|
|
 |
|
|
New Zealand Maori Wars, 1844-6, 1860-1 and 1863-5 |
|
|
These wars were the outcome of a characteristic confrontation between British colonialist expansion against indigenous tribes inhabiting a resource-rich land. The wars were brief intensifications of long-term simmering hostilities, whose primary cause was two radically different attitudes to land ownership. The British viewed land as just another commodity to own, use and to earn profits. Conversely, for the Maori, land not only supplied basic necessities it also supported tribal and social relations, sustained ancestor legends and traditionally was only transferred through hereditary lines.
However, the conflict is complicated by the Maoris’ own inter-tribal rivalry that encouraged illegal land deals with the British in order to achieve advantage over of a neighbouring tribe. But it was not just land transfer to British ownership per se that fanned the tribal revolts, but the ensuing assumption of the supremacy of British rule, customs, and justice that also eroded local chiefdoms’ native authority. This particular conflict demonstrates the speed by which British rule achieved complete domination in only forty years.
The first Maori contact with a European was in 1642 when Abel Tasman, a Dutch East India Company explorer, sailed into Golden Bay on the South Island. It was through his discovery that New Zealand came to be so called. In 1769 the first British explorer to re-discover New Zealand was James Cook, completing a scientific voyage to Tahiti. More frequent contact with the Maoris occurred after a British penal colony was established in Australia’s New South Wales in 1788. This led British explorers to discover the rich harvest of both land and sea of New Zealand that included seals, whales, timber, flax and agricultural products.
Initially, most Maori tribes welcomed the British settlers because of the trade they sought or for the employment they offered on the growing number of fishing and whaling vessels. Throughout the 1830s this trade steadily expanded with the pioneers seeking further land for their growing townships and to increase their harvests. By 1844, for example, 4,000 settlers already lived in Port Nicholson (Wellington). Eventually, however, this pioneer expansion would result in land ownership conflicts. | | | Flagstaff War, 1844-6 | | These land disputes, initially only an isolated problem gradually grew both in frequency and ferocity throughout the 1840s, often resulting in death for both Maori and settler. Maori attacks continued to grow to such an extent that some pioneer settlements required evacuation to avoid massacre. In July 1844 Hone Heke, a local chief based in the far north of North Island, demonstrated his revolt against the British land claims over traditional Maori tribal sovereignty by cutting down the flagpole that displayed the British flag (the symbol of the Crown’s authority). He did this a further two times after its subsequent re-erection.
Hone Heke followed this, in March 1845, by leading a successful attack on the local garrison at Kororareka, North Island, and driving the settlers off the disputed land. Although British troops were sent from Australia they could not subdue the insurrection, which continued throughout 1845 with engagements at Puketutu and Ohaeawai, with British losses of over forty men. Finally, in January 1846, with the British using heavy artillery, Hone Heke was defeated at Ruapekapeka and his forces scattered. However, further tribal revolts continued, this time to the south of the North Island at Petone, where its garrison was attacked and houses burnt, with British losses of six men and five wounded. The British reprisals were severe with Maori strongholds bombarded and the local chief Te Rauparaha arrested, after which peace was restored.
| | | Second New Zealand War, 1860-1 | | Maori chiefs grew concerned that land sales to the settlers eroded Maori independence and aggravated inter-tribal warfare. In an attempt to stop such land sales a confederation of tribal chiefs appointed a king in an attempt to bring unity and strength to a Maori nation becoming increasingly fractured. This ‘King Movement,’ started in 1854 and slowly gathered native support, appointing its first king, the great Waikato chief of North Island, Potatau Te Wherowhero in 1858.
The support and success of the King Movement led to growing tensions with the settlers, which led the Governor, Thomas Gore Browne, to decide that a demonstration of British strength would soon counter the growing Maori rebelliousness. This ‘sharp lesson’ resulted in a war of attrition beginning in March 1860 that lasted a year with both sides calling for reinforcements as the hostilities escalated. British troop numbers rose from 900 to 3,500, a medium-sized army in New Zealand terms, with the Maori forces increasing from 200 to over 1,000, but despite the intensification neither side achieved a decisive battle. Eventually a ceasefire was agreed, based on land swaps, but the British attempt to assert full sovereignty over Maori territory had clearly failed.
But the British didn’t let the matter rest. A new Governor, Sir George Grey, realised that the King Movement was a threat to British interests and future prosperity of the North Island and therefore made detailed preparations for a further war. In contrast the South Island, with only a very sparse Maori population, had both prospered and been systematically colonised by British and Australian settlers, supplemented by prospectors attracted there by the discovery of gold.
| | | Third New Zealand War, 1863-4 | | For the next two years the North Island continued to be embroiled in disputes and revolts. Finally on 12th July 1863 Grey ordered an invasion of the Waikato region, the main area of rebellion, with 14,000 well-armed men, artillery and gunboats. The army’s substantial size enabled General Duncan Cameron, its commander, to mount a war of continuous operation as opposed to the sporadic expeditions previously undertaken. In reply, the Maoris could only muster 2,000 at any one time. However, the first engagement at Taranaki resulted in a massacre for the British forces when a party of 57th Foot were ambushed with only one survivor.
The British forces, despite occasional harassment, continued to advance and captured Koheroa. A further siege at Rangiriri on the 20th November was less successful and despite overrunning the outer walls of the stronghold the British forces could not penetrate the sophisticated main defences, resulting in considerable losses. However, the Maoris surrendered the next day having run out of ammunition.
After this setback Cameron advanced unopposed, capturing Ngaruawahi, the capital of King Tawhiao Te Wherowhero (the son of Potatau) on 8th December, with further villages secured during February 1864. The final engagement in this region was the siege at Orakau where for three days three hundred Maoris were shelled and shot at by 2,000 troops. Despite refusing to surrender they eventually escaped, on 2nd April, but much of their land was confiscated as war reparations, and so ending their resistance.
The next phase of the war began on the 29th April in the Tauranga region of North Island. This involved an assault on the mightiest of Maori fortifications, the Gate stronghold, so called because of its closeness to a boundary gate between Maori and settlers’ land. An initial heavy bombardment was followed by several attempts to penetrate the stronghold, but were repelled each time, with heavy British losses. Cameron then moved on to successfully capture the smaller Te Ranga stronghold, on 21st June.
The last phase of the war, maintained by the more militant Maoris in the Taranaki region and along the East Coast, continued more as a guerrilla campaign involving sieges, pursuits and ambushes, which still produced significant British losses. For example, the British were ambushed at Nukumaru beginning on the evening of 24th January 1865 and continuing the next day, resulting in several fatalities.
| | | Aftermath | | Although these battles had brought Cameron much land and had substantially weakened the Maori, they had not been decisively beaten. Cameron therefore concluded that the only solution was a ceasefire and from 1865 devised plans to win the peace. He achieved this through establishing institutions such as the Native Land Court, the Confiscation Scheme and other measures including using land as debt repayment. These schemes subtly robbed the Maoris of their rights and compelled them into land sales once thought unthinkable when they were stronger and more independent.
Although the sporadic guerrilla resistance persisted well into the 1870s, Imperial troops were withdrawn from operation between 1866 and 1870, replaced by local forces and an armed constabulary. Throughout this period the British continued to gain land and by 1879 over 65 per cent was in settler ownership. By then New Zealand was populated by nearly 500,000 settlers and only 47,000 Maori and this disparity and the sheer size of the townships marked the end of any resistance to white mans’ rule.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
