How did Captain Cook's achievements influence others?

Answer 1

Following Captain Cook's voyage to the South Pacific in 1770, the previously uncharted continent of New Holland proved to be suitable. Cook had claimed the eastern half of the continent for England, naming it "New South Wales", and determined that a small bay in the south which he named "botany Bay" would present the ideal conditions for a penal colony.

Sir Joseph Banks, one of three botanists aboard James Cook's The Endeavour which charted the eastern coast of Australia in 1770, was a passionate advocate of British settlement and colonisation of the Australian continent. Cook claimed the eastern coast of Australia ("New South Wales") for Britain in 1770. It was largely upon his and Banks's recommendation that Australia ultimately was colonised, and so Cook is often (wrongly) credited with "discovering" Australia.