A Maori Māori of New Zealand equipped for fighting 1868 musket tribal warfare army soldier gunpowder powder rifle
Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of Aotearoa (New Zealand). The group probably arrived in south-western Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300. The Māori settled the islands and developed a distinct culture. Europeans came to New Zealand in increasing numbers from the late 18th century, and the weapon technologies and diseases they brought with them destabilised Māori society. After 1840, Māori lost much of their land and went into a cultural and numerical decline, but their population began to increase again from the late 19th century, and a cultural revival began in the 1960s. During the period from 1805 to 1840 the acquisition of muskets by tribes in close contact with European visitors upset the balance of power among Māori tribes, leading to a period of bloody inter-tribal warfare, known as the Musket Wars, which resulted in the decimation of several tribes and the driving of others from their traditional territory. European diseases such as influenza and measles also killed an unknown number of Māori: estimates vary between ten and fifty per cent. Economic changes also took a toll; migration into unhealthy swamplands to produce and export flax led to further mortality. With increasing Christian missionary activity, growing European settlement in the 1830s and the perceived lawlessness of Europeans in New Zealand, the British Crown, as a world power, came under pressure to intervene. Ultimately, Whitehall sent William Hobson with instructions to take possession of New Zealand. Before he arrived, Queen Victoria annexed New Zealand by royal proclamation in January 1840. On arrival in February 1840, Hobson negotiated the Treaty of Waitangi with northern chiefs. Other Māori chiefs subsequently signed this treaty. In the end, only 500 chiefs out of the 1500 sub-tribes of New Zealand signed the Treaty, and some influential chiefs — such as Te Wherowhero in Waikato, and Te Kani-a-Takirau from the east coast of the North Island — refused to
Size: 3363px × 5025px
Photo credit: © 19th era / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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