Maori Wars

The New Zealand Wars, sometimes called the Land Wars and also once called the Māori Wars, were a series of conflicts that took place in New Zealand between 1845 and 1872. The wars were fought over a number of issues, most prominently Māori land being sold to the settler (white) population. The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840, guaranteed that individual Māori iwi (tribes) should have undisturbed possession of their lands, forests, fisheries and other taonga (treasures). Some early colonial land-sale deals had a dubious basis, to say the least, and the parties involved sometimes hurried them through before the signing of the Treaty. To avoid such situations happening again, the newly constituted British colonial authorities decreed that Māori could sell land only to the Crown (the Right of Preemption). However, many settlers did not appreciate that Māori owned their land communally and that permission to settle on land did not always imply sale of that land. Under pressure from settlers, the Colonial Government gradually ignored the provisions of the Treaty of Waitangi and permitted settlers to settle in areas that had uncertain ownership. Māori began resisting the alienation of their homelands to the British settlers, and the whole process sowed the seeds of eventual war.
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