How British Colonizers Destroyed Tasmania's Indigenous Population
The island of Tasmania was first discovered in the mid-17th century, but for a long time Europeans only occasionally visited it. Everything changed on September 19, 1803, when the British founded their first settlement on the island. From that moment on, one of the most monstrous genocides in human history began. In just four decades, the colonists completely exterminated an entire people.
In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovered a large island off the coast of Australia. He named it Van Diemen's Land, in honor of the Governor-General of the Dutch colonies in the East Indies, Anthony van Diemen, who organized the expedition. The modern name Tasmania appeared on maps only in 1856.
Archaeologists have established that the first people appeared on the island approximately 40 thousand years ago. At that time, Tasmania was a peninsula connected to Australia by an isthmus. Later, the isthmus disappeared under water - the ocean level rose after the end of the last ice age. Thus, the Tasmanians were completely isolated for many millennia.
The island generously provided the aborigines with everything they needed for life, and they wanted for nothing. People hunted kangaroos and sea mammals, caught fish and collected shellfish. They knew how to make tools from stone and wood, wove baskets and built pies from tree bark. The weapons of the Tasmanians were simple - wooden spears and clubs, reinforced with sharp stones and shells.
The island's population was divided into several tribes speaking different dialects. They all belonged to the same ethnic group and believed in the same gods. It was a unique culture based on Stone Age technology. According to scientists, by the time the first European settlers arrived, the number of Tasmanians reached at least 15 thousand people.
Abel Tasman, having discovered the island, considered it completely hopeless. He did not find any natural resources, and trading with the locals, who did not even know what a bow was, was uninteresting. The Dutch put Van Diemen's Land on the maps and went on. The next Europeans the Tasmanians saw were the French.
In 1772, the ships of the expedition under the command of Marc Joseph Marion-Dufresne landed on the shores of the island. A conflict occurred between the French and the locals: several sailors were injured by stone axes, and several natives died. These sailors also did not find anything remarkable and soon left the inhospitable island.
So, for 150 years after the discovery of the island by Europeans, the Tasmanians lived relatively peacefully. Until the British arrived. You could say that they were forced to colonize the island. Nearby was the Kingdom of Australia, and the Anglo-Saxons really did not want the island to be “claimed” by the French. In 1803, the first European settlement appeared in Risdon Bay - Risdon Cove. In 1804, 5 miles away, a second settlement appeared - Sullivan's Cove.
As usual, the first colonists were military men and convicts. At first, the Europeans were desperately bored and cursed Tasmania, where there was nothing important or necessary. But then it turned out that the island had considerable potential. The land was perfect for agriculture, especially for breeding animals. In addition, scientists discovered tin and gold deposits in the mountains.
Tasmania's isolation made it an ideal place for penal servitude, even better than Australia. During the first half-century of colonization, the British sent more than 75,000 criminals to the island. On December 3, 1825, Tasmania was officially separated from Australia, declared an independent colony with its own legislative council and court.
The first skirmish between the British and Tasmanians occurred just a year after the colony was founded. On May 3, 1804, about 300 Aborigines hunting kangaroos approached Risdon Cove. Despite the fact that the group consisted mainly of women and teenagers, the British opened fire on them with rifles and a cannon.
Later, the Europeans began to kidnap Tasmanian women and children, turning them into servants. The English also hired locals as workers. Their seal hunting skills were especially valued, and the colonists often involved the Aborigines in this trade.
Sometimes the Tasmanians themselves sold their women to Europeans - as wives or slaves. The most famous Aboriginal woman sold by her fellow tribesmen was Tarerenorerer, whom the English called Uelier. Her owner kept her as a slave hunter and treated her extremely cruelly. Unable to bear the abuse, Uelier escaped and gathered a group of other runaways around her. From the English, she learned to shoot a firearm and taught this to her comrades. These women caused a lot of trouble for the colonists.
The kidnapping and sale of Tasmanian women led to a serious demographic crisis. By 1830, for example, in one tribe there were only three women left for 72 men. The already small people began to disappear rapidly. By the early 1820s, relations between the colonists and the Aborigines had finally deteriorated.
Previously, the first Europeans paid the Tasmanians for the use of hunting grounds and traded with them fairly. But a new wave of settlers began to treat the Aborigines as savages, taking everything by force. The Tasmanians lost the opportunity to hunt and trade, which led them to starvation. In addition, the Europeans brought dangerous diseases to the island - syphilis, influenza and tuberculosis. Because of this, the extinction of the Aboriginal population accelerated sharply.
The desperate Aborigines began to form gangs and attack English settlements. In response, the colonists organized punitive expeditions deep into the island, mercilessly killing everyone in their path. The peak of the confrontation occurred in 1828-1832 - this period is sometimes called the "Black War". The authorities paid the colonists a reward for every killed Tasmanian. Like the Australian Aborigines, the British did not consider the Tasmanians to be people and equated them with animals.
By 1830, only about 300 people remained from a people that had once numbered 15,000. The surviving Aborigines were persuaded and threatened to move to Flinders Island, where living conditions were extremely harsh. They organized a kind of reservation there. Under such conditions, the Tasmanians began to die out even faster, and by 1847 their numbers had dwindled to 45 people.
Seeing how bad things were, the authorities allowed the Tasmanians to return to their homeland, but it did not help. The last representatives of this people died over the next 20 years. In 1876, the last truly pure Tasmanian woman named Truganini died.
In 1889, a woman named Fanny Cochrane Smith was officially declared the last Tasmanian. She was born in exile on Flinders Island, but her father's origins are unknown. Fanny was the last person to speak a Tasmanian language. In 1903, anthropologists recorded several folk songs she sang on gramophone records.
Today, those who call themselves Tasmanians are the descendants of Tasmanian women and the Europeans who once married them. Several thousand of these people now live on the island. However, they do not speak the language of their ancestors, and the unique culture of the islanders is considered completely lost. Descendants of Tasmanians have united in public organizations and actively defend their rights. Thanks to their efforts, local authorities apologized and granted a number of privileges.
The Tasmanian story is a tragic reminder of what colonialism and cultural arrogance can lead to. Today, the descendants of a vanquished people are trying to preserve the memory of their roots and restore justice. Do you think it is possible to restore a lost culture when the people themselves have almost completely disappeared?