Expanding World New Country : 19th Century New Zealand from 3000BC to Today

The first section of Expanding World, New Country, (EWNC) tracks the transformation from the earliest origins in the long-range Polynesian migrations, which brought the ancestors of the Maori to New Zealand. The text draws on the latest scientific, archaeological and ethnographic research.

The next section looks at the development of Maori society through the colonisation, transitional and traditional phases. Shifting focus to Europe with an overview of the Age of Discovery and the Enlightenment, progressing through to Cooks voyages of exploration to New Zealand. The fourth section explores the arrival of, and Maori interaction with, those who came to exploit the countrys resources as well as the missionaries. This period laid the foundation for the Treaty of Waitangi.

In the fifth section the text explores the two sides of understandings held on what the Treaty document said and the ongoing implications this had. With the end of unified Maori resistance, the government confiscated land and introduced laws further breaking down Maori communal ownership of land and transferring vast quantities to settler ownership. The loss of this economic base accelerated Maori marginalisation as settler numbers boomed. For Maori, the post-wars period becomes one of adjustment to the increasing loss of autonomy, witnessed through the rise of both prophet movements and political efforts.

The final section begins by looking at the socio-economic and political inequalities in Britain, exacerbated by the Industrial Revolution. Concurrent with this were the attempts by Wakefields New Zealand Company and the colonys provincial and central governments to attract what ended up being a tiny proportion of this outflow to these shores. Once here, attention is turned to the nature of both the settlements formed and the values, institutions and expectations of the new New Zealanders, including gender roles, class, societal structure and relationships with the State.

Featured in the 16 September 2019 New Zealand newsletter.
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Featured in the October Cool for Schools newsletter.
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