Europeans set out in the fourteen hundreds to find new trade routes to the East. In the fifteen hundreds, explorers also began to search for the legendary southern continent that had been rumored to exist for centuries. It was called "terra australis incognita" which means "unknown southern land".
Would the continent turn out to be as rich as the Americas? When explorers reached Australia, they were disappointed. To their eyes, much of the land was dry and did not look promising.
In seventeen eighty eight, the English founded New South Wales, the first European settlement in Australia. At first, New South Wales was a prison colony. In time, the colony would become a thriving democracy in which both ex-prisoners and free settlers would have the right to vote. For Australia's original inhabitants, however, the coming of the English meant disaster.