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British explorer, James Cook, claimed Australia and New Zealand for Great Britain.
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British settlement of Australia begins
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Living conditions in the settlements are described in a letter written to the British Queen Victoria from a group of Aborigines.
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Colonists discovered gold and the British population soared.
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By early 1900's, the U.S., Japan, Great Britain, and France controlled most of the Pacific Islands.
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New Zealand gained their independence peacfully.
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Most Pacific Islands won independence peacefully in the 1960's.
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Samoa won independence from the nonviolent Mau movement.
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British colonists took Aboriginal children away from their families. This carried on through the 1960' s.
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Since the 1970's, many numbers of Asians and Pacific Islanders have moved to the two countries of New Zealand and Australia.