The Colonization of New Zealand: Before, During, and After

Back then, much of the world was becoming part of the British Empire. One of the countries that got sucked into the great superpower was New Zealand. New Zealand, a series of islands found in Oceania, was found by many countries, but the British was the one who eventually colonized it, as they found that ruling it would be beneficial. With colonizing this area, there were some ups and downs with the British and the indigenous people. Therefore, looking back at history, it is noticeable that the British affected the natives negatively and positively, and has also left a trademark on the culture today that can be found in New Zealand.

Before the arrival of the Polynesians around 950-1130 A.D., New Zealand was unknown of to mankind. The Great Fleet, a mass arrival of Polynesians, arrived in 1350. From these ancestral people came the tribes of Maori and Marori. These two tribes were quite alike, as they branched off from the same ancestors and arrived to NZ at the same time. They lived similar lifestyles as well, such as passing on oral traditions, hunting and gathering, basketry, and more. At this time, the tribes lived a stone-age culture. However, the main difference between the two was that the Marori were very peaceful people. Due to this, they became extinct as of 1933.

A series of Europeans began to discover New Zealand, starting with the Dutch. On December 13, 1642, Abel Janszoon Tasman saw the coast of one of the islands. Due to the impossibility of communication, the first encounter between Europeans and the Maori was bloody. About a hundred years later on October 8, 1769, James Cook of Britain sailed into a bay of New Zealand. Although the British could communicate with the Maori with the language of the Tupaia, the enc...

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...uckland (being the most populated city as this was the hub of the Maori people), a low Maori population and a fading of their culture, and lastly, colonization has made NZ flourish and become a first world country like the United Kingdom as well. To wrap up, colonization has affected what has become of New Zealand today based on how they affected the population in the past.

Works Cited

http://www.history-nz.org/index.html http://www.tourism.net.nz/new-zealand/about-new-zealand/colonisation.html http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/oceania/nztimeln.htm http://www.newzealand.com/us/feature/treaty-of-waitangi/ http://www.historytoday.com/keith-sinclair/maoris-new-zealand-history http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/parl-support/research-papers/00PLLawRP07041/new-zealand-sovereignty-1857-1907-1947-or-1987 http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/self-government-and-independence