Brief History of Oceania

LECTURE #1

Australia & New Zealand

Early Times – Colonial Period

Migration to Australia First people in Australia came from

Southeast Asia Crossed land bridges (when possible) Also used boats/canoes

Aborigines First people to live in Australia

50,000 years before Europeans Lived in tribes, in small villages

Food came mostly from the sea (fish) Also grew yams, fruits, taro

Nomadic people

Colonial Period First European explorers came

around 1500 A.D. 1800s - In search of whale oil, more

exploration occurred when whalers followed animals to Oceania

Capt. James Cook (right) – explorer of Australia & New Zealand (1770s)

European Settlement of Australia 1788

Great Britain turns Australia into prison colony

1851 Gold discovered, bringing many European

settlers

Decline of Indigenous people (Aborigine) Fighting for control of land Could not combat European diseases

Brief History of Oceania

LECTURE #2

Australia & New Zealand

New Zealand & Modern Auzzieland

New Zealand in Brief First settled between

950-1130 A.D. First explored by

Europeans in 1630 (Abel Tasman)

Capt. James Cook explored NZ in 1769

New Zealand Today Government

Member of the British Commonwealth, but completely independent (like Canada)

Voting: Every person 18+ can vote Elections every 3 years

• Economy• Mostly agriculture and tourism• However, there are 13 times more sheep than people in New Zealand

5 Things You didn’t Know about Aussieland1. Australia is REALLY BIG

6th largest country (physically) in the world (slightly smaller than continental USA)

2. Australia is REALLY EMPTY Only 20 million residents (USA has 300 million)

3. Australia has really dangerous animals (yes and no!)

More people have died from lightning strikes than shark attacks

More people died from bee stings (20) than died from shark attacks, crocodile attacks and spider bites combined.

5 Things (cont’d)4. Australians are hard

workers In 2004, Australian's

ranked third in a list of average hours worked each year amongst industrial countries behind New Zealand (1) and the USA (2) and ahead of Japan (5), Britain (8) and Germany (12).

5. Rugby Players are tougher than Soccer (football) Players