","At the end of the 15th century, in the glorious period known as the Renaissance, the German states in the Holy Roman Empire lacked strong, unified central governments and local nobles or small political units fragmented political authority. Local powers, such as cities, nobles and princes, remained autonomous and prevented the Holy Roman Empire from utilizing its resources and organizing itself like the new monarchies in the other European states.","The feudal system lasted for approximately six centuries. Its structure varied from nation to nation and manor to manor. Essentially, the Feudal System granted large tracts of land to lords, who offered the protection of their estate and their court to those who swore allegiance to them. ","Local names, which are also referred to as toponymic surnames, were given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree. They were also sometimes used to denote a person's nationality.","From its founding until the last prison ship set sail in 1868, Van Diemen's Land was the primary penal colony in Australia and over 75,000 convicts were transported there.","The First Fleet departed from Portsmouth, on the south coast of England, on May 13, 1787 and sailed for around 250 days. The fleet was comprised of eleven ships - six prison ships, three equipment ships, and two navy ships, Sirius and Supply. After an extremely long journey, the First Fleet finally arrived at Botany Bay, located in Sydney, New South Wales, between January 18 and 20, 1788.","Dutch navigator Willem Jansz aboard the Duyfken was the first European to land in waht is now known as Australia in 1606. He charted much of the Gulf of Carpentaria, located on the northern coast of Australia. In 1616, another Dutch captain, Dirk Hartog, landed on the west coast of Australia near Shark Bay.","England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It occupies more than half of the land of the area. It shares its borders with Wales to the West and Scotland the to its north. Laced by great rivers and small streams, England is a fertile land which has supported a thriving agricultural economy for millenia.",null],"lnksHoverSummaryImgURL":[null,"/cdn/webp/i/kb/200w/books2.webp?pos=floatRight","/cdn/webp/i/kb/200w/books.webp?pos=floatRight","","","","/cdn/webp/i/kb/200w/books2.webp","","/cdn/webp/i/kb/200w/first_fleet_ship.webp?pos=floatRight","","",null],"mode":"","s":"Sagar","sU":"SAGER","oC":"GR","o":"German","o2":"Scottish","cOk":true,"c":"/dpreview/SAGER/GR/Sagar/family-crest-coat-of-arms.png","c2":"/dpreview/ANDERSON/SC/Anderson/family-crest-coat-of-arms.png","v":"1","sections":["","SettlersUS","SettlersCA","SettlersAU","SettlersNZ","SettlersZA","SettlersWI","Settlers","ContemporaryNotable","ContemporaryNotables","HistoricEvents","RelatedStories","Motto","SuggestedReading","Citations",""]}