Why did the British decide to establish a settlement in New South Wales?
There were a number of complications throughout the Industrial Revolution, as well as many appealing factors about the Australian East coast which led to the establishment of a new settlement in New South Wales. The shocking working and living conditions put people at risk of injury of death, resulting in desperate acts of crime in order to survive. The crime rates in Britain continued to increase, resulting in overcrowded prisons and harsher punishments. The East coast of Australia appeared the perfect location to establish a new settlement, and the Indigenous Australians posed no threat.
The working conditions in factories and mines during the Industrial Revolution led
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In urban areas, there was lots of crime during the Industrial Revolution. By 1770, there were at least 160 different crimes in which a person could be sentenced to death for committing. Some of these included picking pockets of an amount above one shilling, stealing horses and cutting down trees in an avenue or garden. Imprisonment in gaols was not a common form of punishment as they were soon overcrowded. Because of this, they were used predominantly to hold those awaiting trial or who could not pay their debts. In the eighteenth century, harsher punishments were inflicted for less severe crimes. Judges and juries often commuted death sentences to sentences of life imprisonment, just because the prisons were overcrowded. After execution, transportation to a foreign country was the second major punishment. The English government had been transporting convicts to the American colonies since the 1600s. However, in 1717, the number of convicts that were transported to America increased by about 700%. The rebellion of the American colonies in 1775 meant that the British could no longer send convicts to the US. The government began to use hulks as temporary prisons for the convicts, but these too became overcrowded very soon. It was evident that a new settlement had to be established in order to house the growing population of the convicts in