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New Zealand's 19th-century wars
War shaped 19th-century New Zealand. The intertribal Musket Wars took many Maori lives. British and colonial forces later fought to open up the North Island for settlement. more...
Musket Wars
Between 1818 and the early 1830s an estimated 20,000 Maori were killed in what have been described as the Musket Wars. more...
The Wairau incident
On 17 June 1843, 22 European settlers and four Maori were killed when an armed party of New Zealand Company settlers and Ngati Toa clashed over the purchase of land in the Wairau valley, south-east of Nelson. more...
The Northern War
The Northern War was the first serious challenge to the Crown in the years after the Treaty of Waitangi. Its opening shots marked the beginning of the wider North Island conflicts often referred to as the New Zealand Wars. more...
War in Wanganui
The roots of the conflict that erupted in Wanganui in the autumn and winter of 1847 went much deeper than the accidental shooting of a local Maori man more...
War in Wellington
Disagreements over the purchase of land by the New Zealand Company led to a series of skirmishes between local Maori and Government forces in the Wellington area between 1845-6 more...
South African 'Boer' War
The South African War took New Zealand troops to a foreign battlefield for the first time. It was a flashpoint for longstanding imperial tensions in southern Africa. more...
