Van Diemen's Land

Van Diemen's Land
British Crown Colony
← 1825–1856 →
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Government		Self-governing colony
Monarch
•	1825–1837	William IV first
•	1837–1856	Victoria last
Governor
•	1825–1836	Sir George Arthur first
•	1855–1856	Henry Young last
History
•	independence from the Colony of New South Wales	3 December 1825
•	Name changed to Tasmania	1856

Van Diemen's Land

1852 map of Van Diemen's Land.
Geography
Location	Southern Ocean
Coordinates	42°00′S 147°00′E / 42.000°S 147.000°E / -42.000; 147.000
Area	68,401 km2 (26,410 sq mi)
Highest elevation	1,614 m (5,295 ft)
Highest point	Mount Ossa
Administration
Australia
Largest settlement	Hobart Town
Demographics
Population	40,000 (1855)
Pop. density	0.59 /km2 (1.53 /sq mi)
Ethnic groups	Aboriginal Tasmanians

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Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The name was changed from Van Diemen's Land to Tasmania in 1856.

The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania in 1642. Landing at Blackman's Bay and later having the Dutch flag flown at North Bay, Tasman named the island Anthoonij van Diemenslandt, in honour of Anthony van Diemen, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, who had sent Tasman on his voyage of discovery. Between 1772 and 1798, only the southeastern portion of the island was visited. Tasmania was not known to be an island until Matthew Flinders and George Bass circumnavigated it in the Norfolk in 1798–99.

Around 1784-85, Henri Peyroux de la Coudrenière, an army officer serving in Spanish Louisiana, wrote a "memoir on the advantages to be gained for the Spanish crown by the settlement of Van Dieman's Land". After receiving no response from the Spanish government, Peyroux proposed it to the French government, as "Mémoire sur les avantages qui résulteraient d'une colonie puissante à la terre de Diémen".