Cram your English farmboy laws, tell it to the Irish, Scottish, South Africans in concentration camps, Indians, or Chinese caught up in the opium wars, all legal under British law.
Under the British doctrine of terra nullius,
Aboriginals had no right to territory because they were not using the land in a European fashion and had no legal title under British law.
European colonization of Australia began in earnest during 1788, when Britain established penal settlements to replace those lost with the United States’ independence.
British settlers first arrived in Tasmania in 1803. They were soldiers, convicts, and free colonists sent to claim the island and establish a new agricultural penal colony.
Conflict between indigenous people and settlers often revolves around two interlocking economic issues: access to natural resources and control of territory.
Kiss the Boer.
In 1649
To St. George’s Hill,
A ragged band they called the Diggers
Came to show the people’s will
They defied the landlords
They defied the laws
They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs
We come in peace they said
To dig and sow
We come to work the lands in common
And to make the waste ground grow
This earth divided
We will make whole
So it will be
A common treasury for all
The sin of property
We do disdain
No man has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain
By theft and murder
They took the land
Now everywhere the walls
Spring up at their command
They make the laws
To chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven
Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship
The God they serve
The God of greed who feed the rich
While poor folk starve
We work we eat together
We need no swords
We will not bow to the masters
Or pay rent to the lords
Still we are free
Though we are poor
You Diggers all stand up for glory
Stand up now
From the men of property
The orders came
They sent the hired men and troopers
To wipe out the Diggers’ claim
Tear down their cottages
Destroy their corn
They were dispersed
But still the vision lingers on
You poor take courage
You rich take care
This earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
All people one
We come in peace
The orders came to cut them down
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