Rum Rebellion
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Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work!Rum Rebellion, (January 26, 1808), in Australian history, an uprising in which Gov. William Bligh of New South Wales (1806–08), who had earlier been the victim of the famous Bounty mutiny, was deposed by local critics, most of whom had ties with the New South Wales Corps. Bligh’s stifling of the colony’s rum traffic gave the rebellion its name, though other issues were also involved. Bligh had alienated the corps by accusing it of corruption and ineptitude. The immediate incident that led to the rebellion was Bligh’s arrest of John Macarthur, a former corps officer and one of the colony’s leading entrepreneurs, for a violation of port regulations. Macarthur had long been in conflict with Bligh over the disposition of grazing land for Macarthur’s sheep and Macarthur’s attempted manipulation of commodities prices. His arrest early in January 1808 seemed to augur ill for the colony’s more prosperous settlers, including the corps officers. It appears likely that Macarthur convinced Maj. George Johnston of the corps to depose Bligh. The corps invaded Government House on January 26, 1808, placed Bligh under arrest, and took over the administration of the colony until Lachlan Macquarie became governor in January 1810. Later that year the corps was recalled to England and Bligh vindicated; Johnston was dismissed from service in 1811, and Macarthur could not return to New South Wales, for fear of facing charges, until 1817.
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Australia: An authoritarian society…an uprising known as the Rum Rebellion that deposed Governor William Bligh (served 1806–08), earlier famous for the
Bounty mutiny. In due course the imperial government reacted and recalled the corps; but Governor Lachlan Macquarie (served 1810–21) also clashed with the colony’s Exclusives—former officers and a handful of wealthy free… -
William Bligh…Wales Corps helped spark the Rum Rebellion, during which Bligh was arrested by his own military officer, Major George Johnston, and kept under guard for a year before being sent home by his successor, Lieutenant Colonel Lachlan Macquarie. It was not the extravagance of Bligh’s physical punishments that caused problems…
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New South Wales Corps…leaders of the corps’ 1808 Rum Rebellion against the administration of Governor William Bligh, the celebrated victim of the earlier
Bounty mutiny. Relations had long been strained with Bligh, who had accused the corps of corruption and ineptitude. After deposing him on January 26, 1808, the corps controlled the colony…