British Empire: The Map Room: Pacific Region

Sheer distance did not prevent the British from establishing a strong presence in the Pacific region. The seafaring nation appreciated the strategic importance of islands and bases to resupply her ships in. The combination of vast distances, isolation from Europe and the strength of the Royal Navy meant that Britain was in a prime position to establish a dominance in the region.

The name of Captain Cook is synonomous with British history in this region. His cartographic endeavours filled in some of the last missing pieces of the world map jigsaw puzzle. The beautiful islands and lands that he described would spur intrepid explorers and Christian missionaries to the region. These two groups of British society were often the shock troops of Imperial advance; disrupting local societies through challenging local customs and authority figures and dazzling locals with the products of Industrial Europe. The isolation of the pacific islands also meant that local peoples could offer little or no resistance to even a single British ship.

The remoteness and isolation of Australia actually contributed to her Imperial usefulness, by providing a suitable location to dump Britain's undesirables in. The pleasant climate of New Zealand was to attract a different class of British immigrant throughout the nineteenth century. Together, these two colonies would transform themselves into two of the most successful of Britain's colonies.