The Rum Rebellion of 1808 was a coup d'état in the then-British penal colony of New South Wales, staged by the New South Wales Corps in order to depose Governor William Bligh. Australia's first and only military coup, its name derives from the illicit rum trade of early Sydney, over which the 'Rum Corps', as it became known, maintained a monopoly. During the first half of the 19th century, it was widely referred to in Australia as the Great Rebellion.
A propaganda cartoon exhibited in Sydney within hours of William Bligh's arrest, portraying him as a coward
William Bligh
Painting of Sydney, c. 1799
John Macarthur
The New South Wales Corps, later known as the 102d Regiment of Foot, and lastly as the 100th Regiment of Foot, was a formation of the British Army organised in 1789 in England to relieve the New South Wales Marine Corps, which had accompanied the First Fleet to New South Wales. In Australia, the New South Wales Corps gained notoriety for its trade in rum and mutinous behaviour.
Major Francis Grose, who commanded the corps in its early years
The Vinegar Hill uprising of 1804.
Propaganda cartoon of Bligh's arrest in Sydney in 1808, portraying him as a coward.