Anglo-Maori Wars

Anglo-Maori Wars A complex series of conflicts following the colonization of New Zealand. In the mid-1840s there were rebellions under the Maori chiefs Hone Heke and Te Rauparaha. In 1860 the Taranaki Wars began, but Wiremu Tamihana, a leader of the KINGITANGA unity movement, negotiated an uneasy truce in 1861. Governor Browne was replaced by Sir George GREY in an attempt to secure peace. Grey and his advisers were reluctant to see the Kingitanga consolidated, for fear that British authority could not be asserted throughout New Zealand, and that land purchases would be halted. Fighting resumed in Taranaki in May 1863 and in July the Waikato was invaded. Fighting with the Kingitanga stopped in 1865 but was sustained by resistance from the Pai Marire (1864–65) and from Titokowaru in Taranaki and Te Kooti on the east coast (1868). London recalled Grey and the British regiments that year, but the pursuit of Titokowaru and Te Kooti, masters of guerrilla warfare, was carried on by settler militia and Maori auxiliaries. The last engagement was in 1872, after which Maori resistance gradually subsided.