European Settlement Essays

European Settlement Essays European Settlement Essay European Settlement Essay What impact did European settlement have on the indigenous population of Australia? European settlement had a severe and devastating impact on Indigenous people. Their dispossession of the land, exposure to new diseases and involvement in violent conflict, resulted in the death of a vast number of the Aboriginal peoples. The small percentage of Aboriginal people who did not die during these early decades of the colony, were not unaffected. The impact of the white settlers changed their lives Disease:While the British settlers had a hand in the intentional eradication of the Aboriginal peoples, the settlers were also accidentally responsible for their deaths during times of peaceful contact. When the settlers arrived in Australia they brought with them a number of European epidemic diseases. These diseases included chickenpox,  smallpox,  typhoid,  measles  and  influenza. The Aboriginal peoples had  no immunity to these unfamiliar diseases. Loss of land: Not long after th e First Fleet arrived in New South Wales, overseas governments began to grant, lease and sell land to white settlers.As the prosperity of the overseas wool industry increased, more settlers arrived in the gathering to stake their claims on grazing land from which they could amass their own fortunes. The fading availability of suitable land resulted in a number of voyages to search for more fertile grazing land. Loss of culture: in 1770, the Australian Aboriginals culture and way of life dramatically changed when Lieutenant James Cook took possession of the east coast of Australia and named it New South Wales.The British colonisation of Australia began 18 years later, which was a terrible event for indigenous Australians. The Europeans spread epidemic diseases The British settlement then took land and water resources from the Australian Aborigine, and was ignorant in their assumption that the semi-nomadic Aborigines could be driven off and made to live somewhere else. In fact, the lo ss of traditional lands, food sources and water resources was a fatal blow to the Aboriginal communities who already weakened by disease were then forced to abandon their deep spiritual and cultural connection to their land.As a direct consequence of the invasion, the enforced move away from traditional areas adversely impacted upon Aboriginal cultural and the spiritual practices which had been necessary for maintaining the cohesion and well-being of the tribal group. Conflict ;amp; Massacres At first fear and curiosity were experienced by the Aboriginal peoples and the British settlers. Cultural misunderstandings over land, however, made the initial attempts to construct a peaceful relationship seem futile.Both the settlers and Aboriginal people felt they were fighting for their survival and so the war that erupted between them was desperate and brutal. The 1834 Battle of Pinjarra in Western Australia, the 1838 Myall Creek Massacre in New South Wales and the 1843 Warrigal Creek Mas sacre in Victoria are three infamous confrontations in Australian history. There were committed in all parts of the country, by both the Aboriginal people and the white. The white settlers, however, had the superior firepower and in later times, as more and more Aboriginal people died from.