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A Short History of New Zealand

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Polynesians settled in New Zealand within 1000 and 1300 CE. The descendants of these early settlers were recognized as the Māori. They formed their own culture and cultivated food plants they brought. The crews of the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman were the first Europeans to arrive in New Zealand. During the late 1790s, the British, French, and Americans are actively trading, hunting, and sealing ships around the waters of New Zealand. In the early 1800s, missionaries started settling in the country and converting Māori to Christianity.

On February 6, 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by Captain William Hobson and 40 Māori chiefs giving Māori authority over their lands as well as equal rights of British citizens. But the true meaning of the treaty remains an issue for it is supposed to give Britain sovereignty over New Zealand. Between 1870 and 1880, a great number of Chinese men migrated to the country to work on the South Island goldfields.

In the early 1890s, the First Liberal government was established. New Zealand joined the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 and was changed from being a colony to a separate “dominion” in 1907 with equal status to Canada and Australia. When World War II erupted, the country contributed many troops which helped against attack from the Japanese forces. By the 1984, the Fourth Labour government initiated a restructuring policy called “Rogernomics”. The Fifth Labour government was headed by Helen Clark in 1999 which has maintained several of the previous government’s economic policies.