Ever since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has faced a difficult choice. The country needed to choose between its history and its geography in terms of politics, economics and security. Over time, this choice has been extensively regarded and debated with the resulting outcomes being at times extremely uncertain. This work will consider the history of Australia's choices and their evolution over time, how different Australian governments reacted to the need to face these choices, and the situation in Australia at the moment. The thesis of this work will consist of the argument that whilst history and geography may be thought of as mutually exclusive, it may be possible to incorporate both into Australian foreign policy, although the result of this may be not receiving the full benefits of either.
At the beginning of the 20th century Australia was a small, open economy. At this point in time, Australia was heavily dependent on Britain as its closest trading partner. Australia depended on Britain both as an export market ? the majority of Australian exports went to Britain and other Commonwealth countries, and as a source of migrants and capital. Australia also depended on the outside world for imports and capital. The imports consisted of capital goods, consumer goods and equipment; it was open to new ideas and technology, and there were few limits on imports and none on capital. The main means of paying for Australian imports were exports. Exports consisted primarily of unprocessed primary goods such as foodstuffs and materials (especially early in the century). Imports were essential to both production and to maintain the high standard of living that most urban Australians had ...