The first European settlement in Australia was created by Captain Arthur Phillip's First Fleet in 1788, founded as Sydney. It was from here that European power and colonisation expanded outwards. With time, numerous colonies (most of them British, but not all) sprang up on Oceanyka's coasts and went deeper into the continent, though few ever surpassed the splendor of New South Wales. During Oceanykan War of Independence this colony remained loyal to the British Empire, for which its lands were stripped away. The city was spared as it chose to surrender once its legendary exterior Kalayn Walls had been breached. Despite its humilliation more than half a century ago, Sydney has developed into one of the strongest city-states in the Oceanykan Federation thanks to its vibrant industrial sector, seaborne commerce and close ties with the western world, all protected by the Sydney Defence Force, one of the major conventional armed forces in the continent.
Most of Sydney's population is European in origin. As such, this polity is the origin and a focal point of post-colonial Australian culture. However, there are great tensions between natives and immigrants against Sydney's resident Australians thanks to the White Sydney Policy, which has kept them trapped in an apartheid state for decades. The social movements of the mid-1960s have hit this city especially hard, as has the Oceanykan Revolution; Redfort's government has issued numerous warnings to end apartheid or face the Federation.