Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
protection, food and labour, and Maori came to need European articles, especially mus-
kets. Whaling stations and mission stations were linked to local Maori groups by inter-
marriage, which helped keep the peace. Most warfare was between Maori and Maori: the
terrible intertribal 'Musket Wars' of 1818-36. Because Northland had the majority of
early contact with Europe, its Ngapuhi tribe acquired muskets first. Under their great gen-
eral Hongi Hika, Ngapuhi then raided south, winning bloody victories against tribes
without muskets. Once they acquired muskets, these tribes saw off Ngapuhi, but also
raided further south in their turn. The domino effect continued to the far south of the
South Island in 1836. The missionaries claimed that the Musket Wars then tapered off
through their influence, but the restoration of the balance of power through the equal dis-
tribution of muskets was probably more important.
The Ministry for Culture & Heritage's history website (
www.nzhistory.net.nz
)
is an excellent source of
info on NZ history.
Europe brought such things as pigs (at last) and potatoes, which benefited Maori, while
muskets and diseases had the opposite effect. The negative effects have been exaggerated,
however. Europeans expected peoples like the Maori to simply fade away at contact, and
some early estimates of Maori population were overly high - up to one million. Current
estimates are between 85,000 and 110,000 for 1769. The Musket Wars killed perhaps
20,000, and new diseases did considerable damage too (although NZ had the natural quar-
antine of distance: infected Europeans usually recovered or died during the long voyage,
and smallpox, for example, which devastated native Americans, did not make it here). By
1840, the Maori had been reduced to about 70,000, a decline of at least 20%. Maori bent
under the weight of European contact, but they certainly did not break.
