AustLit

'The "Tasman world," which was the interconnected maritime-based world incorporating the British settlements on either side of the Tasman Sea, was a microcosm of the British colonial world as a whole. The British colonial world included possessions in the Pacific, Asia and Africa which forced travelers to engage with a variety of cultures due to the nature of travel–even the speedier steamship journeys of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century involved multiple stops in exotic countries. As a field, settler-colonial studies has been accused of not engaging deeply enough with the narratives created by the "settlers" themselves, despite the spread of such narratives being a huge part of the success of colonial projects. As the British ex-colonies tried to develop into autonomous nations, classification based on national allegiance became increasingly important, and Arthur H. Adams complaint was all the evidence needed to decide whether he belonged to New Zealand or Australia.' (Introduction)