European Contact

Early contact, exploration, sealing, flax trading, whaling. The first known visits to New Zealand after initial Polynesian settlement were by explorers from Europe. New Zealand was given its modern name by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642. The next visit was by James Cook in 1769 who was leading a scientific expedition to the Pacific and who managed to chart, with remarkable accuracy, the whole of the coastline of the country. The main contributions of these visits to archaeology are the observations made about how people lived and, from 1769 onward, the material culture collected and now held in museums in Europe and elsewhere. Within decades of Cook’s visits, European commerce began to move into New Zealand waters. The most important resources New Zealand had to offer were flax (Phormium tenax - mainly used for making rope), sealskins, and tall, straight kauri (Agathis australis) trees in the north of the country which were sought after as spars for ships. The earliest European settlements were in places with good harbors adjacent to supplies of these resources. These include Bluff and Riverton, near the southern tip of the South Island which were close to good sealing grounds and stands of flax, and the Bay of Islands, close to kauri forests.

European contact wrought many rapid changes to Maori society and culture. Perhaps one of the most significant in terms of social organization and belief systems was that of Christianity, although unlike other parts of Polynesia large-scale conversion took many decades. It introduced many new technologies (iron, muskets) and major new food types (potato, wheat, pig). Alcohol, tobacco, and new diseases were less beneficial European introductions.

Although there were many changes to Maori life-ways as a result of European contact and commerce, there were, again, many lines of continuity. In spite of the introduction of Christianity, traditional practices and beliefs continued, modified as necessary to conform to new ideologies. Many traditional architectural forms and settlement structures seem to have continued, as did the use of pa. Maori were actively engaged in commerce from at least the late 1790s and had become a major economic force in the south Pacific five decades later. Through commercial activity muskets had become readily available to those tribes situated close to European settlements and by the 1820s, this had caused an imbalance in power relations. A period of widespread musket warfare ensued during which time pa designs changed to accommodate the use of guns. The new ‘gunfighter pa’ were designed with corner bastions that allowed flanking fire along the outer walls of the fortifications. The tribes that obtained the earliest arsenals of muskets were able to expand rapidly into neighboring territory and numerous such expansions are documented for the early nineteenth century. Later, disputes over land acquisition and access to commercial opportunities led to conflict with the European settlers resulting in the Land Wars which lasted on and off for almost three decades from the mid-1840s. During this time pa were adapted for defense against artillery fire with deep trenches and underground chambers reinforced with timber roofs and walls. Such sites are important features of the archaeological landscape relating directly to the formative period during which modern New Zealand society was forged.