SC History

History -Final Exam- Notes

World War II

After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour there were attacks on Burma, Borneo, the Dutch East Indies, Malaya and other parts of South East Asia

• Singapore was strategically important

• On

10 December, 1941, two British ships were sunk by Japanese off the coast of Malaya

• Singapore was severely weakened

• At the end of

December, 1941, Prime Minister Curtin appealed to the US for help

• The attack on

Singapore was expected from sea

• The Japanese attacked by land
• Allied troops failed to stop the Japanese

• 15 Feb. 1942, Singapore was captured

• Australia was alone and defenceless

• Curtin called all Australians to focus efforts on the war

The Japanese bombed Darwin (they targeted ships and airfield) which showed Australia’s fear

• They needed it destroyed because then they could invade New Guinea and after, Australia

On

Feb 19, 1942, the first attack on Australia

Darwin was bombed by 93 Japanese planes

• At midday, 54 Japanese bombers attacked Darwin’s RAAF base
• 743 people were killed and hundreds injured

Over the next 2 years, Darwin was attacked at least 58 times

• In March 1942, US base in Philippines was under threat from the Japanese
• US president, Roosevelt ordered the commander in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur to move headquarters to Sydney

• Battle of Coral Sea

• The battle lasted from 4th of May till the 8th of May

• The Japanese aimed to capture and occupy Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea

• From there, they could launch attacks on Townsville and other Australia cities or even invade northern Australia

The battle of

Coral Sea in Early May, 1942, was the most important battle ever fought as it forced the Japanese back

2 US aircrafts played an important role in Battle of Coral Sea

Most naval bases involved plans attacking ships

• First defeat of Japanese at sea

• Battle of Midway

• 5 to 7 June, 1942
• Japanese defeated at sea again and were losing control of the Pacific

• Attacks on Australia had not stopped

• Precautions:

• Barbed wire was placed on beaches to prevent invasions
• Practiced air raid drills
• Boom net across Sydney Harbour to stop submarines

• Sydney attacked

• Saturday 30 May, 1942 - Japanese seaplane was undetected so it managed to scout
• 31 May 1942, three Japanese midget submarines entered Sydney Harbour

• 7 June 1942, Sydney was attacked by a Japanese submarine off the coast

• Newcastle and Bondi areas were shelled

• Milne Bay

• Japanese landed 25 August, 1942

• Japanese decided to capture airfields

• Conditions - fighting in mud and rain, the Australians successfully defended the airfields

• Japanese retreated 6 Sept 1942

• First defeat on land

• Kokoda Trail
• 21 July, 1942, Japanese Troops landed at Buna and Gona on the north coast of New Guinea

• Wanted to capture Port Moresby

• Land attack

• Australians prevented Japanese from reaching Port Moresby

29 July, 1942, the Australians were forced to retreat from a small town called Kokoda

• 11 August

, airfield fell into Japanese hands

• 17 Sept. 1942, the Jap. Reached ioribaiwa ridge

• Jap could see Port Moresby

• 25 Sept. - forced to retreat by Australian troops

• Second land defeat

2 Nov, 1942

- Australians troops including those who had returned from the Middle East, quickly drove the Jap back along with the Owen Stanley Track to Kokoda

• 16 Nov. 1942 - US and Aus troops began attacking Jap forces in Buna and Gona

• 1 Dec. 1942 - Gona fell to Allies
• 2 Jan. 1943 - Buna captured by Allies

• The fighting was fierce as the Jap believed it was an honour to die for their Emperor, Hirohito

• Conditions terrible, but the troops never gave up as they were fighting to defend Australia - only 800 km away

• Threat of Japan invading Australia was over after Jan 1943

• Final years of WWII - attention on winning against Germany

• 6 June, 1944 - D-Day Allies invaded France
• 8 May, 1945

- Germany surrendered

• MacArthur began island hopping policy

• US troops attacked important Jap. occupied land
• Aus troops were to continue clearing Jap from areas like New Guinea, New Britain, Bougainville and Borneo

• John Curtin wrote to MacArthur in Feb 1945, asking for a greater attacking role

• He died 5 July, 1945

• War in the Pacific ended 6 weeks later

• Nuclear weapons

• Germany and US working on a secret weapon to end the war

• US won the race and atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico

• Then:

• 6 August 1945- Hiroshima :: 70000 killed
• 9 August 1945- Nagasaki :: 40000 killed

• Japanese still refused to surrender because they wanted their emperor to remain leader

• 15 August, 1945 - Surrendered unconditionally to the US because the Soviet Union threatened to attack
• At 9:30am (EST) the new Australian PM, Ben Chifley announced the war was finished

Social and Political issues in Australia - 1970s to the 1990s

• Relations with Asia and Multiculturalism

• The Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 was to exclude all non-white migrants from Australia

• Evidence of a racist policy that was to remain for the next 60 years

• Australia’s understanding of Asia was of ignorance and suspicion

• In the 1950s, they simply viewed the countries of Asia as being under different European countries’ control

However, after WWII the conquest by Japan caused the future of Asia to change forever

• The message of ‘Asia for the Asians’ promoted under Japanese control caused Asian people to look up this message as a focal point for gaining liberation from the European overlords

In 1971, Australia sent a delegation to China

1973, Gough Whitlam met with the Chinese leader - Mao Zedong, which was the first time Australia officially recognised Communist China

The new Labor government saw an open political and trading relationship with China as essential and the Asian focus of Australia’s foreign policy continued after Whitlam’s defeat and a process of understanding and appreciation was encouraged

1975 constitutional crisis

The government had three major problems in 1974:

• A weakened economy
• Scandals involving Labor Party ministers
• Lack of control of the Senate

Whitlam was incapable of acquiring supply due to The Liberal Party (Malcolm Fraser) blocking the supply of the Government in 1975 which was possible because the NSW and QLD premiers replaced missing Labor senators with Liberal supporting senators

• The PM (Gough Whitlam) was going to call a half-senate election to threaten the Opposition

On the 11^th of November, at 1pm, Gough Whitlam was dismissed by Sir John Kerr due to Malcolm Fraser’s statement that he would guarantee supply

The constitution had allowed a government to be dismissed if supply could not be guaranteed.

• Feminism
• Feminists sought to remove the barriers which divided society into the world of male power and female subservience
• In her 1970 book, ‘The Female Eunuch’ , Germaine Greer encouraged women to question and abandon their acceptance of the narrow roles society had allocated them
• The women’s electoral lobby (WEL) began in February 1972

• Promotes women’s rights
• lobbied governments and political parties to adopt policies supporting:

• child care
• family planning
• women’s health

Promoting opportunities for women to become more involved publicly

Reliable birth control in 1961 allowed women to have a paid occupation

the feminist movement known as women’s liberation made real progress in

• attempting to improve the position of women in the paid work force
• raise consciousness of the injustices created by society’s view of ‘women’s place’
• Equal Pay Case (1969) resulted in a requirement that women receive the same wage as men for the same work

• the decision was not the victory it seemed as:

• it didn’t apply where the work was essentially or usually performed by women
• Australia has one of the most sex-segregated workforces in the world so only 18% of its female workforce benefited from the 1969

Discrimination

• Is a particular problem

• Attempts to readdress this have been made through both State and Commonwealth legislation

• The Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW) made it illegal to discriminate
• Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cwlth) and Affirmative Action (Equal Opportunity for women) Act (Cwlth)

• Aboriginal issues
• Land rights

• Are appropriate means to recognise and establish the traditional rights of Aborigines in relation to the land
• First recognised in 1972-1975 by Whitlam Government

• ATSI gained opportunities to control their own affairs and improve access to justice

Before, terra nullius policy was followed

Land rights weren’t recognised because:

• It would undermine ownership of land by the government
• It would undermine the ownership of land by individuals

• 1^st time land rights were recognised was in the Mabo case of 1992

Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NT) was passed in 1976 and all but WA passed the act

• National land rights legislation was abandoned in 1986 due to fear of losing White Australia supporters of the Liberal Party

Day of Mourning

26 January is the day of mourning for Aboriginal people as the only thing that can be celebrated by them is their survival

The treaty, Makarrata would give recognition to the societies that had lived in Australia before 1788

• Important step towards reconciliation

Aboriginal Deaths in Custody

1970s - Government and community groups question high numbers of aboriginal people dead in prison

Late 1980s - growing concern

1989 - Order of a royal commission to investigate these matters and general issue of treatment of Aborigines in the Australian legal system

Result:

• Aborigines were highly convicted to go to jail for minor offences as a result of:

• Negative and racist attitudes of police leading to over-policing and abuse of Aboriginal people
• Lack of private living space of Aborigines, making drunken behaviour subject to prosecution
• High amount of police in areas of high Aboriginal population

Suggestions:

• Using custody and imprisonment as a last resort
• Removing drunkenness as a criminal offence
• Allowing indigenous prisoners access to medical services
• Ensuring there are groups to ensure that these provisions are carried out
• Improving Aboriginal health services, housing and educational opportunities

• RCAIDIC was a failure as no. of deaths have doubled

Native Title Act

22 December, 1993, the Federal Parliament passed the native Title Bill which was its response to the Mabo decision:

• that native title to land had existed before 1788 and might still be existence
• that for native title to continue to exist, the land would have to have been continuously lived on by indigenous families and their descendants since 1788
• land which had been legally granted or sold by governments to someone else for their exclusive use, native title had ceased to exist

Stolen Generation

Part-Aboriginal children who were removed from their families and communities, often by force

What has been done:

• Fed. Gov. has failed to apologise outright while most state. Gov. have
• Gov. view: great deal of apathy and lack of respect and human decency
• Society’s view: Impacted by media and were similar in attitude as Gov. but now developed an understanding and show their sympathy by pressuring Gov. to act

Federation

What did Federation achieve?

• Unification of 6 states/colonies into one

Federal Commonwealth was important because of:

• Trade (Economically)

• By uniting there would not be any tariffs on products from other colonies

Defence (Militarily)

Other countries were showing interest in Australia and as a nation there would be more defence as a whole defence of Australia than as independent colonies

Politics (Politically and Socially)

There was an economic crisis and people wanted a white Australia which couldn’t be achieved under Britain

Many more people were making things feel more like Australia - painting styles change, insulting Britain, etc.

Uniformity as they wanted everyone the same looking

• White Australia Policy was also known as the Immigration Restriction Act (IRA for short)

• It was blatant Racism

• They had a dictation test and people who looked colored had to do the test
• The test could be in any European language. Obscure and unknown ones were used especially

In World War I, the defence force fought under the Australian flag as Australians and no colonies of the British unlike the Boor War when they were colonies

Women were recognised as being important and were given suffrage as a result of this at the federal election soon after federation occurred

Although the benefits fell on white Australians, it wasn’t until the 1960s that the Aborigines were recognised

World War I

• The war wasn’t over by Christmas 1914

• By late 1914, all armies had begun to build trenches to protect their soldiers from the enemy and the cold

• 1914 onwards, and no sides made progress without breaking through enemy trenches

• There was stalemate

1915, the British had found a way to break the stalemate

• British and ANZAC troops landed on the beaches of Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915

On 25 April 1015, 16000 ANZAC troops landed 2km north of the intended position at Gaba Tepe

• By nightfall of the 1^st day, soldiers had advanced 900m at the cost of 2000 casualties

• Over the next week, another 2700 soldiers landed at ANZAC cove where they tried to maintain control of the beach and construct trenches

On 19 May, 1915, 4200 Turks advanced in an attempt to break through ANZAC lines.

• They were unsuccessful but both sides paid a huge toll on the number of dead and wounded

• Both sides agreed to stop fighting for a few days so they could bury dead and collect the wounded from no man’s land

ANZAC troops were to attack Turk strongholds and they managed to at a huge cost on both sides

By late August 1915, British military strategists realised that they had little chance, so a new commander, General Sir Charles Munro withdrew everyone

• By the 19^th of December, evacuation was complete with only 2 casualties

In the 8 months of service, there were 26000 casualties among the ANZAC troops including about 10000 deaths

• Soldiers each arrived with entrenching tools, and two sand bags. They had begun hastily to construct the trenches and dug outs which would provide them with some protection

• Men had to lie on their stomachs and use the entrenching tool without handle

ANZAC ate, slept, wrote letters home, darned holes, smoked and waited in the dugouts

• Troops suffered dysentery, diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, and infestations of lice

• Virtually impossible to keep clean

• Difficult to escape either physically or psychologically from the war

Gallipoli

• Why? Strategy-

• To open Black Sea
• To send aid to Russia

• Why the land invasion?
• Because Allied ships were mined/bombed in the strait to the Black Sea

• ANZACS landed at ANZAC Cove
• Tides moved them 2km and they landed in the wrong place

Approx. 200 died at the landing

8700 died altogether

• 25^th of April was the national day

ANZAC legend -

• ‘Perpendicular cliffs to climb and enemies clearly entrenched to attack with machine guns’

Australians risked enemy fire to play cricket and swim at the beach

April to December

Because our generals were angered at the mistakes that the British made, Australians went to serve themselves and not Britain

Aborigines

Federation

• They had limited inputs
• They weren’t allowed to vote, and didn’t have any rights to both themselves and their land

The Government thought they were their responsibility

Because of Darwin’s work on the origin of species, they believed that the Aborigines needed protection because they were a species and thus inferior

Aboriginal Protection Board

Introduced in 1863 and because of it, in the 1920s, there was a rapid decline in the Aboriginal population due to disease, despair and dispossession

Stolen generation children (philosophy -> impact)

The government believed that Aborigines were incapable of taking care of their children and took the children because they believed that they would be developing them from,
‘Their former primitive state to the standards of the ‘white man’ and the result was that they were treated like servants

WWII

• Political
• They had no right to vote
• Excluded from Commonwealth welfare benefits

Social

They were segregation from white people

• Eg. They had to go to the back of a bar to order a drink

Stopped from attending the public school system in NSW from 1902, if a European parent objected

Economic

Unemployment

Pre WWII

• Under Protection Boards
• Limited Rights
• Denial of Cultural Heritage

WWII

• Acknowledgement of service

Post WWII

• Political activism for greater recognition of Indigenous Australians and their rights

 

Great Depression

• The collapse of the NY Stock exchange in Oct 1928 which controlled banking and investments around the world including the Australian economy, rebounded

• Effects
• Economic
• End to overseas investments
• Decline in trade
• Closing of businesses
• Unemployment

• Peak of depression - 29% unemployed in 1932

Social

Poverty

Homelessness

Suicide

Family Breakups

Political

Conflict on how to confront GD

• NSW

• Repay loans or Abandon payments

Political division

Increasing sense of obligation

• Government should provide for unemployed

• Cash or Sustenance Payments

Problems of huge unemployment, low export prices, struggling farms and generally depressed business were common to all

• Thousands of Australians who had been accustomed to having working and some financial security suddenly found themselves facing the humiliation and poverty of unemployment

Depression hit Australia hard and fast and the combination of sudden drop in earning ability from exports and the overseas loan repayments brought Australia close to bankruptcy in early 1930

• The result was massive unemployment

• Suicide rates increased dramatically
• Whole families became destitute within a few months

In city suburbs and country towns, charity workers were faced with overwhelming numbers of families requiring support of the most basic kind

• Beggars and street pedlars were commonplace in cities and large towns
• Soldiers who had returned from the Great War, who still suffered the trauma of their wartime experiences, could be found on any night, covered in newspapers and old army greatcoats, sleeping at Sydney’s domain or at Salvation Army refuges

• Young war veterans died at a rate of 10000 a year

Scullin had two solutions to the Great Depression

• Deflation was continued cuts in government spending and wages, raising taxes and keeping up with loan repayments overseas
• Inflation was an increase in government spending, provision of relief work for the unemployed and a reduction of payments being made on overseas loans

• He chose Deflation

The result was:

• The little confidence people had in their nation’s economy was destroyed as more businesses collapsed, as spending decreased even further and unemployment increased to catastrophic levels

The unemployed had to be on the sustenance payment in which they received coupons or ration tickets that could be exchanged for groceries, milk and break

• During the first few weeks of unemployment, families would paw possession of value to raise rent money and purchase basic goods

• The fees and interest rates were high, so it was only a short time before families went hungry

Sustenance workers were given a rate of pay that was lower than the award wage

The was a growth in private armies like the New Guard and the White Army who feared the increased attention gained by Communism

Women had dual responsibilities of breadwinner and homemaker

Evicted families found shelter in rough sheds of corrugated iron

Misery of the Depression left people searching for better systems of government

• People found different ways of making do and forgot their worries temporarily through the new forms of entertainment such as radio and movies

Vietnam War

Why was Australia involved in the Vietnam war?

Due to fear of communism, the government’s defence policy was dominated by the idea that sending troops overseas to fight against potential enemies was the best way to prevent a war being fought on our soil

• 30 Australian army advisers were sent to South Vietnam in 1962
• PM, Harold Holt declared alliance with US which resulted in Australians fighting in the Vietnam War

• First war to be viewed on television

Alliance agreements of:

• ANZUS Agreement of 1951

• Australia, New Zealand and the Unite States

SEATO treaty of 1954

• South East Asia Collective Defence Treaty

• Protected countries of:

• US, Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Pakistan, South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

Response of people towards Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War

Many people were supported the war in the beginning but more and more people became against the war

Troops were conscripted and even more people were against

• Moratorium movements were held

• Their demands were:

• The immediate, total and unconditional withdrawal of Australian and allied troops from Indochina
• The immediate abolition of conscription

• Australia became divided between the anti-war movement and government supporters
• People were against National Service as it was the first time that conscripts were sent overseas in peace time

• The anti-conscription movement was originally led by religious groups and the Australian Communist party
• Protest groups were organised against the continuation of the Vietnam war

• For example:

• Save our sons
• Youth Against conscription

• Protests against the war became extreme and widespread after the Liberal/Country Party Coalition returning to power in 1966

• PM Menzies committed Australian troops to fight by sending our First Infantry battalion and HMAS Sydney to Vietnam in 1965

• April 1966, Australia’s military commitment to Vietnam was tripled

 

Immigration

“Populate or Perish” ~ Chifley

• Immigration is connected to economic expediency

• Population to rebuild

• Relaxation of the White Australia Policy (dictation and skin color)

Who were these people going to populate?

• Displaced Europeans

• Baltic Region (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia)
• Eastern Europe (Poland)
• Southern Europe (Greece, Italy)

What (what were they employed in)

• Farms
• Domestic services
• Construction industries
• Factories
• Lower paid and Unskilled jobs

Where

Camps/Hostels

• To learn English and receive work placements

• Aim:

• To repay the Australian government

Government Policies

Assimilation

Integration

Multiculturalism

• Forced progression and eventual abandonment of the W.A.P

By the 1960s, economical and political conditions made it impossible for Australia to remain isolated and rigid in its immigration policy. The demands of the economy and Australia’s standing in the international community meant the White Australian Policy had to be abandoned, and so too, the attitudes that accompanied it.

The necessary changes regarding migrants and their cultural practices were also required in regard to indigenous Australians.

Contemporary Australia

Egalitarianism

Equality of everyone

Australia is not an egalitarian society

• There is an unequal distribution of wealth

• 10% of Australia’s population control up to 50% of its economic resources, 50% of Australians control more than 95% of the nation’s wealth and up to 15% of Australia’s community live below the poverty line
• High unemployment rate and lack of full-time work with people with full-time paid work working longer results in unequal distribution of work
• Highest level of segregation into ‘male’ and ‘female’ jobs of any nations in the developed world
• 1/3 of Australia’s population lives in country areas and their quality of life was often considerable more inferior compared to that of city dwellers

 

• Republicanism
• By the early 1990s, the relevance and value of the monarchy was increasingly questioned within the Australian community

• The difference between the old and the new Australia were very obvious in changing attitudes to the British monarchy and its role and relevance to Australian life
• The British monarch was no longer a cultural figurehead for Australia and there was little reason for Australians to seek cultural, political and economic leadership from a land thousands of kilometres from Australia in a different hemisphere

The idea of a republic appeared and faded during the 20^th century, but in the 1990s, it was revived with the establishment of two groups with opposing views on this issue

• ARM (Australian Republican Movement) was formed in 1991

• Main goal: have an Australian as the nation’s head of state rather than a foreigner who lived primarily in England

ACM (Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy) was formed in 1992

• Goal: Convince Australians to retain the existing system

A referendum was held on 6 November, 1999 on republicanism

The referendum was defeated because the question was worded incorrectly so majority voted against it

• The question had been worded so that the result would have been a ‘politician’s republic’

Changing identity

Australia’s identity has changed greatly at the end of the 20^th century from what it was in the beginning

• In the beginning they saw themselves as Britons and they valued land as an economic resource, and attempted to continue the clothing, architectural and culinary styles of the ‘mother country’ that they had left behind

• They still felt that they had unique characteristics which included a lack of class distinctions, a respect for ability, not just authority, a spirit of independence and resourcefulness, a high regard for ‘mateship’ and the view that everyone deserved a ‘fair go’

At the end, the former characteristics were no longer associated

• Australia was multicultural, there were now individuals of diverse cultural and religious backgrounds, differing economic circumstances and levels of education, most Australians became city dwellers, and ‘mateship’ failed to include women which caused alienation.

• Characteristics had changed to one of civil identity which meant that most Australians value freedom of speech and religion, believe in the rule of law and expect to ‘have a say’ in government

Heritage and environmental issues

During the 1960s building boom, Sydney lost many of its grand nineteenth-century sandstone buildings which were demolished to make way for buildings symbolising progress and a modern outlook

In the 1970s, Australians showed that they wanted to conserve their natural and built heritage and signs include

• The calls to protect native plants and animals, to minimise pollution and preserve forests through the establishment of a Ministry of Environment and Conservation
• The introduction of ‘green bans’ which was the union’s refusal to work on developments that would destroy important heritage areas and sites in and around Sydney
• Local residents forming one of Sydney’s first ‘resident action’ groups to campaign against a proposed development on the Kelly’s bush area which was one of the few areas on natural bushland still adjoining Sydney Harbour

Australia signed the international convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage which as the convention that created the World Heritage Commission

• By signing, Australia was making a commitment to identify, conserve and protect areas of ‘outstanding universal value’

The Federal and Tasmanian governments came into conflict over the Franklin Dam because the Tasmanian government wanted to construct a damn on the Franklin river which was a nominated heritage area and the federal government had to comply to the convention.

• The result was that the laws created by the issue had to be conferred in the High Court