Te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed at Waitangi (Bay of Islands) by Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson and dozens of Māori rangatira, establishing the foundational (and contested, bilingual) basis for British governance and Māori rights guarantees in New Zealand.
The Crown proclaimed British sovereignty over New Zealand, formalising annexation in colonial governance terms and setting the stage for Crown land purchase policy, settlement expansion, and later conflict over Treaty meaning and authority.
Armed conflict erupted in the north when fighting began at Kororāreka/Russell during the Flagstaff War (a major early post-Treaty conflict), reflecting escalating disputes over sovereignty, authority, and the impacts of colonial administration.
The UK Parliament’s New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 was assented, laying out representative institutions (General Assembly and provinces) that expanded settler political power and shaped colonial governance structures affecting Māori land policy and decision-making.
Governor George Grey proclaimed the 1852 Constitution Act into force, initiating representative government arrangements that increasingly centred colonial institutions in determining land law and governance.
Pōtatau Te Wherowhero was crowned as the first Māori King, formalising the Kīngitanga movement—an important Māori political response aimed in part at resisting land alienation and strengthening inter-iwi unity amid intensifying settler demand for land.
Fighting began in Taranaki over a contested land purchase at Waitara, marking the first major conflict of the 1860–70s New Zealand Wars and intensifying Crown–Māori confrontation over land and authority.
Governor Thomas Gore Browne convened a large hui at Kohimarama to discuss the Treaty and land, partly to counter the influence of the Kīngitanga and to stabilise Crown–Māori relations during wartime; attendees reaffirmed the Treaty and pledged not to act against the Queen’s sovereignty.
British troops crossed the Mangatāwhiri Stream—seen by the Kīngitanga as a declaration of war—starting the Waikato campaign (1863–64) that culminated in major defeats for Kīngitanga forces and paved the way for extensive land confiscations.
Parliament passed the New Zealand Settlements Act, authorising confiscation (raupatu) of land from iwi and hapū deemed to be in “rebellion,” embedding dispossession into statutory law and facilitating military-settler colonisation in confiscated districts.
The Native Rights Act confirmed in statute that Māori were natural-born subjects of the Crown, reinforcing Article 3’s promise of equal status—while land tenure and land-purchase policy remained key grounds for conflict and legal pressure.
The Native Lands Act 1865 consolidated and extended the Native Land Court system, accelerating conversion of customary land tenure into court-recognised titles that were easier to purchase and transfer—an institutional driver of large-scale Māori land alienation in the late 19th century.
Legislation created four Māori electorates in Parliament, incorporating Māori representation into colonial political institutions—but with limited seat numbers relative to population and alongside continuing legal and military pressures affecting land and governance.
The West Coast Settlement Reserves Act 1892 established a new leasing and administration scheme for reserves (notably in Taranaki), part of the late-19th-century governance framework managing (and often constraining) Māori land interests after earlier confiscations and disputed settlement policies.
Te Kotahitanga convened its first formal session (Waipatu) as a pan-tribal Māori Parliament movement, seeking recognition, stronger Treaty observance, and protection of Māori land during a period of continuing dispossession through law, leasing, and purchase.
Treaty of Waitangi, colonial governance, and land dispossession in New Zealand (1840–1900)
