On The Social Transformation Of The New South Wales Colony(1788-1852)

On January 26,1788,the New South Wales colony was formally established.Since then,New South Wales has embarked on a unique development path and eventually became the first colony on the Australian mainland to complete the transformation from an autocratic prison society to a modern capitalist society(hereinafter referred to as "modern society").From the perspective of social transformation,the transformation of the British Empire and the rise of the shepherd sheep industry constituted the two major backgrounds of colonial social transformation in New South Wales,both of which gave New South Wales a huge impetus for advancement.In terms of transformation,the New South Wales colony mainly experienced the transformation of the economic system,the transformation of the social class structure,and the transformation of the power structure at this stage.In the economic system,the prison economic model dominated the colonial economic development model for a relatively long period of time until the system colonization theory was applied.Through the land reform,the colony successfully introduced the capitalist economic operation mode into New South Wales and completed the economic system transition.In terms of social strata,the influx of free immigrants has changed the number,quality,and structure of colonial populations.With the integration of criminals and free people,the structure of New South Wales’s social stratum has experienced a transition from simple to vague,to a clear transitional process.This,in turn,has affected the transformation of the nature of colonial society.In terms of power structure,the dictatorship of the Governor under the militarized management model is the core feature of the early colonial power structure.With the development of the colonial economy and the improvement of society,the dictatorship system has inevitably declined and the democratic representative has made it into the power structure of New South Wales and became the direction of evolution.Since 1823,after several political reforms,New South Wales finally completed the democratization transformation of its power structure in the early 1950s.In December 1852,with the promulgation of the British ratification,the colony of New South Wales obtained complete autonomy and basically achieved the transition from an overseas prison to a modern society.