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New Zealand land wars

Overview

The New Zealand Wars, sometimes called the Land Wars and also once called the Māori Wars, were a series of armed conflicts that took place in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

between 1845 and 1872. The wars were fought over a number of issues, the most prominent concerning Māori land being sold to the settler population.

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An ancestor named Samuel Kerr was a private in the 58th British Regiment that served in the North Island of New Zealand from 1845 till 1849. He was di...

Encyclopedia

The New Zealand Wars, sometimes called the Land Wars and also once called the Māori Wars, were a series of armed conflicts that took place in New Zealand

New Zealand

between 1845 and 1872. The wars were fought over a number of issues, the most prominent concerning Māori land being sold to the settler population.

The Treaty of Waitangi

Treaty of Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi is a treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand....

, signed in 1840, guaranteed that individual Māori iwi
Iwi
In New Zealand society, iwi form the largest everyday social units in Māori culture. The word iwi means "'peoples' or 'nations'. In "the work of European writers which treat iwi and hapū as parts of a hierarchical structure", it has been used to mean "tribe" , or confederation of tribes,...

(tribes) should have undisturbed possession of their lands, forests, fisheries and other taonga
Taonga
A taonga in Māori culture is a treasured thing, whether tangible or intangible. Tangible examples are all sorts of heirlooms and artefacts, land, fisheries, natural resources such as geothermal springs and access to natural resources, such as riparian water rights and access to the riparian zone of...

(treasures) in return for becoming British subjects and selling land to the government only. The majority of Māori were keen to sign to consolidate peace and end the long inter-tribal Musket Wars

Musket Wars

The Musket Wars were a series of five hundred or more battles mainly fought between various hapū , sometimes alliances of pan-hapū groups and less often larger iwi of Māori between 1807 and 1842, in New Zealand.Northern tribes such as the rivals Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua were the first to obtain...

1807–1842. They were also very keen to acquire the technological culture of the British.

All pre-treaty colonial land-sale deals had been completed directly between the two parties. In the early period of contact, Māori generally sought trade with Europeans. Mission stations were established, and missionaries receiving land for houses, schools, churches and farms.

Some traders acquired large tracts of land prior to 1840 and the British government was concerned to protect the Māori from exploitation. Following the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, the newly constituted British colonial authorities decreed that Māori could sell land only to the Crown (the Right of Preemption). Often, new settlers did not appreciate that Māori owned their land communally under the mana of a chief and that permission to settle on land did not always imply sale of that land. Settlers had little understanding of the widespread redistribution of land during the bitter musket wars. This meant that conquering chiefs were keen to profit from these newly acquired assets by selling them to settlers while the original, defeated owners, were bitterly against this. Sometimes the reverse happened, as in the Hutt Valley, where the conquered Rangitane sold their land to the New Zealand company, much to the anger of the great conqueror Te Rauaparaha. Under pressure from settlers, the colonial government tried to speed up land sales and permitted settlers to settle in areas where ownership was still disputed between Māori hapu. This included huge areas of the North Island that had been depopulated, and, in many cases, repopulated with new hapu and iwi, following the musket wars of 18051842.

Kingitanga Māori began resisting the purchase of their land by British settlers and started using violence against those Māori who wished to sell. The Kingitanga refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the crown. The crown honoured the treaty by protecting loyal Māori, who were British citizens, from attacks by rebels who were attempting to set up an alternative government. This action sowed the seeds of eventual war between loyal Māori, British and New Zealand governments versus the minority rebel Kingitanga.

Conflicts

The first battle of the New Zealand Wars was the 1843 Wairau Affray

Wairau Affray

In New Zealand history, the Wairau Affray on 17 June 1843 was the first serious clash of arms between Māori and the British settlers after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and the only one to take place in the South Island...

at the north end of the South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

. It was a massacre caused by some Nelson

Nelson, New Zealand

Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....

settlers, deputised by the local magistrate, trying to arrest Rangatira

Rangatira

Rangatira are the hereditary Māori leaders of hapū, and were described by ethnologists such as Elsdon Best as chieftains . Ideally, rangatira were people of great practical wisdom who held authority on behalf of the tribe and maintained boundaries between a tribe's land and that of other tribes...

, warrior chief, after he had burnt down a whare (a Māori house) on land claimed by settlers. The settlers had a title to the land which had been originally sold to a British sea captain. The land deed was never actually looked into and this rash action lead to 22 settlers being killed. News of the defeat of the magistrate and his constables spread to the Nelson where the settlers barricaded their town in fear. Te Rauparaha, fearing a military reprisal, fled to his island stronghold of Kapiti hoping that the New Zealand land tribunal would rule in his favour, which it did. However he never returned to the lands in the Wairau, giving up his mana whenua or claim to have power over the land.

The Flagstaff War

Flagstaff War

The Flagstaff War – also known as Hone Heke's Rebellion, the Northern War and erroneously as the First Māori War – was fought between 11 March 1845 and 11 January 1846 in and around the Bay of Islands, New Zealand...

took place in the far north of New Zealand, around the Bay of Islands

Bay of Islands

The Bay of Islands is an area in the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located 60 km north-west of Whangarei, it is close to the northern tip of the country....

, in March 1845 and January 1846. This was about economic changes caused by the movement of the New Zealand capital of Kororareka to Auckland by Governor Hobson. Hone Heke and his ally sought to get the attention of the government. The lack of funding and the desire to move the capital to Auckland meant the government was unwilling to alter its decision. Due to the government's inaction some local Maori chose to rebel against the crown's authority. Hone Heke and other rebel Maori did this by attacking the flag pole at Kororareka, felling the Union flag

Union Flag

The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. It retains an official or semi-official status in some Commonwealth Realms; for example, it is known as the Royal Union Flag in Canada. It is also used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas...

, yet leaving the town itself unharmed initially. After the fourth attack on the pole however Governor Grey banded together every fighting soldier he could muster from sailors to militia and put a cordon about the town. Heke and Kawiti found themselves outnumbered. They split their forces with Kawiti leading a diversionary raid while Heke lead an assault on the flag staff itself, overpowering the platoon garrisoning the nearby church and felling the flagpole a fourth time. Chaos and mass looting of the township followed as the town burnt down, with citizens and rebel Māori alike taking goods. This was the start of the Northern war. Rebel leaders, Heke and Kawiti, were branded fugitives and were chased onto their lands. The two chiefs used extensive military earth works,which differed from the tradional pa. Comparisons have been made between these earthworks and those of French military engineers in Europe about 100 years previously.

Since the invention of modern gunfighter Pa (Māori fortress) British forces found it difficult to capture the occupants or cause a decisive defeat, as Māori would abandon the Pa at the point of defeat. They fought a short series of campaigns until Kupapa Māori (Government supporting Māori tribes) weakened Heke and he was forced to abandon Kawiti to the British forces. With less than one hundred men Kawiti constructed a Pa labelled Ruapekapeka, the bats nest. This Pa was bombarded for two weeks. 151 British soldiers marched to take the Pa. The trenches dug into the walls of the Pa had kept casualties low and as the British advanced the 80 Māori defending opened fire at point blank range from gun slits at the base of the Pa's wall, felling a third of the force. Kawiti then abandoned the Pa knowing that he could easily build another in less than two days. After this battle Heke and Kawiti, in a seriously weakened state, and hounded by the combined forces of the British and loyal Maori, brokered a peace deal on the understanding that the rebels would retain their land and not be punished further.

This was followed almost immediately by the Hutt Valley Campaign

Hutt Valley Campaign

The Hutt Valley Campaign of 1846 during the New Zealand land wars could almost be seen as a sequel to the Wairau Affray. The causes were similar and the protagonists almost the same...

, where a small number of soldiers attempted to protect farmers and isolated settlers from marauding attacks between March and August 1846. British soldiers did not realise that the elderly Te Rauparaha, who had befriended the settlers and the government, was at the same time orchestrating the Hutt attacks. When the military intercepted secret letters sent by Te Rauparaha he was captured in a surprise attack and taken prisoner of war. This ended the Hutt war but lead to the Wanganui Campaign

Wanganui Campaign

The Wanganui Campaign was centered on the settlement that eventually became the city of Wanganui, New Zealand, which was established in 1841. By 1846 it had some two hundred European settlers. Following the conflict in the north, known as the Flagstaff War and the recent and nearby Hutt Valley...

, April to July 1847, in the south-west of the North Island

North Island

The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

. The Wanganui conflict was caused by the Māori demand for utu (a Māori concept involving payback or revenge) when one of the ringleaders of the Hutt valley campaign was hanged. The take (just cause) for a new war was the accidental injury of a Māori by a British soldier. Māori felt confident in taking on the settlers as they vastly outnumbered them.

In the first three conflicts, Māori proved to be warlike and at times treacherous opponents, who fought by their own rules which appeared barbaric to the settlers. Māori targeted isolated British settlers but many had no wish to drive them from New Zealand as they were the only source of money and trade goods. From the engagements emerged a purely Māori understanding: English law prevailed in the townships and settlements, and Māori law and customs elsewhere. The government believed the rule of law prevailed everywhere but the Wairau massacre had taught them that Māori felt they could do as they pleased. There followed a period of intermittent threats and haphazard economic cooperation from 1848 to 1860 although even during this time there were very serious threats to Pakeha such as the threatened attack on Auckland at Mechanics Bay by 250300 Ngati Paoa in 1851 that was only prevented by the arrival of British troops and a warship and the stealing of a large amount of gunpowder from Kawau Island in 1856 by the same Iwi.

During this time, European settlement accelerated and in 1859, the number of Pākehā
Pakeha
Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...

came to equal the number of Māori, at around 60,000 each. Settlers were keen to obtain land and some Māori were willing to sell but were prevented by Kingitanga Māori wishing to exert their mana. Settlers and the government tried to avoid involvement in these largely inter Māori squabbles until settlers were harmed. The result was the First Taranaki War

First Taranaki War

The First Taranaki War was an armed conflict over land ownership and sovereignty that took place between Māori and the New Zealand Government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand's North Island from March 1860 to March 1861....

. Once again, the local British forces were evenly matched by Kingitanga Māori, and after 12 months there was no decisive result. The government became aware that a large number of the Toa (warriors) were from the lower Waikato tribe, Maniatoto.

However, the Government was not prepared to countenance the rebel Māori kingitanga controlling and ruling most of the central North Island. War broke out again in 1863 with the ambush and killing of British soldiers taking soldier to court Invasion of the Waikato

Invasion of the Waikato

The Invasion of Waikato or Kingitanga Suppression Movement was a campaign during the middle stages of the New Zealand Wars, fought in the North Island of New Zealand from July 1863 to April 1864 between the military forces of the Colonial Government and a federation of Māori tribes known as the...

. Wiremu Tamihana, previously considered a moderate, as he had sold tribal land to Scottish settlers, sent a series of 18 threatening letters to Grey.

Rewi Maniapoto attempted to kill a missionary, Mr Gorst, in Te Awamutu. Rewi stole the printing press and burnt down the school. Farmers and missionaries who had bought land in the Waikato and helped Māori establish a prosperous farming area where threatened and forced to leave. Settlers were continually smarting under a sense of wrong as Māori grew insolent- filled with an overweening confidence in their own power and contemptuous of the British. These acts convinced Grey that the Māori rebels posed a serious threat. The Waikato War, including the Tauranga Campaign

Tauranga Campaign

The Tauranga Campaign took place in New Zealand, from 21 January 1864 to 21 June 1864, during the New Zealand Land Wars.-Origins:This campaign started as a side show to the Invasion of the Waikato, where British Imperial Troops, on behalf of the New Zealand Colonial Government, were fighting a...

, was the biggest of all the New Zealand Wars but pales into insignificance alongside the Musket wars. The outcome of the War of Suppression of the Kingitanga was the confiscation of Māori land, totalling 4% of New Zealand's land area, which quickly provoked the Second Taranaki War

Second Taranaki War

-Background and causes of the war:The conflict in Taranaki had its roots in the First Taranaki War, which had ended in March 1861 with an uneasy truce. Neither side fulfilled the terms of the truce, leaving many of the issues unresolved...

. By the mid 1860s, the conflict had forced the closing of all the native schools

Native schools

In New Zealand, Native Schools were established to provide education for the Māori.Until the 1860s, the government subsidised church schools for the Maori. Early missionary schools were often conducted in the Māori language, which was the predominant language throughout the early part of the 19th...

. Three months after the confiscation, in 1865, large amounts of land were returned to both rebel and loyal Māori. By 1873 120000 acres (485.6 km²) were returned to rebel Kingitanga. They also received large amounts of cash in 1926 and even more cash in 1946.

The period from the second half of 1864 until early 1868 was relatively quiet. Possibly the most notorious incident during this time was the murder and eating of the missionary Carl Volkner

Volkner Incident

The Völkner Incident describes the murder of the missionary Carl Sylvius Völkner in New Zealand in 1865 and the consequent reaction of the Government of New Zealand in the midst of the New Zealand land wars.-Background:...

. There were also two serious intra-tribal conflicts, civil wars in Māori tribes, between adherents and non-adherents of the Pai Marire

Pai Marire

The Pai Mārire movement was a syncretic Māori religion that flourished in New Zealand from about 1863 to 1874. Founded in Taranaki by the prophet Te Ua Haumene, it incorporated Biblical and Māori spiritual elements and promised its followers deliverance from Pākehā domination, providing a...

or Hau Hau cult—a vehemently anti-Pākehā religious group which was intent on destabilising the developing cooperation between the Māori and Pākehā. These are sometimes known as the East Cape War

East Cape War

The East Cape War, sometimes also called the East Coast War, refers to a series of conflicts that were fought in the North Island of New Zealand from about 13 April 1865 to June 1868...

, but that label oversimplifies a complicated series of conflicts.

The last major conflicts were the Te Kooti's War

Te Kooti's War

Te Kooti's War was one of the New Zealand Wars, the series of conflicts fought between 1845 and 1872 between the Māori and the colonizing European settlers, often referred to as Pākehā. This particular conflict covered most of the East Cape region and the centre of the North Island of New Zealand...

and the Titokowaru's War

Titokowaru's War

-Cause and background of the war:The immediate cause of the war was the confiscation of vast areas of Māori land in Taranaki by the Government under the powers of the punitive New Zealand Settlements Act 1863...

. These were fought at the same time but were not related to each other and should be considered separate conflicts. This virtually ended the major, violent conflicts between the British and colonial government and the rebel Māori.

There were later incidents that were a part of the overall conflict, but are not usually seen in the context of the New Zealand Wars. One of these was the police raid on Parihaka

Parihaka

Parihaka is a small community in Taranaki Region, New Zealand, located between Mount Taranaki and the Tasman Sea. In the 1870s and 1880s the settlement, then reputed to be the largest Māori village in New Zealand, became the centre of a major campaign of non-violent resistance to European...

in 1881 to arrest the prophets Te Whiti and Tohu, leaders of a campaign of passive resistance to land confiscation. Another was an incident in the 1890s that became known as the Dog Tax War

Dog Tax War

The Dog Tax war is described by some authors as the last gasp of the 19th century wars between the Māori and the Pākehā, the British settlers of New Zealand. This is not altogether accurate in two respects. It was a very minor affair, certainly not a war...

. Another was the arrest of Rua Kenana in 1916.

Participants

In 1859, the Europeans population in New Zealand was about 10,000 less than the Māori Population. However, neither population was stable. The Māori population had declined so fast during the Musket Wars that some people saw their extinction as a distinct possibility. It is estimated that at least 20,000 Māori were killed but more importantly many iwi were driven from their traditional lands and Crosby says that 8 complete iwi were wiped out by their fellow Māori. Meanwhile, immigrant ships were arriving from Britain almost every week. Surprised by the hundreds of settlers arriving at Wellington, Māori chiefs asked if the whole English tribe was moving to New Zealand.
The imperial troops were supplied and paid for by Britain and not by the fledgling colony. So rebel Māori were fighting against the economic base of industrial Britain. Additionally, Māori had an agrarian economy—their warriors were also their farmers and food gatherers. As such, they were limited to periods of only two or three months of campaigning each year before they had to return to their home base although during the Musket Wars they had managed to leave their turangawaiwai(home territory) for a year at a time. They developed a system of rotating shifts for the longer conflicts, but were never able to deploy their entire force.

The Invasion of the Waikato

Invasion of the Waikato

was the largest conflict. The colonial side mustered some 18,000 men, with a peak deployment of possibly 14,000. Opposing them were 4,000 to 5,000 Māori, of whom only about half were actively involved at any one time.

None of the wars were simple two-sided conflicts. To some degree there were four sides to each war.

There were always Māori on both sides of the conflict—fighting for and against the British. In the Flagstaff War, the Māori allies were wholly independent of British command; Tāmati Wāka Nene

Tamati Waka Nene

Tāmati Wāka Nene was a Māori rangatira who fought as an ally of the British in the Flagstaff War.-Origin and mana:...

was at war with Hone Heke

Hone Heke

Hone Wiremu Heke Pokai was a Māori rangatira and war leader in Northern New Zealand and a nephew of Hongi Hika, an earlier war leader of the Ngāpuhi iwi. Hone Heke is considered the principal instigator of the Flagstaff War....

. Indeed, the Battle of Te Ahuahu, where the two forces met and fought with determination, did not involve the British at all.

By the 1870s, in Te Kooti's War, there were Māori fighting as part of the colonial forces. Ngāti Porou

Ngati Porou

Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Porou has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi in New Zealand, with 71,910 registered members in 2006...

formed their own regiment. In the later stages—the hunt for Te Kooti

Te Kooti

Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki was a Māori leader, the founder of the Ringatu religion and guerrilla.While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to the Chatham Islands without trial along with captured Hauhau, he experienced visions and...

through the Urewera Ranges—some incidents were once again Māori fighting Māori. Usually though, these Māori were allies only while fighting. When their interests diverged from Pākehā interests, they tended to go their own way.

The Pākehā can also be divided into two groups. One was the British imperial forces—the combined forces of the British Empire, including Australians going overseas to war for the first time. The other consisted of the various militia

Militia

The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...

formed from the settler

Settler

A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...

s, answerable to the New Zealand government, not to London. (These units eventually evolved into the New Zealand Army

New Zealand Army

The New Zealand Army , is the land component of the New Zealand Defence Force and comprises around 4,500 Regular Force personnel, 2,000 Territorial Force personnel and 500 civilians. Formerly the New Zealand Military Forces, the current name was adopted around 1946...

). The first war was fought by imperial forces, probably assisted informally by a few settlers and loyal kupapa Māori. The Taranaki War involved organised units of settler militia. The British government was increasingly reluctant to become involved in New Zealand wars. To get its support for the suppression of the Kingitanga rebels, Governor George Grey

George Edward Grey

Sir George Grey, KCB was a soldier, explorer, Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony , the 11th Premier of New Zealand and a writer.-Early life and exploration:...

had to present a picture of the seriousness of the situation to the Colonial Office in London. What became known as the Second Taranaki War

Second Taranaki War

was the reaction of the Māori to the confiscation of their land by the colonial government, which originally used imperial troops for this. The commander, General Duncan Cameron

Duncan Cameron (general)

General Sir Duncan Alexander Cameron GCB was a British Army officer who fought in the Crimean War , commanded troops during part of the New Zealand Land Wars and was Governor of the Royal Military College Sandhurst from 1868 to 1875.- Career :Cameron was a 42nd Regiment of Foot officer General Sir...

, worn out and tired of arguments with the colonial government, retired to England .

In 1870 the last British troops were withdrawn from New Zealand; this was in line with both the “self-reliant" policy of Premier Frederick Weld

Frederick Weld

Sir Frederick Aloysius Weld, GCMG , was a New Zealand politician and a governor of various British colonies. He was the sixth Premier of New Zealand, and later served as Governor of Western Australia, Governor of Tasmania, and Governor of the Straits Settlements.-Early life:Weld was born near...

and the Cardwell reforms

Cardwell Reforms

The Cardwell Reforms refer to a series of reforms of the British Army undertaken by Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell between 1868 and 1874.-Background:...

of the Army in Britain.

There was one British ex soldier who fought for Māori, known as Kimball Bent, who was actually an American by birth. He had been convicted of theft and desertion. Kimball Bent

Kimball Bent

Kimball Bent , also known as "Kimble Bent", was a soldier and adventurer.At some stage Kimball Bent made his way to Liverpool, England and on 18 October 1859 enlisted in the 57th Regiment of Foot in the British Army. He served in India and his unit was posted to New Zealand in 1861...

, who acted as Titokowaru

Titokowaru

Riwha Titokowaru became a Māori leader in the Taranaki region and one of the most successful opponents of British colonisation anywhere....

's armourer and later became a noted tohunga (priest). However the majority of Māori either supported the government or fought alongside the government. In 1864 the total rebel Kingitanga population who went into hiding, was estimated at 15,000 or about 25% of the Māori population, although this number is uncertain as the rebels killed Pakeha who went into the King Country and refused to complete the census. At that time half caste Māorimany of whom lived in Pakeha settlementswere included in the European population statistics in the census which distorts population figures. Demographer professor Ian Poole estimates that this boosted the nominal European population by as much as 5 to 10,000.

There was also a significant anti-war movement among the British settlers. Led by the Anglican Church Missionary Society and a number of prominent humanitarians, this group opposed government aggression and the confiscation of land. Members included Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, Archdeacon Octavius Hadfield, Sir William Martin, South Island politicians like James Fitzgerald

James FitzGerald

James Edward FitzGerald was a New Zealand politician. According to some historians, he should be considered the country's first Prime Minister, although a more conventional view is that neither he nor his successor should properly be given that title. He was a notable campaigner for New Zealand...

and other public figures. Most active during the First Taranaki War, the group divided over the government's invasion of the Waikato and response to the Kingitanga. Eventually, some chose to support the government, a decision they immediately regretted as the Māori backlash placed missionary lives in danger. Selwyn, in particular, suffered from his association with the invasion and had to leave the country in disgrace. Some missionaries later tried to prevent wholesale confiscation of Māori land, but were ignored by the government.

Strategy and tactics

The British Army were professional soldiers who had experience fighting in various parts of the Empire, many from India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

and Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, although front line units were never sent (in contrast to, say, South Africa or other parts of the Empire). They were led by officers who were themselves trained by men who fought at Waterloo

Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...

. The Māori fighters were warriors from many generations of warrior—survivors of the Musket Wars

Musket Wars

, thirty two years of bitter inter-tribal fighting. One of the reasons for the First New Zealand War was curiosity by the Māori warriors to see what kind of fighters these Pākehā soldiers were.

Both sides had developed distinctive war strategies and tactics. The British set out to fight a European-style war, based on defending or attacking an enemy strong point or town. Either there is a battle, or you besiege and then capture the strong point. Conversely Māori fought for mana

Mana

Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian....

and economic advantage, to obtain slaves, goods or control of lands, and for the challenge of a good battle. New Zealand units which gradually took over much of the fighting in the later parts of the conflict, introduced a range of new units, tactics and weapons to match the demands of the campaigns from 1863.

The first British action of the Flagstaff War was the capture and destruction of Pomare's Pa near Kororareka. This was a substantial Māori settlement, so to the British it was a victory, but the Māori warriors escaped with their arms, so they did not see it as defeat.

The British then set out to do the same to Kawiti's Pa at Puketapu. But this was a purpose-built strong point with only one objective; to invite attack by the British. It was several kilometres inland, across very difficult country—steep gullies, dense, bush-clad hills and thick, sticky mud. The British troops were already exhausted when they arrived in front of the pa

Pa (Maori)

The word pā can refer to any Māori village or settlement, but in traditional use it referred to hillforts fortified with palisades and defensive terraces and also to fortified villages. They first came into being about 1450. They are located mainly in the North Island north of lake Taupo...

. The next day, they made a frontal attack and discovered that the bush and gullies they were advancing through were full of warriors. Some British troops reached the palisade and discovered that attacking thick wooden walls with muskets was not effective. After several hours of costly but indecisive skirmishing, the British withdrew. Their Māori kupapa allies were able to feed them and they were not attacked by their Māori enemies on the retreat back to the coast.

The attack on Puketapu Pa was typical of Māori-British warfare. Māori would build a fortified pa, sometimes provocatively close to a British fort or redoubt, and the British would attack it. Their aim was always to bring Māori to battle to inflict a decisive defeat. In European warfare, besieging an enemy fortress usually provoked a battle. However, Māori also knew that they would probably lose heavily in open conflict; this had been the result on the few times that it happened. Generally, they were successful in avoiding it.

A Māori pa was not the same as a European fortress, but it took the British years to appreciate the difference. The word “pa” meant a fortified strong point near a Māori village or community. They were always built with a view to defence, but primarily they were built to safely store food. Puketapu Pa and then Ohaeawai

Ohaeawai

Ohaeawai is a small village at the junction of State Highway 1 and State Highway 12 in the Far North District of New Zealand, some 250 km from Auckland. Nearby is the site of the bloody Battle of Ohaeawai fought at Pene Taui's pā during the Flagstaff War in 1845...

Pa were the first of the so-called “gunfighter pa”. They were built to engage enemies armed with muskets and cannons. A strong wooden palisade was fronted with woven flax leaves (Phormium tenax
Phormium tenax
Phormium tenax is an evergreen perennial plant native to New Zealand and Norfolk Island that is an important fibre plant and a popular ornamental plant...

) whose tough, stringy foliage took a lot of penetrating. The palisade was lifted a few centimetres from the ground so muskets could be fired from underneath rather than over the top. Sometimes there were gaps in the palisade, which led to killing traps. There were trenches and rifle pits to protect the occupants and, later, very effective artillery shelters. They were usually built so that they were almost impossible to surround completely, but usually presented at least one exposed face to invite attack from that direction. They were cheap and easily built—the L-Pa at Waitara

Waitara, New Zealand

Waitara is the name of a town and a river in the northern part of the Taranaki Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Waitara is located just off State Highway 3, 15 km northeast of New Plymouth....

was constructed by eighty men overnight—and they were completely expendable. Time and again, the British would mount an elaborate, often lengthy, expedition to besiege a pa, which would absorb their bombardment and possibly one or two attacks and then be abandoned by Māori. Shortly afterwards, a new pa would appear in another inaccessible site. Pa like this were built in their dozens particularly during the First Taranaki War

First Taranaki War

, where they eventually formed a cordon surrounding New Plymouth

New Plymouth

New Plymouth is the major city of the Taranaki Region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after Plymouth, Devon, England, from where the first English settlers migrated....

and in the Waikato campaign.

For a long time, the modern pa effectively neutralised the overwhelming disparity in numbers and armaments. At Ohaeawai Pa

Battle of Ohaeawai

The Battle of Ohaeawai was fought between British forces and local Māori during the Flagstaff War in July 1845 at Ohaeawai in the North Island of New Zealand...

in 1845, at Rangiriri

Rangiriri

Rangiriri was a rural New Zealand parliamentary electorate in the Auckland Region from 1978 to 1984.-History:The electorate existed only from 1978 to 1984: it replaced the Franklin electorate in 1978, but the name was changed back to Franklin in 1984....

in 1863 and again at Gate Pa

Gate Pa

Gate Pā was the name of a Māori Pā or fortress built in 1864 only from the main British base of Camp Te Papa at Tauranga, during the Tauranga Campaign of the New Zealand Land Wars...

in 1864, the British and colonial forces discovered that frontal attacks on a defended pa were extremely costly. At Gate Pa during the Tauranga Campaign

Tauranga Campaign

in 1864, Māori withstood a day-long bombardment in their bomb shelters. Belich estimated that Gate Pa absorbed in one day a greater weight of explosives per square metre than did the German trenches in the week-long bombardment leading up to the Battle of the Somme

Battle of the Somme (1916)

The Battle of the Somme , also known as the Somme Offensive, took place during the First World War between 1 July and 14 November 1916 in the Somme department of France, on both banks of the river of the same name...

but this has been challenged by military historians. The palisade being destroyed, the British troops rushed the pa whereupon Māori fired on them from hidden trenches, killing thirty-eight and injuring many more in the most costly battle for the Pākehā of the New Zealand Wars. The troops retired and Māori then abandoned the pa.

British troops soon realised an easy way to neutralise a pa. Although cheap and easy to build, a gunfighter pa did require a significant input of labour and resources. The destruction of the Māori economic base in the area around the pa, made it difficult for the hapu to support the fighting men. This was the reasoning behind the bush-scouring expeditions of Chute and McDonnell in the Second Taranaki War

Second Taranaki War

.

The biggest problem for Māori was that their society was ill-adapted to support a sustained campaign. The Māori warrior was a civilian part-time fighter who could not afford to be away from home for too long. The British force consisted of professional soldiers supported by an economic system capable of sustaining them in the field almost indefinitely. While the British could defeat Māori in battle, the defeats were often not decisive but they were able to outlast them in war.

The two final New Zealand Wars, those of Te Kooti

Te Kooti

and Titokowaru

Titokowaru

Riwha Titokowaru became a Māori leader in the Taranaki region and one of the most successful opponents of British colonisation anywhere....

, present an interesting contrast. Titokowaru used the pa system to such devastating effect that, at one stage the New Zealand government thought they had lost the war (see Titokowaru's War

Titokowaru's War

). Te Kooti, on the other hand, was an effective guerrilla leader, but showed little or no skill in fighting from a fixed position. He had ill-built pa, inadequately supplied, and he held on to them for too long. Te Kooti's War

Te Kooti's War

ended due to his defeat at Nga Tapa and Te Porere.

Aftermath

Large areas of land were confiscated from Māori by the government, under the New Zealand Settlements Act in 1863, supposedly as punishment for rebellion. In reality, land was confiscated from both "loyal" and "rebel" tribes alike. More than four million acres (16,000 km²) of land in total was confiscated. Although about half of this was subsequently paid for or returned to Māori, it was often not returned to its original owners. The confiscations had a lasting impact on the social and economic development of the affected rebel tribes.

The legacy of the New Zealand Wars continues, but these days the battles are mostly fought in courtrooms and around the negotiation table. Numerous reports by the Waitangi Tribunal

Waitangi Tribunal

The Waitangi Tribunal is a New Zealand permanent commission of inquiry established under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975...

have criticised Crown actions during the wars, and also found that Māori too had breached the Treaty.

As part of the negotiated out of court settlements of these tribes' historical claims (Treaty of Waitangi claims and settlements

Treaty of Waitangi claims and settlements

Treaty of Waitangi claims and settlements have been a significant feature of New Zealand race relations and politics since 1975. Over the last 30 years, New Zealand governments have increasingly provided formal legal and political opportunity for Māori to seek redress for breaches by the Crown of...

), the Crown is making formal apologies to tribes.

New Zealand land wars

Conflicts

Participants

Strategy and tactics

Aftermath

See also

Further reading

External links