Aftermath - Musket Wars

End of the wars

Ngāpuhi war expedition, 1820s

The wars peaked in the 1830s, by which time most tribes were heavily armed. Quick, decisive battles no longer seemed possible and rivals looked for ways to make peace without losing face. The Christian missionaries ‘long ignored by warring chiefs … provided a circuit-breaker’. On his deathbed, Hongi Hika had apparently told his people to allow the missionaries to stay.

The truth of the matter was that Māori were war-weary. Their economy could no longer sustain these campaigns and some of the reasons for fighting had passed. 

Shifting boundaries

1820s iwi movements map

Some of these campaigns drove tribes out of their traditional areas and into exile with relatives. Some regions were depopulated, confusing issues of ownership. When migrating iwi faced resistance from tangata whenua (local peoples), conflict spread further afield and new reasons for fighting were introduced.

In recent claims to the Waitangi Tribunal, some iwi have argued that muskets enabled land to be unfairly acquired. There have been calls for tribal boundaries to be recognised as they were prior to European contact.

The acquisition of land by conquest was well established in Māori tikanga (custom). Ballara locates these wars on a continuum of political and social interaction from the 18th century. Hongi’s desire to gain utu for a previous battle tends to support this conclusion.

Place in New Zealand history

In The Penguin Book of New Zealanders at War, Gavin McLean points out that despite the massive carnage and dislocation associated with these wars they remain ‘shadowy events for many New Zealanders’. This may reflect views about when New Zealand history ‘starts’. These conflicts were almost exclusively the concern of Māori, with European participation largely confined to the supply of weapons. As such they were of no great consequence to early writers seeking a grand narrative of European colonisation.

Setting aside their impact on internal Māori politics, the Musket Wars – and in particular the unease of British authorities at the participation of traders in them – contributed to the decision to colonise New Zealand in 1840.