Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand Aborigines, Maori, Europeans, and Asians make up the population Aborigines are the first nomadic hunter and gathers which arrived in Australia 40,000-60,000 years ago Maoris live in New Zealand and many ancient traditions still exist In the late 1500s Europeans began to colonize the region and used it as a prison

Australia and New Zealand The earliest settlers may have migrated to the area over land bridges during the ice age Early Aborigines lived a nomadic life Between 900s and 1300s the Maori left Polynesia for New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand British sailor James Cook claimed eastern Australia for Great Britain 1850s the imprisonment of British convicts ended European settlers took the land from the Aborigines by force

Australia and New Zealand In 1901 Britain’s Australian colonies became sates and formed the Commonwealth of Australia The new country was a dominion The government blended a federal style system with a parliamentary democracy style

Australia and New Zealand 1907 New Zealand became a dominion of Britain They stayed with the British style parliamentary government

Oceania The islands were settled by people from Asia more than 30,000 years ago Europeans settled the area in the 1800s and used it as farm land Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and the U.S. struggles for control of various islands in the late 1800s and early 1900s

Oceania Beginning in the 1960s a number of small islands moved towards independence In 1962 Samoa became the first island to win freedom Most of the islands enjoy some form of independent government