Arthur Phillip

Empires

The First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay with 736 convicts, establishing a British penal colony. For Aboriginal Australians—whose civilization dates back 65,000…

• 1788 CE

  British colonize Australia

  The First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay with 736 convicts, establishing a British penal colony. For Aboriginal Australians—whose civilization dates back 65,000+ years—colonization brings catastrophic violence, disease, dispossession, and the destruction of hundreds of language groups.