Social SciencesFreePrintable

Social Causes of Colonisation

A free social sciences worksheet ready for your classroom. Open in Kuraplan to grab the print-ready PDF, customize it for your students, or generate a fresh version in seconds.

Social Causes of Colonisation worksheet preview

Social Causes of Colonisation

Colonial ship arriving in Australia

📚 Part 1: Understanding Social Causes

1. Which of these is a social cause of colonisation?

Finding gold deposits

Escaping poverty and seeking better opportunities

Trading spices

Building naval bases

2. Check all the social reasons why people might have wanted to colonise Australia:

Starting a new life away from crime and punishment

Finding better farmland for their families

Discovering new mineral resources

Escaping overcrowded cities in Britain

Seeking religious freedom

3. Primary sources are documents written by people who lived during historical events. Which of these would be a primary source about colonisation?

A modern textbook about Australian history

A diary written by a settler in 1788

A documentary made in 2020

A Wikipedia article

4. When studying different perspectives on colonisation, it's important to show:

Only sympathy for British settlers

Empathy for all people affected by colonisation

Anger towards historical events

Indifference to past events

✏️ Part 2: Analysing Primary Sources

5. Read this excerpt from a settler's letter (1790): "We came here hoping for land of our own. In England, we had nothing - no property, no future for our children. Here we can build something."

What social cause of colonisation does this show? ________________________

6. Imagine you are interviewing this settler. Write two questions you would ask to understand their perspective better:
7. Explain why it's important to study different perspectives (viewpoints) when learning about colonisation:
8. A government official wrote: "We must send more families to establish proper settlements." How might this perspective differ from a settler's perspective?

🎭 Part 3: Role-Play Planning

9. Choose one historical figure and plan how you would role-play their perspective on colonisation:

A British settler seeking farmland

A government official planning settlements

A convict hoping for freedom

An Indigenous person observing newcomers

10. Write three key points your character would make about their motivations or feelings:

Point 1: _________________________________________________

Point 2: _________________________________________________

Point 3: _________________________________________________

11. Extension Challenge: How might your character's social situation connect to economic or environmental factors? Explain:

Success Criteria Check:

□ I can identify social causes of colonisation using evidence

□ I can analyse primary sources to understand different perspectives

□ I can show empathy for historical figures and their motivations

□ I can explain how social factors influenced colonisation decisions

About This Worksheet

Free in Kuraplan

Sign up free, grab the PDF, and customize it for your class.

Print-Ready

Formatted for standard paper. Clean layout, easy to read.

AI-Generated

Created with Kuraplan's AI, designed for real classroom use.

For Teachers & Parents

Use in classrooms, for homework, tutoring, or homeschool.

Need a custom version of this worksheet?

Kuraplan's AI generates custom worksheets in seconds — differentiated for every learner, aligned to your curriculum.

Generate Custom Worksheets — Free
No credit card Curriculum-aligned Under 60 seconds