The Colonial New Zealand Wars

The New Zealand Wars were a series of conflicts that profoundly shaped the course and direction of our nation’s history. Fought between the Crown and various groups of Māori between 1845 and 1872, the wars touched many aspects of life in nineteenth century New Zealand, even in those regions spared actual fighting. Physical remnants or reminders from these conflicts and their aftermath can be found all over the country, whether in central Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, or in more rural locations such as Te Pōrere or Te Awamutu. The wars are an integral part of the New Zealand story but we have not always cared to remember or acknowledge them. Today, however, interest in the wars is resurgent. Public figures are calling for the wars to be taught in all schools and a national day of commemoration was recently established. Following on from the best-selling The Great War for New Zealand, Vincent O'Malley's new book provides a highly accessible introduction to the causes, events and consequences of the New Zealand Wars. The text is supported by extensive full-colour illustrations as well as timelines, graphs and summary tables.

Tim Ryan has collected what is probably the most complete collection of paintings and early photographs of the wars. It is an illustrated military history that describes in detail the campaigns, personalities, weapons, uniforms, fighting styles, conditions and attitudes of each side. It is not a political history of the periods.

Between 1845 and 1872, various groups of Maori were involved in a series of wars of resistance against British settlers. The Maori had a fierce and long-established warrior tradition and subduing them took a lengthy British Army commitment, only surpassed in the Victorian period by that on the North-West Frontier of India. Warfare had been endemic in pre-colonial New Zealand and Maori groups maintained fortified villages or pas. The small early British coastal settlements were tolerated, and in the 1820s a chief named Hongi Hika travelled to Britain with a missionary and returned laden with gifts. He promptly exchanged these for muskets, and began an aggressive 15-year expansion. By the 1860s many Maori had acquired firearms and had perfected their bush-warfare tactics. In the last phase of the wars a religious movement, Pai Maarire ('Hau Hau'), inspired remarkable guerrilla leaders such as Te Kooti Arikirangi to renewed resistance. This final phase saw a reduction in British Army forces. European victory was not total, but led to a negotiated peace that preserved some of the Maori people's territories and freedoms.

Introduction -- Hayward in The Bay of Plenty: The silent Rewi's Last Stand and The Te Kooti Trail -- Hayward in the Waipā: Rewi's Last Stand in the sound era -- Wars in the living room: The Killing of Kane and The Governor -- The Pūhā western: Utu -- Documentary adventures: The New Zealand Wars -- Television histories in uncertain times: Greenstone, Von Tempsky's Ghost and Frontier of Dreams -- Aftermath and memory: In Spring One Plants Alone and Rain of the Children -- Encounter, romance and conflict: River Queen -- Māori creative control and new screens -- Conclusion.

This book offers an exploration of unique laws and customs placed around warfare throughout history, from Indigenous Australians to the American Civil War.

Beyond the Imperial Frontier is an exploration of the different ways Māori and Pākehā ‘fronted’ one another – the zones of contact and encounter – across the nineteenth century. Beginning with a pre-1840 era marked by significant cooperation, Vincent O’Malley details the emergence of a more competitive and conflicted post-Treaty world. As a collected work, these essays also chart the development of a leading New Zealand historian.

First published in 1986, James Belich's groundbreaking book and the television series based upon it transformed New Zealanders' understanding of New Zealand's great "civil war": struggles between Maori and Pakeha in the 19th century. Revealing the enormous tactical and military skill of Maori, and the inability of the Victorian interpretation of racial conflict to acknowledge those qualities, Belich's account of the New Zealand Wars offered a very different picture from the one previously given in historical works. This bestselling classic of New Zealand history and Belich's larger argument about the impact of historical interpretation resonates today.

The New Zealand wars began in 1845 and went on for nearly 30 years. They have been called by many names. Some call them the Maori Wars, the Land Wars and the Colonial Wars. But most they are called the New Zealand Wars, which is probably the simplest and best term. There was no single war. The first fighting occurred in the Bay of Islands in 1845?47. There was another war in Wellington and the Hutt Valley in 1847-48. Before this campaign was finished, fighting had ripped through Taranaki, the Waikato, the Bay of Plenty, Poverty Bay, the Urewera, parts of Hawke's Bay and the Central Plateau. Matthew Wright explains the origins of the wars in each area, and has investigated the people who fought them, how the wars were fought, what the battle sites look like today, the conditions Maori and Pakeha faced during the wars and the different maneuvers employed. He explores the political, social and emotional motivations that led to these disagreements. Historical and contemporary imagery of battle sites is included, as well as maps and illustrations to help children learn about this important era of Aotearoa/New Zealand's history.