Impact of European Colonization on Indigenous Australians

Running head: ACADEMIC ESSAY
Academic Essay
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1ACADEMIC ESSAY
Indigenous people depend on their native land for their survival. Before 1788, Australia was
mostly inhabited by the aboriginals of Australia. The indigenous people spoke approximately
700 languages throughout Australia that consisted of an estimated population of 7,50,000
inhabitants. In 1788, the first fleet of British ships arrived at Port Jackson in Australia from
which 570 men and 160 women stepped on shore who created a predominant society in
Australia marking the era of European colonization (Roberts, 2013). The European
Colonization left a scar on the community that made a lasting impact on the lives of the
Indigenous Australians.
Until the beginning of 1788, the Indigenous Australians were separated from the rest
of the world, as there was no formal contact between the inhabitants and the rest of the world.
However, with the onset of the European colonization, extensive changes started taking place
in the lives of these native people. The European colonization introduced modernism, which
was delivered to these native people in the form of transportation, communication and
infrastructure (Sherwood, 2013). The forceful imposition of the European culture made a
negative impact on the nomadic lives of the inhabitants. Before the arrival of the Europeans,
Australia used to be an unexplored land where the natives respected their land. In 1778,
Captain James Cook, a British Lieutenant first explored the eastern coast of the land after
which perpetual settlement of the Europeans began in Australia. The Europeans, later on
colonized the region on the grounds of ‘terra nullius’ meaning the land belongs to none. This
made a disastrous impact on the lives of the Indigenous people that resulted in forced
removal from their native land, homelessness, epidemic diseases and exploitation of
resources. There were also huge differences in the lifestyle of the Europeans and the
Indigenous people that generated difficulties for both the communities being able to
understand each other (Geia, Hayes & Usher, 2013).