Citizenship in Australia in 1901 allowed participation in the Australian democracy predominantly for white Anglo-Celtic people, and centred on policies of racial purity and a 'White Australia', and protection of the new Australian nation, especially in the context of the encroaching 'yellow peril' nations of the Pacific Rim. Australia in 1901 was 98 per cent British,¹ and clearly accepted its new nationhood within the protection of the larger Empire, thus in this sense Australian citizenship, as understood, not only assumed the coming of a Great War with Australia's neighbours in racial terms as a means of securing the balance of power in the Pacific, but Australia's strong ties with England maintained that if she were to become involved in any such conflict Australia would, by way of support and by obligation, fight if it was necessary to do so.

With the establishment of Federation in 1901, Australian nationhood and understandings of citizenship remained squarely within the context of Australia's relations with 'mother England'. The British monarch remained as the Head of State with the Governor-General her representative in Australia, and Commonwealth laws were subject to legislation of the British parliament that could render them invalid. As Richard White has commented, 1901 brought Australia " … a new status, a new independence, but only within the context of a continuing relationship with Britain."² Fused with this new nationhood and understandings of what it was to be an Australian citizen were essentially defensive concepts of race and stock, blood and breed, and ethnocentrism, which it was hoped would facilitate the emergence of the 'new Australian race'.³ These beliefs were encapsulated in the government's White Australia Policy, which was particularly directed against the Pacific Rim nations that had first come into significant contact with Australians during the gold rushes of the mid-nineteenth century. Though opposition to Asians and Pacific Islanders had its origins in economics, therefore, as competition to Australian miners and labourers, exclusion and restriction of these people was increasingly justified on racial grounds, and the Social Darwinist theories of the period helped to proof such arguments as a means of ensuring racial purity. Fears of mixing races in the struggle for survival, combined with the isolation of Australia from Britain engendered deep anxiety in Australia of the 'yellow peril' threat, and this anxiety was transformed into military forms.

It is critical to note that the factors that defined Australian citizenship in 1901 therefore had two elements. In the first, the White Australia policy, as passed by the Australian parliament in its first year, was essentially an expression of Australian sovereignty, since the policy would have been contrary to the official view of Queen Victoria, ruling over such dominions as India and involved in a treaty with Japan.⁴ Indeed, the Australian understanding of citizenship, so closely tied to racial and ethnocentric ideals, and aimed at protecting the new nation, provided, by its very nature, for increased Australian independence from England. In the second, however, Australia remained closely tied to Britain since perceptions of the Asian threat were that it was too great to be dealt with merely by Australian efforts, and Australia's traditional ties with Britain remained strong throughout, so that she entered the Boer War at the turn of the century upon Britain's behalf, and in 1915 Australia once again did the same in World War One.

The 'yellow peril' anxiety was thus one that was largely of Australia's own creation, and furthered by her interpretations of Australian citizenship. Nonetheless, Australia pooled her military resources with Britain and introduced compulsory military training for boys and men in preparation for war far ahead of other nations in the period. The poor performance by Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 was especially of concern. In 1909, prior to becoming Prime Minister, William Hughes — the chief proponent of the compulsory military training — stated that "If the White Australia policy is to be a permanence in this country, there must be behind it a sufficient force of White Australians ready, if necessary, to make good their claim."⁵ 

What is clear, however, is that the dangers of Asia to Australia and the other English-speaking nations of the Pacific were largely in the mind, and in this sense, Australia and her neighbours were able to prepare themselves militarily to join the struggle for power in Europe when it took place,⁶ and at the same time assert some independence from Britain, who had to an extent estranged the Australians with her Anglo-Japanese alliance of the early 1900's, even as the perceived threat of the Japanese was seen as so great that Australia remained close to the protection of the Empire.⁷ The White Australia policy remained during World War One, and combined with the emerging mythology of the Anzac and the perception of Australia's increasing role in the world, the racist sentiments of the period helped to form Australia's national consciousness and ignite patriotism against the 'alien' nations with which Australia found herself at war in 1915.

The 'White Australia' ideal of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries helped to define Australian citizenship within the context of wider British rule. The new Australian nation, isolated and fearful of outsiders, adopted notions of biological superiority over her Asian and other Islander neighbours, and prepared her military for conflict, should it arise, in a balance of power struggle for the Pacific. Many Australians saw that potentially Britain, the United States and Australia could be united by blood " … to keep the Pacific for the white man, for the Anglo-Saxon race."⁸ This sense of fear and ethnocentricity increased white solidarity and encouraged a view of Anglo-Saxon superiority even as the potential 'threats' to Australia in the east were not nearly as volatile as had been perceived. Regardless, when the 'Great War' which had been expected to arrive in the Pacific emerged in Europe — in World War One, Australia was better prepared for war, and ready to follow Britain into battle against other 'superior' races as had been fought for centuries on the continent. Understandings of citizenship in 1901 therefore focused on maintaining the racial homogeneity of Australia whilst setting up protections from threats to Australian security, and the unity and sense of patriotism attained through this racial consciousness carried through into World War One.

Endnotes

1. Richard White, Inventing Australia, Allen and Unwin, 1981, p.112.
2. Ibid., p.112.
3. Douglas Cole, "The Crimson Thread of Kinship — Ethnic Ideas in Australia 1870-1914", Historical Studies, 18(71) Oct. 1978, pp.511-525, at p.518.
4. Stuart Macintyre, The Succeeding Age, Oxford University Press, 1993, pp.123-124.
5. William Hughes, quoted in John Eddy and Deryck Schreuder (ed.), The Rise of Colonial Nationalism, Allen and Unwin, p.240.
6. Eddy and Schreuder, op.cit., p.240.
7. Ibid., pp.240-242.
8. Cole, op.cit., p.517.