Maori wars (1845-72) (also known as New Zealand wars; the 1860-72 period is also known as te riri pakeha, white man's anger). These were conflicts between Maori tribes of the North Island and the British authorities, imperial and colonial. The cause was the usual tension between land-hungry settlers and the natives, compounded by the British assumption that they had acquired full sovereignty over the Maori by the Treaty of Waitingi in 1840, and the Maori conviction that their autonomy persisted. The first major clash was the Northern war (1845-6), also known as Heke's war (after Maori leader Hone Heke) or the Flagstaff war, fought in and around the Bay of Islands. The result was inconclusive, despite the eventual deployment of 1, 300 British troops. Clashes between the British and elements of the Ngati Toa alliance followed at Wellington, in 1846, and Wanganui, in 1847. The net effect of the wars of the 1840s, which were localized and small in scale, was to confirm that Maori autonomy persisted in most areas. Maori disadvantages in numbers and resources were balanced by the transformation of their traditional fortified villages (pas) into trench-and-bunker earthworks capable of withstanding artillery bombardment and requiring besiegers to take them by sapping.
Conflict again broke out in Taranaki in 1860-1, with British forces totalling 3, 500 opposing local tribes supported by warriors from the Maori King Movement, established to consolidate resistance in 1858. The first Taranaki war too was drawn, with each side winning a couple of battles. Maori autonomy remained intact, but faced a full-scale onslaught in 1863 when the British launched a well-prepared invasion of the Waikato, the core territory of the King Movement. The invasion was masterminded by Gov Sir George Grey and the able Scots Gen Duncan Cameron. The British mobilization, including colonial units and allied Maori, amounted to about 20, 000 troops. Despite unprecedented intertribal co-operation, the resisting Maori could muster no more than 5, 000. The Maori were able to delay, but not halt, a continuous British push south from Auckland into the central Waikato. Some 230 Maori did inflict a shock defeat on 1, 700 British troops at the battle of Gate Pa, near Tauranga, on 29 April 1864. By late 1864, it was clear that the British had won the second Taranaki war on points, but they had been unable to destroy the King Movement, or Maori independence beyond the frontier. Imperial troops conducted two further campaigns in the Wanganui-South Taranaki area in 1865-6, then left the remaining fighting to colonial troops and their Maori allies, known as kupapa.
From April 1864 a new conflict erupted, involving followers of a series of Maori prophetic leaders, beginning with Te Ua Haumene, who fought a guerrilla war. Internecine conflict between and within tribes increased, as did the killing of non-combatants by both sides. Fighting died down in 1867, then rekindled in 1868 with the remarkable resistance efforts of two Maori prophet-generals, Titokowaru and Te Kooti. Their victories almost brought the colonial government to its knees by the end of the year, but it was saved early in 1869 by a victory over Te Kooti at Ngatapa and by the collapse of Titokowaru's forces due to an internal dispute. Government forces were unable to capture either leader, but kept trying until 1872.
The wars shattered traditional Maori society, but left a legacy of treaties that their descendants have used in recent years to claim back large parts of North Island. Their formidable pas and their military skill made the Maoris a rare example of an indigenous people very nearly holding the imperial tide at bay.
— Brian Bond
