Australia’s First Peoples & Britain’s ‘Empire in the South’
‘The short term consequences of the American War of Independence] were less than many expected.Though Britain’s eclipse as a world power was confidently predicted her economic recovery was swift, and the colonial development of Australia, New Zealand India and part of Africa went some way to compensating for the loss of the first British empire’. Professor J.A.C Cannon, Oxford Companion to British History, ed. John Cannon, 1997
The establishment of a ‘Second British Empire’ followed on quickly from America’s War of Independence 1775-1783.
Britain’s loss of her ‘Empire in the West’ the thirteen (13) ‘middle colonies’ – New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Carolina North and South, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island drove the invasion of New Holland and the brutal conquest of its Sovereign Peoples.
‘That the fighting against France in what was originally and essentially a European war should have spread so swiftly to the tropics was a result of many factors, most of them predicable’. Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery, Fontana Press, 3rd Ed. London, 1976
SEE MAP
Westminster: In order to speed the ‘spread to the tropics’ and building a ‘second British Empire’ under the administration of the Younger William Pitt (1783-1801) Britain took pre-emptive steps to secure alternate sea-routes to and from India Asia and, via the Southern Oceans, Spain’s rich South American colonies. See: Proximity not Distance drove the invasion of New Holland
‘The administration of the 24-year-old Prime Minister William Pitt was under no illusion about the pretensions of its enemies. In early October 1784, Lord Carmarthen, the Foreign Secretary, stressed the necessity of knowing the extent of the proposed French and Dutch forces in India.
The information was essential, he added, ‘in order that we may ascertain the number of ships to be employed by us in that quarter of the world’. Michael Pembroke, Arthur Phillip Sailor Mercenary Governor Spy, Hardie Grant Books, 2013
Britain’s humiliating defeat in the American war was due in large part to French money, men, munitions and military know-how and to a lesser extent logistical support from Spain.
‘Parallel to, and dependent upon, the Anglo-French duel for command of the sea went their struggle for overseas bases and colonies; here too, the culminating point in a century-long race was reached, with Britain emerging in 1815 with a position so strengthened that she appeared to be the only real colonial power in the world’. Kennedy. ibid.
New Holland would compensate for lost ‘bases and colonies’ and reposition Britain for the next inevitable conflict with France. See: A Riddle – When was an invasion fleet not an invasion fleet? When it was the ‘First Fleet’.
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London 1786: The invasion of New Holland, announced by King George 111 in Parliament in August 1786 and confirmed by him on 25th April 1787 should be treated as a continuum of the American War of Independence 1775-1783. See Arthur Phillip – Spook & Evan Nepean – Handler – A Military Campaign Hidden in Plain Sight
In Britain’s ‘century-long race‘ for supremacy over the Indian, Pacific and Southern oceans, with an eye to India, China, the Philipines and Spain’s South American ‘treasure’ colonies, New Holland and its Sovereign Peoples were collateral damage.
‘With Britain emerging in 1815 with a position so strengthened that she appeared to be the only real colonial power in the world’. Kennedy. ibid.
EPILOGUE
The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars 1793-1815 ended in Belgium with England’s Duke of Wellington’s defeat of France’s Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo in 1815.
With French ‘pretensions‘ out of the equation Britain turned rapacious eyes on India – ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of the ‘Second British Empire’. See: Stealing Stuff