Man appeared in Australia 40 thousand years ago. They were newcomers from South and Southeast Asia, the forerunners of modern aborigines. Having populated the eastern part of Australia, people also penetrated into Tasmania. The fact that the Tasmanians are descendants of ancient Australians is confirmed by recent archaeological finds on Hunter Island in Bass Strait.

Assumptions about the existence of the mysterious Terra incognita Australis - the "Unknown Southern Land" south of the equator were expressed by ancient geographers. A vast area of ​​land in the southern hemisphere was depicted on maps in the 15th century, although its outlines in no way resembled Australia. Some information concerning the northern coasts of Australia was available from the Portuguese as far back as the 16th century; they came from the inhabitants of the Malay Islands, who visited the coastal waters of the mainland to catch trepangs. However, until the 17th century, none of the Europeans managed to see Australia with their own eyes.

The discovery of Australia has long been associated with the name of the English navigator James Cook. In fact, the first Europeans who visited the coast of this continent and met here with scattered tribes of aborigines were the Dutch: Willem Janszon in 1605. and Abel Tasman in 1642. Janszon crossed the Torres Strait and sailed along the coast of the Cape York Peninsula, while Tasman discovered the southwestern part of Tasmania, which he considered part of the mainland. And the Spaniard Torres in 1606. sailed through the strait that separates the island of New Guinea from the mainland.

However, the Spaniards and the Dutch kept their discoveries secret. James Cook sailed to the east coast of Australia only one hundred and fifty years later, in 1770, and immediately declared it an English possession. A royal “penal colony” was created here for criminals, and later for exiled members of the Chartist movement in England. Arrived in 1788 with the "first fleet" to the shores of Australia, representatives of the British authorities founded the city of Sydney, which was subsequently proclaimed the administrative center of the city established in 1824. British colony of New South Wales. With the arrival of the "second fleet" the first free settlers appear. Development begins, or rather, the capture of the mainland, accompanied by the most severe extermination of the indigenous population. Aborigines were hunted, and bonuses were given for the dead. Often, the colonists staged real raids on the indigenous inhabitants of Australia, killing them without distinction of sex and age, scattering poisoned food, after which people died in terrible agony. Not surprisingly, a hundred years later, most of the indigenous population was exterminated. The remaining natives were driven from the land of their ancestors and pushed into the interior desert regions. In 1827 England announces the establishment of its sovereignty over the entire continent.

Late 18th and entire 19th century for Australia - the time of geographical discoveries. Since 1797 The study of the shores of the continent began by the talented English hydrographer M. Flinders, whose work Australian geographers rate as highly as Cook's discoveries. He confirmed the existence of the Bass Strait, explored the coasts of Tasmania and South Australia, the entire eastern and northern coasts of the mainland, mapped the Great barrier reef. Flinders, on the other hand, proposed giving the continent the name "Australia", replacing with it the previously accepted designation on the maps "New Holland", which was finally supplanted since 1824.

By the 19th century the contours of the mainland were mostly mapped, but the interior remained a "blank spot". The first attempt to penetrate deep into Australia was made in 1813. an expedition of English colonists who discovered a passage through the Blue Mountains and discovered magnificent grazing lands west of the Great Dividing Range. A “land fever” began: a stream of free settlers poured into Australia, capturing huge plots of land, where they organized thousands of sheep farms. This land grab was called “squatting”.

The parties of prospectors moved further and further west, south and north, crossed the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers. In 1840 P. Strzelecki discovered the highest peak of the mainland in the Australian Alps, which he named Mount Kosciuszko in honor of the national hero of Poland.

More than a dozen large expeditions were equipped to explore the Australian Interior, attempts were made to cross the continent. Significant discoveries in the depths of the mainland belong to C. Sturt, who first discovered the Darling River and the Simpson Desert. Significant discoveries in the southeast were made by D. Mitchell, in the west by D. Gray; V. Leichgard traveled from the Darling Range to the northern coast, but three years later, while trying to cross the continent from east to west, his expedition went missing in the endless deserts of Central Australia.

The unfortunate outcome of the expeditions of Kennedy and Leichhardt suspended the exploration of the country for many years. Only in 1855 Gregory went with two ships to the north coast, west of Arngemsland, to explore the Victoria River flowing into the sea there. Following the course of this river, Gregory turned to the southwest, but returned, being stopped by an almost impenetrable desert. Shortly thereafter, he again undertook a journey to the west, in order to find, if possible, traces of Leichhardt, and returned to Adelaide without reaching his goal. At the same time, it was decided to make the nearest study of the area of ​​​​salt lakes, which lies to the north of Spencer Bay. Harris, Miller, Dullon, Warburton, Swinden Kampbedl, and many others rendered great services in this investigation. McDuall Stewart undertook three trips to the area of ​​salt lakes and made a plan for an expedition across the entire mainland, in the direction from south to north. In 1860, he went to the middle of the mainland and hoisted the English banner on the Central Stewart Mountain, which has a height of 1000 m. In June, as a result of the hostile position occupied by the natives, he was forced to abandon his enterprise. In January 1861, however, he renewed his attempt to cross the mainland from south to north and penetrated 11/2 further inland than the first time, but in July he had to return without reaching his intended goal. The third attempt was made by him in November of the same year and was crowned with success: on July 24, 1862, Stuart hoisted the English banner on the northern coast of Arngemsland and returned almost dying to his compatriots. Shortly before Stewart's return from his first trip, in August 1860, an expedition set off from Melbourne under the command of Robert O'Gara Burke, accompanied by the astronomer Wils, the doctor Bekler, the naturalist Bocker and others, including about 30 people with 25 camels, 25 horses etc. The travelers were divided into three parties, each of which had to rely on the other in case of need to seek refuge in the rear.Burke, Wils, King and Gray in February 1861 were already on the marshy coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, but they could not reach the sea.21 April they arrived at the camp of the second party, but found him deserted.Bourke and his companions died of starvation, only King escaped, who, in September 1861, was found in the camp of the natives by an expedition expelled from Melbourne, he was emaciated as a skeleton.Two expeditions , later sent to find Bourke, passed through the entire mainland. At the initiative of the Melbourne botanist Miller, the ladies' committee in the colony of Victoria in 1865 gathered cash on a new journey, the immediate goal of which was to clarify the fate of Leichhardt's missing expedition. Duncan Max Intir, who in 1864 saw traces of the aforementioned expedition in the upper reaches of the Flinder River, became the head of a new enterprise and set off in July 1865; but such a terrible drought prevailed in the interior of the country that half of the total number of participants had to be sent back to the colony. Max Intir soon died of a malignant fever, and the same fate befell his companion Sloman. After them, W. Barnett, who took over command of the expedition, returned to Sydney in 1867 without collecting any new information about Leichhardt. In 1866, for the same search, an expedition was sent from the colony of Western Australia, which managed to learn from the natives, in one locality (under 31 south latitude and 122 East longitude) that a few years before they had been killed in 13 days of travel from there to the north, on the dry bottom of a lake, two whites with three horses that were with them. This story was repeated in another area. Therefore, in April 1869, an expedition to the said lake was equipped, which, although it did not reach its goal, nevertheless penetrated further into the interior of the country than all previous expeditions heading from the west. As early as 1824, the British government made various attempts to occupy the northern coast of Australia. For 41/2 years it maintained a military post (Fort Dundas) on the western coast of Melville Island, for 2 years another post (Fort Wellington) on the Cobourg Peninsula and since 1838 by 1849 garrison at Port Essington. But since the hope of gaining from commercial relations between Australia and East Asia failed, these attempts were abandoned. Only after Stewart in 1862 from the colony of South Australia passed through the mainland to the northern coast of Arngemsland, and "Nothern Territory" was placed under the control of this colony, the latter took up the issue of settling the country. In April 1864, a naval expedition of geometers headed north from Port Adelaide under the command of Colonel Finnis, who was soon replaced by MacKinlay. The latter in 1866 began to explore Arngemsland, but the rainy season and floods did not allow him to carry out his intention, and he returned to Adelaide. Then, in February 1867, the South Australian government sent Captain Cadell to the north bank, who discovered the significant river Blyth (Blyth), and from 1868 the chief surveyor Goyder, who in the vicinity of Port Darwin surveyed over an area of ​​2700 square meters. km. Colonization progressed more successfully in northern Kinsland, especially towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, as cattle breeding needed new pastures, which were taken up by private enterprise. At the beginning of the forties, in all of present-day Kinsland, only the neighborhood of Moretonbay was inhabited, and then very poorly. Since then, settlements have expanded as far north as the Gulf of Carpentaria. When subsequently, from 1872, a telegraph communication was established between Australia and Asia and through it with all other countries of the world, the study of the interior of the Australian mainland made tremendous progress. Already during the laying of the telegraph wire, small settlements began to appear on its way, from which expeditions were then undertaken to explore the country. So, in 1872, Ernst Gilles, having set off from the Chambers Pillar telegraph station, followed the course of the Finke River to its source, where he discovered the extremely fertile country of Glen of Palms. In 1873, the geometer Gosse set out from the Alice Springs telegraph station and discovered under 25 21 "south latitude and 131 14" east. duty. Ayres Rock monolith, 370 m high. During his second trip, Gilles became convinced of the existence of a large desert inside western Australia. John Forrest in 1874 reached the Murchison watershed, from where the barren desert begins, which he explored at a distance of 900 km. In 1875 - 1878 Gilles undertook three new journeys into the barren steppes of inland Australia. In 1877, on behalf of the government of the colony of South Australia, the course of the Herbert River was investigated, during which trigonometric measurements were made, and in addition, an expedition was undertaken to explore completely unknown countries lying on the seashore. This expedition discovered the large Moubray River, which falls in three waterfalls up to 150 m high. Surgison, in November 1877, discovered excellent arable land off the banks of the Victoria River. John Forrest returned in 1879 from a journey he had taken to the completely unknown north-eastern part of the western Australian colony, during which he discovered beautiful alluvial plains on the banks of the Fitzroy River. His second journey led to the discovery in Western Australia of 20 million. and in southern Australia about 5 million. acres of good grazing and arable land, of which a large part was suitable for the cultivation of sugar cane and rice. In addition, the interior of the country was explored by other expeditions in 1878 and 1879, and John Forrest, on behalf of the Western Australian Government, made a trigonometric measurement between the Ashburton and De Grey rivers, and from his reports it appears that the area there is very convenient for settlements. .When writing this article, material from the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron was used.

Discovery of Oceania

Europeans first entered Oceania at the beginning of the 16th century. Since then, for a number of centuries, Oceania has been the scene of numerous sea expeditions equipped by Western European and other states. Not only sailors and scientists who dreamed of discovering new lands went to this part of our planet, but also colonial traders and slave traders, various government officials and agents, and missionaries.

The history of discoveries and captures of islands in the Pacific Ocean can be divided into three periods: in the 16th century, the Spaniards and the Portuguese dominated here, in the 17th century, the Dutch, and in the 18th century, the British. In the 19th century joined by the Americans and the Japanese

Start geographical discoveries Europeans in Oceania was the first world tour Magellan, who in 1521 visited the island of Guam (Marian Islands). In the XVI century. Spanish and Portuguese navigators discovered the Caroline, Marshall, Solomon, Marquesas, Tokelau, Santa Cruz islands.

The northwestern ledge of New Guinea was first visited by the Portuguese navigator Georges Minesia in 1526.

After the conquest of Mexico and Peru, the Spaniards organized a series of expeditions to establish a sea route between west coast Central and South America and the Philippine Islands. In 1542, the expedition of Ruy Lopez Villalovos set off from the port of Acapulco (Mexico) to the Philippines. A member of this expedition, Retes, in 1544, landed on the shores of the island discovered by Minesia, and declared it the possession of the Spanish king, giving it the name of New Guinea. Two expeditions of the Spaniard Alvaro Mendanya de Neira in 1567 and 1595. the Solomon Islands, the Marquesas Islands, and a number of islands in South Polynesia were discovered.

Further discoveries of the islands of Polynesia and Melanesia were made by the Spanish expedition of Quiros in 1605. Quiros claimed to have discovered the great southern mainland and gave it the name "Australia of the Holy Spirit." The captain of one of the ships of this expedition, Torres, after Quiros returned to Mexico, passed along the southern coast of New Guinea and opened the strait separating this island from genuine Australia. Arriving in 1607 to the Philippine Islands, Torres presented a report of his discoveries to the Spanish authorities in Manila. He proved that New Guinea is not part of the southern mainland, but a huge island separated from others big islands(actually from Australia) by the strait. The Spaniards kept this discovery a secret.

150 years after Torres' journey, during the Seven Years' War, the British landed on the island of Luzon and seized the government archives of Manila. So the Torres report fell into their hands. In 1768, the English navigator James Cook received a special government assignment to explore Oceania. He again "discovered" the islands of Oceania and the strait between Australia and New Guinea, which had long been known to the Spaniards. Cook also discovered a number of new islands and explored the eastern coast of Australia. At the same time, the English scientist Alexander Dalrymple published secret Spanish documents captured in Manila, after which Cook himself was forced to admit that the strait between New Guinea and Australia was already known to the Spaniards at the beginning of the 17th century. In the second half of the XVIII century. This strait was named Torres Strait.

During the one and a half century interval between the discovery of Torres and the journey of James Cook, a number of Dutch navigators - Endracht, Edel, Neyts, Thyssen and others visited various parts of the coast of Australia, which received in the 17th century. name New Holland. In 1642, the governor-general of the Dutch possessions in Southeast Asia, Van Diemen, instructed Abel Tasman to go around New Holland from the south. During this voyage, Tasman saw an island which he named Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). Walking along eastern shores New Zealand, he discovered the archipelagos of Tonga and Fiji and, having rounded New Guinea from the north, returned to Batavia. Tasman Expedition 1642-1643 refuted the assumption that New Holland is part of the great Antarctic continent, but created an erroneous idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe outlines of Australia: Tasman considered the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea protrusions of the single mainland of New Holland.

A survey of the coasts of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia was made by James Cook during his three voyages in 1768-1779. Then he discovered the island of New Caledonia and the numerous islands of Polynesia. The eastern part of Australia was named New South Wales by Cook. French navigators (Bougainville, La Perouse, etc.) also made a number of voyages and discoveries in Oceania in the 60-80s of the 18th century.

Beginning in 1788, for more than half a century, the British government used Australia as a place of exile for criminals and political offenders. The administration of the penal colony seized vast areas of fertile land, which were cultivated by the forced labor of exiled settlers. The indigenous population was pushed back into the deserts of central Australia, where it died out or was exterminated. Its number, reaching by the time the British appeared at the end of the 18th century. 250-300 thousand, decreased by the end of the next century to 70 thousand people. The British colonialists acted with particular cruelty on the island of Tasmania. Here they organized real raids on people who were killed like wild animals. As a result, the population of the island was destroyed to the last person.

Little by little, English colonies were formed in Australia, representing the continuation of the capitalist metropolis in terms of language, economy and culture. At first, these colonies were not connected with each other in any way, and only by the beginning of the 20th century. formed the Australian Federation, which received the rights of the English dominion. The economic and political development of the Australian colonies of England belongs to the subsequent period of modern history.

Thus, by the beginning of the XVII century. Europeans discovered Northern Melanesia and Micronesia, Northern and Eastern Polynesia. The rest of most of Polynesia, South Melanesia and New Zealand were still unknown.

Major dates in Australian history

40,000 BC - The ancestors of the natives - tribes of Asian origin - arrive on the mainland in several waves from the island of New Guinea.

1606 - Willem Janszoon is the first European to set foot on the northern coast of Australia.

1642 Dutchman Abel Tasman discovers Tasmania.

1770 James Cook lands at Botany Bay and proclaims new land colony of Britain, naming it New South Wales.

1788 - Landing of the first contingent of English convicts. Establishment of an exile colony in Sydney. After the expiration of the term of imprisonment, convicts acquire the right to a free settlement.

1813 - The first explorer of the central part of the mainland, Gregory Blaskland, overcomes the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and discovers the western part of Australia. The beginning of the era of grazing.

1830-1840 - Breeding of the first merino sheep, which has become one of the main branches of the economy. Up to the present day, the country has the largest number of sheep in the world (167 million heads) and is the largest producer of wool.

1830 - In Tasmania, soldiers and English colonists begin to exterminate the natives.

1835 Melbourne founded.

1851 - Start of the gold rush

1858 - The colonies of New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria adopt their own constitutions, which at that time were considered the most democratic in the world.

1862 - Importation and breeding of rabbits, which by 1950 reached a billion

1868 Arrival of the last ship with prisoners. Australia ceases to be a place of exile for criminals.

1889 - The first Constitution of Australia is adopted. The Constituent Assembly elects Melbourne as its seat.

1901 - Queen Victoria of England, Monarch of Australia, signs the Constitution. Federation of six states (New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia) is renamed the Commonwealth of Australia

1901 - Parliament introduces a bill known as the "White Australia Policy", which was intended to discourage Asian immigration.

1909(27?) - The capital is transferred from Melbourne to Canberra.

1930-1939 - The global crisis comes to Australia. Falling prices for wool and grain. Every third resident is unemployed.

1936 - Death of the last tiger in Tasmania.

1956 Melbourne Olympics

1967 - Aboriginal people receive Australian citizenship

1975 - Granting of independence to Papua New Guinea

1976 - A law is passed providing for the return of part of the land to the ownership of the natives.

1985 - Parliament creates a commission of inquiry nuclear testing carried out by the British in the 50s. The commission claims a lack of security measures, which has led to a risk to people's lives.

2000 Sydney Olympics

The continent of Australia was discovered and explored by Europeans later than many other lands in the southern hemisphere. It got its name due to the erroneous opinion of geographers of the second half of the 16th century that New Guinea and Tierra del Fuego discovered by Magellan are the northern protrusions of one huge continent - the "unknown South Earth" ("Terra australis incognita").

The islands and archipelagos of Oceania became known to Europeans as a result of a series of discoveries and descriptions made by navigators during the 16th-18th centuries.

Oceania is subdivided into three geographical regions, which differ at the same time in ethnic and cultural terms. Melanesia ("Black Islands") embraces the western major islands mainland origin, the most significant of some - New Guinea (Irian). The southernmost archipelago of this group - New Zealand - in terms of population, however, belongs to the second region - Polynesia. As the name implies (Polynesia - "Many Islands"), this area consists of many archipelagos and islands, spread over the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean in the form of a triangle. Its northern peak is made up of the Hawaiian Islands, the eastern one is Easter Island, and the southern one is New Zealand. Finally, the third region, located north of Melanesia, is formed by the archipelagos of Micronesia (“Small Islands”) - the Marianas, Carolines, Marshalls and the Gilbert Islands.

Europeans found in Australia and Oceania various tribes that stood at different stages of development. Most of them belonged to the Australo-Negroid big race.

1. Peoples of Australia

Technique and economy of Australians

The absence of written records and the paucity of archaeological monuments make it possible only in the most general terms to restore the history of the peoples of Australia before its colonization by Europeans, based on anthropological, ethnographic and linguistic data.

The settlement of Australia began several millennia before our time and came from Indonesia and Western Oceania. The first inhabitants entered the Australian continent from the northwest and moved south along the western, northeastern and eastern coasts. The development of the entire continent took many centuries.

By the time of contact with Europeans, the Australians were still at the stages of the late Paleolithic, Mesolithic and, in some places, the Neolithic. Their backwardness is partly due to the need to adapt to the new natural environment, the geographical isolation of Australia, its remoteness from ancient centers world culture.

Australians lived by hunting and gathering. They made tools and weapons from wood and stone. Knife and spearheads and darts were retouched, axes were polished. When hunting (for kangaroos, emus and smaller animals and birds), they used throwing weapons - a spear, a dart with a spear thrower, a club. A witty invention of the Australians is a boomerang - a wooden flat sickle-shaped club, which, when flying, describes a complex curve and strikes game from an unexpected direction. Only the tribes of the York Peninsula were armed with a bow and arrow, obviously borrowed from their neighbors from the north - the Melanesians.

The Australian tribe moved around a certain area, eating, depending on the season, game or fruits, grains, tubers of wild plants. Men hunted, women gathered roots, wild cereals and fruits, as well as small reptiles and insects, using a knotted digging stick and a birch bark trough; they wove baskets, nets and bags from vegetable fibres. Tubers and grains were ground on large flat stones.

The appropriating economy of the Australians provided them with only minimal means of subsistence; their social structure therefore developed extremely slowly.

social order

By the beginning of European colonization, up to 500 tribes lived in Australia. The land, hunting and fishing grounds, thickets of wild plants were in the common property of the tribe. The borders of the tribal territories were clearly established, the violation of them caused war.

Ownership of certain smaller areas of the fodder territory belonged to small communities, which were the main production teams. Members of the community hunted and collected fruits together, the prey was divided between them in a strictly established manner. The community was headed by elders, followed by adult men - full-fledged hunters and warriors; women and adolescents constituted a special category.

The Australians had early forms of tribal organization: among some tribes, kinship was counted on the maternal side, while others on the paternal side. The clans were exogamous and were part of the phratries - the exogamous half of the tribe. Exogamy and the strictly established order of marriage ties that followed from it played a huge role in the internal life of the tribe, determining the relationship between groups and generations.

The Australians did not have any common tribal institutions and, moreover, tribal unions. Wars between tribes arose in case of violation of borders or infliction of any other damage; the accusation of insidious witchcraft was also a pretext for war. Usually, before the start of the war, the elders negotiated, as a result of which the number of fighters was limited, sometimes to one or two on each side. Peaceful relations between the tribes were much more important: they exchanged products of hunting, gathering, products of their labor, etc., introduced each other to their songs and dances.

Beliefs and spiritual culture

The families of the Australians were totemic groups; each of them revered the totem, whose name he was called. The word "totem" entered science from the language of the North American Indians of the Algonquins ( "Totem" literally means "his kind."), but totemism as a form of religion is best represented in Australia. Belief in the origin of members of the genus and totem animals or plants from common ancestors, the attitude towards totems as relatives and the prohibition to kill or eat them - all these religious ideas fantastically reflected the blood relations of the primitive community. Totemic rites, which were aimed at ensuring the reproduction of totemic animals or plants (the so-called intichium), were based on the belief in the indissoluble connection of the human team with mythical ancestors - half-humans, half-animals and were of a magical nature. The rites of initiation of young men into the category of full-fledged warriors and hunters, which included tests of courage and endurance, also acquired a cult coloration.

A very important place in the life of Australians was occupied by public entertainment - festivities with dances and songs, the so-called corroborees. The Australians have created a rich folklore. In addition to totemic myths, there were legends about the origin of certain customs, as well as fairy tales in which animals, heavenly bodies and forces of nature appeared.

The painting of the Australians, which depicted mainly animals and hunting scenes, is very expressive. The reception of the image of an animal with translucent internal organs and a skeleton is peculiar. Love for ornamentation found expression in body painting and wearing masks during ritual ceremonies and corroborees.

Tasmanians

The population of the island of Tasmania differed from the Australians in their physical appearance. The Tasmanians, with their frizzy hair and swollen lips, looked more like Negroid Melanesians than Australians. In terms of development, it was one of the most backward tribes known to science.

The Tasmanians had only roughly hewn stone tools and wooden spears. Along with the search for wild fruits and roots, they were engaged in hunting. In the middle of the XIX century. the British colonialists undertook the systematic extermination of this peaceful people. In the 60s of the XIX century. the last of its members died.

2. Peoples of Oceania

Unlike Australia, Oceania has archaeological sites and even written monuments, but the former are still little explored, while the latter are only being deciphered. Therefore, the study of its history relies mainly on data from anthropology, ethnography, linguistics and folklore.

Technology and economy of the inhabitants of Oceania

In terms of technology, the inhabitants of all the islands of Oceania had much in common. They did not know metals, they used polished stone axes, bone knives, daggers and awls, wooden hoes in the form of a pointed stick, clubs and spears, shell scrapers. The inhabitants of Melanesia, in addition, there were bow and arrows.

The inhabitants of all regions of Oceania were engaged in agriculture, cultivated root crops - yams, taro, sweet potato. An equally important place in the diet was occupied by the fruits of the coconut and sago palms, breadfruit, and bananas. Domestic animals and birds were bred - dogs, pigs, chickens; they all went for meat. Fishing was well developed with the help of nets and fishing rods; large fish were also beaten with spears and arrows. The Oceanians were excellent sailors who achieved significant success in shipbuilding. This applies especially to the Polynesians: their twin boats and boats with floats sailed from mats were able to withstand long voyages.

For clothing, the Oceanians used matter from broken bast, the so-called tapu. Weaving from vegetable fiber, the manufacture of mats, nets, bags, belts and jewelry was developed everywhere. The Melanesians developed pottery.

Due to these common features of material culture, European travelers for a long time considered the inhabitants different parts Oceania as one continuous mass of "savages". However, by origin and by the level of social development and culture, individual groups of Oceanians differed greatly.

Melanesians

The inhabitants of Melanesia are dark-skinned, curly-haired Negroids, which served as the basis for the Europeans to give this area such a name (from the Greek "melas" - black and "nesos" - island).

The Melanesians constitute the Oceanic branch of the Australo-Negroid or Equatorial great race, which was formed at the junction between Southeast Asia and Oceania. The area of ​​its formation was probably eastern islands Indonesia and New Guinea. From here, the Oceanian Negroids settled on other islands of Melanesia and, thanks to the East Australian current, reached Tasmania and the South Island of New Zealand. The remains of the languages ​​of the most ancient inhabitants of Melanesia are preserved in the dialects of the Papuans - inhabitants south coast New Guinea and adjacent archipelagos. Further penetration of Indonesians (Malays) into Melanesia led to the formation of Melanesian languages, close to Malay so much that they are included in one linguistic family - Malayo-Polynesian, or Austronesian.

By the beginning of European colonization, the Melanesians were dominated by a primitive communal system; however, the disintegration of tribal relations has already begun. The most primitive of all was the social system of the inhabitants of New Guinea and northwestern Melanesia; the most developed were social relations on the islands of New Caledonia and Fiji, where alliances of tribes were already taking shape and division into classes was emerging.

The main social unit was everywhere the tribal community, most often coinciding with the village. In northwestern Melanesia, the matrilineal genus predominated; in the southern islands, the transition to the paternal family began. Communal property was dominant, but along with it there was also personal property. The land was owned by the community; large boats that served for collective fishing were also communal property, but fruit trees were considered the personal property of those who planted them. All movable property was also in personal property; he was inherited on the maternal side (from uncle to nephew - sister's son); in southern Melanesia, from father to son.

There were constant exchange ties between the communities: the inhabitants of the villages of the inner part of the island brought vegetables and fruits to the coast, receiving fish and shells in return. There was also a certain social division of labor: in areas with deposits of good clay, pots were mainly made, in other places - decorations, “tapu” matter: even within one village, more skilled potters and masters in polishing stone axes stood out. The beginning of the social division of labor led to the exchange - inter-communal and intra-communal. Trade and exchange relations also developed between the archipelagos of Melanesia, as well as the latter with the islands of Indonesia. Indonesian settlements existed on the western coast of New Guinea (Iriana). For several centuries, West Irian was part of the Indonesian state of Majapahit.

Basically, the exchange was natural. However, some items have already appeared that served as a universal equivalent: low shells, mats, necklaces made of dog fangs, etc. Tribal leaders accumulated these items as a kind of money, their power was based on this wealth. The so-called male unions, which held the entire village in their hands, served to strengthen the power of the distinguished tribal elite. Performing terrifying rites and brutally cracking down on those who oppose them, the alliances "duk duk" and "ingiet" in the Bismarck archipelago, "sukva" and "tamata" in the New Hebrides were the first germs of organizations of domination and submission. On the islands of New Zealand and Fiji, class relations were already born; the tribal nobility seized the land as their property and kept the ordinary members of the clan in dependence. The prisoners were turned into slaves.

The religion of the Melanesians reflected the stratification of the community. The idea of ​​supernatural power - "mana" was associated with influence in society; mana was attributed to chiefs and elders, and especially to their ancestors. Wooden carvings were placed on the graves of the elders, sometimes with the skulls of the dead, and sacrifices were made to them. Members of men's unions put on masks, representing the dead leaders, intimidating fellow tribesmen.

The Melanesians created a rich ornamental art. Wood and bone carvings, decorating tools and utensils, masks and tomb images amaze with their beauty and diversity. Usually the ornament is a stylized image of birds, fish, a human figure and a face. Dances, imitating combat fights or labor movements, were the main content of folk festivities, which were accompanied by expressive music on drums, flutes and shells.

Polynesians

The philosophers of the Enlightenment in France in the 18th century, opposing the world of “good savages” to the European society of their time, had in mind mainly the Polynesians. Diderot portrayed the Tahitians as "children of nature" in his Addendum to the Journey of Monsieur Bougainville. Early observers of the life of the Polynesians described their technique and economy as primitive. In reality, this was not the case.

Although in Polynesia there were no bows and arrows, no clay pots, but there already existed a social division of labor, groups of artisans, warriors and priests stood out; there was private property. Castes and slavery arose; in some archipelagos, class differentiation led to the formation of rudimentary forms of the state. The complex religious system of the Polynesians can be put on a par with the ancient Egyptian or ancient Indian, and their knowledge of the surrounding nature, sea currents and winds, and the starry sky stood on the verge of scientific. Finally, in one of the parts of Polynesia, on Easter Island, tablets were found covered with signs of writing.

European travelers of the XVI-XVII centuries. described Polynesia as a country where they used the gifts of nature without the cost of labor. Meanwhile, its small islands were by nature almost devoid of edible plants, their fauna was limited to a few species of birds, reptiles and insects. Useful plants, birds and domestic animals (dogs, pigs, chickens) were brought here several centuries before the appearance of European travelers.

In physical appearance, the Polynesians differ sharply from the Melanesians. They are tall, have dark skin with a yellowish tint, wavy hair; they are isolated in the Polynesian minor race, intermediate between the Australo-Negroid and Mongoloid.

By language, Polynesians form one group. Despite the remote distances separating the archipelagos, the dialects of their populations differ only in small phonetic features. The entire Polynesian group of languages ​​is related to the languages ​​of the peoples of Indonesia.

The settlement of Polynesia and the origin of the Polynesians

Of all the peoples of Oceania and Australia, only the Polynesians retained the memory of their past. The data of science, especially the research of the New Zealand scientist Te-Rangi-Hiroa (Peter Bak), make it possible to restore the history of this people to a certain extent.

The inhabitants of each group of islands have legends about their ancestors; names are called, their travels are reported. It was found that proper names in the genealogies transmitted in different archipelagos, they coincide with each other and refer to approximately the same time. Time is calculated in these traditions by generations. The longest pedigree (on the island of Rarotonga) has 92 generations. A careful study of the genealogical traditions of the Polynesians, carried out by Te-Rangi-Hiroa, has undeniably proved that these legends can serve as a historical source.

There are two main theories of the origin of the Polynesians: one derives them from Asia, the other from America. Indeed, there are many common elements in the culture of the peoples of Oceania and South America. The most striking example is the widespread distribution throughout Polynesia of the sweet potato, a root crop of undoubted South American origin. Its name in the Polynesian languages ​​- Kumara - sounds the same as in the Quechua language - the Indians of Ecuador and Peru (Kumar, Kumara). The presence of common elements of culture irrefutably testifies to the links between Polynesians and Indians. Perhaps the Polynesians - skillful sailors - reached the shores of South America and brought sweet potatoes to their homeland from there.

There is no evidence of an American origin for Polynesians. At the same time, the linguistic data, as well as the legends of the Polynesians, trace their origin to Asia. Te-Rangi-Hiroa believes that the ancestors of the Polynesians came from Asia. However, he believes that the oral tradition could not preserve the memory of this event for more than two thousand years. The reliable history of the Polynesians Te-Rangi-Hiroa begins with the time of their resettlement in Indonesia, on the islands of which they became a people of sailors. The close connections of the Polynesian languages ​​with Malay speak of the long stay of the Proto-Polynesians in Indonesia.

Although the ancient history of the peoples of Indo-China and Indonesia is still poorly understood, it can be assumed that the advance of the Chinese in the Han era (around the beginning of our era) south of the Yangtze River forced the ancestors of the Malays to leave South China and Indo-China. Their penetration into the islands of Indonesia lasted, probably, for thousands of years. When the onslaught of Chinese settlers intensified in the first centuries of our era, the ancestors of the Polynesians were forced to go in search of new islands. Thus began the great sea campaigns, which were made many times and stretched out for many centuries, until all the archipelagos and islands of any size were settled, up to Easter Island in the far east. These voyages were not accidental: they were prepared in advance, large tribal groups with food supplies and domestic animals set off on the journey.

The colonization of Polynesia was, under the conditions of primitive technology, a real heroic feat. The culturally higher ancient peoples of the classical East and the Mediterranean did not go further than coastal voyages. Even in the fifteenth century The Portuguese, in search of a sea route to India, did not leave the coast of Africa for a long time during their voyages. The Polynesians were the first in history to enter the open ocean in order to develop new lands.

The technique of the Polynesians, however, was not primitive. Wooden, stone or bone clubs were widely used among the Polynesians. Some of them were flat weapons with a sharp cutting edge. They were beautifully polished and often richly carved. Archaeologists recognize in these weapons the forms of South Asian iron swords and combat knives, repeated in wood, stone and bone. On all the islands of Polynesia, except for New Zealand, there are no metals either in native form or in ore. Obviously, the Polynesians had to make weapons according to ancient patterns, but from new materials; they created works of stone and bone technology perfect in form and processing. As for the bow and arrows, the ancestors of the Polynesians already used other military weapons - spears, clubs, slings; hunting on the islands poor in fauna has lost its significance. There is no clay on the islands of Polynesia, so pottery did not develop here.

The economy of the Polynesians was by no means primitive. They brought fruit crops with them, primarily the coconut palm, which gave them food (the juice of an unripe nut, the kernel in raw and fried form, oil squeezed from the kernel), fiber for ropes and various weaving, shells for vessels, leaves for mats, wood . Careful cultivation of the land for fruit trees and root crops, the use of artificial irrigation and fertilizer on some islands testify to a long tradition of intensive farming. The pigs and chickens brought by the Polynesians to the islands have long been domesticated in their Indo-Malayan ancestral home.

Thus, the ancestors of the Polynesians were a relatively cultured people. Having stocks of food of plant and animal origin, they could embark on long voyages in search of new lands. But the main thing that gave such an opportunity is the high development of shipbuilding and navigation. The Polynesian balance ship is one of the wonderful inventions of the human mind. The balancer or counterweight is a log elastically attached to the vessel. It enables even a dugout boat to withstand strong ocean waves, overcome huge waves without tipping over, and easily level out. For long-distance voyages, large twin boats were used, accommodating several hundred people. Ships were built from hewn boards fastened with vegetable fiber ropes. Such twin boats, connected by a deck to the sides, are very stable. Mat sails made it possible to use a fair wind. The ship was steered by a steering oar. The Polynesians had priest-navigators who knew the direction of sea currents and winds and were well oriented by the stars. The Polynesians set out in fleets of dozens of ships; the boats fanned out so that the islands encountered on the way fell into the field of view of at least one of them. When sailing, they took food supplies in the form of dried coconut pulp or baked taro, as well as live pigs and chickens. In the boat, on the sand, a fire was maintained. Thus organized, the journey could last up to a month, and this was enough to cross the spaces between the archipelagos of Polynesia.

Polynesian traditions have preserved the names of tribal groups and their leaders who landed on this or that island. They are descended from pedigrees. Calculating each generation at about 25 years and comparing the genealogies of the population of various parts of Polynesia, it can be established that the first voyages began around the 5th century. n. e.

According to legend, the first settlers settled on a certain island of Hawaii, where they achieved great prosperity. Apparently, this legendary second homeland of the Polynesians was the island of Raiatea (Hawaii) northwest of Tahiti. Here, in the area of ​​Opoa, a school of priests was formed, which developed the theological system of the Polynesian religion. By the VI century. Central Polynesia was settled and became indeed the home of the new Polynesian culture.

However, on the question of how the sailors got to Tahiti, the traditions do not give clear indications. Ethnographic and anthropological data leave room for hypotheses. According to the Te-Rangi-Hiroa hypothesis, the settlers passed through Micronesia; only later, from the archipelago of Tahiti, they allegedly sailed to the islands of Samoa, Tonga and Fiji and to Melanesia, from where they brought useful plants and domestic animals. Soviet scientists consider it unlikely that the settlers came to Melanesia only after the settlement of Central Polynesia; the suggestion that Western Polynesia was colonized much later than Central Polynesia is also unlikely. Most likely, colonization took place along more than one path, and in any case, the ancestors of the Polynesians passed through Melanesia, from where they took useful plants and animals with them.

The settlement of Tonga and Fiji probably took place somewhat later, between the 6th and 7th centuries, and the colonization of the Hawaiian archipelago even later, between the 7th and 14th centuries. Eastern Polynesia was settled between the 10th and 12th centuries. Polynesian navigators reached New Zealand between the 9th and 14th centuries. They met here a small Negroid population with a primitive social system. The latter was supplanted or assimilated, the memory of it was preserved only in folklore.

Tradition dates the discovery of New Zealand by Polynesians to the 10th century. and associates it with the name of the fisherman Kupe; he first saw these islands and, returning to Hawaii, told about them. In the XII century. a certain Toi sailed from Central Polynesia in search of his grandson, who was carried away by the current. Grandfather and grandson ended up in New Zealand and stayed here to live, took wives from a local tribe and laid the foundation for mixed offspring. In the XIV century. after the inter-tribal wars in Hawaii, a large group of the inhabitants of this island, in several boats, set off along the Kupe route with the definite intention of colonizing the southern islands. They landed in the Bay of Plenty (Plenty). The leaders divided among themselves the land on the coast, and the newcomers settled in groups at a distance from one another. Traditions also tell about subsequent generations of ancestors, they name the names of leaders and learned priests, and even the names of boats indicating where their crews settled.

For ten centuries, the Polynesians not only settled the islands of the Pacific Ocean, but also experienced the impact of new living conditions. They began to use wood, stone and bone instead of iron, they forgot pottery and weaving. However, this was not degradation. They developed new forms of technology and economy, more adapted to the conditions of the oceanic islands. A social division of labor developed. Formed hereditary castes of the nobility - landowners, military leaders, priests, and on some islands and the caste of kings; the position of farmers and artisans was also hereditary. Slaves stood outside society, outside castes.

The castes were stratified, splitting took place inside them. So among the Maori, the more noble surnames made up a group of leaders - "ariki", the younger surnames made up the middle layer - "rangatira".

The religion of the Polynesians fantastically reflected the formation of classes and the state. The entire surrounding world in the view of the Polynesians was divided into two categories: moa (sacred) and noa (simple). Everything related to moa is considered to belong to the gods, kings, nobility and priests, therefore it is declared forbidden for ordinary people, that is, subject to taboo. The Polynesian word "taboo" literally means "specially marked." In fact, this meant the prohibition of certain actions or the use of certain objects; the violation of taboos entails, according to the ideas of believers, inevitable punishment from supernatural forces. So, on the island of Nukuhiva there were two types of taboo - one imposed by the priest, and the other by the king. Both priests and kings used taboos to their advantage, which coincided with the interests of the tribal nobility. The cult served the purpose of intimidating the rank and file and strengthening the power of the ruling stratum. According to the Russian traveler Yu. F. Lisyansky, “fruits, pigs and dogs are sacrificed, while from people they kill only captives or troublemakers and opponents of the government in honor of their gods. This sacrifice has more to do with politics than with faith.”

The Polynesian religion was an instrument of class oppression and contributed to the strengthening of early forms of statehood.

Micronesians

The population of the Micronesian archipelagos, in terms of anthropological type and culture, is a mixed group. The physical appearance of the Micronesians combines signs of Melanesian, Indonesian and Polynesian origin. By language, Micronesians are part of the Malayo-Polynesian family.

small coral islands Micronesia, like Polynesia, could only be inhabited from outside. Judging by all the data, their colonization preceded the settlement of Polynesia. Probably, Melanesians first appeared on these islands, and later settlers of a common origin with the ancestors of the Polynesians. According to the tradition of the Micronesians of the Gilbert archipelago, their islands were once inhabited by dark-skinned short people who ate raw food and worshiped the spider and the turtle, that is, they obviously stood at the lowest level of development. Subsequently, according to legend, they were conquered by newcomers from the West - from the islands of Halmahera and Celebes; the aliens married local women and from them descended the modern inhabitants of the Gilbert Islands. Anthropological and linguistic data also show that immigrants from the East Indonesian islands, the Philippines and even Taiwan played a significant role in the formation of the Micronesian group.

In terms of social development, the Micronesians stood between the Melanesians and Polynesians. The social division of labor has gone far enough, groups of artisans have emerged. Exchange also developed. Although the natural form of exchange prevailed, on some islands special types of the general equivalent of goods stood out - low shells and beads. On the island of Yap, there was a kind of money in the form of stone discs, sometimes reaching the size of millstones. These stones remained in place, they only conditionally passed from hand to hand.

The land nominally belonged to the community, but in fact it was seized by the tribal elite, the elders of noble families; ordinary farmers worked for them. In the Caroline Islands, power and wealth were in the hands of the elders - the Yurosi. Ordinary members of the community, who cultivated the land and were engaged in fishing, brought them the largest and best part of the harvest and catch. Coconut palms, for example, were wholly owned by the Yurosi, their fruits were forbidden to be consumed by the common masses. The Micronesians did not have a state, but they were on the eve of its formation.

Thus, by the beginning of the geographical discoveries of Europeans, the peoples of all parts of Oceania were by no means savages, "children of nature." They have reached a more or less significant level of development of the productive forces and created their own culture.

3. Discovery of the islands of Oceania and Australia and the beginning of their colonization

The beginning of the geographical discoveries of Europeans in Oceania was laid by the first round-the-world trip of Magellan, who in 1521 visited the island of Guam (Marian Islands). In the XVI century. Spanish and Portuguese navigators discovered the Caroline, Marshall, Solomon, Marquesas, Tokelau, Santa Cruz islands.

The northwestern ledge of New Guinea was first visited by the Portuguese navigator Georges Minesia in 1526.

After the conquest of Mexico and Peru, the Spaniards organized a series of expeditions to establish a sea route between the western coast of Central and South America and the Philippine Islands. In 1542, the expedition of Ruy Lopez Villalovos set off from the port of Acapulco (Mexico) to the Philippines. A member of this expedition, Retes, in 1544 landed on the shores of the island discovered by Minesia, and declared it the possession of the Spanish king, giving it the name of New Guinea. Two expeditions of the Spaniard Alvaro Mendanya de Neira in 1567 and 1595. the Solomon Islands, the Marquesas Islands, and a number of islands in South Polynesia were discovered.

Further discoveries of the islands of Polynesia and Melanesia were made by the Spanish expedition of Quiros in 1605. Quiros claimed to have discovered the great southern mainland and gave it the name "Australia of the Holy Spirit." The captain of one of the ships of this expedition, Torres, after Quiros returned to Mexico, passed along the southern coast of New Guinea and opened the strait separating this island from genuine Australia. Arriving in 1607 to the Philippine Islands, Torres presented a report of his discoveries to the Spanish authorities in Manila. He proved that New Guinea is not part of the southern mainland, but a huge island, separated from other large islands (in fact, from Australia) by a strait. The Spaniards kept this discovery a secret.

150 years after Torres' journey, during the Seven Years' War, the British landed on the island of Luzon and seized the government archives of Manila. So the Torres report fell into their hands. In 1768, the English navigator James Cook received a special government assignment to explore Oceania. He again "discovered" the islands of Oceania and the strait between Australia and New Guinea, which had long been known to the Spaniards. Cook also discovered a number of new islands and explored the eastern coast of Australia. At the same time, the English scientist Alexander Dalrymple published secret Spanish documents captured in Manila, after which Cook himself was forced to admit that the strait between New Guinea and Australia was already known to the Spaniards at the beginning of the 17th century. In the second half of the XVIII century. This strait was named Torres Strait.

During the one and a half century interval between the discovery of Torres and the journey of James Cook, a number of Dutch navigators - Endracht, Edel, Neyts, Thyssen and others visited various parts of the coast of Australia, which received in the 17th century. name New Holland. In 1642, the governor-general of the Dutch possessions in Southeast Asia, Van Diemen, instructed Abel Tasman to go around New Holland from the south. During this voyage, Tasman saw an island which he named Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). Passing along the eastern coast of New Zealand, he discovered the archipelagos of Tonga and Fiji and, having rounded New Guinea from the north, returned to Batavia. Tasman Expedition 1642-1643 refuted the assumption that New Holland is part of the great Antarctic continent, but created an erroneous idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe outlines of Australia: Tasman considered the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea to be projections of the single mainland of New Holland.

A survey of the coasts of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia was made by James Cook during his three voyages in 1768-1779. Then he discovered the island of New Caledonia and the numerous islands of Polynesia. The eastern part of Australia was named New South Wales by Cook. French navigators (Bougainville, La Perouse, etc.) also made a number of voyages and discoveries in Oceania in the 60-80s of the 18th century.

Beginning in 1788, for more than half a century, the British government used Australia as a place of exile for criminals and political offenders. The administration of the penal colony seized vast areas of fertile land, which were cultivated by the forced labor of exiled settlers. The indigenous population was pushed back into the deserts of central Australia, where it died out or was exterminated. Its number, reaching by the time the British appeared at the end of the 18th century. 250-300 thousand, decreased by the end of the next century to 70 thousand people. The British colonialists acted with particular cruelty on the island of Tasmania. Here they organized real raids on people who were killed like wild animals. As a result, the population of the island was destroyed to the last person.

Little by little, English colonies were formed in Australia, representing the continuation of the capitalist metropolis in terms of language, economy and culture. At first, these colonies were not connected with each other in any way, and only by the beginning of the 20th century. formed the Australian Federation, which received the rights of the English dominion. The economic and political development of the Australian colonies of England belongs to the subsequent period of modern history.

The history of the ethnographic study of Oceania by bourgeois science is only one aspect of the history of the colonial policy of the states of Europe and America in the South Pacific. The stages of scientific exploration of Oceania reflect periods in the history of colonial conquests.

General prerequisites

Who were the explorers of Oceania? These were either European sailors who went to discover new lands in order to attach them to the possessions of their states; or colonial traders, pirates, government officials and agents; or missionaries who paved the way for the capture of new lands; or, finally, professional scientists. The latter could set themselves purely scientific goals, but objectively the activities of most of them served the same task: to consolidate the dominance of the colonialists on the Pacific islands - and in many cases they themselves were perfectly aware of this.

This circumstance does not, of course, deprive the scientific interest of the factual material that we find in numerous ethnographic descriptions of the peoples of Oceania. On the contrary, this material is of great scientific value. But when using it, the Soviet researcher and the Soviet reader should not lose sight of the need for a strictly critical attitude towards it, since these ethnographic descriptions are not always objective.

First voyages

Europeans first appeared in the Pacific at the beginning of the 16th century. Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailor in the Spanish service, set out in 1519 in search of a western sea route to India. Having reached from Spain to the coast of South America and having passed the strait, later named after him, he was the first European to enter the expanses of the Pacific Ocean.

In January 1521 he discovered an uninhabited atoll in the northern part of the Tuamotu (Paumotu) group, in February another atoll in the southern part of the Marquesas Islands. Keeping a course to the northwest, Magellan passed between the main group of islands of Polynesia and Hawaiian Islands and on March 6 of the same year he arrived at the island of Guam (one of the Mariana Islands). He then took his ships to the Philippines.

Magellan's companion, Antonio Pigafetta, left in his notes a brief but interesting description of the inhabitants of the island of Guam. Pigafetta can be considered the first ethnographer of Oceania. However, his description is fragmentary and extremely superficial.

In 1526, Europeans entered the Pacific Ocean from the west. The Portuguese George de Menezes sailed from Malacca to the Moluccas, but the wind drove his ship ashore unknown land. Menezes called this land the name "Papua" (from the Malay " Tanah Reria "-" the land of the curly-haired "). It was New Guinea.

Having conquered Mexico, the Spaniards established a sea connection between Spanish America and the Philippines, Spain's main base in Southeast Asia. In 1542, the Spaniard Villalobos, on his way from Mexico to the Philippines, discovered the Palau Islands (Pelau). Even earlier (1528 and 1529), as a result of unsuccessful attempts by the Spaniard Alvaro de Saavedra to return from the Philippines back to Mexico, some of the islands in the Caroline and Marshall groups were discovered.

In the second half of the XVI century. voyages from the shores of Spanish America to the islands of Southeast Asia turned into regular flights. Given the direction of the winds and sea currents, the Spanish ships sailed to the Philippines in the tropics, and made their way back in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, rising beyond the thirtieth and even thirty-fifth parallel.

A number of discoveries were made during the voyages of the Spaniards to the Philippines from Deru.

In 1568, Alvaro Mendaña de Neira discovered the Solomon Islands.<Он дал им это название, полагая, что нашел источник, откуда царь Соломон получал золото. Позднее, в 1595 г., он вновь отправился на поиски этих островов, но на этот раз безрезультатно. Зато он открыл группу островов, названных им Маркизскими, ряд островов из группы Токелау (Юнион) и один остров из группы Санта-Крус. В этой экспедиции принимал участие капитан Кирос; после смерти Менданьи на острове Санта-Крус во главе экспедиции стал Кирос.

Ten years later, Quiros again went on a trip with Luis Torres. They discovered the islands of Tuamotu, Tahiti, Manihiki and one of the New Hebrides (Espiritu: Santo, or. Island of the Holy Spirit). From here, Quiros returned to Peru, while Torres continued his voyage to the Philippines. He discovered the Louisiade Islands, as well as the strait between New Guinea and Australia, named after him.

This ends the period of Spanish discoveries in Oceania. Spain by this time had lost its maritime power. Dutch ships are now appearing in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Lemer and Skouten (1616) discover several small islands north of the Tonga archipelago, see New Britain, but mistake it for part of New Guinea. Abel "Tasman in 1642-1643 discovers Tasmania, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji; sees New Ireland, but also takes it for part of New Guinea.

European ships continue to ply the waters of the Pacific Ocean. ] In 1699, the English sailor and pirate Dampier went on a warship to Oceania to find out the extent of Australia to the east. But he makes the most important discoveries in the area of ​​the Bismarck Archipelago, in particular, for the first time he establishes that New Britain is an independent island, and not part of New Guinea. The strait separating Dowa Britain from New Guinea is named after him.

Early ethnographic information (until the end of the 18th century)

XVI-XVII centuries did not give any detailed descriptions of the islands. The stories of the sailors were very inaccurate in geographical indications; there was no information about local residents in them. It can be noted, as some exception from this whole gray picture, the book of Father Gobien (1700), which contains information about the indigenous inhabitants of the Mariana Islands - the Chamorros, now completely exterminated. Therefore, Gobien's book, along with a later work by the Frenchman Freycier (beginning of the 19th century), remains a valuable source on the ethnography of the Mariana Islands.

In 1642-1766, with the exception of the aforementioned journey of Dampier and the journey of the Dutchman Roggeven, who discovered Easter Island and Samoa in 1722, no major geographical discoveries were made in Oceania. Spain and Holland could no longer count on the seizure of new lands. England and France tried to gain a foothold in America, India, fought among themselves for these areas and did not send expeditions to Oceania.

French and English expeditions of the 60-80s of the XVIII century.

Only after the Seven Years' War between England and France (1756-1763), which ended in the defeat of France, did these major colonial powers begin to look at Oceania as a possible object of colonial conquest. France, having lost most of its colonies, sought to compensate for the losses. Hence her attempts to penetrate into Oceania (the voyages of L.-A. Bougainville, 60s and J.-F. Laperouse, 80s). England, who was well aware of these attempts, tried to prevent them (Cook's voyages of 1769-1779 and later travels). But since peace had just been concluded between the two countries, the renewed rivalry could not assume open forms. The desire to gain a foothold in the Pacific had to be masked by more plausible motives: scientific research. And so the expeditions of Bougainville and Cook act as voyages for the purpose of "purely scientific" discoveries and research.

In 1768, Bougainville finally found the long-sought Solomon Islands. On the way to them, he visited Tahiti, Samoa, New Hebrides. Bougainville made the first rather detailed and colorful description of Tahiti. He portrayed Tahiti as a kind of happy island, where people live in fertile natural conditions, almost not caring about food. This description was taken as a basis and developed further in the anti-feudal concept of the "happy savage", popular in the French educational philosophy of the 18th century. and reached its peak in the worldview of Rousseau and his followers.

Thus, by the time of Cook's first voyage, many groups of islands in Oceania had already been discovered. Nevertheless, the three great voyages of James Cook formed an important page in the history of the exploration of Oceania.

During the first trip (1768-1771) Cook went around New Zealand and discovered the strait between the South and North Islands, named after him. Thus, he established that New Zealand is two independent islands. From New Zealand, Cook sailed to Australia and then led his ship from Botany Bay (a bay near present-day Sydney) to the north, sailed along the Torres Strait, along the Gulf of Carpentaria and headed for Java. Cook's second (1772-1775) and third (1776-1779) travels were also geographically fruitful. Of the discoveries made during the second voyage, the most important was the discovery of New Caledonia, and the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands during the third. In Hawaii in 1779 he died.

Cook kept quite detailed notes in diaries, which served as material for describing his travels. In total, Cook spent many months in New Zealand, Tahiti and the Hawaiian Islands, which enabled him and a number of his companions to master the Polynesian languages ​​and enter into close relations with the indigenous people.

In all travels, Cook was accompanied by natural scientists: in the first - J. Banks, in the second - Johann and Georg Forster, in the third - Anderson (who died during the trip), as well as artists.

Of particular importance are the diaries and notes of Georg Forster. However, his descriptions are characterized by a certain loftiness of style and a tendency to idealize the life of the oceanic world. In this respect, Forster continues the line of Bougainville. Anderson's notes, which, along with the notes of Cook himself, constituted the main content of the description of the third journey, are more sober, rationalistic and, probably, more accurate.

Cook's expedition albums give a rather detailed and vivid, albeit stylized, picture of the life, way of life, and material culture of the indigenous inhabitants of Oceania at that time.

Finally, during Cook's travels, ethnographic collections were quite conscientiously collected, which even now form the adornment of a number of museums.

The voyage of Laperouse began in 1785. He set off on two ships, the Astrolabe and Busol, visited Easter Island (Rapanui) and left beautiful sketches of stone statues on this island. Then he sailed along the northwestern coast of North America and California, crossed the Pacific Ocean to the Mariana Islands, rose north, trying to get to the mouth of the Amur, reached Kamchatka and sent his companion Lesseps from there to France, giving him his diaries. Then he headed south, visited Samoa, went to Botany Bay (Australia). This was in 1788. The first batch of English exiles had just arrived there, and La Perouse was present at the founding of Port Jackson. From here he again swam to the east and disappeared without a trace. Meanwhile, Lesseps crossed all of Siberia, Europe and reached Paris. Thanks to this, a two-volume description of La Perouse's journey has come down to us.

In 1791, the French revolutionary government sent Captain D'Entrecasteaux to search for La Perouse. D'Entrecasteaux sailed chiefly in the region of Melanesia and, as it was later established, passed without suspecting anything, a few kilometers from the island where the surviving members of the Lapérouse's crew then lived. On the way back, D'Entrecasteaux died, and descriptions of this journey were made by his companions, the most detailed by J. Labillardier.

Then a number of expeditions were made to search for La Perouse. But only in 1828, Dumont-Durville, collecting information about La Perouse from the islands, finally reached the small island of Tikopia, located near the New Hebrides. Here he learned from the islanders that La Perouse's ships had crashed on the coastal reefs. near Vanikoro Island. Most of La Perouse's companions were killed, and La Perouse himself, with the remnants of the crew, sailed on a makeshift vessel (in which direction it was not possible to establish) and probably died. However, a few sailors remained on Vanikoro, who died only two or three years before the appearance of Dumont-Durville.

These landforms were discovered only in the middle of the twentieth century, thanks to the echolocation method. They form a single system with a total length of 60,000 km and a relative height of up to 4 km. The areas of their distribution belong to the seismic regions of the Earth.

1) what are these landforms called?
2) What movements of the earth's crust occur within these landforms?
3) How does the age of the earth's crust change from the axial zone of landforms to the edges?
4) How can this be explained?
5) What are the names of the hydrothermal springs on their slopes?
6) Which country do you need to go to to see what the surface of these landforms looks like?
7) On what island by origin is it located?
8) What is the most active volcano located on this island?
9) In which city will your plane land?

1) Determine according to the Australian GP plan. 2) Determine according to the plan GP Oceania. 3) List the types of islands in Oceania by their origin. 4) Name the characteristic

relief features of Australia. 5) Why Australia does not have large rivers. 6) In what climatic zones is most of the islands of Oceania located. 7) List the endemics of Oceania. 8) List the endemics of Australia. 9) What is an atoll. 10) What is a scrub.

What part of the Asian circumpolar North was discovered by Russian explorers?

a) the coast of the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea
b) the coast of the Kara Sea, the Laptev Sea and the Severnaya Zemlya Island
c) the coast of the Kara Sea, the Laptev Sea, the islands of Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands
d) the entire Asian circumpolar North was discovered by Russian explorers

Task 3

Identify the islands in question and answer the additional questions:
This archipelago was discovered in September 1913 near the extreme point of one of the continents, an expedition that had completely different goals ... First it was named after two ships, then it was renamed in honor of the reigning emperor, and in 1926 the final name was established, which emphasizes its geographical position. The area of ​​the archipelago is about 37 thousand square meters. km. This is more than the area of ​​Belgium and Albania, a little less than the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland ... The archipelago consists of many islands, but there are four large ones. Their names reflect the features of the political system of the country to which these islands belong, of that time. These islands could have been discovered earlier, but the expeditions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries did not notice them. Harsh natural conditions prevented the settlement of the islands. And today, they are uninhabited.
Name:
1. What is the name of this archipelago today;
2. 4 largest islands in its composition.
3. the original name of the archipelago and the names of the ships;
4. the name of the leader of the expedition and the geographical object named after him;
5. goals of the expedition;
6. the name of the islands from 1914 to 1926;
7. what is the severity of natural conditions;
8. names of 2 navigators who at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries could discover these islands, but "did not notice" them, passing by;
9. the seas surrounding this archipelago;
10. after whom one of them is named.

The beginning of the geographical discoveries of Europeans in Oceania was laid by the first round-the-world trip of Magellan, who in 1521 visited the island of Guam (Marian Islands).

In the XVI century. Spanish and Portuguese navigators discovered the Caroline, Marshall, Solomon, Marquesas, Tokelau, Santa Cruz islands.

The northwestern ledge of New Guinea was first visited by the Portuguese navigator Georges Minesia in 1526.

After the conquest of Mexico and Peru, the Spaniards organized a series of expeditions to establish a sea route between the western coast of Central and South America and the Philippine Islands. In 1542, the expedition of Ruy Lopez Villalovos set off from the port of Acapulco (Mexico) to the Philippines.

A member of this expedition, Retes, in 1544 landed on the shores of the island discovered by Minesia, and declared it the possession of the Spanish king, giving it the name of New Guinea. Two expeditions of the Spaniard Alvaro Mendaña de Neira in 1567 and 1595. the Solomon Islands, the Marquesas Islands, and a number of islands in South Polynesia were discovered.

Further discoveries of the islands of Polynesia and Melanesia were made by the Spanish expedition of Quiros in 1605. Quiros claimed to have discovered the great southern mainland and gave it the name "Australia of the Holy Spirit."

The captain of one of the ships of this expedition, Torres, after Quiros returned to Mexico, passed along the southern coast of New Guinea and opened the strait separating this island from genuine Australia.

Arriving in the Philippine Islands in 1607, Torres presented a report on his discoveries to the Spanish authorities in Manila. He proved that New Guinea is not part of the southern mainland, but a huge island, separated from other large islands (in fact, from Australia) by a strait. The Spaniards kept this discovery a secret.

150 years after Torres' journey, during the Seven Years' War, the British landed on the island of Luzon and seized the government archives of Manila. So the Torres report fell into their hands.

In 1768| English navigator James Cook received a special government assignment to explore Oceania. He again "discovered" the islands of Oceania and the strait between Australia and New Guinea, which had long been known to the Spaniards.

Cook also discovered a number of new islands and explored the eastern coast of Australia.

At the same time, the English scientist Alexander Dalrimil published secret Spanish documents captured in Manila, after which Cook himself was forced to admit that the strait between New Guinea and Australia was already known to the Spaniards at the beginning of the 17th century. In the second half of the XVIII century. This strait was named Torres Strait.

During the century and a half between the discovery of Torres and the voyage of James Cook, a number of Dutch navigators - Endracht, Edel, Yeats, Thyssen and others visited various parts of the coast of Australia, which received in the 17th century. naming New Holland.

In 1642, the governor-general of the Dutch possessions in Southeast Asia, Van Diemen, instructed Abel Tasman to go around New Holland from the south.

During this voyage, Tasman saw an island, which he named ZyuLs Van Diemen (now Tasmania). Passing along the eastern coast of New Zealand, he discovered the archipelagos of Tonga and Fiji and, having rounded New Guinea from the north, returned to Batavia.

Tasman Expedition 1642-1643 refuted the assumption that New Holland is part of the great Antarctic continent, but created an error. a different idea of ​​the outlines of Australia: Tasman considered the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea to be projections of the single mainland of New Holland.

A survey of the coasts of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia was made by James Cook during his three voyages in 1768-1779. Then he discovered the island of New Caledonia and the numerous islands of Polynesia.

The eastern part of Australia was named New South Wales by Cook. French navigators (Bougainville, La Perouse, etc.) also made a number of voyages and discoveries in Oceania in the 60-80s of the 18th century.

Beginning in 1788, for more than half a century, the British government used Australia as a place of exile for criminals and political offenders.

The administration of the penal colony seized vast areas of fertile land, which were cultivated by the forced labor of exiled settlers.

The indigenous population was pushed back into the deserts of central Australia, where it died out or was exterminated.

Its number, reaching by the time the British appeared at the end of the 18th century. 250-300 thousand, decreased by the end of the next century to 70 thousand people. The British colonialists acted with particular cruelty on the island of Tasmania. Here they organized real raids on people who were killed like wild animals. As a result, the population of the island was destroyed to the last person.

Little by little, English colonies were formed in Australia, representing the continuation of the capitalist metropolis in terms of language, economy and culture.

At first, these colonies were not connected with each other in any way, and only by the beginning of the 20th century. formed the Australian Federation, which received the rights of the English dominion.

The economic and political development of the Australian colonies of England belongs to the subsequent period of modern history.