America was (mostly) founded and populated by religious groups escaping persecution in their home nations.
Australia was (mostly) populated by criminals deported there from the UK as a prison colony.
I wonder how their crime statistics compare today......
Just sayin' 
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.australia is one of the best countries and hardest to get into
LeighShelton
Level 8
Mar 6, 2018
1
>America was (mostly) founded and populated by religious groups escaping persecution in their home nations.
nope. The english dumped criminals on both countries. It is also worth noting that what was often considered criminal at the time would be considered civil today. Debtor prision was a thing. As was Herasy up until 1813.
While the US has always been pretty good (relatively) on the tolerance of religion issue to say the bulk of people came over for it is not accurate.
engineer_in_nj
Level 6
Mar 5, 2018
0
You're right about the purpose behind the establishment of the colonies, as out of the 13, only 5 (Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Maryland) were founded for stated religious purposes. And two of those six (Connecticut and Rhode Island) were founded by former Massachusetts Bay (Puritan) colonists! The primary reason for all, however, was opportunity.
As far as prisoner 'dumping,' while it's true that the American colonies were the unfortunate recipients of some 52,000 convicts, the estimated population of the 13 colonies in 1775 was 2.4 million inhabitants. Australia, on the other hand, had a population in 1840 of only 190,000, but had by that time received roughly 150,000 prisoners. It's fairly clear to see how Australia's reputation would have differed from America's, based on the ratios of colonists to convicts.
Hence posting this in "silly, random and fun".....
To be more accurate, America was colonised by religious extremists 'escaping' what they said was persecution because their home countries thought they, the extremists, were persecuting other people too much and too harshly. They were too dour and severe for 1600's Britain. That's saying something.
memorylikeasieve
Level 7
Mar 5, 2018
2
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