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Australia in the 20th Century

In 1901, the six colonies of Australia adopted a federal constitution and became a self-governing dominion of the British Empire, thus the Commonwealth of Australia was established. One of the first acts of the new Parliament was to pass the Immigration Restriction Act in 1901, with the purpose of restricting non-European immigrants. The formal implementation of a "White Australia Policy"1 was welcomed by a majority of the Australian population. People who applied for immigration were required to pass a "Dictation Test", a 50-word test in a European language, with which they were not necessarily familiar.

The non-indigenous population at the time of establishment of the Federation was 3.8 million. Half of it lived in capital cities, three quarters were born in Australia, and the majority were of English, Scottish or Irish descent. From 1900 to 1914, great progress was made in developing Australia's agricultural and manufacturing capacities, and in setting up governmental institutions and social services.

Although World War I was fought in Europe, as a member of the British Empire, Australia automatically followed Britain into war in August 1914 and pledged to defend the "motherland" Britain to "our last man and our last shilling". This was surely a tremendous display of patriotism. The war was a disaster for Australia. It suffered a higher casualty rate than many other participant countries. Unlike other countries involved in the war which relied upon conscription, all members of the Australian armed forces who served overseas were volunteers. 

There were no more than 3 million male citizens in 1914, but nearly 330,000 of them volunteered to take part in the war. The conscription issue became one of the most important issues in Australia during the wartime period because of the tremendous loss of men. William Hughes (Australian Prime Minister from 1915 to 1923) tried, but failed to introduce conscription on two occasions, which led to his expulsion from the Labor Party. Disagreement over conscription became much more serious, which led to the split in the Australian Labor Party at a time when unity was essential; William Hughes resigned and subsequently founded the Nationalist Party.

In 1901, the six colonies of Australia adopted a federal constitution and became a self-governing dominion of the British Empire, thus the Commonwealth of Australia was established. One of the first acts of the new Parliament was to pass the Immigration Restriction Act in 1901, with the purpose of restricting non-European immigrants. The formal implementation of a "White Australia Policy"1 was welcomed by a majority of the Australian population. People who applied for immigration were required to pass a "Dictation Test", a 50-word test in a European language, with which they were not necessarily familiar.

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