Backbencher

Lecture 4 was all about the coming of the English in Australia. We see that they came in two factions: Prisoners and 'Pilgrims'. The beginning part of the lecture talks about the myth history. This is where people like William McNeill and Austin Fife have, in plain terms, made up some history for the country, and both upheld these myths.

From here, we moved on to talk about the convicts. As I said, we catagorized most people as pilgrims or prisoners (this sounds like a great name for a rock song!). England had a crime problem and a new continent. Seems obvious that they should send their rif-raf overseas. You know the saying, "Out of sight, out of mind." They sent most of their convicts to Botany Bay, which is what the picture is of in this post. This policy worked. They used the prisoners to build colonies, but soon they realized that this was too far from 'Her Majesty', so they quiet shipping convicts there.

From here, we saw how these people continued their lives in their new world. I found it fascinating how Dr. Isern said people would commit petty crimes just to be able to get out of England and a have a chance at a better life. You come imagine the pub talk in Enland: "Where be old Tom?" "Stole a biscuit for a better life!"

We saw the slow transition from what was imprisonment to freedom and eventual normal day life. You can see how this could happen. England soon started to plain forget about the prisoners out there and from there, they started to gain freedom.

From here, we moved on to New Zealand. I just want to say that New Zealand seems like a much better place, on the whole, and everything we've learned leans towards this viewpoint. It seems so much different that they had a systematic and planned colonization. Immigrants with good character could buy land. This really sounds amazing. Also, the finding of gold in NZ didn't hinder things either.

This was another fun lecture. I didn't know the extent of the criminal shipping to Australia. I also enjoyed the culture-specific terms used. It's always funny to hear stuff like that. Great lecture!