Australia

Ⅱ Australia (page1-12)Pre-history (before 1788)The earliest inhabitants:It has been estimated the minimum was 315,000 pre-1788 population, while recent archaeological finds suggest that a population of 750,000 could have been sustained The population was split into 250 individual nations, many of which were in alliance with one another, and within each nation there existed several clans, from as few as 5 or 6 to as many as 30 or 40. Each nation had its own language and a few had multiple, thus over 250 languages existed, but now only 50 languages exist.1606-1787Indigenous Australians were amongst the oldest, most sustainable and most isolated cultures on Earth prior to European settlementAn Italian Jesuit, Matteo Ricci, who spent a long time in China, made an early map of the known world in 1603.He brushed the Chinese characters Fire Land and Land of Parrots suggesting the Chinese were aware of and had perhaps sighted Australia.The reference to Fire Land may suggest the frequent volcanic activity of the Indonesian archipelago, the reference to parrots may mean that someone had made a landing on the continent after all, or had heard about Australia via word of mouth. The written history of Australia began when Dutch explorers in the 17th century 1788-1850Two periods of the colonisation:After British settlement6 in 1788, Australia was politically separated as British colonies, six in all. The colonisation is divided into two periods:1788-1830s New South Wales, Tasmania, and Wueensland were established as convict colonies （罪犯流放）1830s-1850 Victoria and South Australia,established and settled as “free”colony （自由居住）in 1830s; Western Australia, established “free”colony in 1828, then turned to convict colony in 1850.1945-presentFollowing World War II the Australian government instigated（鼓动）a massive program of European immigration. After preventing a Japanese invasion and suffering attacks on Australian soil for the first time, it was seen that the country must "populate or perish". Immigration brought traditional migrants from the United Kingdom along with, for the first time, large numbers of southern and central Europeans.A booming Australian economy stood in sharp contrast to war-ravaged Europe, andnewly-arrived migrants found employment in government assisted programs. Two million immigrants arrived between 1948 and 1975.The ANZUS defence treaty was signed in 1951 with the United States and New Zealand, and Australia committed troops to the Korean War and the Malayan Emergency. Melbourne hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics and joint British-Australia nuclear tests and rocket launches began near Woomera, South Australia. The population reached 10 million in 1959.Since 1951, Australia has been a formal military ally of the U.S. under the auspices of the ANZUS treaty. The final constitutional ties between Australia and Britain ended in 1986 with the passing of the Australia Act 1986, ending any British role in the Australian States, and ending judicial appeals to the UK Privy Council.Australia society as a penal colonyAustralian society experienced four stages as a penal colony: the sufferings the indigenous Australians experienced can be categorised into four and summed up as the following:1) Expropriation ( 征用) of land and the killing of peoples ( 1788-1800) _____ this is the darkest stage in Australian history. Approximately 20,000 Aborigines were killed who struggled against the expropriation of their land by British invaders and more were killed by the diseases imported by the invaders.2) Segregation and “protection ”( 1800-1909 )_____ the aboriginal peoples were taken away from their land and put on “reserves”(土著人保护区) where they were strictly controlled by the so called “protectors ”, the white invaders. Herbert Spenser, the most famous social evolutionist introduced the racist theory ― the survival of the fittest‖ suitable only to animals, which further legitimated exploitation and invasion and led to ― four stolen‖ ( land, wages, culture, children )3) Assimilation ( 1909-1950), segregation and the attempted destruction of the cultures of the Dreaming_____ By the beginning of 20th century, the policy of ― protection ‖ had been replaced by assimilationAssimilation means that both peoples would become as one, but in fact, it means segregation ( 种族隔离, 种族歧视) as follows:a. The white invaders believe the white culture was progressive and superior, while the Dreaming was superstition;b. The indigenous’ children were taken away from their parents and taught in church-run institutions to destroy the culture of the Dreaming and replace it with Christianity.c. The aborigines were excluded from employment or became the cheapest labourer.d. They had unequal conditions of entry into public houses, such as the swimming pools and cinemas, even on the bus.e. They were excluded from mainstream education and health services ( the number that they go to university is limited and they have no right to enjoy medical care free. )f. The worst was that the aborigines were excluded from citizenship: they could notvote.4) From the mid 20th century: obtaining citizenship and the fighting against racism as the following:a. Aboriginal Protection Act of 1909_____ moved some aborigines away from ― reserves‖ which was some reform, but in fact, these aborigines w ere trained, so that they forgot their own culture.b. Struggle for land rights from 1920s to the 1960s_____ Jan.26, 1938 was the first national aboriginal civil rights gathering, demanding citizenship. From then on, Jan.26 every year is the “Day of Morning and Protest ( 哀悼与抗议日- protest the settlement of the First Fleet )”or “Australian Day （澳大利亚国庆）”. For aborigines, on Jan.26, 1788, the invaders robbed their land; for the white Australian, Jan.26, 1788 is the day their first fleet arrived at Sydeny.c. The strike of stockmen (畜牧工) in 1946——the strike plays a major part in Australian history, which was followed by other strikes. It challenged the “white”control of the aboriginal labourer. Wages were introduced for aborigines in 1949d. In August, 1966, the strike of Gurindji people in the Northern Territories for rights and for lande. Freedom Rides and cultural changes_____ an aboriginal university graduate who led 29 white students to New South Wales to launch movement against segregation, to demand th e free entry of public house by the black. ― Freedom Rides‖ played a major part in raising the consciousness of Australians for social change.f. Mabo Case ( 马博案)——an aboriginal artist, who, together with other four inhabitants, asked for returning their land from the court and won. The wider significance is that the High Court recognized the native owned the land prior to the British, so that denied the princ iple of ― terra nullius ‖. The case was written into the Commonwealth Native Title Act (1993), this is the death ― terra nullius ‖Conclusion:The history of contact ( 融合) for the peoples of Dreaming ( Indigenous or Aborigines) has been the history of loss:Stolen land;Stolen culture;Stolen wages;Stolen childrenColonial self-governmentNew South Wales in 1855 was the first colony to claim a responsible government, managing most of its own affairs while remaining part of the British Empire. Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia followed in 1856;Queensland, from its foundation in 1859;Western Australia, in 1890.The Colonial Office in London retained control of some matters, especially foreign affairs, defence and international shipping.FederationOn 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies was achieved after a decade of planning, consultation and voting, and the Commonwealth of Australia was born.Following the end of WW1, King George V proclaimed Australia as a Dominion of the British Empire in 1911. Australia achieved Independent Sovereign Nation status for the first time in 1919.Australia's independence and sovereign nation status was officially recognised by all world nations when the Charter and Articles of the League of Nations legally became International Law in January 1920.British rule ceased at that point. No ruling British Monarch has held any valid legal power of authority since. Australia also became a foundation member state of the United Nations in 1945.Indigenous AustraliansNow the peoples are living on the land can be grouped into three:The first group: Indigenous Australians referring to Australian Aborigines simply means ― the original people of the region ‖. The peoples belong t o the peoples of Dreaming/Dreamtime. Today the indigenous Australians are minority in the country.Most of the descendants of the Aborigines were taken away by colonists and rebuilt. They are regarded to be the Australians now.The second group: The ―white Australians‖ mean the white people from Europe, mainly from Britain after 1788. They were outside invaders who were called the traditional migrants. Now they are the main force of Australians.The third group: the other immigrants from all corners of the world except from Britain.ImmigrationBesides the Indigenous ( 1 million or so ), Australia is a country of immigration (about 20 million ). After 1788, the number of migrants has accounted up for 50% of Australia’s population, in the mid 1830s, j ust within the first period of colonization 1788-1830s ( 1830s-1854 is the second period of colonization ); the number of migrants from all the corners of the world even bigger. In 1870s, the number of migrants from Britain was the first, from Germans was the second, from China, the third. Many migrants experienced returning to Europe responding to the different benefit from the British, so in 1960s, the government began to stress it by providing a series of supportive programmes to the traditional migrants, while the non-British migrants were not government-assisted. In 1950s, according to census, the migrants from other countries totally outnumbered British, though most of them had British backgrounds. ( 39% from Asia, 17.6% from New Zealand, 9.8% from United Kingdom, 7.5% from China, 6.4% from South Africa, 5.7% from India, 4.7% from Indonesia )The periods of immigration:Before 1788_____ Zheng He and his ships of China, then Malaysian, Indonesian and Arabian ( about 1500 AD), British colonists1788-1901_____ the British colonists ( they were dominant ), 1850smigrants came from all corners of the world.1901-1966_____ Immigration Restriction Act (1901 ) because of the White Australia Policy ( stop the permanence settling of Chinese and other non-whites in Australia by the biased ― dictation test ‖ in English, even in dialect language ) 1966-1973______ the policy gradually abolished. 1996-1997 fight against Asia, especially against Chinese, which led by Pauline HansonThe reasons were generally tw o: one was the ― gold rush ‖ ( 1850s ); the other is ― government-assisted ‖Gold Rush ( 1850s ) brought more migrants from the other countries of the world. Government-assistanceFrom 1820s, the settlers, especially the non-British background, were strongly against sending convicts to Australia. Because of the pressure of the majority and the need of economy development, the British Colonial Office allowed ― free migrants ‖ to migrant to Australia and the British migrants were ― government-assisted ‖ .One important person we must mention is Wakefield, who was a colonial theorist, also a convict. Wakefield made great contribution to the development of Australian economy and is honoured as a key founder of Australian political economy. Wakefield published his famous Wakefield Scheme during his imprisonment ( 1829 ), of which Karl Marx highly affirmed the significance. The Scheme had been carried out through migrants.Wakefield Scheme mainly includes:The government should make grants of land to investors at a “sufficient price ”( 足够高的价格), so that1) the investors could become capitalists who had the ability to maintain labourers; while the free migrants couldn’t;2) The ― sufficient price ‖would be set high enough to finance an ongoing migration program;Labourers of both sexes would be brought out to Australia thus ensuring that the cost of one generations’ migration would result in several future generations of labourers;3) The ― sufficient price ‖ would be balanced: it would be low enough to encourage the relatively wealthy investors, yet high enough to prevent the labourers immediately becoming landowners;4) The emigrant labourer ( the original investor ) would be “bonded”(契约式): the workers ( the original investors ) had to provide their paid labourer to the government or the other land holder, allowing them to choose being a labourer continually or apply for land themselves when they had saved sufficient money.A liberal democratic societyPolity is ― Washminster ‖, meaning a mixture of the US, Washington and UK,Westminster system. The Federation has three-tier system: federal level, six state governments and 900 local governmentsfederal level_____ a Prime Minister ( not President ) and his Cabinet, they are the centre of Australian Parliamentary power; the Parliament comprises two houses: the House of Representatives/the Lower House; the Senate/the Upper House. The Lower House’s d uty is to initiate legislation; while the Upper House is to consider and propose ( 建议、推荐) the bills.Parliament is elected by citizens voting;The members of Parliament generally belong to major parties;The Governor-General is the head of executive branch of government, who is the representative of the Queen. But the British monarch has no real power in Australia. The Governor-General can call a ― double dissolution‖: dissolve the two houses and have an early election if there is a severe disagreement between them. The power is rarely employed. The only example was found in 1975. The Governor-General, John Kerr, dissolved Gough Whitlam’s Government under the advice of the leader of the Opposition ( 在野党), Fraser. The dissolution led a big constitutional crisis. Gough Whitlam made a series of reform, established diplomatic relation with China, withdrew the army from Vietnam and cancelled military service within Australia. Therefore, the Governor-General attracted an animosity of the whole country. This is why the future Governor-General wouldn’t attempt to exert this power again.Six State Governments______are relatively independent governments. But when the laws of the State don’t agree with the feder al law, the State should change itself to be consistent with the federal law.900 local governments ———run and manage the local affairs, surely must keep agree with the laws of the State and the Federal/or Commonwealth.Parties:The Party in power is selected and decided by citizens.There are two major political parties, one is Australian Labor Party（澳大利亚工党）, the earliest party and devoted to workers’benefit; the other is Coalition which includes Liberals（自由党）representing conservative schools, and the Nationals（澳大利亚国家党）representing peasants’ benefit.The members of the Parliament should possess the membership of the two major parties.Value:Difference ( 差异) is the central value of the Australian society, maybe, this is due to the fact that Australia is a migrants nation. Liberal democracy is therefore the nature of Australia.Keeping Australia to be a liberal democratic society is based on the pluralist theory of power and Elite Theory.The mainstream frame-work ( 主流基准体制) the Australia practices is the pluralist theory of power——The ultimate right belongs to people; respect differences; adopt tolerance in politics.About the concept of power, in west countries there are four sorts of theory: pluralism, state autonomy, elite theory and Marxism )The content of Pluralist theory of power:1) At each election, citizens can choose which set of policies they would prefer according to the party programme set out by each party, which means the party in power is changeable.2) When the party in power, their policies should be subjected to the continuous check of the Opposing Party. This means that even if the party is elected, it could be out of power if the citizen want to cancel it, ( 在野党).3) A ready made alternative government comprising back-benchers( 普通议员), “shadow ministers ”（影子大臣）and “shadow cabinet ”（影子内阁）from the Opposing party can take over the collapsed government.4) Citizens can have put their opinions into party policies through their membership of a particular group, such as associations, union and so on.The content of Elite theory of power:1) bureaucratic power_____ organized by small groups of people who control and manipulate resources, ideas and information and might be identified as being a political, economic or knowledge elite.2) whistle-blowing_____ a more critical approach to the bureaucratic power. The whistle-blowers are ordinary people who expose corruption and inefficient government. This is the key element to democracy.But, the whistle-blowers are confronting powerful organizations, they are threatened, unemployed and even beaten to death, this is called ― whistle-blower syndrome ‖. Location and climate200 million years ago, the earth comprised two parts: the part of Gondwana ( the Southern Hemisphere in hypothesis )and the part of Laurasia ( the Northern Hemisphere in hypothesis ). Then Gondwana disintegrated into Antarctic, Australia, Africa, South America and India-continent; Laurasia, the North America, Europe, Asia and Greenland Island.By www.sina. Web, we get the geographic size of the following nations:Russia 17,070,000 kilometreCanada 9,970,000 kiloChina 9,600,000 kiloAmerica 9,300,000 kiloBrazil 8,540,000 kiloAustra. 7,690,000 kiloAustralia exists before the great disintegration, it’s comprised with a land and a number of islands, the land is the smallest continent ( the main continents: Antarctic, Australia, Africa, America, Europe and Asia ) in the world, and also it has the largest island in the world. Two thirds of the land is desert or semi-desert. Australia locates in the Mediterranean; the climate is temperate, so, there are distinctive flora and fauna. the Dividing Range (大分水岭)_____ the very long mountain range extending several provinces without a breaking.the Great Barrier Reef (大堡礁)_____ the largest coral reef in the world and is listedamong the world natural heritage.Animals:the platypus_____ web-footed, egg-laying mammal, bill ( 鸟嘴) like a duckthe kangaroo_____ sits upright on its extremely powerful back legs and moves by jumpi ng, 60 kilo/per hour, it’s a marsupial, the baby kangaroo, lives in the mother’s pouch until it can fend for itself. Usually the kangaroo delivers one baby kangaroo each time, if it delivers two babies, it would give up one because its pouch can only carry one baby.the koala_____ another marsupial. It’s grey or white woolly small bear, it’s about a human baby size. It lives mainly in the branches of eucalyptus, the leaves of which is its food.the wombat_____ squat, round and brown, like bear, about small pig size, it lives under ground.Australian economyThree sectors of economy:The rural sector_____ It is agriculture, esp. wool trade, accounted for 75% in 1970s, now 30%The mineral sector_____ forms the largest part 50% of the export trade nowThe manufactured and service sector _____ forms 20% of Aust. EconomyAustralia today attracts high levels of foreign investment andremains at number 19 of countries with high per capita (_人均收入) in the world. The ways of economic prosperity:1） wool boom in 1820s-1830s sucked in foreign investment, esp. the British investment, and formed the basis of the Australian economy for over 130years, which raised the Australian living standard up to first-world level. Australia therefore is described a s ― riding on the sheep’s back‖.2） the gold rushes in 1850s leading a flood of immigration. The migrants were the cheapest laborer, who opened up a source of agriculture and mineral wealth.3） A greater involvement in the global economy. Australia exports wool, mineral products, also exports services, the marketing of higher education to international students is one example of services.The policies of economy by government:Before 1980s, Australian government played a large part in the economy. After 1980s, according to the principles of liberal theory, governments should play only a minor part in the nation’s economy, the economy should be run as a ― free market ‖ system. There has been a significant r eduction of the government’s involvement:for example:The centralized wage system has been replaced by individual work place bargaining instead of the centralized wage fixingMassive capital works programmes（大型基本建设工程）and urban infrastructures （城市基础设施）instead of the controls of industry through legislationForeign exchange markets practice in freedom instead of the control of foreign exchangeTariff rates have been lowered instead of the tariff protection, esp. in manufacturing industriesMigration policies have narrowed considerably: skill groups are encouraged to migrate as workers to Australia on non-funded programmes instead of the government-assisted immigrationCulture and beliefThe peoples in 500 nations had different languages and cultures, but there was one belief in common, that was Dreaming, which bound peoples together and still believed by aborigines today. The peoples believed generally two concepts:1. They belong to the land, not they possess the land, therefore, their responsibility is looking after the land for their creator ( guarding-they are servants of the land ) . This is quite opposite to the concept of protestants, who thought people own the land , their responsibility is working hard to repay the God ( they are master of the land )2. Peoples can only know the ancient time and knowledge through their dream or by God’s giving, which influences their ideas about society and value. That means people can do nothing to change the world, they are passive.MulticulturalismTogether with the gradual abolishment of the Immigration Restriction Act between 1960s-1973, government was conscious of the disadvantages of the Act and begen providing a series of policies to support immigration, which led the policy of Multiculturrrralism.Multiculturalism covers three aspects of policies for migrants:Cultural Identity_____ having the right to express and share one’s cultural heritage ( e.g. Dreaming )Social Justice_____ having the equal treatment and opportunity ( entry of public house, opportunities of work and education, free medical care and so on ) Economic Efficiency_____ having the right to maintain and develop the skills ( training for example )In 1960s, Multiculturalism started under a series of supportive programmes by the government. Non-English speaking backgrounds had greater equality to access to education, health and social services and even pension. We can see the following prosperity as examples in culture:Ethnic schoolsEthnic newspapersSpecial broadcasting Servicetelevision channel in 68 languages covering a much wider field of overseas stories and news report in 15 languages.Critical responses to Multiculturalism:The Right represented by Pauline Hanson and the One Nation Party Hanson, who was once a boss of a snack bar, got support of Liberal Party to run for governor, but expelled from the Party because of her wrong comments. Nevertheless, she was elected to Parliament as an independent candidate. In 1997, she, together with David Oldfield and David Ettridge formed One Nation Party ( 同一国家党) which fell and collapsed in 2001 because of the quarrelling and the lack of democratic procedures. The main ideas of Hanson and her men were about the following three:Race-based welfare ( 种族性福利)Government policy favoured much the migrants and indigenous Australians.The fears of foreigners, esp. the ChineseAll these brought about a fierce dispute ― in the street‖ and in the media, the parliament had a overtone support.The left mainly regarded:Multiculturalism has not gone enough;Ethnic relati onships hasn’t altered, it’s still under British dominance;Migrants are still discriminated in work.ReligionThe main sorts of religion in Australia are the following:The Dreaming_____ is over 10,000 years old, believing that people do not own the land, the land owns the people instead and the people have responsibilities of guardianship of it, which is criticized as superstition by the ― white Australian .‖Christianity: including Catholicism, Orthodox Eastern Church and Protestantism ( at the beginning of 16th century, somecountries of the middle Europe and the western Europebroke off the Rome Church and established other branchesunder Christianity. ―Protestantism‖ is the common addressof them)Anglicanism______ another form of Protestantism in England, which is national religion of Britain and therefore is main religion of AustraliaProtestantism______ was the most dominant form of religion over the first two hundred years of modern Australian society (1788-1990s), which played a major role in the construction of Australian society and culture, and lost ground during the past 20 years or so. It believes individual people own the land ( quite opposite to the Dreaming ) and are obliged to exploit the land for the greater glory of their God. Both Anglicanism and Protestantism had ― elective affinity‖ ( MaxWeber, German socialist ) with capitalism, that is, the value of capitalism is electively identical with the ethic of Protestantism______ rationalism, individualism, hard work, worldly success and asceticism (追求现世成功和禁欲主义).Catholicism______ was under Rome Church and transported to Australia in the latter half of the 19th century ( 1850s, during the period of colony ). Between the two Christianities (the Protestantism and the Catholicism ), there was an severe hostility, therefore, Catholics had a very difficult time to establish their religion( house-visiting ) . It played an important part in establishing the working class culture and the creating the Australian Labor Party.The other forms of religion_____ Buddhism arrived in Australia during the time of ― Gold Rush ‖. Contrast to Catholicism, the number grows fastest, from 1986-2001, 358,000 people took the religion. The other religions are Islam, Hinduism and Judaism.Sport-another religionWhy sport in Australia is defined as an Australian religion?The Australians defined the religion in this way that religion can enable people submerge their own identity into the larger social entity( 实体) of nation, tribe or clan, that is, one can easily find his group through a certain social activity. This is why religion, in the whole world, is very sensitive problem.The Australians think the features of sport bear those of religion as the following: Every Saturday hundreds of thousands of Australian gather at sports fields as people going to church;They carry emblems representing the team’s symbolic creatures_____ the magpies, the bulls and Rooster and so on as the people having totemic creatures ;They watch performance again and again as people singing the chants in church; They admire the players as people having minor gods;They talk and listen to the comments as the people listening to the priests.The periods peoples live inBy the written history from 1606, there have been only 8 generations up to now. But in fact, there have been 18,500 generations of the peoples on this continent.The periods of Australian history:Pre-history1606–1787 The continent was founded by foreigners1788-1854 Colonial period1855–1919 Federal Commonwealth and independent nation1919-1986 complete independent ( cut the constitutional and judicial ties with Britain ) and time of prosperitythe periods in which peoples live:the period of Dreaming ( before 1788 ) peoples were called ―aborigines‖, but should call them indigenous Australianthe period of modern time ( after 1788 ) people are called AustralianThe generations after 1788 were called Australian. This is because of the Terra Nullius treaty which proclaimed that the land belonged to no one prior to the British Crown taking possession of it; so the generations before 1788 were called aborigines. The peoples before 1788 were the peoples of the Dreaming/Dreamtime.In Dreamtime, there were 500 nations or groups speaking 250 or more languages,。