Did Captain James Cook share the land with the aboriginals?

Answer 1

It may be that James Cook was the first to have direct communication with the Aborigines, but he was not the first to meet them.

Willem Jansz/Janszoon was a Dutchman who was seeking new trade routes and trade associates. Commanding the Duyfken, he became the first recorded European to step foot on Australia's shores on the western shore of Cape York Peninsula, on 26 February 1606. However, during hostilities with the local indigenous people, Jansz lost ten of his crewmen.

Another explorer also had negative encounters with the Aborigines. When English pirate William Dampier landed on Australia's far northwest coast in 1688, he made quite a few rather derogatory comments about Australia and its people, referring to the Aborigines as "the miserablest people in the world". They were apparently rather hostile to Dampier and his crew.

Answer 2

Captain Cook discovered the East Coast of Australia, or New Holland, in April of 1770. Captain Cook tried to make friends with the local Aboriginals, but they were frightened of him and his crew.

Answer 3

James Cook had nothing to do with "sharing land" and only minimal contact with the Aborigines of Australia.

Cook claimed Australia's eastern coast for England, recommending the land as a penal settlement for England's convicts. His purpose was not to "conquer" Australia, or to subdue the Aborigines. His was a purely scientific mission, and he reported his findings back to England.

Answer 4

James Cook, who was still a Lieutenant when he first visited Australia, had considerable influence on the colonisation of Australia. He was the first Englishman to see Australia's fertile eastern coast. English pirate William Dampier had first sighted northwestern Australia, but was unimpressed by the dryness of the land, and the native inhabitants, and his reports dissuaded Great Britain from following up on claiming Australia for another 70 years.

During the years between Dampier and Cook, the industrial revolution created severe unemployment, and hence a crime problem, in England. Because of the excessive numbers of prisoners, the decision was made to send convicts overseas.

It was not until James Cook's successful voyage which involved charting the eastern coast of Australia, that New South Wales was seen as a viable proposition for such a convict colony. Cook named and claimed New South Wales for England, declaring the continent terra nullius, or "no-man's land", meaning that England did not recognise that the indigenous people had any ownership rights.

In particular, New South Wales was endorsed by Sir Joseph Banks, the influential botanist who travelled with Cook. Banks was one of three botanists aboard Cook's ship "The Endeavour", and he was a passionate advocate of British settlement and colonisation of the Australian continent. It was largely upon Cook's and Banks's recommendation that Australian ultimately was colonised by the British, and not by another power later.

Answer 5

Connor MacDonald is awesome