language and religion of australia 08 09
TRANSCRIPT
Impact of English Colonization on Australia:
Language & Religion
Unit 10 Notes
Language of Australia
Direct result of British colonization & expansion
Australia was the final continent discovered by Europeans
Aborigines had inhabited the country for centuries
Language
1768: Captain James Cook left England and explored & mapped parts of eastern Australia– Claimed the land for England & named it
New South Wales
England did not immediately colonize it…
Language
1788: England sent a crew to Australia to begin building prisons
Earlier, England had been shipping prisoners to American colonies--no longer a choice after the American Revolution
1788-1823: New South Wales was a penal (prison) colony housing convicts and marines
Language
1823: British government established Australia’s first Parliament that created criminal and civil courtsBy 1868: more than 170,000 convicts had arrived in Australia from England– The language of the prisoners was
English…
Language
French government became interested in Australia’s west coast
To keep French out, English settlers built new villages and cities as far out as possible– This spread English language to western
Australia
Language
More British immigrants entered Australia during the gold rush of the mid-1800s
Thousands of Chinese immigrants arrived as well– Chinese didn’t become an important
language because the English-speakers were too plentiful
Language
When Australia gained its independence from Great Britain, the government wanted to make sure it wouldn’t get too many immigrants
It allowed people from England & US to enter the country, but made rules to stop immigrants from Africa & Asia– Encouraged more English speakers to move to
Australia
Language
Today, more than 20% of Australians were born in another country– Half of Australia came from non-English
speaking countries
Because of Australia’s history, English is still the official language & it’s the most common language spoken
Religion
1788: Europeans introduced Christianity to Australia– Irish convicts were Catholic, while most others
were Methodist or Anglican
1800s: European settlers brought their traditional churches to Australia--Church of England (now Anglican Church), Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, & Baptist
Religion
Today, most Australians are Christians– Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican
Church claim the most members
Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, & Hindus combined make up less than 5% of the population