Ethnocentricity

The ethnocentricity on the British first impacted the First Australians which later on created a very big conflict between the two races. When the first fleet arrived, the colonists were dumbfounded by the way the first Australians lived and how they were different compared to them. They said that the way the Aboriginals lived was uncivilized and barbaric. The British were also very critical on the clothes that the Aboriginals wore, they said that the clothes were also barbaric and uncivilized. However, the Aboriginals were very amazed and confused by how the British people lived and they were amazed and confused by what they wore. They couldn't tell whether they were a female or a male. The Australians were able to live and share the land that they owned, this is how the British were able to stay. The British's mission was to originally make a strong relationship between them and the natives. They tried to convert them into living the 'right' way which they thought was the right thing to do. One example of the British trying to convert an Aboriginal is when the British kidnapped Bennelong. The British took him to the governor's house to live the 'right' way. They gave him clothes that the British wear and they taught him to read and write English. They even took him back to England to show the strong relationship between them and the Aboriginals. When he got back, he left the governor's house to go live with his people again. The British were very offended by this act so they wrote about Bennelong and they described him as a savage and barbaric and how he couldn't be helped. They also said that the conversion was unsuccessful because he was a Aboriginal and they were animals. At first the ethnocentricity wasn't so big, but then a few years later, a war broke out between the two races. The relationship was very brutal for the next few years between the British and the Aboriginals.