When Captain Phillip and his first fleet set out on the 13 of May 1787, it was under the command of the disposal of convicts in a colony on the newly discovered Australia. Although this was the main reason for this journey, why did the British choose Australia? Botany Bay/Port Jackson was settled due to strategic reasons against the rival French and for the securement of land and resources and for use in trading in the east.

A major influence in the position of settlement was for a base against the French, whom the British would soon after go to war with after the French Revolution. By this time both civilisations were heavy settling around the world and so both were sure to try to better each other. With Britain's discovery of a new continent