Tens of
thousands of Maori died in the intertribal Musket Wars of the 1810s,
1820s and 1830s. Muskets changed the face of intertribal warfare, decimating
the population of some tribes and drastically shifting the boundaries
of areas that others controlled.
Between 1818 and
the early 1830s an estimated 20,000 Maori were killed in what have been
described as the Musket Wars. Thousands more were enslaved or became refugees.
