Why 11 ships full of criminals were sent to colonize Australia

Crime rates in Britain were high in the 17th and 18th centuries. This was primarily due to the rising levels of poverty created by the Industrial Revolution.

As a result, poor people often resorted to crime in order to survive. The most common crimes were theft and robbery.

Many people who were arrested were quite young and starving. The average age of a criminal in Britain was just 21.

The most common items they stole were food, clothing, and money.

The punishment for stealing in Britain at the time was usually imprisonment.

However, so many people were being arrested for minor crimes, that the regular prisons soon ran out of room for them.

The British government came up with a clever solution. They decided to use old warships as prisons, and called them 'hulks'.

They tied up the unused ships on rivers and locked criminals in them.

However, even the hulks began to run out of room and the government needed a third solution.

It was decided that to get rid of the huge number of prisoners, they would simply send them overseas. 

A system of transportation had already been put into place in 1717. The British government decided that transportation would be a more humane alternative to execution.

They believed that sending people to distant colonies would give them a second chance at life.

This involved sending people to penal colonies in America and later, Australia.

Australia was claimed to be 'empty land', or terra nullius in Latin, which gave the British justification for taking First Nations land around Sydney Cove.

The British government believed that they had the right to claim any land that was uninhabited.

In 1787, the British government decided to establish a penal colony in Australia. A penal colony is a settlement that is used to house criminals.

The British government believed that Australia would be an ideal place to send their convicts because it was so far away from Britain.

They also thought that the climate would be better for their health.

The First Fleet was a group of 11 ships that set sail from Portsmouth, England in May 1787.

The fleet was commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip. It consisted of around 700 convicts, 200 soldiers, and 30 sailors.

Most of the convicts were sentenced to seven years, but some were given life sentences.

While transportation was seen as a more humane alternative to execution, many of the convicts sent to Australia suffered from terrible conditions.

Around 48 people died during the voyage, which was considered quite a low number at the time.

The fleet arrived in Botany Bay, Australia in January 1788, but it was decided that the site was unsuitable for a penal colony.

A few weeks later, the fleet arrived in Sydney Cove, which is now known as Sydney Harbour.

The penal colony was under the charge of Arthur Phillip, who later became the first governor of New South Wales.

The convicts were immediately put to work building houses and farms. They were also assigned to work gangs on public projects such as road-building.

Many of the convicts were treated harshly and were frequently flogged. However, some were given preferential treatment in return for good behavior.

After a few years, the colony began to thrive. A school was established, and churches were built.

Many of the convicts were also given their own plot of land to farm for personal use.

It was thought that by doing this, it would make them less likely to turn to back to a life of crime.

However, the Indigenous peoples in the area strongly resisted the arrival of the British.

Any land given to a convict meant that the traditional owners were no longer permitted to occupy it.

As a result, clashes between the two societies rapidly increased, which would later lead to significant conflicts as European settlers expanded their control over the land.

As the colony grew, more and more free settlers arrived from Britain. They brought with them their families, farmers, laborers, and businesses.

This led to a rapid expansion of the colony.

By 1868, the transportation of convicts to Australia had come to an end. Around 160,000 convicts had been transported to Australia during this time period.

It is estimated that one in every ten Australians is descended from a convict.

The establishment of the penal colony marked the beginning of British settlement in Australia.

The first years were very difficult for the colonists, as they faced harsh conditions.

However, over time, they managed to establish themselves and create a new society. 

The colony also marked a time of dramatic impacts on the Indigenous peoples, including the introduction of diseases, loss of cultural heritage, social disruption, and the dispossession of their land and resources.

Ultimately, the British established a system of law and governance that would shape the country for centuries to come, which often did not recognise the First Nations as holding any legal right to Australia.