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The New Zealand Wars, which were long known as the Māori Wars, were a series of armed conflicts that took place in New Zealand from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand government and indigenous Māori. Though the wars were initially localised conflicts triggered by tensions over disputed land purchases, they escalated dramatically from 1860 as the government became convinced it was facing a united Māori resistance to further land sales and a refusal to acknowledge Crown sovereignty. The government summoned thousands of British troops to mount major campaigns to overpower the Māori King Movement and also acquire farming and residential land for English settlers. Later campaigns were aimed at quashing the so-called Hauhau movement, an extremist part of the Pai Marire religion, which was strongly opposed to the alienation of Māori land and eager to strengthen Māori identity. At the peak of hostilities in the 1860s, 18,000 British troops, supported by artillery, cavalry and local militia, battled about 4000 Māori warriors in what became a gross imbalance of manpower and weaponry. Although outnumbered, the Māori were able to withstand their enemy with techniques that included anti-artillery bunkers and the use of carefully placed pa, or fortified villages, that allowed them to block their enemy advance and often inflict heavy losses, yet quickly abandon their positions without significant loss. Guerilla-style tactics were used by both sides in later campaigns, often fought in dense bush. Over the course of the Taranaki and Waikato campaigns the lives of about 1800 Māori and 800 Europeans were lost〔 and total Māori losses over the course of all the wars may have exceeded 2100. Violence over land ownership broke out first in the Wairau Valley in the South Island in June 1843, but rising tensions in Taranaki eventually led to the involvement of British military forces at Waitara in March 1860. The war between the government and ''Kīngitanga'' (King Movement) Māori spread to other areas of the North Island, with the biggest single campaign being the invasion of Waikato in 1863–64, before hostilities concluded with the pursuits of warlord Riwha Titokowaru in Taranaki (1868–69) and guerrilla fighter Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki on the east coast (1868–72). Although Māori were initially fought by British forces, the New Zealand government developed its own military force, including local militia, rifle volunteer groups, the specialist Forest Rangers and pro-government Māori. The government also responded with legislation to imprison Māori opponents and confiscate expansive areas of the North Island for sale to settlers, with the funds used to cover war expenses—punitive measures that on the east and west coasts provoked an intensification of Māori resistance and aggression. ==Background== The 1840 Treaty of Waitangi guaranteed that individual Māori ''iwi'' (tribes) should have undisturbed possession of their lands, forests, fisheries and other ''taonga'' (treasures) in return for becoming British subjects, selling land to the government only and surrendering sovereignty to the British Government. Historians, however, have debated whether Māori signatories fully understood this last point, due to the possible mistranslation of the word "sovereignty" in the treaty copies. The majority of Māori wanted to sign in order to consolidate peace and in the hope of ending the long intertribal Musket Wars (1807–1842). They also wished to acquire the technological culture of the British. All pre-treaty colonial land-sale deals had taken place directly between two parties. In the early period of contact Māori generally sought trade with Europeans. The British and the French established mission stations, and missionaries received land from iwi for houses, schools, churches and farms. Traders, Sydney businessmen and the New Zealand Company had bought large tracts of land before 1840 and the British government at Westminster became concerned about protecting Māori from exploitation. As part of the Treaty of Waitangi, colonial authorities decreed that Māori could sell land only to the Crown (the Right of Pre-emption). But as the New Zealand colonial government—pressured by immigrant European settlers—tried to speed up land sales to provide farmland, it met resistance from the Māori King Movement, or ''Kīngitanga'', which emerged in the 1850s and opposed further European encroachment. Governor Thomas Gore Browne's provocative purchase of a disputed block of land at Waitara in 1859 set the government on a collision course with the Kingitanga movement, and the government interpreted the Kingitanga response as a challenge to the Crown's authority. Governor Gore Browne succeeded in bringing 3500 Imperial troops from the Australian colonies to quash this perceived challenge, and within four years a total of 9000 British troops had arrived in New Zealand, assisted by more than 4000 colonial and ''kupapa'' (pro-government Māori) fighters as the government sought a decisive victory over the "rebel" Māori. The use of a punitive land confiscation policy from 1865, depriving "rebel" Māori of the means of living, fuelled further Māori anger and resentment, fanning the flames of conflict in Taranaki (1863-1866) and on the east coast (1865-1866). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「New Zealand Wars」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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