The colony is presented as an operational and logistics base the Royal Navy wanted before a future conflict with France. British planners had Cook's mapping and believed they could establish a position before French exploration advanced further. Botany Bay was the initial target, though the fleet eventually settled at Sydney. The route ran through Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, and the Southern Ocean, avoiding French-controlled or French-influenced waters as far as practicable while Britain and France remained formally at peace. The founding voyage belonged to a larger problem of imperial basing, sea routes, and preparation for possible conflict in the Far East.
Chapter · 0:54-4:47
The First Fleet as a naval-strategy move
The First Fleet appears as a Royal Navy response to French movement in the Far East as well as a convict-transport expedition.