History of Australia (1901-1945)

The history of Australia from 1901 - 1945 begins with the federation of the colonies to create the Commonwealth of Australia.

Federation

The beginning of the twentieth century saw the final result of nearly two decades of negotiations with regard to federation, with the approval of a federal constitution by all six Australian colonies and its subsequent ratification by the British parliament in 1900. This resulted in the creation of one federal Australian state as of January 1, 1901. Federation was a symbol of unity and gave people the chance to be 'Australian'.

Melbourne was chosen as the temporary seat of government while a purpose-designed capital city, Canberra, was constructed. The future King George V, then the Duke of York, opened the first Parliament of Australia on May 9, 1901, and his successor, (later to be King George VI) opened the first session in Canberra during May 1927. Australia became officially autonomous in both internal and external affairs with the passage of the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act on October 9 1942. The Australia Act in (1986) eliminated the last vestiges of British legal authority at the Federal level. (The last state to remove recourse to British courts, Queensland did not do so until 1988).

The early 20th century

The federation of the states in 1901 to become the country. Western Australia did not want to take part in it and New Zealand originally did. In the end Western Australia changed their mind and became part of Australia and New Zealand broke off and did not become part of the federation.The first federal elections in March 1903 saw a Parliament elected in which none of the three parties has a majority in either House. Edmund Barton formed a Protectionist Party government supported by Labor, with James Reid's Free Trade Party in opposition. The Barton government, which was succeeded by the Deakin government in 1904 enacted much fundamental legislation, as well as turning the White Australia policy into law.

In 1909 the Protectionists and Free Traders merged to form the Commonwealth Liberal Party, but this was not enough to prevent Labor coming to power under Andrew Fisher in 1910. Labor was narrowly defeated in 1913, but returned to power in 1914, and seemed set to become Australia's dominant political party. But the outbreak of World War I was to change Australian politics permanently.

First World War

Australia sent many thousands of troops to fight for Britain in the war, and thousands lost their lives at Gallipoli, on the Turkish coast and many more in France. Both Australian victories and losses on World War I battlefields contribute significantly to Australia's national identity. At the time it was referred to as Australia's 'Baptism of Fire'. Over 60,000 Australians died during the conflict and 155,000 were wounded. Australia still has an annual holiday to remember its war dead on ANZAC Day, 25 April, each year, the date of the first landings at Gallipoli in 1915. The parades attract large crowds across Australia (and New Zealand: ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps).

In 1916 the Labor Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, decided that conscription was necessary if the strength of Australia's military forces at the front was to be maintained. The Labor Party and the trade unions were bitterly opposed to conscription, and Hughes and his followers were expelled from the party when they refused to back down. In 1916 and again in 1917 the Australian people voted against conscription in national plebiscites. (See History of Australian Conscription) Hughes united with the Liberals to form the Nationalist Party, and remained in office until 1923, when he was succeeded by Stanley Bruce. Labor remained weak and divided through the 1920s. The new Country Party took many country voters away from Labor, and in 1923 the Country Party formed a coalition government with the Nationalists.

Great Depression

Australia's dependence on primary exports such as wheat and wool was cruelly exposed by the Great Depression of the 1930s, which produced unemployment and destitution even greater than those seen during the 1890s. The Labor Party under James Scullin won the 1929 election in a landslide, but was quite unable to cope with the Depression. Labor split into three factions and then lost power in 1932 to a new conservative party, the United Australia Party (UAP) led by Joseph Lyons, and did not return to office until 1941. Australia made a very slow recovery from the Depression during the late 1930s. Lyons died in 1939 and was succeeded by Robert Menzies.

econd World War

Australia again sent its armed forces to fight alongside Britain during the Second World War. In 1940-41, Australian forces played prominent roles in the fighting in the Mediterranean theatre, including Operation Compass, the Siege of Tobruk, the Greek campaign, the Battle of Crete, the Syria-Lebanon campaign and the Second Battle of El Alamein. Menzies was judged an unsuitable wartime leader, and in 1941 Labor returned to office under John Curtin. The war came closer to home when HMAS "Sydney" and the German raider "Kormoran" sank each other off Western Australia: the 645-strong crew of the "Sydney" were all lost, and the ship itself was found in March 2008.

After the attacks on Pearl Harbor and on Allied states throughout East Asia and the Pacific, from December 8 (Australian time) 1941, Curtin insisted that Australian forces be brought home to fight Japan. After the Fall of Singapore in February 1942, 15,000 Australian soldiers became prisoners of war. A few days later, Darwin was heavily bombed by Japanese planes, the first time the Australian mainland had ever been attacked by enemy forces, an event which caused a state of near-panic throughout the country. Over the following 19 months, Australia was attacked from the air almost 100 times.

Curtin forged a close alliance with the United States, a fundamental shift in Australia's foreign policy. General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Allied Commander in the South West Pacific Area, moved his headquarters to Australia. In May 1942, Japanese midget submarines sunk one troop transports in a daring raid on Sydney Harbour. On 8 June 1942, the Japanese submarine I-24, not a midget submarine, shelled three Sydney suburbs. The target was the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Ten shells where fired in four minutes. Only one exploded and the largest injury sustained was a fractured foot [http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/japsubs/midgetsubs.htm] . The threat of Japanese invasion was averted by Allied successes in the battles of Coral Sea and Midway.Australian forces then fought bitterly Japanese attempts to take Port Moresby, by way of the Kokoda Track, in the highlands of New Guinea. The Australian victory in the Battle of Milne Bay was the first Allied defeat of Japanese land forces. However, the Battle of Buna-Gona set the tone for the bitter final stages of the New Guinea campaign, which persisted into 1945. It was followed by Australian-led amphibious assaults against Japanese bases in Borneo (see Borneo campaign (1945).

The alliance with the U.S. was later formalised by the ANZUS Pact of 1951.