On the eve of the French Revolution the political situation in Europe was remarkably simple. The Continent was dominated by five great powers: Britain, France, Austria, Russia, and Prussia. Their neighbors – Spain, Sweden, and Turkey – had all once enjoyed periods of economic, military, or naval greatness, but by the end of the 18th century had slipped into the ranks of the lesser powers. Most of western Germany remained fragmented into hundreds of minor principalities, ecclesiastical cities, and minor states contained within the Holy Roman Empire. Italy, similarly, contained a number of small kingdoms, some independent and others controlled by Austria. Europe was overwhelmingly agrarian and feudal, particularly in the east, with monarchs ruling absolutely within their domains. Britain was a somewhat different case: though the vast majority of her people were disenfranchised, the monarchy ruled under constitutional constraints. The nation’s prosperity was based not on agriculture but on trade. The process of industrialization, though still in its infancy, was well under way.

George III, who had presided over the somewhat different and more constitutional monarchy of Britain since 1760, proved to be one of the French Revolution’s most implacable opponents. Political power rested with Parliament and the Prime Minister. William Pitt the Younger had attained office in 1783 with a loyal following in the House of Commons and the support of the crown. Though small by continental standards – with a population of fewer than 10 million – Britain was the world’s most prosperous nation. Her wealth was based on thriving trade with Europe and her exclusive access to a vast empire which, in addition to Canada and, above all, India, included newly acquired territories in Australia and many of the bountiful "sugar islands" of the West Indies. As international trade was the basis of the rapidly increasing national wealth, the protection of trade was paramount. Britain’s unrivaled merchant fleet, which exceeded 10,000 vessels, could confidently rely on the power of the Royal Navy for its protection. Although agriculture was still important – accounting for one-third of the national product – Britain was the birthplace of the recent phenomenon of industrialization, and its growing manufacturing capacity played a major role in stimulating a booming economy. Britain and France were long-standing enemies, having fought one another regularly over the past century and on opposite sides in nearly every conflict in which the two countries were engaged since the Middle Ages.

The settlement of Australia began with the establishment of a convicts colony at the end of the 18th century. Following the American Revolution, Britain was no longer able to transport convicts to North America. With jails and prison hulks already overcrowded, it was essential that an alternative be found quickly. In 1779, Joseph Banks suggested New South Wales, Australia, as a fine site for a colony of convicts and in 1786 Lord Sydney, as Home Secretary in the Pitt Government, announced that the king had decided upon Botany Bay as a place for convicts under sentence of transportation. Less than two years later, in January 1788, the First Fleet sailed into Botany Bay, under the command of Captain Arthur Philip, who was to be the colony’s first governor. Philip was immediately disappointed with the landscape and sent a small boat north to find a more suitable landfall; the crew soon returned with the news that in Port Jackson they had found the finest harbor in the world and a good sheltered cove, which was called Sydney Cove. This first fleet was composed of 11 ships carrying about 750 males and female convicts, 400 sailors, 4 companies of marines, and enough livestock and supplies for two years.

The Rum Corps, meeting little resistance, continued to do virtually as they pleased, all the while getting richer and more arrogant. They, and in particular one John Macarthur, managed to upset, defy, out-maneuver, and outlast three governors, including William Bligh of the Bounty mutiny fame. Bligh actually faced a second mutiny when the Rum Corps officers rebelled and ordered his arrest. The Rum Rebellion was the final straw for the British Government, which dispatched Lieutenant Colonel Lachlan Macquarie with his own regiment and orders for the return to London of the New South Wales Corps. Incidentally, that John Macarthur was to have far-reaching effects on the colony’s first staple industry. It was his understanding of the country’s grazing potential that fostered his own profitable sheep breeding concerns and prompted the introduction of the merino in the belief that careful breeding could produce wool of exceptional quality. Though it was his vision, it was his wife, Elizabeth, who did most of the work, for Macarthur remained in England for nearly a decade for his part in the Rum Rebellion.

Although Captain James Cook is popularly credited with Australia discovery, it was probably a Portuguese who first sighted the Australian continent, while credit for its earliest coastal exploration must go to a Dutchman. Portuguese navigators had come within sight of the coast in the first half of the 16th century, and in 1606, the Spaniard Torres sailed through the strait between Cape York and New Guinea that would bear his name. In the early 1600s Dutch sailors, in search of gold and spices, reached the west coast of Cape York and several other places on the west coast; what they found was a dry, harsh, unpleasant country and they rapidly scuttle back the the kinder climates of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. In 1642, the Dutch East Indies Company, in pursuit of fertile lands and riches of any sort mounted an expedition to explore the lands to the south. Abel Tasman made two voyages from Batavia in the 1640s during which he discovered a region he called Van Diemens Lands, later called Tasmania, though he was unaware it was an island.

During they forays ashore, the scientists recorded descriptions of plants, animals, and birds, the likes of which had never been seen, as they attempted to communicated with the few natives inhabitants who all but ignored these; they were the first white men to set foot on the east coast. After leaving Botany Bay, James Cook continued north, charting the coastline as they sailed. He noted that the fertile east coast was different from the inhospitable land the earlier explorers had seen to the south and west. When the Endevour was badly damaged on a reef off north Queensland, Cook was forced to make a temporary settlement. It took six weeks to repair the ship, during which time Cook and the scientists investigated their surroundings further; this time making contact with the local Aborigines. After repairing the Endevour, navigating the Great Barrier Reef and rounding Cape York, Cook again put ashore to raise the Union Jack, rename the continent New South Wales, claiming it for the British in the name of King George III.

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed the Resolution 181, which was a plan to partition the British Mandate territory of Palestine into a Jewish State and an Arab State, with the Greater Jerusalem area under international control. The Jewish accepted the UN Resolution 181 and created the State of Israel, which was officially declared by David Ben-Gurion on May 14, 1948; as the Palestinian Arabs, as well as all the Arab countries, rejected the UN Partition Plan, since they opposed the existence a Jewish State, war broke out on May 15, 1948, when Israel was suddenly attacked from all fronts by Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq; this is known in history as the Israeli War of Independence.

Background

The newly-created United Nations, which was the successor of the League of Nations, took the first steps to solve the long dispute between the Jewish and Arabs in Palestine, which until then had been a British Mandate granted to the United Kingdom by the former League of Nations in 1922 after the dissolution of the Turkish Empire as a consequence of World War I. In May 1947, the United Nations appointed a committee, composed of representative from eleven countries. To make the committee more neutral, none of the Great Powers were represented. After three months of hearings and general survey of the situation in Palestine, the UN committee officially released its report on August 1947. A majority of nations, which included Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay, recommended the creation of two independent States: a Jewish and an Arab one.

Approval of the UN Plan

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions, the Resolution 181. The 33 countries which voted in favor of the partition were Bolivia, Brazil, Belgium, Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, Liberia, Luxemburg, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, the Soviet Union, the United States, Venezuela, South Africa, Sweden, Poland, Paraguay, Philippines, and Ukraine. The 13 countries that voted against the Resolution 181 were: Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, India, Lebanon, Turkey, Yemen, Pakistan, Cuba, and Afghanistan. The 10 countries that abstained were: Argentina, Chile, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, Mexico, Hondura, Ethiopia, El Salvador, Colombia, and China.

Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat visited Jerusalem in November 1977 after thirty years of hostility with his Jewish neighbors. His visit was a response to an invitation of the newly elected Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. During this two-day visit, which included a speech before the Knesset, the Egyptian leader created a new psychological climate in the Middle East, which would open the door for a peace process between Israel and Egypt. Anwar al-Sadat recognized Israel’s right to exist and established the basis for direct negotiations between the two countries.

In September 1978, US President Jimmy Carter invited Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President al-Sadat to meet with him at Camp David, where they agreed on a framework for peace between Israel and Egypt and a comprehensive peace in the Middle East. It set out broad principles to guide negotiations between Israel and the Arab States. It also established guidelines for a West Bank-Gaza transitional regime of full autonomy for the Palestinians residing in these territories and for a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. The treaty between the two countries was finally signed on March 26, 1979, by Menachem Begin and Anwar al-Sadat, with President Carter signing as witness. Under this treaty, which would become known as the Camp David Accords, Israel returned the Sinai peninsula to Egypt, which became effective in April 1982, and Egypt recognized the existence of Israel as a free independent State; also the rights of the Palestians were recognized, but the fate of Jerusalem was excluded from the peace treaty.