Captain Cook had nothing to do with the colony. He died in 1779 - years before the settlers arrived. While agreeing with the sentiment that the arrival of Europeans is not cause for celebration, Cook had always been a dumb target for protesting Jan 26.
He was directly responsible for locating the site and reporting it back to Britain. It was literally his mission to find land to steal and place the natives under British rule.
It was literally his mission to find land to steal and place the natives under British rule
Actually, it ends up looking even worse for Cook. His instructions specifically said:
You are also with the Consent of the Natives to take Possession of Convenient Situations in the Country in the Name of the King of Great Britain: Or: if you find the Country uninhabited take Possession for his Majesty by setting up Proper Marks and Inscriptions, as first discoverers and possessors.
So either he ignored the Crown’s instructions to get “consent”, or he (and not later colonists) is the original source of claims of terra nullius.
Umm cook was an explorer and cartographer, just like Abel Tasman. Yet no one is carrying pitchforks to his memorial.
The hate against Cook is just people looking for a person to blame even without reason. He mapped Australia for the british he didn’t colonise it. There was no way he could’ve ‘colonised’ with is crew of less than a hundred on the Endevour.
If you want to blame someone blame George the third, or Townshend who made the decision to colonise. Without them Australia would have been left behind (/colonised by someone else).
You can blame Gov. Phillip who lead the colonisation and was responsible for many of the decisions made.
But no, that would require people to Wikipedia for 3 minutes before founding an opinion. So we’ll just jump on the uninformed bandwagon and scream “blame Cook!”
And to be clear, my opinion is that a lot that was done at the time was atrocious, and carried on far to long into far, far, far too recent history.
Just Cook wasn’t the one that colonised Australia, he just drew it on paper and told the king. If you want to blame the colonisation, blame Townshend who made the decision yet many don’t know him. If you want to blame the decisions when they got here, Phillip was in charge.
Blame the people who made the decisions not whomever is easiest/closest.
Today marks the start of the genocide of Aboriginal peoples and colonisation of Australia began. That today is a day of mourning not celebration.
And that Captain Cook is a piece of shit.
Captain Cook had nothing to do with the colony. He died in 1779 - years before the settlers arrived. While agreeing with the sentiment that the arrival of Europeans is not cause for celebration, Cook had always been a dumb target for protesting Jan 26.
He was directly responsible for locating the site and reporting it back to Britain. It was literally his mission to find land to steal and place the natives under British rule.
Actually, it ends up looking even worse for Cook. His instructions specifically said:
So either he ignored the Crown’s instructions to get “consent”, or he (and not later colonists) is the original source of claims of terra nullius.
Oh, I wasn’t aware that he was that guy. But for sure, all colonisers are awful people who destroyed cultures irreplaceably
Umm cook was an explorer and cartographer, just like Abel Tasman. Yet no one is carrying pitchforks to his memorial.
The hate against Cook is just people looking for a person to blame even without reason. He mapped Australia for the british he didn’t colonise it. There was no way he could’ve ‘colonised’ with is crew of less than a hundred on the Endevour.
If you want to blame someone blame George the third, or Townshend who made the decision to colonise. Without them Australia would have been left behind (/colonised by someone else).
You can blame Gov. Phillip who lead the colonisation and was responsible for many of the decisions made.
But no, that would require people to Wikipedia for 3 minutes before founding an opinion. So we’ll just jump on the uninformed bandwagon and scream “blame Cook!”
And to be clear, my opinion is that a lot that was done at the time was atrocious, and carried on far to long into far, far, far too recent history.
Just Cook wasn’t the one that colonised Australia, he just drew it on paper and told the king. If you want to blame the colonisation, blame Townshend who made the decision yet many don’t know him. If you want to blame the decisions when they got here, Phillip was in charge.
Blame the people who made the decisions not whomever is easiest/closest.