The British established a settlement in New South Wales in 1788, because of the overcrowded prisons in Britain. These led to more crime and therefore prisoners, the British needed a place in the Empire to send their convicts. The British also wanted to grow their empire, increase security and trade and they wanted a climate suitable for growing crops such as flax and trees for their wood due to the Baltic supply being under threat from war. Such a colony would solve the problem of Britain's overcrowded prisons (a problem caused by the Industrial Revolution due to loss of jobs made people turn to crime) The prisons became overcrowded and eventually there were no more places left. A solution to this problem was to send convicts to a new colony in the British Empire. Establishing a new colony in a land showed promise for eventually becoming self-supporting. Britain had been sending their excess prisoners to North America, but the American War of Independence put a stop to the practice. After Captain James Cook's successful voyage which involved charting the eastern coast of Australia, New South Wales was seen as a perfect proposition for a convict colony. Colonizing the east coast would expand the British Empire, the reason for this was to establish a trade route with the Spice Islands for trade of expensive and exotic spices, tea from China and India and tobacco and sugar from America. It was also believed that Australia could provide commercial and political gains to Britain. Britain also wanted to stop the growth of the French Empire, because they didn't want to be taken over by the French. Britain also wanted to further expand its naval power as Britain had the strongest navy in the world at the time. They saw NSW as a perfect proposition to add naval bases since ships couldn't sit out at sea all the time, even being fully stocked with food and water, needed to come in for repairs frequently. With a strong navy, the whole world beco