AUSTRALIA
THE MYTH OF AN INVASION
Much of aboriginal activism is consumed with the notion of a British invasion of the continent.
An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either conquering; liberating or re-establishing control or authority over a territory; forcing the partition of a country.
FIRST FLEET LANDING
In 1788 Europeans, principally English citizens landed at Port Phillip cove to establish a penal colony.
The First Fleet of 11 ships, each one no larger than a Manly ferry, left Portsmouth in 1787 with more than 1480 men, women and children onboard. Although most were British, there were also African, American and French convicts.
The military component of this group was 245 marines [15% of the total] which were guards for the establishment of a penal colony. The secondary role of the military component was to defend the penal colony from any native incursion. This was not an invasion force.
There was 700 prisoners and 300 ships crew.
An invasion or military operation would have been predominately marines supported by ship’s crew. This was not an invasion and an invasion force was not required.
When they landed at Port Phillip they did not seek to kill anyone. They were not invading. They were not meet with any opposition or force. They did not fire a bullet. The official policy of the British Government was to establish friendly relations with Aboriginal people,]and Arthur Phillip ordered that the Aboriginal people should be well treated.
If they had been met with military force of an organised nation or peoples, they may have retreated or fought depending upon assessment of the situation.
They simply landed and the Aboriginal bands left the area. This would appear to be an extremely strange reaction for a people who claim to be inherently culturally and spiritually connected with the land.
And though there was limited insurgency against the British during the early years of the colony, the rise to total control of the Sydney basin, for the most part, had been easy.
Smallpox had destroyed more than half the population and those not ravaged by disease were displaced when land was cleared for settlements and farms. Dispossessed of the land that had nourished them for so long, the Aboriginal people became dependent on white food and clothing. Alcohol, used as a means of trade by the British, served to further shatter traditional social and family structures.
The vast majority of bands living in the Sydney Basin were killed as a result of the diseases brought by 1788 arrival. European disease devastated, in what amounts to the blink of an eye, an ancient people.
The fact that Aboriginals out-numbered the English arrival and should have been able to outsmart them with knowledge of area in warfare to reclaim their land is dismissed in history.
Perhaps the Aborigines were overwhelmed with fear of the English and/or the Aborigine lacked any organisational structure within their bands/tribes to establish a meaningful force to repel the English. Despite a claimed “spiritual connection to Country” there is extremely limited accounts of any heroic acts of resistance to retain those lands.
It will entirely be the subject of speculation. Any resistance over the coming 100 years was sporadic, puerile, and completely ineffective.
The fact is the English landed without opposition and commenced the settlement, occupation and civilisation establishing the colony of New South Wales. Over the next 100 years the military was not engaged in any conflict with any Aboriginal group.
If the first fleet had met opposition and been driven back and defeated, it is possible that England may not have pursued such a remote outpost again.
Alternatively, they may have sent a much larger military force to engage in war for the territories. This would have been a very expensive option and given the geo-political nature of the world at this time, is highly unlikely to have occurred. The first fleet was only the establishment of a small penal colony on the other side of the world.
The local native bands did not repel the English and the rest is history.