Australia and the Enlightenment

Except for Aboriginals, the earliest explorations of Australia were conducted by powerful European naval countries such as Spain and Portugal since 16th century. Later, in 17th century, Netherlands and Great Britain became the major explorers of Australia. Among a variety of different explorations and discoveries of Australia, there were two conspicuous crews in history. One was led by Abel Tasman who took the mandate from Dutch East India Company to discover the 'unknown and known Southland' in 1642. The other one was conducted by James Cook under the order of Lord Morton of the Royal Society in 1768. Although these two journeys were separate in the point of time of more than one hundred years, they shared something in common. The aspiration of discovering Australia were both motivated by the widely circulated mythology of the existence of a 'Great Southland'. 

A world map without the "Great Southland" in the early 16th century. The aspiration of discovering the unknown land and mapping the new land drove people to explore the world. (Source: http://ancientworldmaps.blogspot.com/2010/08/world-map-16th-century.html)

However, there are more differences between two journeys. Abel Tasman was originally instructed to find the fantastical treasure of Australia. This can also explains why Dutch did not take over Australia later as they found nothing valuable on the new continent. Later, Van Diemen's Land was renamed as Tasmania to commemorate Abel Tasman. More than 100 years later, during the time in which the philosophy of Enlightenment gained great popularity, James Cook carried the mission of scientific exploration arrived Botany Bay. In 1770, New South Wales was claimed by Britain and served the overseas colony of British Empire since then. The idea of Enlightenment was the mainstream philosophy in the west in 18th century.

Enlightenment philosophy greatly transformed Europeans' opinion regarding their action of conquering the world. Enlightenment attached great importance to the science, reason and the 'language of rights'. It argues all human and natural phenomena can be explained by science and careful reasoning eventually, instead of religion.

The commemorative stamp of Captain Cook recording the transit of Venus issued in the Bicentenary of Australia (Source:http://www.ianridpath.com/stamps/cook.htm)

Captain Cook's journey reflected the basic thoughts of Enlightenment by focusing on scientific research. His crew well recorded the movement of Venus in the South Pacific; and Joseph Banks investigated new flora and fauna. Manning Clark, 'Australia's most famous historian', claims that the foundations and development of later Australia was based on the victory of Enlightenment over other two great faiths of Catholicism and Protestantism in his six-volume A History of Australia. Catholicism was introduced into Australia by Spanish and Portuguese. Spanish and Portuguese originally longed for the mysterious treasure, but the desolation of Australia and their biased perspective on local Aboriginals discouraged their interest and then they navigated to Asia where trade and cities were more prosperous. Even in Captain Cook's diary, Indigenous people were depicted as savages. It was taken for granted that European civilisation was more advanced than Aboriginals. Such shallow understanding of 'savage' about Indigenous people made Europeans directly take over this vast continent without negotiation with local inhabitants. Meanwhile, the faith of Protestantism was discarded as the notorious reputation of early Protestants in Australia. Distinctively, Enlightenment theory which embraces objective truth, promotes science, and emphasises reasoning research has gained more popularity and exerted great influence on the foundations of Australia. 

"An Encyclopedy of the Age of Enlightenment" reflects the pluralism of different philosophies in different areas in the 18th-19th centuries. It began in Europe, spread to America, Australia and Asia. It profoundly influenced the foundations and culture of Australia. (Source:http://www.adambaumgoldgallery.com/Precision/precision.htm)

John Gascoigne, gave a closer look at the impact of Enlightenment philosophy on the foundations of Australia. He pinpoints the global context of the settlement of Australia by Europeans. It was a time that social systems underwent tremendous changes under the influence of freedom and rights of Enlightenment philosophy in America and France. This also explains the reason why French did not occupy Australia as colony though they also arrived the western coast of Australia in the early time. France so obsessed with the European war waged by Napoleon; and the following political reform and revolution all hindered France from implementing effective governance in Australia. Meanwhile, Industrial Revolution started to be fully launched in England. All in all, science became more respectful and convincing compared with the traditional thinking of religion. In the context of such a changing and developing world, the early Australian colonial ruling elites applied Enlightenment philosophy to govern and develop Australia society. As Christianity and aristocracy faltered gradually in European continent, Australian society was luckily incapable of following such mossy fashion. Instead, a more likely democratic and free society laid ahead. Even today, federal government underlines the significance of reasonable planing on the development of society, which is the legacy of Enlightenment philosophy.