Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Colonization - Ethnocentricity

How did the ethnocentricity of the British and the First Australians cause conflict between the two groups?

The ethnocentricity of the British made the first impact on the relationship between the colonists and the First Australians, which later created huge conflict. Even when the British first came, they didn't accept the way the Aboriginals were acting, and how they dressed, the British, were very disturbed from how 'uncivilized' they were. While, vice-versa, the Aboriginals were accepting of the British, it is said that they learned how to co-exist with the land and its people. So they let the British live in their land, even though they weren't happy. The British, tried in many ways to change the Aboriginals to what they believed was the 'right' way to live, and the 'right' way to act. For example, they 'kidnapped' Bennelong, and taught him the British way of living. Yet, even though they took him to England, and they gave him clothing, and taught him their language. Unfortunately, when he returned home to Sydney Town, he went back to his old habits. He went back to his normal ways of acting, and his old manners. The British, in his obituary called him a savage numerous times, they said that because he was an Aboriginal, they couldn't change them, because they really only think of him and others as animals. The ethnocentricity of the First Australians, didn't make a huge impact on the conflict between the two races, but it did before war broke out. The British made a huge impact on Australia, and the relationship the First Australians and the British had, but in the end, they all lived harmoniously, in peace, with little conflict.

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