Читать книгу Australian History For Dummies - Alex McDermott - Страница 96

The name ‘Rum Rebellion’ actually does more to confuse than clarify understanding of what actually happened. Rum had little to do with it, and the notorious ‘rum monopoly’ that the officers of the NSW Corps had established in the colony had been dismantled ten years previously (refer to the section ‘Ending the trading monopoly game’ earlier in this chapter for more on this).

And neither was the disturbance a rebellion, or mutiny, even though that’s what the British Government decided to call it when they put Johnston, one of the rebellion’s leaders, on trial for mutiny. Rather, it was a revolt, supported by almost the entire township of Sydney — soldiers, convicts, ex-convicts alike — by those down on the low rungs of the social ladder as well as just about all the established entrepreneurs and businesspeople in the colony who weren’t working for Bligh directly as officials.