Australia, New Zealand, USA Timelines

There are many similarities between Australia, New Zealand and the US.  The first point highlighted on the timeline was in 1770 when Britain claimed Australia and settled the first six colonies in 1788. In 1769 an English explorer made expeditions to New Zealand, but did not create colonies.  His journals inspired other Europeans to explore New Zealand.  This is very similar to what happened in America.  In 1606 the London Company sponsored a colonization expedition to Virginia and in 1607 Jamestown was founded (http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/rev-early.htm).    England would end up having 13 colonies in America and many people would come to explore America. 

Another similarity between Australia, New Zealand and the US is the gold rushes.  In 1850 gold is found in Australia.  Word spread quickly and within a few days there were 100 people searching for gold and by June there was over 2000 people looking for gold and thousands more on their way.  Many people came hoping to find wealth.  In 1851 the population in Australia was about 430,000 and in 1871 the population was about 1.7 million (http://www.patricktaylor.com/australian-gold-rush).  New Zealand's gold rush occurred in 1861 when gold was discovered in Tuapeka. This is similar to what happened with the gold rush in America.  Many people left their homes and traveled to California with the hope of finding gold.  The population of California greatly increased. 

The six colonies in Australia had a democratic government and Britain's royalty only had a ceremonial role.  In New Zealand they had their own self-governing community within the British empire.  In the American colonies however, Britain had more control.  They collected taxes and made acts for the colonies. The colonists did not like British rule and fought in the American Revolution and eventually got independence from England in 1776.  New Zealand got independence from Great Britain in 1947.

Each of these counties had natives that had already been living there.  In Australia there is the Aboriginals, in New Zealand there is the Maori, and in American there is the Native Americans.  The Aborigines in Australia were given the right to vote in 1962 and were recognized as citizens five years later.   The Aboriginal Land Rights Act is passed in 1976 allowing Aborigines the right to make claims on their ancestral land in the Northern Territory.  In 2008, The Australian parliament apologizes for past wrongs committed against Aboriginal people.  In New Zealand the Maori signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.  This gave control to the British in exchange for protection and guaranteed Maori possession of their lands.  In 1860 a decade of land wars began between the Maoris and European settlers.  Europeans were buying land from the Maori at very low prices and Maori had little say in the running of the country.  Maori traditions and customs were undermined by the Europeans.  This caused tension between them and the land wars began (http://www.backpack-newzealand.com/history.html).  In America, Congress passes the Dawes General Allotment Act in 1887.  This granted citizenship to Native Americans who give up their tribal affiliations. The Act sought to open Indian land for white settlement (http://www.aclu.org/voting-rights/voting-rights-act-timeline). American government had no respect for the Native Americans. America wanted their land and wanted to make them give up their culture and fit in with theirs.  All Native Americans did not become citizens until 1924 and it would be even longer before all Native Americans got the right to vote(http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/frameset_reset.html?http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/stories/0701_0140.html).