New Zealand’s human history began with the Maori people, thought to have arrived over 1,000 years ago on canoes from a South Pacific homeland known as Hawaiki. Maori named the land Aotearoa, ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’, and developed a very successful society.
The first European to sight New Zealand was Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer, in 1642. He never set foot on New Zealand soil but annexed the country for Holland. In 1769, Briton Captain James Cook was searching for a southern continent when his cabin boy sighted land near Gisborne. Cook then successfully circumnavigated and mapped the country.
European migration began soon after and by 1839 there were an estimated 2,000 Europeans in New Zealand. On 6 February 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, an agreement between the British Crown and signatory Maori Chiefs establishing British law while guaranteeing Maori authority over their land and culture.
A moment in history …
- 1893 – New Zealand became the first country in the world to allow women to vote.
- 1918 – a lethal flu pandemic killed 8,600 in three months.
- 1947 – independence from Britain was formally proclaimed.
- 1951 – a bitter and bloody 151-day strike by waterfront unionist workers consumed the country.
- 1953 – monarchy fever gripped the nation with the visit of the young Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip.
- 1958 – the death penalty was permanently abolished.
- 1975 – Te Roopu O Te Matakite O Aotearoa – the Maori land march protest arrived at Parliament after walking from Northland.
- 1981 – the country was divided as the touring Springbok rugby team sparked fierce protests against apartheid in South Africa.
- 1982 – the All Whites, New Zealand’s soccer team, made their only appearance in a World Cup final.
- 1984 – New Zealand was declared nuclear-free.
- 1985 – Greenpeace protest ship Rainbow Warrior was bombed by French spies. A Portuguese crew member was killed.
