Considering the Maori supported slavery, cannibalism and infanticide I am glad that the crown won. Also considering that over 70% of families will lose their wealth over a few generations I don’t think the NZ wars had much effect on the Maori today. Also only around 2000 Maori and around 1000 British died over a 25 year period so the NZ Wars were very small in scale. A good chunk of the land was also being used by small Maori war bands to lunch raids and conduct a gorilla war against the British. If you study the 2nd boar war then you’d know that the British did a similar but improved tactic. When fighting a gorilla army controlling the land is very important. I personally think the Musket Wars were more important than the NZ Wars because around 40,000 Maori were killed, that was almost half the population.
The truth is that the Crown stole political power from Māori via the NZ Land wars. The Crown also stole millions of acres of Māori land and privileged Pākeha at the expense of Māori who effectively became landless refugees in their own country. Let's not ignore the many Māori leaders who were imprisoned without trial, or the women who were raped by the British soldiers during this period. Let's also examine the Colonial Government policies & laws such as The Constitution Act 1852, NZ Settlements Act 1863, Native Schools Act 1867 that were created for the purpose of stealing resources from Māori and giving to Pākeha. No wonder many Pākeha are glad the Crown won. Despite the Crown signing the TOW, they had no interest in sharing power with Māori. They saw themselves as the apex of their own imagined racial pyramid and Māori as less than human. I'm glad that the NZ Land Wars will now be taught in schools. In Germany they teach their people about Hitler & WW2. In South Africa they teach their people about apartheid. In NZ, we've tried to bury our dark history on the land wars and tried to pretend that the country is based on values such as 'fairness' and 'egalitarianism'.
The Crown never won.
Considering the Maori supported slavery, cannibalism and infanticide I am glad that the crown won. Also considering that over 70% of families will lose their wealth over a few generations I don’t think the NZ wars had much effect on the Maori today. Also only around 2000 Maori and around 1000 British died over a 25 year period so the NZ Wars were very small in scale. A good chunk of the land was also being used by small Maori war bands to lunch raids and conduct a gorilla war against the British. If you study the 2nd boar war then you’d know that the British did a similar but improved tactic. When fighting a gorilla army controlling the land is very important. I personally think the Musket Wars were more important than the NZ Wars because around 40,000 Maori were killed, that was almost half the population.
The truth is that the Crown stole political power from Māori via the NZ Land wars. The Crown also stole millions of acres of Māori land and privileged Pākeha at the expense of Māori who effectively became landless refugees in their own country. Let's not ignore the many Māori leaders who were imprisoned without trial, or the women who were raped by the British soldiers during this period. Let's also examine the Colonial Government policies & laws such as The Constitution Act 1852, NZ Settlements Act 1863, Native Schools Act 1867 that were created for the purpose of stealing resources from Māori and giving to Pākeha. No wonder many Pākeha are glad the Crown won.
Despite the Crown signing the TOW, they had no interest in sharing power with Māori. They saw themselves as the apex of their own imagined racial pyramid and Māori as less than human. I'm glad that the NZ Land Wars will now be taught in schools. In Germany they teach their people about Hitler & WW2. In South Africa they teach their people about apartheid. In NZ, we've tried to bury our dark history on the land wars and tried to pretend that the country is based on values such as 'fairness' and 'egalitarianism'.