AUSTRALIA – MAY 3, 1804
Armed conflict began in May 1804, when a military detachment opened fire on an Aboriginal hunting party. The bitterness of Tasmanian Aboriginal people increased as settlers occupied choice hunting areas of the island for sheep raising and, when other food ran short, took to hunting kangaroos, greatly depleting this staple of Aboriginal people’s lives. Settlers continually harassed the Indigenous inhabitants; kidnapping, rape, and murder were common. Unable to meet the European terror in force, Tasmanian Aboriginal people resorted to attacks on isolated individuals and small groups. In the later 1820s this campaign intensified, and the term “Black War” is sometimes used only in relation to this narrower period…(read more from source below).
Tasmanian Aborigines were vehemently opposed to British expansion and its impact on their home and communities.By the mid-1820s the situation had become desperate for Aboriginal people, whose numbers had fallen to fewer than 2,000 by about 1818.Nearly one million sheep had been moved into prime grazing land that was also the native habitat of Aboriginal food sources like kangaroos and other native animals. The sheep destroyed local ecosystems and disrupted food and water sources.In about 1824 the ‘Black War’ began. The most extensive conflict in Australian history, the Black War was extremely violent. Settlers drove Tasmanian Aborigines from their lands, murdering many. Tasmanian Aborigines also attacked and killed settlers and their families, raiding houses and farms for food and resources, and trying to drive out the British.Most of the frontier conflict was concentrated on the traditional lands of four nations – the Oyster Bay, Big River, North Midlands and Ben Lomond peoples. The land in this region was extremely productive and was quickly occupied by European settlers. Some of the most famous Aboriginal resistance leaders from these nations were Tongerlongter, Montpeliater, Mannalargenna, Umarrah and Wareternatterlargener…(read more from source below).
