What Factors Influenced Australias's Identity from 1788 to 1914
Australia's collective desire of nationalism as well as patriotism lead to its formation as a federation and this willingness to unify the divided colonies was a reflection of an ulterior, racist purpose. Federation is the act of constituting a political unity out of a number of separate colonies or states. Before Australia's eventual federation on January 1 of 1901, there had been years of debate, since the idea was first introduced in Sydney during an inter-colonial conference until its implementation almost twenty years later, on whether or not Australia should federate. Prior to 1901 the country was divided into 6 separate, self-governing colonies, each ultimately under Britain's rule and numerous politicians had been pushing for Australia to federate and after being initially rejected during a conference in Melbourne in 1899 it was later given Royal Assent on 9 July, 1900. There were a number of reasons that opposed the idea to federate. Fears of smaller colonies being overpowered, patriotic feelings towards a particular colony, the cost of running a central parliament would be too high, as well as rising hostilities between colonies. However the grounds in favour of the idea for a federal government took precedence, almost all revolving around a very prejudicial concept. Australia had a very strong sense of nationalist pride, the desire to become a unified nation. They wished to evolve from their origin as second class convicts and uphold the British way of life. This is reflected in their motives to federate: to create a unified immigration legislation to restrict the entry of non-Europeans and creating tariff barriers to protect Australian from foreign contest. Furthermore, supporters of federation reasoned that it was part of ones patriotic duty to keep the nation "snowy" white and that it was vital to maintain the purity of their race. "The Mongolian Octopus - His Grip on Australia," a cartoon published by Bulletin Magazine in 1886 was a mode of