History of Indigenous Australians: Difference between revisions

===Impact of British settlement===

 

 

In 1770, Lieutenant [[James Cook]] took possession of the east coast of Australia in the name of Great Britain and named it [[New South Wales]]. British colonisation of Australia began in [[Sydney]] in [[1788]]. The most immediate consequence of British settlement - within weeks of the first colonists' arrival - was a wave of European epidemic diseases such as [[chickenpox]], [[smallpox]], [[influenza]] and [[measles]], which spread in advance of the frontier of settlement. The worst-hit communities were the ones with the greatest population densities, where disease could spread more readily. In the arid centre of the continent, where small communities were spread over a vast area, the population decline was less marked.