Between 1901-1914, the British colonized Australia, drastically reducing the Aboriginal population from 100,000 to a small fraction. As more British settlers arrived, the Aboriginal people were pushed off their traditional lands along the coast and forced further inland. By 1909, though the Aboriginal people now lived on smaller portions of their original lands, some Australians viewed themselves as more British than those in Britain due to the length of time they had lived in the country under British rule.