Musket Wars

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As Musket Wars ( English : Musket Wars ) is a series of armed conflicts in various Māori - tribes called, had its peak in the 1830s. These clashes, which took place primarily on the North Island of New Zealand , were directly related to the introduction of firearms, then muskets , by British immigrants .

prehistory

There have always been minor armed conflicts between the various tribes. Conflicts became more frequent when the population became too high, resources were depleted, or mutual insults had to be responded to. In the fights, which often had a high ritual value, mostly only certain people faced each other. As a result, the direct death toll was also limited. The most important weapons were Mere and Patu , both club-like hand weapons. A good time was autumn, when all of the summer's supplies had already been harvested. The victors gained more land, were happy about the booty and increased their mana , while the defeated had to flee to less fertile, uninhabited areas, where they were decimated by hunger or disease.

The wars

The introduction of handguns in the early 19th century revolutionized the entire warfare in the Pacific - Polynesian cultural area. When the Ngāpuhi tribe, settled in the Bay of Islands , confronted the conventionally armed Ngāti Whatua tribe with innovative muskets , the disadvantages of this kind of fighting technique, which was previously unknown to the natives of New Zealand, outweighed them. The muskets of that time were still very unsafe, and it took a long time to reload the weapon. For these reasons, the Ngāti-Whatua tribe was able to overrun their opponent without major problems. The Ngāpuhi sought revenge and traded their cultivated crops on a large scale for expensive muskets. From 1815 onwards, warring groups of this tribe began fighting all over the North Island, which had a devastating effect on the entire island. The victims of this “ invasion ” had to face death or slavery or flee to more remote areas. Their most famous leader, Hongi Hika , caused a further escalation in the conflict with the purchase of another 300 muskets in 1821. Over the next few years he led large, armed armies from Tamaki ( Auckland ) to Rotorua to fight numerous tribes . Despite great losses, he was always victorious, although his opponents had mostly withdrawn into their fortified bulwarks (māori: Pā ). Thousands of people fell victim to the musket wars. Today's estimates suggest at least 20,000 dead, and it is likely that during this period more New Zealanders died than in all the conflicts and wars that followed after 1840 - First and Second World War and New Zealand Wars included.

End the arguments

For their part, the attacked tribes tried to get hold of these “new” weapons as quickly as possible. In 1822 the Ngāti-Toa tribe was the second large group to have muskets and started a kind of "campaign" through the entire North Island from Kāwhia to the Kapiti Coast . When the tribes in the Waikato region also received firearms, they fought the groups in the nearby Taranaki area, which in turn fled further south to ally with the Ngāti Toa against the Ngāpuhi. Finally, the clashes spread to New Zealand's South Island .

Ultimately, on the one hand , all Iwi were in possession of more or less firearms, on the other hand, new types of fortresses withstood bullets and were difficult to take. As a result, no tribe could simply be overrun and the attacks became too costly. A balance of power developed, with the boundaries of the areas of influence and the number of tribal members fluctuating back and forth. At the latest with the conclusion of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the musket wars came to an end.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Basil Keane : Musket wars - Musket wars overview . Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand , December 12, 2012, accessed June 14, 2015 .