In 1595 the great Portuguese Navigator, Torres, first sighted Cape York and within 20 years the first Dutch sailors stepped onto The shores of Australia. Yet it was to be nearly 200 years before European exploration and settlement of the continent and islands of the southern ocean was to become a reality.

The greatest work of literature to be undertaken by the people of Australasia during the first century of this exploration was the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia. Compiled in the late 1880’s and published in 1886 it was a celebration of the first Century of European Settlement. It was a statement to Europe, the USA and to the peoples of Australasia that great things had been done, and more would be done in the future.

Australia, New Zealand, the Islands of the South Pacific, the native peoples of these lands and the settlers from older countries experienced enormous changes between 1770 and 1886. These experiences enormously affected the century to follow and today we can again use the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia to great benefit.

These volumes will help in the study of Social Sciences, Geography, Meteorology, Agriculture, Commerce, Politics and, of course, History. Much can be learnt about the English language, Period Architecture, literature and art. There are over 800 wood engravings included on the CD’s No subject is divorced from it’s history just as no people or environment can escape its past and the Atlas provides us with history WRITTEN AS IT WAS UNFOLDING.

Other important events that happened during 
these years include:

	American War of Independence
	The Suez Canal was built and opened
	The Industrial & Agricultural Revolutions
	Pasteur’s studies developed vaccines for rabies and anthrax.
	The modern atomic theory was propounded
	The American Civil War
	Slavery was abolished in the British Empire
	The Geneva Convention was first signed
	Alfred Bernhard Nobel invented dynamite
	The British North American Act created the Dominion of Canada

 

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