New Zealand Wars

Scene from 1868

date	1843 - 1872
place	New Zealand
output	British Immigrants Victory
consequences	New Zealand Settlements Act 1863 annexing 16,000 km² of Māori land

Parties to the conflict
British Empire	Māori
Troop strength
18,000 men	5,000 men

The New Zealand Wars , also known as The Land Wars and earlier also the Māori Wars , were a series of conflicts that occurred in New Zealand from 1843 to 1872 . The Māori , the first settlers of New Zealand, and the European settlers, also known as Pākehā , were involved in the wars . The European settlers were supported by hundreds, later thousands, of experienced British soldiers.

background

The Waitangi Treaty , signed in 1840, stated that the Māori tribes should have unclouded possession of land, forests, fishing grounds, and other taonga . Some previous trade in land was to the detriment of the Māori and often illegal, and attempts were made to get some of these trade deals through before the treaty was signed. To avoid this in the future, the treaty stipulated that land from the Māori could only be sold to the government. This in turn led to discontent among the settlers, whose settlements were now on land that mostly still belonged to the Māori. Under pressure from the settlers, the colonial government gradually began to circumvent this regulation and allowed settlers to settle on land whose ownership was not clear. The Māori began to offer violent resistance to this.

Conflicts

The Wairau riot

→ Main article: Wairau tumult

One of the first armed conflicts occurred in 1843, known as the Wairau Tumult . It took place in the northeast of the South Island about 10 km north of today's Blenheim on the Wairau River . The fighting was sparked by settlers from Nelson who wanted to take possession of land that actually did not belong to them. 22 members of a kind of vigilante group and four Māori were killed. Arthur Wakefield , the founder of Nelson, was among those killed .

The "Flagstaff War"

The first serious acts of war occurred as in the Flagstaff War ("Flagpole War ") from March 1845 to January 1846 in the north of the North Island in the area of the Bay of Islands around Russell and further inland. The Ngāpuhi felled a British flagpole four times on Flagstaff Hill , which resulted in armed conflicts between the Ngāpuhi and the colonial troops, who were supported by loyal Maori. In this war, among other things, the battle of Ohaeawai was fought .

Campaigns

This was followed by the Hutt Valley campaign, March to August 1846, and the Wanganui campaign, April to July 1847, in the southwest of the North Island. These two conflicts resulted from the advance of settlers on Māoriland.

In these first three stages of the New Zealand Wars, the Māori only fought to a tie. They didn't want to beat or defeat the British or drive them out of the young cities. As a result, de facto British law now prevailed in the cities and Māori law and manners in the rural areas. A phase of relative peace and economic cooperation followed from 1848 to 1860.

First Taranaki War

During this time, the colonization of New Zealand by European settlers increased sharply. Almost every week an emigrant ship from Great Britain reached New Zealand, and by 1859 the number of settlers was about the same as that of the Māori, about 60,000. As the Māori population began to decline at the same time, some saw the extinction of New Zealand's indigenous people as likely.

The memories of the Pākehā, i.e. the European settlers, of the first wars gradually faded. They attempted to sell land by military force, which was later condemned as illegal by the country's courts. Nevertheless, the First Taranaki War took place, which lasted twelve months, but did not bring the British to any superiority. A ceasefire was agreed.

The Waikato War

This did not last very long, however, because many British settlers refused to accept the fact that the Māori owned most of the North Island, and in 1863 war broke out again, the Waikato War. The beginning was the invasion of Waikato . About 18,000 soldiers fought on the side of the colonial government, the Māori were 4,000 to 5,000 men strong. Māori, however, were never exclusively warriors, always also gatherers and farmers and had families to support, and so a maximum of half fought at the same time.

This war, including the Tauranga campaign, was the most serious of the New Zealand Wars .

Second Taranaki War

The end of the Waikato War resulted in the almost complete expropriation of all Māoriland and therefore quickly led to the Second Taranaki War. This partially brought the New Zealand infrastructure to a standstill, so recently practically all schools were closed.

The East Cape War

The time from the end of 1864 to the beginning of 1868 was quieter again. Probably the most momentous incident during this time was the murder of the missionary Carl Volkner . There were also two serious conflicts between Māori tribes, between supporters and opponents of Pai Marire , a religious anti-Pākehā group, which was particularly a thorn in the side of the developing cooperation between Māori and Pākehā. These clashes are also known as the East Cape War, which is more of a simplification, because this war was not limited to the east coast of the North Island, as the name might suggest.

The Te Kooti and Titokowaru Wars

The last two conflicts were the Te Kooti War and the Titokowaru War. These took place simultaneously at the beginning of the 1870s, but were fought independently of one another.

After 1872

After that, the wars between the colonial government and the native Māori were initially considered to be over. However, there were always corresponding conflicts and incidents after that, even if they are no longer summarized under the term of the New Zealand Wars. The invasion of Parihaka in 1881 is an example. Another incident in the 1890s became known as the Dog Tax War. The arrest of Rua Kenana in 1916, or even the events at Bastion Point in the 1970s, can be seen as part of this fundamental argument.

Not just Māori versus Pākehā

None of the individual wars was simply a two-party conflict.

There were always Māori who also fought on the side of the British. In the flagpole war even a whole Māori army under Tāmati Wāka Nene fought , independently of the British, against Hone Heke , who was an important opponent of the British colonial government. British soldiers were not involved in the battle of Waimate Pa.

In the 1870s, in the Te Kooti War, Māori fought as part of the colonial force. The Ngāti Porou tribe formed their own regiment. The decision to fight on the side of the British, however, was derived from their own interests, which could change, and did not mean general approval.

The Pākehā can also be divided into two groups. A part were British soldiers including Australians who had often left their homeland for the first time to take part in the fighting. The other group consisted of recruits from the ranks of the settlers, who were thus under the New Zealand government and not London .

In addition, there were definitely settlers who fought on the side of the Māori and identified with them. They were called Pākehā Māori , translated Pākehā, who had become Māori. Perhaps the most famous was Kimball Bent , who later became a recognized Tohunga , a priest .

It should not be overlooked that there was a clear anti-war movement among British settlers. They tried to exert diplomatic pressure on the government and protested against the expropriation of the Māori and acts of war. Prominent examples are Bishop George Augustus Selwyn , Archdeacon Octavius Hadfield , William Martin . As a rule, the government was not impressed by this.

The consequences

Māori were expropriated in large parts of the country by the government, the legal basis for this was the New Zealand Settlements Act of 1863, presumably as an instrument of punishment for the rebellion. In reality, loyal tribes were also indiscriminately affected. More than 16,000 km² of land was confiscated. Although half of this was later returned or at least compensation was paid, often enough the original owners did not receive the land or payments. The expropriations had a significant impact on the social and economic development of the affected tribes.

The legacy of the New Zealand Wars can still be felt today, especially in the context of legal battles. In numerous reports, the Waitangi Tribunal has criticized the British Crown for its conduct in the wars, and Māori also broke the Waitangi Treaty on one occasion .

The British Crown has admitted that certain aspects of the warfare and expropriation constituted a breach of the Waitangi Treaty and has issued an apology.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Anke Richter: Compensation for Colonial Abominations: Time of the Fences . In: The daily newspaper: taz . September 15, 2018, ISSN 0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed September 17, 2018]).
↑ The New Zealand Army later developed from this group
↑ Land Confiscations Under the New Zealand Settlements Act (1863) . National Library of New Zealand , archived from the original on October 15, 2006 ; accessed on December 18, 2015 (English, original website no longer available).
^ The Story of the Treaty . National Library of New Zealand , archived from the original on October 15, 2006 ; accessed on December 18, 2015 (English, original website no longer available).
↑ Turanga Tangata Turanga Whenua : The Report on the Turanganui a Kiwa Claims . Waitangi Tribunal , archived from the original on May 25, 2010 ; accessed on May 5, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).

[1] Anke Richter: Compensation for Colonial Abominations: Time of the Fences . In: The daily newspaper: taz . September 15, 2018, ISSN 0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed September 17, 2018]).

[2] The New Zealand Army later developed from this group

[NatLibNZ_Land_Confiscations-3] Land Confiscations Under the New Zealand Settlements Act (1863) . National Library of New Zealand , archived from the original on October 15, 2006 ; accessed on December 18, 2015 (English, original website no longer available).

[NatLibNZ_Story-4] The Story of the Treaty . National Library of New Zealand , archived from the original on October 15, 2006 ; accessed on December 18, 2015 (English, original website no longer available).

[Waitangi_Tribunal-5] Turanga Tangata Turanga Whenua : The Report on the Turanganui a Kiwa Claims . Waitangi Tribunal , archived from the original on May 25, 2010 ; accessed on May 5, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).