, where several national groups had won
their independence from the Turkish Ottoman Empire
since the 1820s. This current alarmed the military
leaders of AustriaHungary, who feared that the
Austro-Hungarian Empire could also be infected by
From the early 1870s Germany sought an alliance

with AustriaHungary and Russia. This was because
the German states had taken two
provinces Alsace and Lorraine
from France during war in 1870, and
Source 4

The Balkans and the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of 1913
Germany feared that France would
RUSSIAN
want revenge. But such an alliance
0
200
400
600
EMPIRE
could not last because Austria
kilometres
Hungary and Russia had competing
interests. In 1879 Germany created
AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE
BESSARABIA
the Dual Alliance, under which
Belgrade
ROMANIA
Germany and AustriaHungary
BOSNIA
Bucharest
Sarajevo
agreed that each would help the other
BLACK SEA
if either was attacked by Russia. This
SERBIA
HERZEGOVINA
BULGARIA
accord became the Triple Alliance
Sofia
MONTENEGRO
A D R I AT I C
when Italy joined in 1882. At the
SEA
same time, Germany attempted to
ITALY
ALBANIA
Constantinople
MACEDONIA
remain friendly with Britain and to
mend relations with Russia.
GREECE
Source 3

The (British) Royal Navys 1st and
2nd Battle Squadrons at sea in 1912. It was
British policy to maintain a navy that was
large enough and strong enough to defeat
the navies of any two potential enemies.
Dardenelles
AEGEAN
OTTOMAN EMPIRE
SEA
Athens
SICILY
Key
Boundaries in 1912
Boundaries in 1913
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
DODECANESE
Rhodes

Europe on the eve of war
pp. 1789
Imperial War Museum Q22084
229
national minorities seeking independence. The main

problem was tension between Austria and Serbia, the most
powerful of the independent Balkan nations.
Serbia was a Slavic nation. Serbian nationalists wanted
other Slavic peoples within the Austro-Hungarian Empire
to unite with it in a South Slav kingdom. Many Serbs
were furious when, in 1908, Austria annexed two Turkish
Balkan provinces, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Serbs
made up much of the population. By 1914 Serbia saw
Austria as the main obstacle to its expansion. For its part,
Austria viewed Serbia as a danger to its empires continued
existence. AustriaHungary was much more powerful
than Serbia, but Serbia had the backing of Russia, which
portrayed itself as the champion of fellow Orthodox
Christian Slavs.
The assassins did not know that Archduke Franz Ferdinand

was strongly opposed to any war against Serbia and
wanted political reform in the Austro-Hungarian Empire
with more rights for its subjects.
Source 6

This illustration appeared in a French magazine shortly
after the assassination. The caption read: The assassination of the
Archduke, Austrian heir, and the Duchess, his wife, in Sarajevo.
Countdown to war
On 28 June 1914, during an official visit to the Bosnian
town of Sarajevo, the heir to the Austrian throne,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, the Duchess
Sophie, were fatally shot. Their killer was Gavrilo Princip,
a 19-year-old Bosnian Serb. Princip and his fellow
assassins belonged to an extreme Serbian nationalist
group, Young Bosnia. Its aim was to see Bosnia united
with Serbia. They were armed and assisted by Danilo Ilic,
a member of the Black Hand, a secret society directed by
the head of Serbian military intelligence.
Events soon spiralled out of control. Austria now had an
excuse to crush Serbia but needed to be sure of Germanys
backing. Germany gave Austria a guarantee of military
support and, on 23 July, Austria presented Serbia with an
ultimatum. Austria knew that Serbia could never accept
Source 5

Gavrilo Princip (right) was a member of
the Serbian nationalist group Young Bosnia.
Source 7

From a letter written in 1918 by the youngest of the
assassins, 17-year-old Vaso Cubrilovic, to his sisters. Because
he was under 20, Cubrilovic was spared the death penalty but
sentenced to 16 years imprisonment.
Imperial War Museum HU68062
I shall write as much as I remember about the

assassination. I first thought about it in October 1913 in
Tuzla, incensed by the fights we had with our teachers,
the mistreatment of Serbian students, and the general
situation in Bosnia. I thought Id rather kill the one person
whod really harmed our people than fight in another
war for Serbia. All Id achieve in a war is to kill a couple
of innocent soldiers, while these gentlemen who were
responsible for it never come anywhere near the war itself
...
Ilic ... told me that there would be three others, apart
from us three, and that Serbian officers were supplying
the weapons. I asked if the Serbian government knew
about it. He said no ...
230
all the terms of the ultimatum, especially its demand that

Austrian troops be allowed to track down Serb terrorists
inside Serbia.
Source 8

The steps by which
countries were drawn into World War I
28 June
Archduke
Franz Ferdinand
assassinated
5 July
Germany pledges
support for its ally
AustriaHungary.
1914
23 July
AustriaHungary
presents ultimatum
to Serbia.
War begins
Serbia accepted many of the demands and offered to
discuss others, but Austria proceeded to declare war on
28 July. Russia began to mobilise its forces to support
Serbia on 30 July, so Germany declared war on Russia
on 1 August. After France declared it would stand by
its Russian ally, on 3 August Germany declared war on
France. As you can see from Source 8 , Russia, Germany,
France, Belgium, Britain and their empires were drawn
rapidly into a world war.
28 July
AustriaHungary
declares war
on Serbia.
30 July
Russia mobilises
its troops to
support its
ally Serbia.
1 August
Germany
declares
war on
Russia.

1 Create a mind map of the long-term causes of World
War I.
2 Explain why AustriaHungarys military leaders
wanted a war with Serbia (refer to Source 4 in your
explanation).

3 August
Germany
declares war
on France
and invades
Belgium.
4 August
Britain declares war
on Germany in response
to the invasion of neutral
Belgium and in support
of its ally France. Australia,
New Zealand and
Canada enter war in
support of Britain.
6 August
AustriaHungary
declares war
on Russia. Serbia
declares war on
Germany.
Student workbook
8.1
12 August
Britain and France
declare war on
AustriaHungary.
3 Using Source 1 , list the members of the two rival

European alliances.
4 Use Sources 2 and 3 and your own knowledge to
explain:
a why Britain was anxious about Germanys naval
build-up
b why Britain wanted its navy to be able to match
those of any two enemies.
5 Referring to Sources 5 and 6 , explain why the
assassination of the Austrian archduke was so
significant.
6 Using Source 8 , describe the steps by which a local
conflict in the Balkans became a world war.

7 Read Source 7 . According to his letter:
a How did Vaso Cubrilovic justify his involvement in
the assassination?
b Do you think he was justified? Give reasons for your
answer.
c Besides Young Bosnia, what organisation was
involved in the assassination plot?
d Was the Serbian government responsible?
8 Do you think Austria was justified in declaring war?
9 How else could the situation have been resolved?
conscription compulsory enlistment of citizens to serve in the

armed forces
Slavic belonging to the Slavs (a language group including
Russians, Serbs and other Central and Eastern European
peoples)
ultimatum a final set of demands or terms backed by a threat
231
8.3 The world at war

Source 1

How the Schlieffen Plan was meant to work
Rh
ine
of
Dunkirk
BELGIUM
St
ra
it
Calais
Cologne
GERMANY
Brussels
Ri
Boulogne
ve
Se
in
nn
ed
di
re
ct
of
c
t ta
Koblenz
Frankfurt
Mainz
Mezieres
Li
Pl
Rouen
Amiens
on
Lille
Reims
Mar
LUXEMBOURG
ne
ne
150
100
Strasbourg
se
FRANCE
50
Nancy
es
rtr
River
e
Riv
fo
Paris
Verdun
ch
232
en
Germanys strategy was based on the

fact that it had an enemy to the west
(France) and a bigger enemy to the
east (Russia), and that it would be
impossible to defeat both at the same
time. Count Alfred von Schlieffen
had developed Germanys basic plan
in 1905. Under the Schlieffen Plan,
during the six weeks the Germans
believed Russia would need to
mobilise its army, Germany would
launch a quick attack to defeat
France. The victorious German forces
could then be moved by rail to the
east to fight Russia.
ve
Fr
The Western Front
NETHERLANDS
Rotterdam
Do
Widening support
for the Allies
In return for promises of territory,
Italy withdrew from the Triple
Alliance and joined the Allies in
May 1915. As the war progressed,
other countries joined the Allies.
Among them were Greece, Portugal,
Romania, Japan, China, Brazil
and the small countries of Central
America, although many of them
expressed their support without
joining the fighting. The United
States of America joined the Allies
in 1917.
Amsterdam
NORTH SE A
UNITED
KINGDOM
of
World War I was fought between

two groups of countries the Allies
and the Central Powers. At first the
Allies consisted of the British, French
and Russian empires along with
Serbia and Belgium. The Central
Powers were Germany, the AustroHungarian Empire, Bulgaria and
the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Partly
because Britain, France, Germany
and Turkey had empires outside
Europe, what began as a European
war became a global war. It was
fought on many fronts, on land, on
and under the sea and in the air.
Epinal
Belfort
kilometres
Attacking France through neutral

Belgium in August 1914 avoided the
much slower task of a direct invasion
across the heavily fortified French
German border. The plan failed
largely because of strong Belgian
resistance, something Germany had
not expected. Belgian resistance
delayed Germanys advance and
helped French and British forces to
halt the Germans in northern France
in September 1914. Both sides dug
trenches to reduce their losses from
enemy artillery and machine-gun fire.
Over the next four years, millions
of lives were lost in huge offensives
aimed at breaking the deadlock that
resulted from trench warfare.
The Eastern Front

On the Eastern Front, Russian
forces had some early successes but
they were poorly led and equipped,
and the Germans soon gained the
SWITZERLAND
advantage. Around 2 million Russian

soldiers were killed, wounded or
taken prisoner during the war.
Despite some victories against AustroHungarian forces, Russias military
was collapsing by early 1917 and the
Revolution of November 1917 ended
Russias involvement in the war (see
spread8.11).
The war at sea

Germanys naval build-up had been
a major reason for Britains decision
to become an ally of France and
Russia. Both Britain and Germany
believed that navies could determine
the outcome of war. However, in
1914 the German fleet was trapped
in its ports, so the British navys main
role was maintaining a blockade to
prevent Germany from importing
war materials. Germany retaliated by
sending out U-boats to sink allied
shipping. In January 1917 U-boats
Source 2


First World War pp. 1801
Major battlefronts of World War I

Key
FINLAND
SEA
SWEDEN
LT I C
NORWAY
BA
NORTH
DENMARK
SEA
UNITED
KINGDOM
Berlin
GERMANY
NETHERLANDS
London
BELGIUM
FRANCE
SWITZERLAND
Major battlefields
Allies
Western Front
Central Powers
Eastern Front
Neutral states
Italian Front
International boundary
in 1914
Other battlefronts
Moscow
RUSSIAN EMPIRE
AUSTROHUNGARIAN
EMPIRE
ITALY
CA
ROMANIA
Sarajevo
BLACK SEA
SERBIA
BULGARIA
MONTENEGRO
ALBANIA
OTTOMAN
GREECE
EMPIRE
ME
DIT
ERR
ANE
AN SE
Baghdad
A
PERSIA
Jerusalem
Cairo
0
ARABIA
LIBYA
KUWAIT
EGYPT
SP
SPAIN
IAN
SEA
PORTUGAL
ALGERIA
began to attack ships of neutral countries trading with

the Allies. This led to the United States joining the
Allies in April 1917.
Other European fronts

When Italy joined the Allies a new front was opened along
its mountainous frontier with Austria. Fighting continued
there throughout the war. In 1916 Austrian and German
troops overran Rumania soon after it joined the Allies.
After Russian forces captured Armenia from Turkey in
1915, Turkish soldiers rounded up hundreds of thousands
of Armenians living within Turkish territory. They were
sent on a death march and massacred. In the same year,
the Allies failed in their attempt to invade Turkey via the
Gallipoli Peninsula (see spread8.5).
War in the colonies

With most of its navy bottled up in port, Germany
was unable to defend its colonies. In 1914 South Africa
took German South-west Africa, Australia took German
New Guinea, and Japan seized Germanys Pacific islands
colonies and territory in China. Turkeys Middle Eastern
colonies became a theatre of war from 1915, when Britain
encouraged Arab leaders to revolt against the Turks with
promises of independent kingdoms. These promises were
later dishonoured. Germany, in turn, created colonial
problems for Britain by shipping arms to Irish rebels,
who staged an unsuccessful revolt against British rule in
Ireland in 1916.
500
1000
1500
kilometres
Student workbook
8.1

1 Who were the Allies and who were the Central Powers?
2 Make a timeline of the main developments in World
War I.

3 Examine Source 1 .
a In a paragraph, explain why Germany needed to
defeat France quickly and how the Schlieffen Plan
was meant to achieve this.
b In a second paragraph, explain why the plan failed.
4 Study Source 2 and list the main World War I theatres
of war.

5 Britain used Germanys invasion of neutral Belgium
to justify declaring war on Germany on 4 August
1914. Why do you think Germany was willing to risk
provoking Britain?
6 How do you think the Allies were able to gain
advantages from their overseas colonies while Germany
was unable to do the same?
blockade sealing off an area so that nothing can get in or out

deadlock a stalemate in which neither side can gain an
advantage
U-boats German submarines
233
8.4 Australians in the
Great War an overview
Why were many Australians willing to fight in World War I, and where did they serve? You have already learned
about how World War I began and the main developments that shaped the course of the war. Now we will try to
understand why Australians took part and the ways in which they contributed.
Australias response to the

outbreak of war
When Britain declared war on
Germany on 4 August 1914 Australia
was part of the British Empire
and therefore was also at war. The
Australian Labor Party leader,
Andrew Fisher, expressed a popular
view when he pledged that Australia
would back Britain to the last man
and the last shilling. Australia was
the only combatant that did not
impose conscription, so individual

Australians still had the choice of
whether or not they would fight. But
enthusiastic volunteers from all over
the country rushed to enlist.
Why did they do this? Soldiers
letters and diaries reveal that some
went for personal reasons such as to
escape unemployment, to travel or to
seek adventure. Many imagined war
was exciting and that this one would
all be over in weeks. But most joined
believing that Britains cause was
Source 1

Private A. J. McSparrow,
in a letter dated 18 March 1915.
Private McSparrow died of wounds in
August 1916.
I have [enlisted] ... and I dont

regret it in the very least. I believe
it is every young fellows duty ...
besides every paper one lifts it has
something to say about young
fellows being so slow in coming
forward we are the sort of men
who should go.
Source 2

Corporal R. E. Antill, in a
letter to his parents dated 23 April
1915. Corporal Antill was killed in
action in July 1917. (4/- means four
shillings.)
... things were so [economically]

bad in Melbourne ... and they are
a jolly site worse now ... every
day that passes 4/- goes down to
me and this war is bound to last a
good while yet ... if I am killed you
will get what is due to me just the
same, as it goes to the next of kin.
Source 3
Gallipoli
In 1915 Australians played a major role

in the Allies failed attempt to invade
Turkey through an attack on the
Gallipoli Peninsula (see spread8.5).
The Western Front
By September 1914 French and British

forces had halted the German advance
on the fields of northern France and
Belgium. Between 1916 and 1918, all
five Australian Divisions took part in
the terrible fighting on the Western
Front (see spread8.7).
234
Where Australians
fought in
World War I
The Middle East
The Australian Flying Corps, the

Australia Light Horse and Australians
in the Imperial Camel Corps played
a big role in battles against Turkish
forces in Egypt and Palestine between
1916 and 1918.
right. They had been brought up to

believe that men should be willing to
die for their country and the empire,
and that Australia needed to prove to
Britain that Australians were heroic
and worthy of being regarded as true
Britons.
The formation of
the Anzacs
Australia quickly recruited a volunteer
army it called the Australian
Imperial Force (AIF). By September
1914, 20000 soldiers had been
selected and organised into the 1st
Infantry Division and a Light Horse
(mounted) Brigade. By December
they were training in Egypt. There
the AIF was joined by 10000 New
Zealand troops to form the Australian
and New Zealand Army Corps
(ANZAC).
Where did they fight?

Australians took part in several
theatres of the war on land, at sea and
in the air.
War at sea
In Australias first action in the war,

the small Royal Australian Navy (RAN)
sent its only battle cruiser Australia
with the Australian Naval and Military
Force to capture German New Guinea
in September 1914. The RAN also
escorted convoys of transport ships
carrying troops to the war. It drove
the Germans out of the Pacific. It
also served in the Atlantic and Indian
oceans, the Mediterranean and the
North Sea.
Source 4

Student workbook
8.2
Troops embarking at Port Melbourne in 1915

1 What did Andrew Fisher mean when he said that
Australia would back Britain to the last man and the last
shilling?
2 How did most Australians view war in 1914?

3 Explain the meanings of AIF and ANZAC.
4 Make a list of places where Australians fought during
World War I and when they fought there.

5 Compare the reasons given for enlisting in
Sources 1 and 2 . What do these sources tell us about the
different motives of the volunteers?
6 Write an imaginary conversation between two of the
men in Source 4 in which they discuss the beliefs and
feelings that led them to sign up for the war.
AWM H19500

7 Working in small groups, use the website of the
Australian War Memorial to find out more about the
incident shown in Source 5 . Use this information to
create a newspaper headline and the kind of news
article that might have told of the incident in 1914.
Source 5

Emden
beached and done for,
9 November 1914,
painted by Arthur
Burgess in 1920
Burgess, Arthur
Emden beached
and done for,
9 November 1914 (1920)
Oil on canvas
168.5 254.5 cm
Australian War
Memorial ART00191
The light cruiser Sydney sank the German raider Emden near the CocosKeeling
group of islands in the Indian Ocean on 9 November 1914. This was considered
a great feat because the Emden had already sunk 25 Allied steamers and two
warships and raided Allied bases in the Pacific.
enlist to join voluntarily, usually the

military
235
8.5 Gallipoli
Why Gallipoli?
Gallipoli has deep significance for most Australians.

Between 25 April and 18 December 1915 thousands of
young Australian and New Zealand soldiers died on the
beaches and cliffs and in the gullies of Turkeys Gallipoli
Peninsula during Australias first land campaign of
World War I. Although the expedition was a failure, the
courage and endurance of these men created the Anzac
legend.
The strategy for an Allied attack on Gallipoli was based

on the idea of Winston Churchill, who, as First Lord of
the Admiralty, controlled Britains Royal Navy. Churchill
thought that an attack on Turkey would shorten the war
because:
Turkey could be defeated and AustriaHungary would
be threatened
Greece, Bulgaria and Romania would be persuaded join
the Allies
supplies could be shipped through the Dardanelles (a
narrow strait between the Aegean Sea and the Black
Sea) to Russian troops, who were fighting Germany on
the Eastern Front.
The first aim was to capture the Dardanelles (see
Source 1 ), opening the heavily fortified strait to Allied
The soldiers of the AIF had expected to sail to England to

complete their training and then go to the Western Front
in France and Belgium, where most British troops were
fighting the Germans. Instead the Anzacs were trained
in Egypt to form a crucial part of a campaign against
Germanys ally Turkey.
Source 1

The Gallipoli Peninsula
Gul f of S aros
BLACK SEA
Constantinople
Gallipoli
AEGEAN
SEA
TURKEY
SEA OF
MARMARA
AEGEAN
Suvla Bay
SEA
I N
Ari Burnu
Anzac Cove
Gaba Tepe
Kum Tepe
Kilitbahir
rd
e
ll
A
Gallipoli
OT TO M A N E M P I R E
(TURKEY)
Canakkale
Kephez
Point
Key
Cape Helles
Gallipoli
Medere Bay
Kum Kale
Minefield
0
10
20
kilometres
236
City
30
Anchored mines
Source 2

Anzac, the landing 1915, by George Lambert. Completed between 1920 and 1922, the painting shows
men of the 3rd Brigade struggling under fire up the slopes of Ari Burnu shortly after 4.30 am on 25 April 1915.
Lambert, George Anzac, the landing 1915 (19201922)

Oil on canvas, 190.5 350.5 cm, Australian War Memorial
shipping. After an attempt to do this by naval attack

failed, a landing of British, French, Anzac and other
British Empire troops was planned. The Allied forces were
to land on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
The landing
The first landing of soldiers on the beaches of Gallipoli
took place on the morning of 25 April 1915. British and
French troops landed around Cape Helles. Australians
and New Zealanders landed before dawn north of Gaba
Tepe. The Anzacs had to reach the shore in landing
craft and claw their way up steep cliffs under Turkish
fire. Throughout the first day there was confusion
and ferocious fighting, much of it hand-to-hand. The
battle ebbed and flowed and at last the Turks, fighting
Source 3

From the diary of Sergeant W.E.Turnley, who took
part in the initial landing at Anzac Cove
There are a couple of lights flashing about they must

have seen us ... Crack! Swish! Ping! At last ... the
suspense is over! ... some get ashore safely, some are
hit slightly, others are drowned in only a couple of feet
of water because in the excitement nobody notices their
plight. [One] fellow remains in the boat after all the
others have disembarked ... he ... looks at us dazedly,
leaning forward on his rifle ... the soldier falls forward
into the bottom of the boat, dead.
Source 4

From a description of the landing by British general
Sir Ian Hamilton, commander of the 80000 Allied troops at
Gallipoli
Like lightning they leapt ashore ... so vigorous was the

onslaught that the Turks made no attempt to withstand
it and fled from ridge to ridge pursued by Australian
infantry.
courageously, won back control of the high ridges that

had been reached by scattered groups of Anzacs. As night
fell, the Anzacs found themselves holding only a few
square kilometres of beach, cliffs and gullies and they were
ordered to dig in.
Through the night the Turks launched waves of fierce
counterattacks. Both sides suffered heavy losses but the
Anzac lines held. Strategically, the landing had failed, for
the Turks still held the high positions. For the Anzacs it
was a triumph of courage over inexperience, but they paid
a high price. At least 2300 died that day.
In the days after the landing, Private John Simpson

(Kirkpatrick), stretcher-bearer of the 3rd Australian Field
Ambulance, calmly led his donkey up and down the
gully from the front line to the beach, evacuating many
wounded men, until he was killed on 19 May.
237
Source 5

The Australian 22nd Battalion, newly arrived from Egypt,
going into the line at the southern part of Lone Pine, Gallipoli Peninsula
AWM A00847
On the night of 1819 May the Anzacs withstood a

massive counterattack as 42000 Turks were ordered to
drive them from their positions and back into the sea.
In courageous but suicidal charges, the Turks lost
10000 men, half of whom lay dead or wounded in
no mans land. Around midday a truce was arranged so
both sides could bury their dead before the battle resumed.
Gallipoli. Soldiers made grenades from jam tins filled with

explosives, nails, stones and shrapnel. Some men learned
to catch Turkish grenades and throw them back before
they detonated. Mass bayonet charges were frequent but
were doomed as, once in open ground, the men were cut
down by machine-gun fire. Increasingly they turned to the
tactic of mining under enemy trenches and blowing them
up from below.
The heat of summer and the many rotting corpses in
no mans land brought such incessant swarms of flies that
soldiers wrote of their mouths filling with flies when they
tried to eat a biscuit with jam. With the flies came diseases
such as typhoid and dysentery.
Despite the fact that both sides often killed men rather
than take prisoners, the Anzacs and the Turks came to
respect each others courage. The Australians affectionately
called their adversaries Jacko, Abdul or Johnnie Turk.
In between the bombs and bullets, gifts, jokes and
greetings were exchanged.
Life on Gallipoli
Lone Pine
These were weeks of tragic waste, terror and extraordinary

courage. With the Turks occupying much of the high
ground above them, none of the Anzacs were ever free
from danger. Yet they were forced to adapt to life on
In August operations aimed at breaking the deadlock

and seizing the high ground began. Australian troops
had the task of diverting Turkish forces while another
force of Anzac, British and Indian troops landed at Suvla
After the landing

The Gallipoli campaign was not to be the quick, glorious
victory Australians had expected. It was a long, agonising
ordeal in which the death toll mounted on both sides.
During the first week the fighting hardly stopped. By
early May most Anzac officers and about half the men in
each battalion had been killed or wounded. Despite such
casualties, many wounded men who had been evacuated
were anxious to return to the front.
The Turkish counterattack
238
Bay and advanced to capture the high ridges. The Lone

Pine diversion was among the most savage battles of the
Gallipoli campaign. The Australians charged the Turkish
positions and lost more than 2300 killed or wounded in
four days and nights of hand-to-hand fighting. The Turks
lost about 6000 men.
When they abandoned Gallipoli, the Anzacs left behind

7591 Australian and 2431 New Zealand dead. Many
thousands of other British Empire soldiers and French and
Turkish troops also died during the campaign.
Source 6

During the evacuation, the Allied troops
needed to make the Turks think they were still in
their trenches. One trick was to rig rifles to fire
automatically. Once enough water had dripped
from the top tin into the bottom tin, its weight pulled
the trigger.

Gallipoli Campaign pp. 1823
Student workbook
8.3
AWM G01291
The Nek
On 7 August, in another attack whose aim was to divert
the Turks, troops of the Australian Light Horse were
ordered to make bayonet charges up a narrow strip of
open ground called the Nek. The attacks proceeded even
though the plan to capture the ridges had failed. The
naval bombardment of the Turkish trenches stopped
several minutes too soon. This allowed the Turks to
return to their firing positions. Four successive lines of
Light Horsemen, each of about 150 men, charged from
their trenches towards the Turkish lines. Cut down by
machine-gun fire, nearly all fell dead or wounded within
a few metres of their own trenches. Their bravery was
extraordinary but their deaths achieved nothing.
Withdrawal
After seven months, the British command finally accepted
that victory would not be possible. Ironically, the bestmanaged part of the entire campaign proved to be the
withdrawal of all Allied soldiers during December. The
soldiers and war materials were evacuated secretly at
night. Throughout the operation every effort was made
to convince the Turks that nothing out of the ordinary
was going on. Cricket matches were played on the beach,
and empty crates were brought ashore each day. When the
Turks charged down from the hills on 20 December they
found that the enemy had vanished.
no mans land unoccupied ground between the front lines of
opposing armies

1 Describe the scale of Anzac casualties in the first week of
the Gallipoli campaign.
2 Make a list of some of the hardships faced by the Anzacs
during the Gallipoli campaign.
3 Describe ways in which the Anzacs adapted and coped
with these hardships.

4 Look closely at Source 1 .
a What aspects of this map show that it would
have been difficult for a naval force to capture the
Dardanelles?
b Why would a successful land invasion also have been
difficult?
5 Source 2 depicts the April 25 landing.
a Describe the details of this painting and what you
can tell from it about the landing at Gallipoli.
b The artist was commissioned by the government to
produce this painting. Would this make it any more
or less reliable as a historical source?
6 How difficult would it have been for the men in
Source 5 to attack the Turkish trenches? (Consider the
terrain and lack of cover.)
7 Source 6 shows one device used during the withdrawal
from Gallipoli. What else contributed to the success of
the evacuation?

8 Compare the descriptions of the landing at Gallipoli
in Sources 3 and 4 . Describe the difference in their
perspectives. Explain why they are different, decide
which source you would consider to be the more
reliable and give reasons for your choice.

9 Find at least three photographs on the Australian War
Memorial website and use them to present a data show
on the experiences of the Anzacs on Gallipoli.
239
8.6 Trench warfare

The main fighting of World War I took place in and around the trenches of the Western Front. By 1915 these
stretched over 500 kilometres, from the Belgian coast through to the Swiss Alps, and were home to millions of
troops. Trench warfare produced no winners; rather, it was a defensive tactic that led to continual stalemate.
Over four years the armies of both sides lived and died in them. When the fighting was at its heaviest, tens of
thousands of men could be killed or wounded in a single day.
Most battlefield trenches contained many defensive

structures. The most commonly used arrangement
was the three-line trench system. This allowed
front-line trenches for firing at the enemy, support
trenches where troops could be rested, and reserve
Source 1

Modern artists interpretation of a
typical trench system
trenches to hold reinforcements and supplies.

Communication trenches linked all three trench lines,
allowing for easier movement of troops and information.
Some German trenches extended up to ten metres
underground.
guns were one of the most

E Machine
deadly weapons. They were able to
fire 400500 bullets every minute.
were generally designed in a

A Trenches
zigzag pattern; this helped to protect
steps and scaling ladders were

F Fire
needed to enable the troops to go
the trench against enemy attack. Each

bend could be defended separately
if necessary and explosions could be
contained.
over the top of the trenches. Going

over the top refers to the orders given
to troops to leave the trenches and
head out into no mans land in an
attempt to attack the enemy trenches.
soldier was issued with a kit

G Each
containing nearly 30 kilograms of
equipment. This included a rifle, two

grenades, 220 rounds of ammunition,
a steel helmet, wire cutters, field
dressing, entrenching tool (a spade),
a heavy coat, two sandbags, rolled
ground sheet, water bottle, haversack,
mess tin, towel, shaving kit, extra
socks and preserved food rations. The
weight made it very difficult to move
quickly, and many men chose to share
gear to minimise their load.
toilets were called

B Trench
latrines. They were usually pits
1.5metres deep, dug at the
end of a short gangway. Each
company had two sanitary
personnel whose job it was
to keep the latrines in good
condition. Officers gave out
sanitary duty as a punishment
for breaking army regulations.
British army employed

C The
300000 field workers to cook
A
E
and supply the food for the

troops. However, in many
instances there was not
enough food for the workers
to cook. Rations were regularly
cut and of a poor standard. The
bulk of the diet in the trenches
was bully beef (canned corned
beef), bread and biscuits.
filled with earth were

D Sandbags
used to shore up the edges of
the trenches; they also helped
to absorb bullets and shell
fragments. The men packing
and then stacking the filled
bags worked in pairs and were
expected to move 60 bags an
hour.
240
were wooden planks placed

J Duckboards
across the bottom of trenches and other
wire was used

H Barbed
extensively throughout
areas of muddy ground. They enabled

soldiers to stand out of the mud. The
trench system was constantly waterlogged,
particularly during the winter months.
Duckboards were the only way of protecting
the men from contracting the dreaded
trench foot and from sinking deep into
the mud.
the trench system. While

it helped to protect the
trenches, it made it very
difficult to attack the
opposing trench. In the
dark of night, soldiers were
sent out to cut sections of
wire to make it easier for
the attacking soldiers in
morning raids. Minor cuts
and grazes caused by the
barbed wire often became
infected in the unsanitary
conditions of the trenches.
use of mustard gas and other chemical

K The
weapons meant that all soldiers needed
to have gas masks near at hand. Until all

troops could be issued with masks, many
soldiers used urine-soaked material to
help keep out the deadly gas. Mustard gas
was almost odourless and took 12 hours
to take effect. It was so powerful that small
amounts, added to high-explosive shells,
were effective. Once in the soil, mustard gas
remained active for several weeks.
mans land was the

I No
space between the two
opposing trenches; it
was protected by rows of
barbed wire. It could be
anywhere from 50metres
to one kilometre wide.
Student workbook
8.4
EXPLANATION AND
COMMUNICATION
1 Why did the armies build a threeline trench system, often in a zigzag
pattern?
2 Suggest why the trench system was
ultimately unsuccessful as a military
tactic.
3 Expand this concept map to describe
why weather played such a key role in
the conditions of the trenches.
Heat
ud
Muddy
boots
sm
orm
F
Rain
Weather
es
us
Ca
Flu
Wet
clothes
4 Discuss as a class some of the problems

you think the soldiers in the trenches
would have faced each day.
5 Imagine you are a soldier who has been
blinded in the trenches. Describe what
you would hear, smell and feel.
6 Using sticks, string, cardboard and

small mirrors, design and construct a
periscope that would enable you to
see over the top of an obstacle without
lifting your head. Explain in a paragraph
why such a device was needed (and
often made) by those fighting in
trenches.
7 Working in small groups, and referring
to Source 1 (a secondary source),
construct a trench diorama. Elect a
group spokesperson to talk to the class
about one aspect of your model (e.g. its
advantages or disadvantages).
cold, wet winters and hot, dry summers would have made life
L Long,
in the trenches horrendous. Snow, rain and freezing temperatures
drastically slowed combat during the winter months. Lack of fresh
water, scorching sun with limited coverage, and the stench of
dead bodies and rubbish would have made the hotter months
unbearable.
F
F
stalemate a term that comes from the game

of chess, meaning a situation in which neither
side can gain a winning advantage
trench foot a painful, swollen condition
caused by feet remaining wet for too long;
if gangrene set in, the feet would have to be
amputated
241
8.7 The Western Front

After Gallipoli, the Anzacs returned to Egypt to be joined by fresh troops. The Light Horse remained in the Middle East
along with Australians serving in the Imperial Camel Corps and the Australian Flying Corps. For the remainder of the
war, these soldiers took part in desert warfare against Turkish forces. Most Australian troops left for France in 1916,
where for three years they experienced the horrors and savagery of the war on the Western Front.
Fromelles and Pozires
Ypres
Fromelles
So
River
Amiens
Villers-Bretonneux
Passchendaele
Messines
Armentires
Pozires
Bapaume
Bullecourt
ve
se
Marn
Sei
LUXEMBOURG
(Neutral)
St Quentin
Ri
Oi
BELGIUM
Verdun
e
Ri
ne
Paris
ve
FRANCE
River
242
GERMANY
use
The spring offensive of 1917 followed the coldest winter

in forty years. In April the United States of America
joined the war on the Allied side, although it would be
many months before its troops would be ready to play
a role. The Germans had pulled back to the strongly
fortified Hindenburg line and most soldiers on both
sides were war-weary with little enthusiasm left for
fighting.
SEA
Me
Bullecourt and Ypres
NETHERLANDS
(Neutral)
... God knows what we went through, was Hell itself. We

just had to grit our teeth and go ahead and do our job. I
am not going to tell a lie and say I wasnt afraid because
I was and who wouldnt be with Death grinning at you
from all round and hellish 5.9 shells shrieking through the
air and shrapnel dealing death all round. I dont know
how I stood itfor so long without breaking.
NORTH
ve
Source 1

Major W. G. M. Claridge, writing from hospital after
the Battle of Pozires, quoted in Bill Gammage, The Broken
Years, 1975, p. 164
Trench warfare on the Western Front
Ri
On 1 July 1916, the First Battle of the Somme

began. The British and French attack on the Somme was
intended to draw German troops away from their massive
attack on French positions at Verdun. On that first day of
the Somme offensive, the British army suffered the worst
day in its history with 57470casualties (troops killed or
wounded).
The Australian 5th Division suffered over
5000casualties on 19 July in a feint at Fromelles,
north of the Somme, which was meant to divert German
reserve troops. On the Somme, the AIF suffered almost
23000 casualties taking and holding the town of Pozires
in a battle that began on 23 July. For seven weeks
Australian soldiers were blown apart or buried alive as
they fought to hold the captured town under a German
artillery bombardment that pounded Pozires into a
wasteland of rubble.
When the Battle of the Somme ended as the autumn
rains filled the trenches, neither side had been able
to break the stalemate. Nothing had been gained but
Germany had lost 450000 men, France 200000 and
Britain 420000.
Source 2

Key
Trench warfare on the
Western Front
Hindenburg Line
50
100
150
kilometres
In April, Australians were sent to attack the German

trenches near Bullecourt but the tanks that were meant
to spearhead the attack broke down, the Australians were
struck by a misdirected British artillery barrage as well as
German counter-attacks, and the attacking force suffered
80 per cent casualties. Despite this, in May the Australians
captured and held Bullecourt. In Belgium in September
and October, the AIF suffered 38000 casualties in the
terrible Third Battle of Ypres, in which each side lost
about half a million men.
Victory in 1918
In 1918 the end of fighting on the Eastern Front enabled
Germany to move many more troops to the Western
Front. In March, the Germans threw everything they
Source 3

This painting depicts an attack, during the Third Battle of
Ypres, in which Australian troops were trying to capture a German
pillbox, a fortified concrete blockhouse with machine guns firing from
loopholes. Pillboxes could be taken only by infantry attacking closely
behind their own artillery barrage.
had into a last offensive aimed at gaining victory before

US troops could arrive in sufficient numbers to make a
German victory impossible. Australians played a key role
in turning back this offensive through their fierce resistance
at the French village of Villers-Bretonneux. Then, in July,
Australians made the first large Allied attack of 1918.
The AIF fought its last battles in October and when the
fighting was ended with the Armistice of 11 November
1918 it was recognised that they had achieved more than
any other British Empire troops and had suffered more
casualties in proportion to their numbers.
The human cost

Of the 417000 men who enlisted in the AIF, about 324000
served overseas and approximately 295000 of these served
on the Western Front. Nearly 65 per cent became casualties
and around 60000 Australians died on active service. It was
a terrible sacrifice for a young nation.
artillery large-calibre guns
feint a dummy attack meant to deceive the enemy into moving
troops from where the main attack will take place
Hindenburg line a heavily fortified position to which the
Germans withdrew before the Allied offensive of spring 1917
Leist, Fred
Australian infantry attack
in Polygon Wood (1919)
Oil on canvas, 122.5 245cm
Australian War Memorial ART02927
Student workbook
8.3
EXPLANATION AND INTERPRETATION

1 Use Source 2 and information in this spread to list
some of the main battles in which the AIF fought on the
Western Front.
2 Outline some of the reasons for high Australian
casualties at Pozires and Bullecourt.
3 Look back at the paragraph headed The human cost.
a Calculate the approximate number of Australian
casualties in World War I.
b What impact do you think such losses would have
had on a country of less than five million people?

4 In Source 1 , Major Claridge describes the Battle of
Pozires as Hell itself.
a Describe the features of this battle that would justify
that description.
b How reliable do you think this source would be? Give
the reasons for your answer.

5 Look closely at Source 3 and imagine that you are one
of the survivors of this attack. Write a letter to your
family in which you describe what happened and your
own feelings during the fighting.
243
8.8SkillBuilder
Analysing photographs
Why is it useful to analyse photographs?
Photographs can be useful primary sources. Analysing
a photograph is therefore a very important skill when
studying history. You might think that a photograph
is always an accurate record of what happened, rather
than somebodys impression of it. But that is not
necessarily true. Often when you take a photograph,
you compose a picture, choosing the angle from which
you want to shoot, what you will have in it, what
part of a scene you will leave out and whether it will
be taken close up or from a distance. Modern digital
photography had not been invented until long after
World War I, but even with the cameras that existed at
the time, skilful photographers could edit pictures in
ways that changed their meaning.
World War I photographs

Many tens of thousands of photographs were taken
during World War I, even though soldiers could be
court-martialled for taking photographs in battlefront
areas. A large number of photographs were taken for
military reasons or to create a visual record of the war.
Many of the best photographs were taken by official war
What questions should we ask?

1. The photographer. Who took the photograph
(if known)? What is the source (if stated)?
2. Location. Where is the location? When was the
photograph taken?
3. Editing. Has the photograph been posed or has the
photographer simply recorded a scene? Has the
photograph been cropped and, if so, has this changed
its meaning at all? Has the photograph been changed
by adding or removing any details?
4. Composition. Is the photograph taken from close up or
from a distance and does this affect our reaction to it?
5. Subject. What is the main subject? What background
and minor details are shown? What extra information
do the minor details add?
6. Motive. Why was the photograph taken (if known)?
7. Evidence. For what does the photograph provide
evidence?
How to analyse a World War I photograph
AWM E00732
Source 1

A scene near Ypres, Belgium, on 17 September
1917. This spot, during the Ypres battles, was never free of
such scenes. The photograph belongs to the Australian War
Memorial photographic collections. The photographer is
unknown.
photographers like Australias Frank Hurley. However,

we sometimes have to be careful to recognise features in
the photographs that have been altered to make them
useful for propaganda.
244
Student workbook
8.5
Ask these questions

Use these questions to analyse
Source 1
Question
Answer
Who took the photograph (if known)? What is the source

(if stated)?
The photographer is unknown. The photograph belongs

to the Australian War Memorial.
Where is the location? When was the photograph taken?
The photograph was taken near Ypres. It was taken in

September 1917, which places it at the time of the Third
Battle of Ypres.
Has the photograph been posed or has the photographer simply

recorded a scene? Has the photograph been cropped and if so
has this changed its meaning at all? Has the photograph been
changed by adding or removing any details?
There is no evidence that the photograph has been

cropped although it is equally possible that it has been.
Nor is there evidence of any tampering with the image.
Is the photograph taken from close up or from a distance and

does this affect our reaction to it?
The photograph has been taken close up to the dead

horses so that we react first to the scene in the foreground
then our eyes move to the background. This photographer
has a good sense of composition.
What is the main subject? What background and minor details

are shown? What extra information do the minor details add?
The subject is the destructive power of the war. The

bloated bodies of dead horses in the foreground are no
more important than the soldiers marching towards
them in the background, possibly to share their fate. The
smashed wagon, churned up earth and battered trees all
contribute to an image of devastation.
Why was the photograph taken (if known)?
We do not know exactly why the photograph was taken,

whether for personal or historical reasons.
For what does the photograph provide evidence?
It provides solid evidence for the effect of the war on the

landscape, animals and men.
Source 3

Soldiers
of the Australian 45th
Battalion wearing gas
respirators in a trench
in the Menin Road area,
near Ypres, Belgium,
on 27 September 1917.
The picture was taken
by Frank Hurley, the
official Australian
war photographer.
It now belongs to
the Australian War
Memorial photographic
collections.
.
AWM P07670.003
Source 2

Australian machine-gunners in action at
Pozires in 1916. The photograph is one of a series taken
by Corporal Robert Willie Nenke, who was killed in action
on 10 August1918. The photograph now belongs to the
Australian War Memorial photographic collections.
Sources 2 and 3
AWM E00825
Now use the questions in the table to analyse
245
8.9 The home front

Source 1

An appeal from the Dardanelles: Will they never come? Produced by the
State Parliamentary Recruiting Committee in Victoria, this was the first recruiting poster
used in Australia.
During the first years of fighting most

Australians believed that the war
was just and was worth the sacrifice
that was being made. Australians
proudly hailed the achievements
of the Anzacs as proof of their
countrys standing among nations.
However, as the conflict dragged
on, and demanded ever greater
sacrifices, Australian society became
increasingly divided.
Growing government
controls
The Commonwealth Government
gained new powers to manage
Australias war effort. The war was
expensive, in both money and lives,
and from 1915 a federal income tax
and other taxes were introduced to
help pay the interest on growing war
debts. The government also took
away many democratic rights. The
War Precautions Act of 1915 and
other Acts of Parliament allowed
the government to restrict freedom
of speech, freedom of association
and freedom of the press. It became
a crime to say anything that might
discourage people from enlisting or
to show disloyalty to the British
Empire.
In Australia during World WarI

there were 33000 people of
German descent. Many were
interned in prison camps. If they
had become Australian citizens
they could remain free, but they
were often bullied and humiliated.
Some were sacked from their
jobs. German-owned businesses
were boycotted and harassed,
and German place names were
changed. There are even reports of
dachshund dogs being kicked and
stoned.
246
Hannan, Jim
An appeal from the Dardanelles: Will they never come? (1915)
Offset lithograph on paper, 225 200 cm
Australian War Memorial ARTV07583
According to the government,

censorship was needed to keep
morale high and to keep information
from the enemy. However, it was
also used to silence people who
criticised the war. Tom Barker was
sentenced to 12 months in prison
for publishing a cartoon that the
government considered might harm
recruiting. Barker was the editor
of Direct Action, the newspaper of
a revolutionary group called the
Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW). The IWW argued that the
war was wrong because the workers
only real enemies were the wealthy

capitalists who profited from the
conflict.
Australia divided
Most Australians believed wartime
propaganda that portrayed German
soldiers as monsters who raped nuns,
murdered civilians and impaled babies
on bayonets. Through newspapers
and public meetings, people were
continually told that the war was a
simple struggle between good and
evil, between British civilisation and
German barbarism.
Source 2

Remember
Gallipoli! Enlist to-day,
a recruiting poster
produced by the State
War Council, South
Australia, 191618
Wall, C.
Remember Gallipoli!
(19151918)
Photolithograph on paper
Overall: 63.6 81.4 cm;
sheet: 54.4 64.6 cm
Australian War
Memorial ART08939
At first, opponents of the war were

a tiny minority. Pacifists opposed
it, as did some Irish Australians who
resented British rule in Ireland. Some
socialists saw it as a clash between
capitalist empires for the right to
exploit the workers of the world.
Gradually opposition to the war
became more widespread. Increased
inequality played a part. While
prices rose by almost 50per cent,
wages were frozen. At the same time,
big profits were made by owners
of woollen mills and others who
Source 3

From Instructions for the
Guidance of Enlisting Officers at
Approved Military Recruiting Depots,
Brisbane, April 1916
Aboriginals, half-castes, or
men with Asiatic blood are not
to be enlisted. This applies to all
coloured men.
supplied war materials. Growing

inequality caused serious strikes in
1916 and a general strike in 1917
involving waterside workers, seamen,
transport workers and miners. The
use of strikebreakers to defeat the
strikes caused great bitterness and
deepened divisions.
Patriotic rallies and funds

Many people, possibly a majority,
continued to support the war.
At patriotic gatherings such as
Empire Day, Allies Day and Anzac
Day rallies, speakers encouraged
Australians to stay loyal to Britain,
to hate Germany and to make still
greater sacrifices. Governments,
churches and citizens organised and
supported patriotic funds to help
the war effort. They included the
National Belgian Relief Fund, the
Travelling Kitchen Fund and the
Blind Heroes Fund. Local win-the-
war leagues donated food and labour

to help soldiers families.
The childrens war effort

Schools and community organisations
involved children in patriotic
activities including raising money and
making clothes and equipment for
war victims and troops. In particular,
schools were used to inspire
Source 4

From Instructions to
Enlisting and Recruiting Officers,
December 1916
Half-castes may be enlisted when,

in the opinion of the District
Commandant, they are suitable ...
As a guide in this matter it is to be
borne in mind that these men will
be required to live with white men
and share their accommodation,
and their selection is to be judged
from this standpoint ...
247
patriotism in children. At the age of

12, schoolboys became junior cadets.
Girls made clothes for the troops and
war victims. Children grew vegetables
for soldiers families, read stories of
heroes of the British and Australian
forces and recited loyalty pledges.
School rolls of honour listed the
names of former pupils and teachers
who had gone to the war. Children
were taught that all Allied countries
were good while the Central Powers
were monsters.
Recruiting campaigns
In 1914 there were many more
volunteers than the army could
accommodate. But as the casualty
lists grew, fewer men volunteered
than were needed. As Britain
requested ever more Australian
troops, recruiting campaigns were
used to encourage or shame men into
enlisting. In some of these campaigns,
people marched long distances,
calling on others to join them and to
enlist. By mid 1916 the campaigns
were failing to attract the numbers
the government wanted. In 1918

recruiting officers even visited schools
in order to urge children to encourage
their family members to enlist.
Women and the war effort

Some 3000 Australian women
travelled overseas with the Australian
Army Nursing Service. They served
in all theatres of the war and on
transport and hospital ships. These
nurses worked under extreme
conditions tending the wounded after
battles. Several nurses were wounded
and 13 were killed. However, the
Australian government refused to
allow women to serve in any direct
roles in the armed forces. As the men
went off to war, many women entered
the paid workforce. Thousands more
helped with recruiting campaigns,
fund-raising and charity work.
Voluntary work
Thousands of women helped troops
by providing extra clothing, tobacco,
medicines and other comforts that
the army failed to provide. They also
Source 5

Students at Woy Woy Public School during a patriotic pageant in
1916 gather around a roll of honour erected by residents of the district.
248
Some Australians were barred on

racial grounds from enlisting. In
1915 the Defence Act was changed
to state that Aboriginal and Asian
men could not enlist. In 1916
the ban was modified to permit
enlistment if a volunteer had one
European parent. Approximately
400 Aboriginal soldiers served in
the AIF.
made clothes for Allied refugees.

Many other women cared for
returning invalids through the Red
Cross. They met returning hospital
ships and provided kitchens and rest
homes. The Red Cross raised
12 million pounds during the war
to pay for this work.
Women for and against the war

Women were among the wars
fiercest supporters. They helped in
recruiting campaigns, issuing posters
and pamphlets and speaking at
rallies. Some women shamed men
Student workbook
8.6
Source 6

Most emphatically I say NO! This poster was
produced by the Queensland Recruiting Committee in 191517.

1 How did the Australian government restrict
democratic rights during World War I?
2 Which groups in Australia were against the war from
the beginning and why?
3 Why was there an increase in opposition to the war
by 191617?
4 How did women and children contribute to the war
effort?
5 Why did it become necessary to run recruiting
campaigns?

6 If you were a worker during World War I and you
were becoming much poorer while your employer
profited from the war, would you have been justified
in striking? Support your answer.
7 How are children contributing to the war effort in
Source 5 ?
Unknown (Artist)
Most emphatically I say no! (c. 19141917)
Offset lithograph on paper, 76.4 101.7 cm
Australian War Memorial ARTV04953
Source 7

Australian artist Norman Lindsay produced this
poster for the Australian government in 1918.
8 Use Sources 3 and 4 to describe discrimination against

Aboriginal and Asian men wishing to enlist for World
War I.
9 Why do you think the recruiting authorities changed
their policies towards Aboriginal and Asian men
during 1916?
10 Look carefully at Sources 1, 2, 6 and 7 . In each of these
posters:
a What is the aim of the propaganda?
b To what beliefs and feelings does it appeal?
c How effective do you think it would have been?

11 Use your library and the internet to conduct research
and prepare a brief report on World War I recruiting
campaigns.
into enlisting by handing out white feathers a symbol

of cowardice to those who had not volunteered. The
Australian Womens National League campaigned for
conscription. Women were also among the wars strongest
critics. Vida Goldstein was among those who formed
peace organisations and campaigned against conscription.
The greatest contribution of women, however, would
hardly ever be spoken of. It was the lifelong care thousands
gave to their fathers, husbands, sons and brothers who
returned with terrible physical, emotional and mental
wounds from the horrors of war.
Lindsay, Norman
God bless dear Daddy (1918)
Chromolithograph on paper, 46.8 38.4 cm
censorship restriction or control of what people can say, hear,

see or read
half-caste a term that is now considered offensive but was
widely used in the mid-1900s to refer to people of mixed race
pacifist person who holds a religious or other conscientious
belief that it is immoral to take part in war
propaganda distortion of the truth to persuade people to
support an action or point of view
249
8.10 The conscription issue

Of all the armies fighting in World War I, only the AIF
was formed entirely from volunteers. But by mid 1916
recruiting campaigns were no longer convincing
enough men to enlist. When Labor prime minister
William Morris (Billy) Hughes decided that Australia
should follow Britains example by introducing
conscription, divisions in Australian society became
very bitter. The Australian Labor Party (ALP) was against
conscription, but Hughes went against party policy and
tried to win public support for conscription through two
bitterly fought referendum campaigns in 1916 and 1917.
Source 2

The Antis Creed, a leaflet supporting conscription
in the 1917 referendum
A divisive issue
Source 1

Conscription for and against
YES!
250
AWM RC00317
Conscription was among the most divisive issues in

Australias history. Divisions between social classes and
between those holding different religious and political
beliefs became more intense. Supporters of conscription
argued that Britain was in peril and many Australians
were already fighting and dying, so others who had not
stepped forward should be forced to do their duty. They
called those who had not volunteered traitors and cowards
or accused them of being supporters of Sinn Fein or the
IWW, or even of Germany.
Opponents argued that there should there be no
conscription of working men when there was no
conscription of the wealth of the privileged classes. Many
feared that conscription would be used by employers to
destroy rights won by Australian workers. They described
NO!
Those supporting conscription:

representatives of every political party except the Labor
Party
business organisations
major newspapers such as The Argus, The Age and The Bulletin
Protestant churches
some returned soldiers.
Those opposing conscription:

trade unions
most of the Labor Party
the Catholic Church (Melbournes Archbishop, Daniel
Mannix, led the fight against conscription) Britain had
suppressed the Irish uprising of Easter 1916 and executed its
leaders; most Australian Catholics were of Irish descent and
many resented Britains treatment of Ireland
the Womens Peace Army
most working-class people
some returned soldiers.
Pro-conscription arguments:
It was Australias duty to support Great Britain.
Conscription meant equality of sacrifice.
Voluntary recruitment had failed.
Australia had a good reputation that had to be protected.
Other Allied countries, such as Great Britain, New Zealand
and Canada, had already introduced conscription.
Anti-conscription arguments:
No person had the right to send another to be killed or wounded.

There would not be enough hands to farm if men were
conscripted.
The working class would unfairly bear the burden of the fight.
Too many Australian men had already died or been wounded.
Conscription would harm and divide Australia.
supporters of conscription as destroyers of democracy,

murderers and war profiteers. Most Australian Catholics
were of Irish descent, and many became bitterly resentful
when Britain executed several Irish rebel leaders after
crushing the Irish uprising of Easter 1916. Melbournes
Catholic Archbishop, Daniel Mannix, quickly became
the most outspoken leader of the anti-conscription
movement.
The people decide
of conscription but 1160033 voted against it). Patriots

blamed Catholics and Australian Germans and
demanded that Mannix be deported. The Labor Party
was split. Hughes and his supporters left the party in
November1916, before it could expel them, and merged
with the Liberal Party to form the Nationalist Party. Led
by Hughes, the Nationalists won the federal election of
May 1917. However, at a second referendum of December
1917, conscription was again defeated, this time by
1181747 against to 1015159 in favour.
Conscription was defeated in the referendum of

October 1916 (1087557 Australians voted in favour
Source 3

From speeches by Archbishop Daniel Mannix,
reported in the Advocate, (1) 3 February 1917 and
(2) 8 December 1917
(1) The war was like most wars just an ordinary trade
The
was now,
like most
wars
just
an ordinary
war war
... Even
people
were
arranging
how trade
the
war
... Evennations
now, people
were
arranging
how the
when
they
are vanquished
vanquished
vanquished
nations
when
theytrade.
are vanquished
in
their
future
are to be crippled
bedaily
crippled
in their
future trade.
(2) are
the
papers
of Australia
... there is no
[In]to
(2) [opening
In] the daily
papers
of Australia
... who
therewant
is nothe
in their
columns
for those
openingon
in December
their columns
forbethose
who want
the
20 to
an emphatic
NO
answer
answer
on December
20 of
to space
be an to
emphatic
[The] papers
give plenty
any sortNO
of silly
[The] papers
give
plenty
any sort
of silly
on the
other
sideof..space
. The to
wealthy
classes
twaddle
twaddle
theglad
other
..the
. The
wealthy
classes
would
beon
very
toside
send
last
man, but
they
would
very glad
to sendthe
thelast
lastshilling,
man, but
of sending
northey
even
have nobenotion
have
no .
notion
of sending
theend
lastwill
shilling,
nor even
the first
.. the burden
in the
be borne
by
the toiling
first ...masses
the burden
in the end will be borne by
in Australia.
the toiling masses in Australia.
The Blood Vote, an anti-conscription leaflet
Student workbook
8.7

1 Explain why many Australians supported conscription
by 1916.
2 List the reasons why many others opposed
conscription.
3 Calculate the numbers of votes by which conscription
was defeated in 1916 and in 1917.
4 What conclusions can you draw from these figures?
5 How did the conscription issue affect the Labor Party?

6 Using Source 2 as your evidence, describe the kinds
of messages and techniques used in propaganda
supporting conscription.
7 Describe the techniques used in the anti-conscription
leaflet ( Source 4 ).
8 Read Source 3 . What reasons did Daniel Mannix give
for opposing conscription?

9 Imagine you are Archbishop Mannix and you
have heard demands that you be deported. Write a
one-page speech you would give in response.
Read your speech to the class.
10 Working in small groups, design a Yes or No poster
for either of the conscription referenda.
AWM RC00337
Source 4

Billy Hughes supporters, including many AIF soldiers,

called him the Little Digger, From November 1916 the
labour movement, on the other hand, called him the Rat
and Judas.
referendum (plural referenda) ballot in which voters

decide on a political question. Where there is no change to
the Australian Constitution involved, this is called an advisory
referendum or plebiscite.
Sinn Fein organisation formed in Ireland in 1905 to campaign
for Irish independence from Britain. The name was also used by
the pro-independence party after the failed 1916 uprising.
251
8.11 The Eastern Front:
collapse and revolution
By 1917 the war weariness, social divisions and disillusionment that led to a general strike and bitter opposition to
conscription in Australia were also being experienced in other combatant nations. Between April and June there
were mutinies in the French army involving 27000 men. Forty-nine mutineers were executed. In Germany in 1916
there had been huge strikes. The government broke them by conscripting strikers, but even bigger strikes took place
in 1917. In Britain half a million people had joined anti-war organisations by 1917. Nowhere, however, was war
weariness more widespread than in Russia. What happened there would change the world.
War weariness in Russia

At the beginning of World War I the Russian Army was
referred to as the Russian Steamroller, because it was so
big that many people thought it could defeat the Germans
and Austrians through sheer weight of numbers. However,
most Russian soldiers were conscripted peasants who were
poorly trained and so poorly equipped that some did not
even have boots or guns. Some Russian officers refused to
lead their troops into battle, fearing that they would be
shot by their own men.
When Russia entered the war it was ruled by Tsar
Nicholas II, who held enormous power. Russia was ruled
in the interests of its aristocratic landowners and wealthy
industrialists, and there was great discontent among the
peasants and workers who made up more than 90per
cent of its people. At first many Russians supported the
war, but they suffered heavy losses against the Germans
in 191415. In 1916 they launched attacks to prevent
the Germans shifting troops to the Western Front. By
1917, after a series of crippling defeats, Russian soldiers
and sailors were becoming mutinous, while at home
starving workers were demanding bread and peasants were
demanding land.
Revolution
Revolution broke out in March 1917 in the Russian
capital, Petrograd (now St Petersburg) after soldiers
refused orders to shoot striking workers. When he lost
Source 1

A description of support for the war in Russia in
August 1914, from R. H. Bruce Lockhart, Memoirs of a British
Agent, 1932
I recall the enthusiasm of those early days ... those

moving scenes at the station; the troops, grey with dust
and closely packed in cattle trucks; the vast crowd on the
platform to wish them God-speed ... Revolution was not
even a distant probability.
252
Source 2

in 1915
From a letter sent home by a Russian general
In recent battles a third of the men had no rifles. These

poor devils had to wait patiently until their comrades fell
before their eyes and they could pick up weapons.
Source 3

From P. I. Lyashchenko, Economic and Social
Consequences of the War, 1949
... by 1916 the country began to experience a critical

food shortage ... By directing all industrial production
into war channels, the government policy deprived the
villages of their supplies of goods ...
Source 4

Looking towards the ceiling from the grand staircase at the
Tsars Winter Palace in St Petersburg
Source 5

The Winter Palace has hundreds
of luxurious rooms and is thousands of times
bigger than the homes of Russian workers
and peasants in 1917. The royal family also
had other magnificent palaces.
the support of his generals, the Tsar abdicated in favour

of his brother Michael. But Michael refused to be Tsar
and instead handed power to a provisional government,
formed by members of the Duma. The Provisional
Government kept Russia in the war, but its authority was
weakened by the rise of an alternative centre of power
the Petrograd Soviet. This council was made up of elected
delegates from soviets of workers, soldiers, sailors and
peasants from throughout Russia.
The Provisional Government lacked support from any
part of Russian society. The old ruling classes wanted to
restore the rule of the Tsar. Peasants wanted the aristocrats
land to be redistributed to them. Many soldiers, sailors
and workers wanted Russia to withdraw from the war.
The government could hold power only so long as the
Petrograd Soviet gave it support.
Source 6

A statue of Lenin in front of
the Smolny Institute, formerly a school for
aristocratic girls, which became the Bolshevik
headquarters during the Revolution
The second revolution

Russias small but disciplined Bolshevik Party was led by
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known as Lenin. In chapter1
you read about Marxism, the revolutionary socialist set of
ideas developed by Karl Marx in the nineteenthcentury.
Lenin was a Marxist but he departed from Marxs belief
that socialist revolution could take place only in advanced
capitalist societies in which industrial workers were
the majority. Lenin came to believe that in Russia, an
overwhelmingly agricultural country, a socialist revolution
could be achieved through an alliance of workers and
peasants.
Lenin, and his associate Trotsky, believed that socialist
revolution could succeed in backward Russia but only if
it received support from socialist revolutions in the more
advanced industrial countries. They thought a revolution
in Russia would trigger similar revolutions in those
253
Source 7

The first shots of the Bolshevik
Revolution were fired by the sailors of the
cruiser Araura.
countries. In April 1917 Lenin put

these views to the other Bolsheviks.
At first they totally opposed him.
However, he soon won majority
support and the Bolsheviks prepared
to seize power.
Source 8

A Bolshevik painting depicting Lenin organising
revolutionary workers, sailors and soldiers. The red armbands show
that they are Bolsheviks. Red came to symbolise revolution.
The Bolsheviks seize power

To gain popular support, the
Bolsheviks adopted the slogans Peace,
Bread and Land and All Power to the
Soviets while they worked to build
up their influence in the Petrograd
Soviet. The Provisional Government
tried unsuccessfully to suppress the
Bolsheviks. But when the right-wing
General Kornilov attempted to seize
power in August, it was Bolsheviks
who sabotaged Kornilovs transport
and persuaded his troops to desert.
This earned them widespread
254
Source 9

This Bolshevik banner of 1918 represents the alliance of
workers and peasants. In the right-hand corner, the hammer represents
industrial workers while the sickle represents peasants.
support. The Bolsheviks had saved the Provisional

Government, but now they set out to destroy it.
Trotsky had been elected Chairman of the Petrograd
Soviets Military Revolutionary Committee. Once the
Bolsheviks had a majority of delegates in the Soviet, he
planned the seizure of power. In November, on Trotskys
orders, the Red Guards of Petrograd workers, soldiers of
the Petrograd garrison and sailors of the Krondstadt naval
base stormed the Provisional Governments headquarters
in the Tsars Winter Palace. They seized power in the name
of the Soviet. The new communist government promised
to create a state ruled by workers and peasants.
Although the Bolsheviks failed to live up to their
ideals, they would inspire many discontented workers
in other lands. Significantly, their victory ended Russias
involvement in the war. In March 1918 the Bolshevik
government signed a separate peace that enabled Germany
to direct all its resources to the Western Front.

1 Make a timeline of events on the Eastern Front from
1915 to 1918 to show how Russias involvement in
WorldWarI led to a communist revolution.
2 Explain the meaning of the following terms: Tsar,
socialism, Provisional Government, soviet.

3 How was the Tsars rule ended?
4 Did Lenin see the revolution he was planning as just a
Russian matter or as something bigger? Explain your
answer.
5 How did the Bolshevik Revolution affect the course of
World War I?

6 Study Sources 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and explain how these
sources help you to understand why many Russian
troops, workers and peasants came to oppose the Tsar
and the war by March 1917.
7 Referring to Sources 6 to 9 , explain how the Bolsheviks
were able to seize power in a second revolution in
November 1917. (Refer in your answer to their ideas,
tactics and sources of support.)

8 Why was the Bolshevik Revolution significant for the
world?
Many Marxists and other socialists in Russia and in other

countries opposed Lenins views, which came to be called
MarxismLeninism. They predicted, correctly, that such a
revolution could not create democracy and socialism but
would lead instead to oppressive dictatorship.
abdicate to step down from the throne or from other high

office
Duma the Russian parliament
soviet a council representing workers, peasants, soldiers and
sailors
255
8.12 Peace and
commemoration
Wars full consequences are

rarely foreseen. The Armistice
of 11 November 1918 ended
the fighting in World War I, but
nothing could ever be quite the
same again. The survivors of the
great armies that had killed and
maimed each other for four years
with bullets, bayonets, grenades,
artillery and gas emerged from their
trenches to a world in ruins. The
German, Austro-Hungarian, Turkish
and Russian empires had been
shattered. Revolutions and civil wars
broke out in the defeated empires,
and even the victor nations and
colonies experienced widespread
social unrest. In Australia, as we
have seen, the war had brought
deep divisions and there was
scarcely a family that had not lost a
brother, son, father or uncle on the
battlefields.
Source 1

Crowds fill Melbournes streets on Armistice Day, 11 November 1918.
In 1918, 260000 Australians had

to be repatriated. Some had been
fighting for four years and few
people at home understood how
deeply the experience had affected
them. A shortage of shipping meant
some soldiers had to wait more
than 18 months to get home. The
returning troops brought with
them the Spanish influenza, a
deadly pandemic that swept the
world in 191819. It caused almost
12000 deaths in Australia, and
many men had to be quarantined
before being reunited with their
families. Australians agreed that the
nation should try to repay returned
servicemen for their sacrifices. Some
256
AWM J00348
Repatriation
Source 2

Australian artillery units parade
past Buckingham Palace in London on Anzac
Day, 25 April 1919.
AWM D00556
Source 3

Bronze statue of Simpson
and his donkey at the Australian War
Memorial, Canberra
were provided with training in skilled trades while others

were settled on the land with the help of low-interest
loans. However, these measures could not help all
ex-servicemen to readjust after four years of the horrors
of war.
Memorials
Australians were determined that their soldiers sacrifices
would not be forgotten. Across the nation, local
committees built memorials in towns, cities and suburbs
to display the names of the fallen. In the lands in which
Australians fell, memorials and vast war cemeteries were
established. Most are in northern France and Belgium,
where they are maintained with great care by the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Source 6

From Bill Gammage, The Broken Years, 1975, p. 278
But the Anzac tradition also introduced a deep division

into Australian life. ... roughly half those eligible had
joined the AIF during the war ... A great rift had opened,
a rift between those who had fought in the war and those
who had not.
In significant ways, this was disastrous. Before the
war radical nationalists had led the drive for a social
paradise in Australia, but ultimately they were least at
ease with the Imperial and martial implications of the
Anzac tradition, and during the war they divided over the
proper conduct of Australias war effort ...
For their part the conservatives, who before 1914 had
exerted a tenuous influence on Australian politics and
society, were united and given purpose by the war ...
Naturally enough that dedication and the motives behind
it appealed to the men in the trenches ...
In short, that general majority which in 1914 had
sought to create a social paradise in Australia was both
split and made leaderless by the war, and by 1918 no
longer existed, while the conservatives had joined with
those who had fought in the war to take firm possession
of the spirit of Anzac ...
Source 4

Message from King George V to the Australian
Government, in The Age, May 1915
I heartily congratulate you upon the splendid conduct

and bravery displayed by the Australian troops in the
operations at the Dardanelles, who have indeed proved
themselves worthy sons of the Empire.
Source 5

From C. E. W. Bean, The Story of Anzac, 1941
What motive sustained them? ... It lay in the mettle of

the men themselves ... life was very dear, but life was
not worth living unless they could be true to their idea of
Australian Manhood.
Anzac day and the Anzac legend

In 1914, many Australians had seen World War I as a
chance to prove that they deserved a place in Britains
great military tradition. The mateship, bravery and
achievements of the Anzacs during the Gallipoli campaign
were seen as representing Australian ideals and giving
Australia the legendary identity it sought.
Anzac Day was first observed in 1916 to commemorate
the landings at Gallipoli and the legend they created.
Many people considered that Australia had only really
become a nation at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. Each year,
Anzac Day has continued to be commemorated across
Australia and New Zealand. For many people, it became
257
AWM E05925
Source 7

French children at VillersBretonneux, in the Somme Valley, tend
graves of Australians killed on the
Western Front.
Australias unofficial national day. Traditionally it has been

observed through dawn services, marches of veterans and
gatherings of wartime comrades. It has also been observed
in schools and churches.
At first the message of Anzac Day was similar to
that of Empire Day pride in their British heritage,
loyalty to the empire, hatred of Germany, the need for
greater sacrifice, and pride that Australia had earned an
honourable place in the British military tradition. From
1920 Anzac Day became a public holiday.
What was the meaning of the Anzac legend, and has
it changed over time? The legend was based on real
characteristics of Anzac troops at Gallipoli and throughout
the war. Many risked their lives for their mates. Some were
decorated for bravery while others died unrecognised.
Qualities like courage and mateship were not uniquely
Australian they were undoubtedly shared by many
other soldiers. However, what the Anzacs did was
remarkable. They made up less than 10per cent of British
Empire forces but on the Western Front no military force
achieved more in proportion to their numbers. Anzac
troops believed that they had proven themselves equal to
or even better than the British.
258
Did the Anzac legend change

Australiannationalism?
Did the Anzac legend strengthen or weaken the spirit
of national independence? In chapter6 you read about
radical nationalism in late-nineteenth-century and earlytwentieth-century Australia. Radical nationalists saw
Britain as the home of social inequalities. They wanted a
fairer and more equal Australia that was independent of
Britain. The military historian Bill Gammage has argued
that the Anzac legend weakened the influence of radical
nationalism because the Anzacs had fought and died for
Britain, proving the strength of Australias ties with the
Old Country.
So the Anzac legend fitted in well with the views of
Australian conservatives who wanted Australia to stay loyal
to the British monarchy and the empire. Conservatives
dominated celebrations of Anzac Day in the 1920s
and 1930s. To them, it was a celebration of loyalty to
the empire as much as an expression of national pride.
To many who had fought in the war, Anzac Day was a
reminder of their sacrifice and a chance to be reunited
with the only people who could really understand what
Source 8

Some of the war graves
at the Australian National Memorial at
Villers-Bretonneux in France

The world after the First World War pp. 1845

1 What were some of the unforeseen consequences of World War I?
2 Name two programs used to help returned soldiers adjust to civilian life.

3 Why would many men have found it difficult to settle back into civilian life?
4 What emotions do you think the people in Source 1 would have been
experiencing?
5 Have a class discussion on the question: What do Anzac Day and the Anzac
legend mean today?

6 Why were the men in Source 2 still in England on Anzac Day 1919?
7 Look back at spread8.5 and explain why Private John Simpson ( Source 3 )
has been considered such a great example of the Anzac spirit that he has his
own statue at the Australian War Memorial.
a According to Source 4 , what had the Anzacs proved?
b Why might not all Australians have shared the same feelings about this
message?
c What motives did Australias official war historian, C. E. W. Bean, identify
to account for Anzac heroism?
9 Read Source 6 . According to Gammage:
a Why did the Anzac tradition introduce a deep division into Australian
life?
b Who were least at ease with the Imperial and martial implications of the
Anzac tradition (that is, with the idea that it was noble to fight for the
British monarch and empire)?
c How did the Anzac tradition strengthen the influence of conservatives in
Australia?
10 How do Sources 7 and 8 provide evidence of an ongoing commitment to
commemorating the sacrifices of Australians in World War I?
they had suffered. World War II and

subsequent conflicts would bring
new generations into the Anzac
tradition. However, Anzac Day
would continue to reflect divisions
in Australia as much as it expressed
national pride. Some Australians
resented what they saw as its use by
conservatives to glorify war.
Perhaps today the meaning we
give to Anzac Day can be shared
by all Australians pride in the
courage and endurance of the
Anzacs, sorrow for the terrible losses
suffered by their generation and
determination that such tragic waste
of human lives should never be
repeated.
pandemic disease epidemic affecting
many different countries
tenuous weak, thin
259

In this chapter we have investigated
some aspects of World War I.
We have examined the wars causes
and have looked at an overview
of the wars course. Our main
focus has been on the experience
of Australians fighting at Gallipoli
and on the Western Front, and on
developments on the Australian home
front, including the deeply divisive
conscription issue. We have also
studied developments on the Eastern
Front, particularly the world-changing
Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Finally,
we have looked at the outbreak of
peace, commemoration of World
War I and the changing nature of the
Anzac legend.
Source 1

A World War I military aircraft at
the Australian War Memorial. The Australian
Flying Corps (AFC) was part of the AIF. World
War I aircraft were slow and unreliable. They
were used for reconnaissance flights and
for bombing and machine-gunning enemy
positions in Europe and the Middle East. Flying
them was described as a job for daredevils.
260
Quick quiz
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Who were the members of the Triple Entente?

Which countries formed the Triple Alliance?
Who killed the Archduke Franz Ferdinand?
Approximately when did trench warfare begin on the Western Front?
Give two reasons for the Gallipoli campaign.
Which part of the Gallipoli campaign was most successful?
What was no mans land?
Where did the AIF suffer enormous casualties for seven weeks from
23 July 1916?
How did most Australians vote in the two conscription referenda?
Why did many Russians want to withdraw from the war by 1917?
Who was Lenin?
Why were the Bolsheviks able to seize power in Russia?
At which French village did the Anzacs play a key role in halting the last
German offensive in 1918?
What percentage of Australian troops serving overseas became casualties?
When do we commemorate Anzac Day?

1 Look closely at Source 1 and explain why flying was considered
a job for daredevils.
Source 2

Bringing up the ammunition, Flanders, Autumn 1917, by H. Septimus Power. This painting, which was
completed in 1920, shows Australian soldiers with teams of horses struggling through mud as they pull carts loaded
with machine-gun ammunition.
Power, H. Septimus
Bringing up the ammunition, Flanders, Autumn 1917 (1920)
Oil on canvas, 153 244.5 cm
2 Study Source 2 .
a Describe the landscape.
b What does the landscape tell you about the war?
c What aspects of this scene tell us that armies in
World War I used both old and new technologies?
Student workbook
8.8, 8.9, 8.10
3 How did the Anzac legend influence our national

identity?
effects of the war?
5 How did the war affect Australians on the home front?
Reflecting on my learning
1 Working in small groups, conduct research on the role

of submarines during World War I, particularly the
role of the Australian submarine AE2 in the Gallipoli
campaign. Present your findings as a data show.
2 Hold a class debate on the topic: That the Anzac
legend has lost none of its significance for Australians.
Give yourself a grade from 1 (least) to 3 (most) for the

extent to which your work in this chapter has improved
your skills in each of the following areas:
Recognising that people in the past often saw things
differently from the way we see them today
Working with photographic sources
Creating and using mind maps
Analysing written primary sources
Understanding that past events can have complicated
causes
Using the internet to find relevant sources
Recognising conflicting perspectives on past events
Analysing propaganda.
For each of these areas, briefly outline one example from
your work in this chapter.

posed. You can now use what you have learned to answer
them.
1 Why was Australia involved in World War I?
2 What was the significance of the Gallipoli and Western
Front campaigns?
261
eBook plus
Using ICT
The Anzac Day memorials

Scenario
You are a reporter for Australias Now Channel. It is
pre-dawn on 25 April 2015 and you have been posted
at Anzac Cove to cover the memorial service to mark
the 100th anniversary of the landing of troops for the
ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of 1915. Thousands of
Australians have gathered, many covered in Australian
flags or wearing green-and-gold jerseys and beanies.
Attendance at the annual dawn service in Gallipoli has
continued to grow, with more and more Australians
making the pilgrimage every year. Other reporters have
criticised the service as just an excuse for backpackers
to meet and party but, as a first-time pilgrim, you have
been overwhelmed by the emotional and respectful
atmosphere.
Your task
Your producer has asked you to craft a moving tribute
to the annual memorials on the shores of Gallipoli. Your
news story should explain the events that occurred on
these shores 100 years ago and why these memorials
are still so important to modern Australians. You will
write and record a voiceover of two minutes duration,
and use the bank of images available in your Media
Centre to create your news story.
262
Process
Open the ProjectsPLUS application for this chapter,
located in your eBookPLUS. Watch the introductory
video lesson and then click the Start Project button
and set up your project group. You can complete this
project individually or invite other members of your
class to form a group. Save your settings and the
project will belaunched.
Navigate to your Research Forum. A selection

of topics has been loaded for you to provide a
framework for your research. You should perform
background research on the Gallipoli campaign,
the memorials, and the ritual pilgrimages by many
Australians and New Zealanders to this iconic place.
You might also like to explore other news stories
about Gallipoli. The weblinks in your Media Centre
will help you get started. Enter your findings as
articles under each topic in your Research Forum.
You can also rate and comment on the posts made
by other members of your group.
When your research is complete, navigate to your
Media Centre. A selection of images from the
Anzac Day memorials has been provided for you
to download and use in your news story. Select the
images you would like to use and download the
Storyboard template. Use this to write the script for
your news story. A guide to crafting news stories has
also been provided to help you write an effective and
interesting story.
Record your voiceover using Audacity, Garage Band
or Windows voice-recording software, and then
use Windows Movie Maker, iMovie or other editing
software to create your news story. Remember
that these programs allow you to perform filmic
actions like panning across images. You can also
incorporate a number of different transitions to add
drama or emotional impact to your story.
hand it in with your completed news story.

DIGITAL
W ORLD WAR I TIMELINE

Use this fun interactivity to create a
visual timeline of key events in World War I from
1914 to 1918.
TIME OUT: ALLIES

AND CENTRAL POWERS
This exciting interactivity will test your knowledge
of the major players in World War I, challenging
you to identify countries as Allies, Central Powers
or neutral states. Can you answer all ten questions
before Time Out?
Suggested software
ProjectsPLUS
Microsoft Word
software
Windows Moviemaker, iMovie or other editing
software
Media Centre
a selection of images from the Gallipoli memorials
a guide to crafting news stories
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263
abdicate to step down from the throne or from

other high office
abolition the end of legal acceptance of slavery
absolute monarch a ruler who governs alone,
unrestrained by laws or constitution
affiliated unions unions linked with other
unions through a wider umbrella
organisation
animal husbandry breeding and caring for
livestock, usually in a farm environment
annex to take possession of a territory
artefact an object made by humans
artillery large-calibre guns
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) the
peak union organisation in Australia
bell pit a traditional form of coalmining in
which a shaft is dug down to a seam of
coal and then excavated outwards, with the
coal raised to the surface using a winch and
buckets
biased account narrative or description in
which a writer presents only one side of an
issue in an effort to convince the reader
biased prejudiced, leaning to a one-sided view
Bill a proposal to change the law by Act of
Parliament
Black Death a deadly disease that ravaged
Europe, killing between a quarter and half
of the population, in the second half of the
fourteenthcentury. It continued to occur
periodically over the next 300years.
blast furnace a type of furnace into which air is
forced to raise the temperature sufficiently to
carry out the smelting of iron ore
blockade sealing off an area so that nothing
can get in or out
bookkeeping keeping records of financial
accounts
bourgeoisie capitalist middle classes; the
owners of the means of production,
distribution and exchange that is,
factories, shipping, banks and other
businesses
British Dominion a self-governing territory
belonging to the British Empire
cannibalism eating ones own species
carding the process of untangling and
straightening raw wool or cotton fibres
censorship restriction or control of what people
can say, hear, see or read
central business district (CBD)
the business centre of a city
cesspool a pit into which householders with
no toilets could empty their waste, which
was later collected by workers known as
nightmen
cholera a bacterial disease of the intestines,
causing vomiting and diarrhoea. It is
transmitted through contaminated water and
can lead to death through dehydration.
coke a type of fuel produced by using heat to
remove impurities such as coal gas and tar
from coal
264
Glossary
colony an area of land settled by people from

another country. This can involve military
conquest if the original inhabitants resist that
settlement.
commute to change a penalty to one less
severe
concubine a woman who lives with a man she
is not married to and has a lower social rank
than his wife
conscription compulsory enlistment of citizens
to serve in the armed forces
constitution rules for government
convict a person imprisoned for a crime
cottage industry small-scale manufacturing
in which raw materials are processed in
workers homes
Crimean War war fought between Britain and
its allies and Russia, 185356
cult a branch of religious worship
Daoist ancient Chinese philosophical/religious
tradition emphasising simple living in
harmony and balance with the universe
deadlock a stalemate in which neither side can
gain an advantage
deport to forcibly remove someone from a
country
depose remove from power
despot a ruler with almost unlimited power
who uses it unfairly or cruelly
divine right chosen by God to rule
Duma the Russian parliament
dummies people, secretly acting for squatters,
who selected land and later sold it to the
squatters
egalitarian believing in equality
egalitarianism equality of all people
empire a number of different countries or
colonies controlled by the government of one
country
enclosure consolidation of open fields and
common land into single farms owned by
one farmer or landowner, and fenced off
from neighbouring farms
enlist to join voluntarily, usually the military
entrepreneur a person who organises a
business venture, and assumes the financial
risks associated with it, in the hope of
making a profit
entrepreneurship the act of being an
entrepreneur
Estates General representatives elected by the
three French Estates
fallow land left unplanted
famine a severe shortage of food, leading to
starvation, usually due to crop failures over a
sustained period of time
Federation movement of colonies to form a
nation
feint a dummy attack meant to deceive the
enemy into moving troops from where the
main attack will take place
feudal dues obligations and payments
imposed on peasants since the Middle Ages
goldsmith a craftsman who works with gold

and other precious metals
grazing pasture to feed cows and sheep
guillotine device designed to execute people by
decapitation (cutting off their heads)
gunboat diplomacy a coercive form of
diplomacy in which a country threatens the
use of military force to achieve its objectives
half-caste a term that is now considered
offensive but was widely used in the mid1900s to refer to people of mixed race
Hindenburg line a heavily fortified position to
which the Germans withdrew before the
Allied offensive of spring 1917
hulk the body of an old ship that serves as a
prison rather than a sailing vessel
impartial observations comments and
reflections that recognise all sides and
opinions relating to an issue or event,
leaving it to the reader to form his or her own
judgement
impound to confiscate
incontrovertible certain, undeniable
indoor relief the provision of assistance to the
inmates of the workhouse
infant mortality rate a means of measuring the
percentage of babies who fail to survive their
first birthday
intercontinental involving or occurring between
one or more continents
junk Chinese sailing ship
kinship relationships between members of an
extended family
kowtow to kneel and touch the forehead to the
ground in deep respect for an emperor
larrikins term used in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries for unruly youths
legation a foreign countrys diplomatic office,
similar to an embassy
Leve en masse mass conscription, forcing
people to fight to defend the state
Little Lon name (after Little Lonsdale Street)
given to the north-eastern part of the CBD
known for its slums
Luddites a group of protesters who expressed
their opposition to industrialisation by
smashing factory machines
malefactor a person who does bad or illegal
things
mandate of heaven the idea that heaven
blessed the rule of a just emperor but could
rescind that blessing if the emperor ruled
unjustly
Marco Polo merchant from Venice who
travelled through Asia in the thirteenth
century; generally credited with introducing
Europeans to China and Central Asia
minority government a government that has
fewer than half the seats in a lower house of
parliament
Napoleonic Wars a series of wars between the
French Empire, led by Napoleon Bonaparte,
and a number of other European nations
between 1803 and 1815
New Spain Spanish territories in the New

World, including much of North America
nightsoil human waste
nobles aristocrats, a hereditary privileged class
just below a monarch
no mans land unoccupied ground between
the front lines of opposing armies
outdoor relief the provision of assistance to the
poor while allowing them to remain in their
own homes
pacifist person who holds a religious or other
conscientious belief that it is immoral to take
part in war
pandemic disease epidemic affecting many
different countries
parish an area of local government centred
on the local church, which fulfilled some of
the functions that local municipal councils
perform in our own society
parliamentary representation the
representation of peoples views and
interests in Parliament through elected
delegates
pastoral lease land that is leased for the
purpose of grazing sheep or cattle
patent a legally enforceable right to make or
sell an invention. Patents, usually granted by
government, protect an inventors idea from
being copied.
pauper a very poor person
peacocking buying up land around creeks and
rivers to make the rest of the area useless to
selectors
penal colony a settlement for convicts
picket a line of workers formed to stop
strike-breakers entering a workplace
picking oakum unpicking short lengths of rope
coated in tar. Oakum would be rammed
between the planks on wooden ships to
make them watertight.
pig iron the initial product resulting from the
smelting of iron ore in a blast furnace
precinct a district of a city
proletariat the working classes, especially
industrial wage-earners
propaganda distortion of the truth to persuade
people to support an action or point of view
radicals those who advocate far-reaching
political and social changes
referendum (plural referenda) ballot in
which voters decide on a political question.
Where there is no change to the Australian
Constitution involved, this is called an
advisory referendum or plebiscite.
remuneration pay or reward such as wages
repeal withdrawal of a law or set of laws by

Parliament
republic a form of government that relies
on popular representation rather than a
monarchy
republicanism the belief that a country should
be a republic (where the country has an
elected or appointed head of state), not a
monarchy (where the head of state is a king
or queen)
rickets a softening of the bones, leading
to deformity of the limbs, caused by a
deficiency of calcium and vitamin D
royal commission a special public inquiry set
up by government to investigate a particular
issue and to make recommendations for
changes in the law
rural population people living in the
countryside rather than in towns or cities
sans-culottes in revolutionary France, workingclass people of the cities
scurvy a disease caused by poor diet,
especially a deficiency of vitamin C
secede break away to form a separate country
serfs peasants who were bound to the land
they worked. In Russia they could be bought
and sold by the landowner.
shilling a unit of Australian currency until
decimal currency was introduced. There
were 12 pence to a shilling and 20 shillings
to a pound.
Sinn Fein organisation formed in Ireland in
1905 to campaign for Irish independence
from Britain. The name was also used by the
pro-independence party after the failed 1916
uprising.
Slavic belonging to the Slavs (a language group
including Russians, Serbs and other Central
and Eastern European peoples)
socialism a political system in which
governments control the economy to ensure
greater equality
soviet a council representing workers,
peasants, soldiers and sailors
spinning the twisting of carded fibres into
lengths of continuous thread or yarn
spirit possession an alleged supernatural event
in which a spirit or god takes control of the
human body, creating changes in behaviour
squatters colonists who leased and occupied
large tracts of what had been Aboriginal
land
stalemate a term that comes from the game of
chess, meaning a situation in which neither
side can gain a winning advantage
stockade a fortified enclosure
strike attempt by employees to put pressure on

their employer by refusing to work
subordinate having a lower or less important
position
subsistence farming farming that provides only
enough to satisfy the basic needs of life of
the farmer or community
suffrage the right to vote in elections
sweated labour workers exploited by being
employed for long hours and low pay
tailings a mixture of dirt and stones left on the
diggings after an area had been mined
tariff a duty charged on imports
telegraph device for sending messages over
long distances
tenuous weak, thin
track gauge the distance between the two
parallel tracks of a railway line
treadwheel a punishment device, also called
the everlasting staircase, comprising a
large, iron-framed, hollow cylinder with
wooden steps. As the device rotated, slaves
were forced to keep stepping forward.
trench foot a painful, swollen condition
caused by feet remaining wet for too long;
if gangrene set in, the feet would have to be
amputated
trustees a group appointed to manage
property on behalf of another person or
organisation
tsar the absolute ruler of the Russian Empire
tucker traditional Australian slang term for food
turnpike a type of toll road
turnpike trusts organisations established by
Parliament with the power to collect tolls on
particular roads and use the money to pay
for maintenance of those roads
typhus a fatal disease spread by the bites of
lice and fleas
U-boats German submarines
ultimatum a final set of demands or terms
backed by a threat
urban population people living in cities or large
towns
vices immoral habits
virtues admirable moral qualities, goodness
warp the fixed threads used in the weaving
process
weft the horizontal movable thread that is
woven through the warp to create cloth
workhouse an institution built to house the poor
Glossary
265
Index
A
abdication 253, 255
abolition of slavery 98, 99
Aborigines
attempts to safeguard rights
as British subjects 140
early contact with
outsiders 124
exploitation 144
genocide in Van Diemens
Land 1301
guerrilla war of resistance in
Queensland 143
introduced diseases 126
Killing Times in the
Kimberley 143
massacres by colonists
1335
National Apology to 1201
Native Police Forces 139, 143
Port Phillip protectorate 140
protection policies 1445
repatriation of human
remains 129
reserves 140
resistance to
occupation 1289, 132
response to initial British
occupation 1257
schools and
missionaries 1389
treaty with John Batman 132
voting rights 145
absolute monarchs 8, 11
affiliated unions 174, 177
agrarian revolution 12
agricultural revolution 325
American Revolution 7, 100
animal husbandry 30, 31
annexation 151, 230, 231
anti-Chinese riots 148
Anzac Day 2579
Anzac legend 2579
Anzacs
formation 234
involvement in World War I
234
artefacts 146
artillery 242, 243
artwork, as sources 31, 65, 123
Ashley, Lord 80
Australia
blackbirding 1501, 190
city life 1701
colonial defence forces 151
conscription 2501
convicts 1025
defence fears 151, 191
development 1567
early years of
Commonwealth 18891
economic growth 189
266
Index
Eureka and political

rights 1603
Federation 1847
free selectors vs.
squatters 1645
gold rushes 11213, 1489
government 187
home front in World War I
2469
immigration 190
industrial reforms 18990
involvement in World War I
2345
jobs 1723
lifestyles and leisure 190
National Apology to Stolen
Generation 1201
nationalism and Australian
identity 1789
political parties 1756, 190
social divisions 1723, 1889
strikes of 1890s 1756
timeline 157
trade 57, 196
trade unions 14, 1747
welfare reforms 18990
White Australia 113, 1901
working conditions 1723,
189
see also Aborigines; race
relations in colonial
Australia; Torres Strait
Islanders
Australian Council of Trade Unions
(ACTU) 175, 177
Australian identity
and Anzac legend 2579
and nationalism 1789
Australian Labor Party (ALP)
formation 175, 176
welfare and industrial
reforms 190
Australian War Memorial 226
Austro-Hungarian Empire
22930
B
Balkans, nationalism 22930
Ballarat Reform League 162
banking system 48
Batman, John 132
Batmans treaty 132
Battle of the Somme 242
bell pits 46, 47
biased accounts 64
Bills 145
Black Death 36, 37
blackbirding 1501, 190
blast furnaces 46, 47
blockades 232, 233
bookkeeping 173
bourgeoisie 22
Boxer Rebellion 21416
Britain
Industrial Revolution 1,
1213, 1214, 54, 55
population growth during
18th century 367
population growth during
19th century 31
trade with Australia 57
business, government support
for 49
C
canals 501
cannibalism 146, 147
cartoons 1801
censorship 246, 249
census figures 31
central business district
(CBD) 170, 171
cesspools 76, 77
Chadwick, Edwin 80
Chartist movement 5, 22, 83
child labour
chimney sweeps 75
in coalmines 72, 73, 745
laws governing 80
in textile factories 70, 74
children
in China 203
war effort in Australia 248
in workhouses 79
China
Arrow War 208
arts 201
attitudes to foreigners 204
Boxer Rebellion 21416
children 203
conflict with the West 197
Confucianism 2001
diaspora 213
economy 201
effects of foreign
influence 2089
First Opium War 207
first westerners 2045
First World War 219
forced trade 21011
foreign ideas 212
government 201
Hundred Days Reform 209,
212
isolation 200
mens occupations 203
opium trade 2067, 21011
political parties 218, 219
political turmoil 218
Qing dynasty 1967, 200
reforms 21617
resistance to foreign
influences 21415
revolution 217
Sino-Japanese War 207
sources 1989
Taiping Rebellion 2089

timeline 197
trade with Australia 196
womens role 202
Chinese Communist Party 219
Chinese diaspora 213
Chinese immigration 113, 175
cholera 76, 77
coalmining, and steam
engines 40, 46
coke 46, 47
colonies 56, 57
Combination Acts 82
communism
in China 219
in Russia 2535
commuted sentences 100, 101
concubines 202, 203
Confucianism 2001
conscription
in Australia 2501
in World War I 228, 250, 251
constitutions
Australian 185
French 9
meaning 9, 11
convict life
labour 106
rebellion 1045
secondary punishment
1067
convict transportation 1920, 88
to America 100
to Australia 1025
Cook, James (Captain) 102
Coranderrk Reserve 140
Cort, Henry 47
cottage industries 42, 45
cotton industry, and slave
trade 967
crime
increase in 100
punishment for 1001
crop rotation methods 345
cults 146, 147
D
deadlocks 233
Declaration of the Rights of Man
and the Citizen 9
defence fears
in Australian colonies 151
in early Commonwealth of
Australia 191
defence forces, in Australian
colonies 151
democracy, development in
Australia 1603
deportation 190, 191
deposed king 10
divine right 8, 11
Duma 253, 255
dummies 165
E
egalitarianism 112, 113, 178
emigration 89
during gold rushes 11213
push and pull factors 1089
to Australia 21, 10811
to US 20
empires
and colonial defence
forces 151
and colonies 57
in late eighteen century 67
enclosure movement
food riots (1795) 67
impact of 669
nature of 33, 35
Speenhamland system 68
Swing riots (1830) 678
entrepreneurship 489
Estates General 9, 11
Eureka Rebellion 83
background 1602
Ballarat Reform League 162
battle at Eureka
Stockade 163
outcome 163
Europe
empires in late eighteenth
century 67
industrialisation 54
evidence, identifying gaps
1367
F
fallow (fields) 32, 35
famine 36, 37
farming
adoption of new
techniques 335
business approach to 35
Federation, of Australia 1847
feint attack 242, 243
feudal dues 9, 11
First Fleet 1034, 125
First Opium War 207
food riots 67
France
alliances 229
ancien regime 8
Jacobin Republic 1011
Reign of Terror 1011
second revolution 910
free selection Acts 1645
French Revolution 5, 811, 22
G
Gallipoli campaign
landing of Anzacs 237
Lone Pine 2389
the Nek 239
significance 236
Turkish counterattack 238
withdrawal 239
Germany
Alliances in World War I 229
Gippsland massacre 1345
gold rushes
hostility to Chinese
diggers 113, 1489
impact of 11213
goldfields 160
goldsmiths 48
Goldstein, Vida 183
grazing 164, 165
Great Exhibition (1851) 55
guillotine 8, 11
gunboat diplomacy 214
H
Hindenburg line 242, 243
historical analysis, causes and
consequences 2201
historical debates,
understanding 245
historical issues,
investigating 589
historical perspectives,
recognising 845
historical sources 901
history essays, planning 11415
horse power 389
housing
overcrowding 76
and sanitation 767
Howard, John 120
hulks 101
I
impartial observations 64
imperialism, and
nationalism 1617
incontrovertible rights 140, 141
Indigenous Australians see
Aborigines; race relations
in colonial Australia; Torres
Strait Islanders
indoor relief 78, 79
industrial reforms, in
Australia 18990
agricultural revolution 325
and Australia 1415
banking system 48
in Britain 1, 1213, 1214,
54, 55
coalmining 46
entrepreneurship and the
middle class 489
in Eurpore 54
housing 62
inventions and patents 30
iron production 467
key changes 63
links with our times 28, 623
population explosion 367
power sources 3841
shipping 567
sources 301, 645
steam power 41
textile manufacturing 425
timeline 29, 63
trade 567
transport 503
and transport 12, 503
in US 54
see also working conditions

infant mortality rate 36, 37
intercontinental trade 92, 95
inventions 30
iron production 467
O
open-field farming 323, 689
opium trade 2067, 21011
outdoor relief 78, 79
overcrowding 76
Owen, Robert 80, 83
junks 27, 204
pacifists 246, 249

pandemics 256, 259
parishes 78, 79
parliamentary
representation 162
pastoral leases 144
patents 30, 31
paupers 78, 79
peacocking 165
Pemulwuy 128
penal colonies 125, 127
Peterloo Massacre 82
Phillip, Arthur (Captain/
Governor) 1034
photographic sources
analysing 2445
using 199
picket lines 12, 15, 174
picking oakum 79
pig iron 46, 47
Pinjarra Incident 142
ploughing 34
political parties
in Australia 1756
in China 218, 219
and welfare and industrial
reforms 190
Polo, Marco 204
poor laws 78
population growth
Britain during
18th century 367
Britain during 19th century 31
due to gold rushes 11213
impact of enclosure 66
rural 31, 66
urban 31, 66
population movements 1,
1821, 889
Port Arthur 106, 107
poverty
poor laws 78
in rural areas 678
workhouses 789
power sources
horse power 389
steam power 401
water wheels 39
windmills 3940
precincts 170
proletariat 22
propaganda 246, 249
public health reform 801
puddling 47
Kelly, Ned 1669

kinship 126, 127
kowtow 207
L
Lalor, Peter 1623
land, squatters vs free
selectors 1645
larrikins 170, 171
Lawson, Henry 179
Lawson, Louisa 182
Lenin, Vladimir 2534
Leve en masse 10, 11
liberalism 22
lifestyles and leisure, in
Australia 190
literature, and nationalism 179
Little Lon 171
Luddites 82
M
Major Nunns massacre 133
malefactors 100, 101
manufacturing
in Australia 57
Industrial Revolution 12
Marxism 22
Melbourne 1701
middle class, and
entrepreneurship 4950
Mines Act 1842 73
minority government 176, 177
modern world
key changes 1
sources 45
timeline 2
Myall Creek massacre 134
N
Napoleonic Wars 54, 55
National Apology to Stolen
Generation 1201
nationalism
and Anzac legend 2589
and Australian identity 1789
and imperialism 1617
and literature 179
and racism 1789
and World War I 22930
Native Police Forces 139
navies, role in World War I
2323
New Spain 92
nightsoil 170, 171
no mans land 238, 239,
240, 241
nobles 6, 7
Norfolk Island 106
Q
Queensland Aborigines Protection
Act 1897 147
Index
267
R
race relations in colonial Australia
anti-Chinese riots 1489
attempts to civilise Indigenous
people 1389
Chinese on goldfields
11213, 1489, 150
following initial British
occupation 1257
frontier battles and
massacres 1325
Native Police Force 139
Pacific Islanders in
Queensland 1501
racial fears 150
reserves 140
rights of Aborigines in
South Australia 140
schools and
missionaries 1389
sources 1223
timeline 121
in Torres Strait 1467
in Van Diemens Land 1301
violence on last
frontiers 1423
White Australia policy 113
racism, and nationalism 1789
radicals 10
railways
in Australia 1415
expansion during Industrial
Revolution 512
referendum 2501
reformers 80
remuneration 144
republicanism 179
republics 10
rickets 36, 37
roads 51
Rotherman plough 34
royal commissions 78, 79
Rudd, Kevin 120
rural population 31, 66
Russia
Bolsheviks seize power
2545
revolution 2523
second revolution 2534
in World War I 252
S
sanitation
and housing 767
and public health 801
sans-culottes 9, 11
scurvy 36, 37
Second Fleet 104
seed drills 334
selectors, vs squatters 1645
serfs 6, 7
shillings 161
shipping, developments 56
Sinn Fein 250, 251
Sino-Japanese War 207
slave trade 1819, 88
abolition in America 989
268
Index
and cotton industry 967

countries involved 94
kidnap and trade of
Africans 92
opposition to 98
origins 92
slave sales 935
Triangular Trade 92, 93
Slavic peoples 230, 231
smallpox 126
social divisions, in
Australia 1723
social unrest 82
socialism 22, 183
sources
artworks 31, 65, 123
census figures 31
contemporary writers and
commentators 31, 64
gaps in evidence 5
historical sources 901
inventions and patents 30
mass media 4, 158
official government
statistics 645
official sources 4, 158
oral history 123
personal records 4, 158
photography 199
records of government
inquiries 65
visual sources 4, 1589
written sources 1223
Soviet 253, 255
spinning wheels 42
spirit possession 214
squatters 132, 135, 1645
stalemate 240, 241
statistics 64
steam power
in coalmines 40
development 40
and expansion of
railways 513
James Watts steam
engine 41
in shipping 56
Thomas Newcomens
engine 40
Stephenson, George 513
stock breeding 35
stockades 162
Stolen Generations, national
apology to 1201
strikes 1756
subordinates 202
subsistence farming 32, 35
suffrage 182, 183
sweated labour 175, 177
Swing riots (1830) 678
T
tailings 148, 149
Taiping Rebellion 2089
tariffs 184, 187
technological advances 3
telegraph 1415, 173

terra nullius 125
textile industry
child labour 70, 74
factory production 43
innovations 435
spinners and weavers 43
traditional textile
production 42
working conditions in
factories 701
three-field rotation 323
Tolpuddle Martyrs 83
Torres Strait Islanders
contact with Europeans
1467
discrimination and
rebellion 147
track guage 14, 15
trade
between Britain and
Australia 57
between China and
Australia 196
enforced on China 21011
and Industrial Revolution
12, 567
trade unions
affiliated unions 174, 177
in Australia 14, 1747
development of 823
and the Industrial
Revolution 1213
tactics and policies 1745
transport
canals 501
and Industrial Revolution 12,
503
railways 513
roads 51
treadwheels 97
trench foot 241
trench warfare 2401
trustees 51, 53
tsars 6, 7
tucker 144
Tull, Jethro 334
turnpike trusts 51, 53
turnpikes 51, 53
typhus 76, 77
U
U-boats 2323
ultimatum 230, 231
urban population 31, 66
urbanisation, and
overcrowding 76
US, industrialisation 54
vices 148, 149
virtues 148, 149
voting rights
of Aboriginal people 145
for women 1823
W
war, glorification of 228
warp (textile weaving) 43, 45
water wheels 39
weft (textile weaving) 43, 45

welfare reforms, in
Australia 18990
White Australia 113, 1901
windmills 3940
Windradyne 133
Wiradjuri massacre 133
women
exploitation 175
in parliament 182
in traditional China 2023
voting rights 1823
war effort in Australia 2489
in workforce 182
workhouses 789
working conditions
in coalmines 723
during Industrial
Revolution 623
industrial workers 12
in late nineteenth century
Australia 1723
reformers and reforms 80
in textile factories 701
see also child labour
World War I
aftermath 2567
Allies 232
Australian casualties 237,
239, 243
Australian involvement 2345
Battle of the Somme 242
Bullecourt 242
casualties 237, 239, 242, 243
causes 22831
Central Powers 232
Chinese involvement 219
in colonies 233
commemoration 2569
conscription 2501
countries involved 231
Eastern Front 232, 242,
2525
end of 243
Fromelles 242
Gallipoli campaign 234,
2369
Hindenberg line 242, 243
links with our times 2245
memorials 257
Middle East campaign 234
naval power 2323, 234
Pozires 242
repatriation 2567
Schlieffen Plan 232
sources 2267
timeline 225
trench warfare 2401
Western Front 232, 234,
2423
Ypres 242
Y
Yagan 1289

Alive 9

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Document Informationclick to expand document informationAustralian Curriculum History years 9 and 10. Includes World War I, WWII and others

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FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM

First published 2012 by

The publisher wishes to thank the following teachers and

This textbook contains images of Indigenous people who are, or

Front cover image: 20th Century Fox/The Kobal Collection/

CHAPTER 2 DEPTH STUDY 1:

THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD

MAKING A BETTER WORLD?

The modern world

The Industrial Revolution (1750 1914):

1.1 HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT ?

Note: The Depth Study The Industrial Revolution (17501914)

2.1 HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT ?

CHAPTER 3 DEPTH STUDY 1:

The Industrial Revolution (1750 1914):

CHAPTER 4 DEPTH STUDY 1:

Movement of peoples (1750 1901) 88

CHAPTER 5 DEPTH STUDY 2: AUSTRALIA AND ASIA

5.1 HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT ?

CHAPTER 6 DEPTH STUDY 2: AUSTRALIA AND ASIA

Working in cities and towns 172

CHAPTER 7 DEPTH STUDY 2: AUSTRALIA AND ASIA

CHAPTER 8 DEPTH STUDY 3: WORLD WAR I

How to use History Alive

The chapter opening

An illustrated timeline shows the chronology and key events

DEPTH STUDY 1: MAKING A BETTER WORLD?

The Industrial Revolution (17501914):

It is said that today we are living through a

The invention of new

James Watt invents a

The first official

The first English

Railway building begins

The Great Exhibition is

Note to teachers and students: The Depth Study

2 What major technological innovations contributed to

1 What do you think are the main differences between

4 What do we mean by progress? Is progress always

This painting appeared on the cover of a

Activity headings are based on the historical

Coalbrookdale at Night, painted around 1800 by

It was natural that writers of the eighteenth

recorded changes in the numbers of people living in

Records of government inquiries

Official government statistics

Paintings and drawings of

In the eighteenth and nineteenth

Given the dramatic impact of these events on peoples

ANALYSIS AND USE OF SOURCES

Chapter 3: The Industrial Revolution (17501914): (II) The impact on people

History Alive provides a

From an interview with James Patterson,

water wheel or steam engine.

An early nineteenth-century textile mill was

workers were always at risk of

slowing or stopping the

loose pieces of cotton from under

Note: The Depth Study The Industrial Revolution (17501914)