Imperialism in Oceania

As Europeans pressed into the far reaches of Oceania, Australia became Anglicized. Largely separate from other world cultures, Australia had developed on its own, home to hunter-gatherers. Parts of Oceania had already been claimed by European colonists. By the late eighteenth century, these people were ready to move to Australia.

The Scientific Voyages of Captain Cook

Engaging in a form of scientific imperialism—the pursuit of power through the pursuit of knowledge—James Cook opened the South Pacific to the eyes of Europeans. Armed with scientists and equipment, his expedition studied and recorded flora, fauna, geography, and people, accounts of which were much celebrated in Europe. European plans for Australia meant its transformation. Eager to begin, Cook brought European animals and plants that aimed to make the land more receptive to large numbers of European colonists. Eastern Australia was also designated as a prison colony and as a supplier of natural resources. As in the Americas, European expansion came at the expense of the native peoples. European knowledge, in like manner, also came at native peoples’ expense, as witnessed by the practice of kidnapping them to show them off in Europe.

Classification and "Race"

By the late seventeenth century, science’s classification of nature was applied to humans, and the term "race" entered the vocabulary of Europeans. To each so-called race were attached certain features and characteristics that, often but not always, placed Europeans at the top of a new racial hierarchy and Africans at the bottom. While classifications of the peoples of Oceania originally described them as innocent and peace loving, Cook’s violent death and other incidents led Europeans to depict them as cruel savages.