Editing British Empire (section)

=== Exploration of the Pacific ===
{{Main|History of Australia (1788–1850)|History of New Zealand}}
[[File:Captainjamescookportrait.jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of James Cook]]'' by [[Nathaniel Dance-Holland]], 1775. [[James Cook]]'s mission was to find the alleged southern continent ''[[Terra Australis]]''.]]
Since 1718, [[penal transportation|transportation]] to the American colonies had been a penalty for various offences in Britain, with approximately one thousand convicts transported per year.{{Sfn|Smith|1998|p=20}} Forced to find an alternative location after the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in 1783, the British government looked for an alternative, eventually turning to [[Australia]].{{Sfn|Smith|1998|pp=20–21}} On his first of three voyages commissioned by the government, [[James Cook]] reached New Zealand in October 1769. He was the first European to circumnavigate and map the country.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trove - Archived webpage |url=http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17691007.html |archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20110205071752/http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17691007.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-02-05 |access-date=2023-05-11 |website=Trove |language=en}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> From the late 18th century, the country was regularly visited by explorers and other sailors, [[missionaries]], traders and adventurers but no attempt was made to settle the country or establish possession. The [[New Holland (Australia)|coast of Australia]] had been discovered for Europeans by the Dutch [[Janszoon voyage of 1605–06|in 1606]],{{Sfn|Mulligan|Hill|2001|pp=20–23}} but there was no attempt to colonise it. In 1770, after leaving New Zealand, [[James Cook]] charted the eastern coast, claimed the continent for Britain, and named it [[Colony of New South Wales|New South Wales]].{{Sfn|Peters|2006|pp=5–23}} In 1778, [[Joseph Banks]], Cook's [[botanist]] on the voyage, presented evidence to the government on the suitability of [[Botany Bay]] for the establishment of a [[Penal colony|penal settlement]], and in 1787 the first shipment of [[Convicts in Australia|convicts]] set sail, arriving in 1788.{{Sfn|James|2001|p=142}} Unusually, Australia was claimed through proclamation. [[Indigenous Australians]] were considered too uncivilised to require treaties,<ref>{{Harvnb|Macintyre|2009|pp=33–34}}; {{Harvnb|Broome|2010|p=18}}.</ref> and colonisation brought disease and violence that together with the deliberate dispossession of land and culture were devastating to these peoples.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pascoe|2018}}{{Page needed|date=November 2022}}; {{Harvnb|McKenna|2002|pp=28–29}}.</ref> Britain continued to transport convicts to New South Wales until 1840, to [[Colony of Tasmania|Tasmania]] until 1853 and to [[Colony of Western Australia|Western Australia]] until 1868.{{Sfn|Brock|2011|p=159}} The Australian colonies became profitable exporters of wool and gold,{{Sfn|Fieldhouse|1999|pp=145–149}} mainly because of the [[Victorian gold rush]], making its capital [[Melbourne]] for a time the richest city in the world.{{Sfn|Cervero|1998|p=320}}

The British also expanded their mercantile interests in the North Pacific. Spain and Britain had become rivals in the area, culminating in the [[Nootka Crisis]] in 1789. Both sides mobilised for war, but when France refused to support Spain it was forced to back down, leading to the [[Nootka Convention]]. The outcome was a humiliation for Spain, which practically renounced all sovereignty on the North Pacific coast.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blackmar |first=Frank Wilson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F11GAAAAYAAJ |title=Spanish Institutions of the Southwest Issue 10 of Johns Hopkins University studies in historical and political science |date=1891 |publisher=Hopkins Press |page=335 |access-date=5 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114125414/https://books.google.com/books?id=F11GAAAAYAAJ |archive-date=14 January 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> This opened the way to British expansion in the area, and a number of expeditions took place; firstly a [[Vancouver Expedition|naval expedition]] led by [[George Vancouver]] which explored the inlets around the Pacific North West, particularly around [[Vancouver Island]].<ref name="pethick0">{{Cite book |last=Pethick |first=Derek |url=https://archive.org/details/nootkaconnection0000peth |title=The Nootka Connection: Europe and the Northwest Coast 1790–1795 |publisher=Douglas & McIntyre |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-8889-4279-1 |location=Vancouver |page=[https://archive.org/details/nootkaconnection0000peth/page/18 18] |url-access=registration}}</ref> On land, expeditions sought to discover a river route to the Pacific for the extension of the [[North American fur trade]]. [[Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)|Alexander Mackenzie]] of the [[North West Company]] led the first, starting out in 1792, and a year later he became the first European to reach the Pacific overland north of the [[Rio Grande]], reaching the ocean near present-day [[Bella Coola, British Columbia|Bella Coola]]. This preceded the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] by twelve years. Shortly thereafter, Mackenzie's companion, [[John Finlay (fur trader)|John Finlay]], founded the first permanent European settlement in [[British Columbia]], [[Fort St. John, British Columbia|Fort St. John]]. The North West Company sought further exploration and backed expeditions by [[David Thompson (explorer)|David Thompson]], starting in 1797, and later by [[Simon Fraser (explorer)|Simon Fraser]]. These pushed into the wilderness territories of the [[Rocky Mountains]] and [[Interior Plateau]] to the [[Strait of Georgia]] on the Pacific Coast, expanding [[British North America]] westward.<ref name="innes">{{Cite book |last=Innis |first=Harold A |url={{Google books|eCgps70cHV4C|plainurl=yes}} |title=The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History |date=2001 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-8196-4 |edition=reprint |location=Toronto, Ontario |orig-year=1930}}</ref>