The Northern War, fought in the Bay of Islands in 1845-46, 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.
Actions by the Colonial government cost Maori in the Bay of Islands in terms of lost trade and opportunities. Heke feared that chiefly authority was now subservient to that of the British Crown
Grey assumed control on 18 November 1845. He believed FitzRoy’s
negotiations were ‘inconsistent with the interests of the British
Government’. Negotiations broke down in early December. Grey ordered Despard to move against Kawiti's new pa, Ruapekapeka.
Ruapekapeka may have been a tactical victory for the British. But many
consider the battle to be a draw. Heke and Kawiti had escaped with
their forces largely intact. The terms of the peace settlement that
followed suggests that the Maori had enjoyed a strategic victory.
The battle at Ruapekapeka, the 'bats nest’, was the last encounter of the Northern War. Debate soon raged as to whether the pa had been abandoned by its defenders or captured by the British.
