RESEARCH ORGANIZER
Name: David Peris, Joan Sanchis and Voro chilet Role: A sailor in capitan Cook’s ship
Date: 17-12-2010 Group: 4Âş C
Surf the Net a find out about the most relevant aspects of the 18 th century in _________________________ URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/
URL:
empire_seapower/cook_tupaia_maori_01.shtml
http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/australianhistory/
Captain Cook's voyagesaround the globe took him to remote parts - to the Pacific Island nations and to Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa is Maori for 'Land of the Long White Cloud', an earlier name for New Zealand given by the Polynesian explorer Kupe, upon discovery of these lands about 1,000 years ago). Cook's arrival offered immediate benefits, both for the weary European travellers and for the Maori in New Zealand. Both parties, eager to capitalise on the opportunities offered by the arrival of the newcomers, traded material items, ideas, values and worldly information with each other.
The British had an overcrowded prison population in the mid 18th century and they required a new penal colony. In 1768, Captain James Cook set sail for Australia and found the more desirable east coast. In 1770, King George III claimed the east coast and named it New South Wales. In 1788, the first fleet arrived carrying 750 convicts. This was the first penal colony that is now the Sydney area. The second penal colony developed was to the south in Tasmania. This colony was called Port Arthur which is a tourist attraction now. Over the following decades,these colonies grew. Australia grew into a productive farming land and a major wool producer. In the 1850's there was a gold rush in Victoria and New South Wales. Australia remains a major producer of mining products to this day. Opals are just one example.
Abel Tasman was the first European to venture to Aotearoa, or New Zealand, in 1642, but he did not take the opportunity to land and enjoy the bounty of the place - plentiful food and other resources that Maori people had found out about more than 600 years previously. Nor did he take advantage of the local hospitality that might well have been offered him. Instead, some of his crew engaged in a skirmish with the Maori, which resulted in the deaths of some of the newcomers. It is possible that Spanish voyagers had already found their way to these parts and had better experiences, as there are some tribal traditions that tell of meetings between Maori and either Spanish or Portuguese visitors, although little detail is known.
Contrary to popular belief in much of the world, the British were not the first settlers in Australia, nor were they the first Europeans to set foot on the continent. About 60,000years ago, the aboriginals arrived by sea from Asia. They adapted to the land well and moved across the land as they were nomadic hunters.
Tupaia, the legendary leader of the Polynesian island of Raitea, was brought to meet Captain Cook during the early part of his first voyage, while the Endeavour was moored near Tahiti. Cook had heard about Tupaia, who was an expert in geography, navigation and spiritual matters, through Banks, and it was at Banks' insistence that the Raitean was welcomed on board as an additional member of the crew. For his part, Tupaia was eager to embark on a journey of exploration to new placesand, like his ancestors before him, to learn about new modes of adaptation and survival. As a leader of his society, his motivation would have been not only personal and short term, but also more long term, with his people's future in view - whatever knowledge he gained on the trip he would have wanted for his people's benefit, such were the values inherent in the kin-based Polynesian society. Leaders of such societies were accountable to their people, and vice versa, with systems of penalties and rewards limiting autocracy.
The voyagesof JamesCook are the first examples of exploration undertaken on scientific principles. His first expedition, sailing in the Endeavour from Plymouth in 1768, has a scientific task as its central mission. It is known to the astronomers of the day that in June 1769 the planet Venus will passdirectly between the earth and the sun. An international effort is made to time the precise details of this transit, as seen from different parts of the world, in the hope of calculating the earth's distance from the sun.
Cook's original mission, as organised by the Royal Society of London, was not a colonising one, in contrast to that of the British agents Hobson and Busby later on in the 1830s.