Settlements in Australia began in 1788 when Britain began to utilize the country for the deportation of convicts, with the first free settles arriving in 1793. Likewise New Zealand became a home for hunters seeking whales and seals in the 1790s with later non-commercial settlements by the Scottish in the 1820s and 30s. In Northern America, revolution was beginning when in 1770, British troops opened fire on a mob pelting them with stones, an event later known as the Boston Massacre. British authorities were unable to determine if this event was a local one, or signs of something bigger until, in 1775, Rebel forces confirmed their intentions by attacking British troops on Bunker Hill. Shortly after, Massachusetts Second Continental Congress representative John Adams and his cousin Samuel Adams were part of a group calling for an American Declaration of Independence. The Congress ended without committing to a Declaration, but prepared for conflict by naming George Washington as the Continental Army Commander. War broke out and lasted until 1783, when Britain signed the Treaty of Paris and recognized America's independence. In 1788, the states ratified the United States Constitution, going from a confederation to a union and in 1789, elected George Washington as the first President of the United States. By the late 1780s, France was falling into debt, with higher taxes introduced and famines ensuring. As a measure of last resort, King Louis XVI called together the Estates-General in 1788 and reluctantly agreed to turn the Third Estate (which made up all of the non-noble and non-clergy French) into a National Assembly. This assembly grew very popular in the public eye and on July 14, 1789, following evidence that the King planned to disband the Assembly, an angry mob stormed the Bastille, taking gunpowder and lead shot. Stories of the success of this raid spread all over the country and sparked multiple uprisings in which the lower-classes robbed granaries and manor houses. In August of the same year, members of the National Assembly wrote the revolutionary document Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen which proclaimed freedom of speech, press and religion. By 1792, other European states were attempting to quell the revolution. In the same year Austrian and German armies attempted to march on Paris, but the French repelled them. Building on fears of European invasion, a radical group known as the Jacobins abolished the monarchy and executed King Louis for treason in 1793. In response to this radical uprising, Britain, Spain and the Netherlands join in the fight with the Jacobins until the Reign of Terror was brought to an end in 1794 with the execution of a Jacobin leader, Maximilien Robespierre.