transporting was a punishment just shy of hanging in england in the 1600's. you were exiled to the colonies. against your will. if you survived the voyage, you had 7 years of pseudo slavery to look forward to until you were freed. if you returned to england, and got caught, you got hanged immediately.

And to be fair, they hanged you for pretty much anything in those days.
Deterrent apparently.

Well, reality shows and alcopops hadn't been invented - they had to amuse the mob somehow.

Australians aren't British, they're Australian.

We will be a republic before long, but achieve it peacefully in about the same amount of time it took the yanks to do it violently. (around 200 years from settlement)

Some of you have some grave misconceptions about Australia. I suggest you read your history books.

Read The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes. An amazing book!

Not entirely, a lot of people saw it as a new chance and stowed away or bribed captains to get travel to Australia.

Also, you will find the majority of convicts had NO desire to return to England once freed. If families were involved, there was much effort put into getting them to our shores...rather than the new Australian trying to get back to the mother land.

The same can be said regarding misconceptions about the US.

I am proud of our (and my) British heritage, its whats started us on the journey to the Country we are today.

Ali, you know I love you, but comments like those, with that tone...are what gets *the Yanks* backs up.

I'm not in favour of us becoming a republic...doesnt seem to have worked out for the majority of countries who have been down that track.

Besides, then we wont be able to totally kick arse in the Commonwealth games.

Oh, and I think Bri is more British than Aussies.

Who's more British?
;)



Dana or Sundae?

I don't really care if they get their backs up mate. Obviously they make their own decisions based on what they think is true. Besides, being called a Yank is an affectionate term. :) Ask any Aussie (Australian for those who want to be politically correct or not use affectionate terms), and as far as independance from England goes, they did do it violently (with the help of the French whom are so much maligned these days), so that was a statement of fact.

As far as I can see, it doesn't matter either way if we're a republic or not. The only difference either way is the commonwealth games, and there's still the Olympics anyway (which we kick arse at too if you look at our medals per capita).

Australia is the way it is BECAUSE we were settled by convicts and free settlers. That's what makes us great. We began from the downtrodden underclass and a collective vow has been unconsiously taken by all of us to never be treated like second class citizens by the world at large. We are a young nation and we're proud and free. We have achieved marvels of science and technology. We have a lifestyle most countries envy. We are a nation of people of all colours, creeds, religions. We are truly multicultural and that's as it should be. Australians are citizens of the world and we are all equal.

There's nothing wrong with England. I don't resent my heritage from there, but I'm an Australian. I'm not British. I, like all other Australians have my own unique Australian identity which is far removed from that which most Brits would identify with.

So to answer the original question of this thread, I don't think there's any difference. Where you start from is rarely the same place you end up. It's very hard to look forward if your head is turned in the opposite direction.

(waves at Ali!)

Wow.

This was just for funsies.



sighs.

You should know better by now. :D

Yeah, you'd think so. ;)

If it reads like a novel I think I will. I've been looking for a good historical. Thanks :)



There were British and French colonies wanting this land too. I know they had bigger muskets. Sometimes the colonists didn't even have a proper weapon. After all the old Revere saying goes, " To arms, to arms." " The British are comming!." "The British are comming"


[excerpt]
King George III had said, "blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent." He commanded English General Thomas Gage to use force to restore royal authority.
http://www.riverdeep.net/current/200..._history.jhtml



See we never hit first. :P

I must say that's largely what I've always thought.

Some of the things one reads about treatment of the aborigine population and their culture make me question this bit, but I'm happy to be corrected. I'll also be the first to say the British can be appalling racists.

[ahem]

but...but...limey!!! I thought you were a Scot!

If you say you're British, didn't William Wallace do all that for nothing?

;) :f167: