Empire · since 1840 · Australasia & Oceania

New Zealand

Māori settled New Zealand around 1300, making it one of the last major land masses to be peopled. British colonisation began in earnest after the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, signed by representatives of the British Crown and many Māori chiefs, though its English and Māori versions differed on sovereignty.

Disputes over land led to the New Zealand Wars of the 1840s to 1870s and large confiscations of Māori land. Settlers built a farming economy exporting wool, meat and butter to Britain. New Zealand became a self-governing colony and, in 1893, the first country to give women the vote in national elections. It became a dominion in 1907 and fought for Britain in both world wars. Full independence was adopted in 1947, and from the 1970s the country revived Māori rights and adopted a nuclear-free policy.

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Years

since 1840

Capital

Okiato (Old Russell) 1840–1841, then Auckland, then Wellington from 1865

Greatest extent

1920, about 268,000 km²

Region

Australasia & Oceania

The main islands; it also governed Western Samoa (1920–1962) and the Cook Islands