Australia Philately - The Digital Philatelist

From 1756 to 1763, a conflict between most of the great European powers, known as the Seven Years’ War. spread across the globe. The opposing alliances were led by Great Britain and Prussia and the other alliance was led by France, backed by Spain, Saxony, Sweden, and Russia. Major battles were fought out across Europe and North America. Britain was the victor and France lost a number of its colonies.

The British’s East India Company, formed in 1600 to trade in the Indian Ocean region, gained control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent and colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. By the mid-1700s, the company had grown to account for half of the world’s trade particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, saltpetre and tea.

At the same time, France sent numerous scientific and commercial expeditions to the Indian and Pacific Oceans in an attempt to solve the mysteries of the legendary Terra Australis Incognita, and to locate suitable ports for trade below the Equator. In 1785, Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de la Perouse, began preparations for an extensive sea voyage to explore the Pacific regions of North and South America, Asia and Australasia, sponsored by King Louis XVI who ordered the French expedition to show the world that France could also dominate in ocean exploration.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant James Cook sailed up the east coast of Terra Australis and landing at Kamay (Botany Bay) on the lands of the Gweagal clan of the Dharawal nation, claiming Terra Australis for Britain in 1771. After Cook’s voyage, the colonisation of Terra Australis was recommended at two British parliamentary inquiries in 1779 and 1785 but they never materialised. One factor was cost and the other was the veto of the East India Company. Terra Australis was right in the middle of the company’s trading region and it didn’t want any competition

The newly formed United States of America was wary of France’s ambitions in the Pacific region and had begun gathering intelligence. The fate of Terra Australia was to change in 1768 when intelligence was leaked to the British, by a sympathetic American, of France’s intentions to set up Colonies in Terra Australis, setting off events that would lead to the colonisation of Australia.