kuniga.me > Books > The Penguin History of Aotearoa
This is a comprehensive book about New Zealand, from the early Maōri settlement from East Polynesia to recent years. Overall a very informative book and easy to read.
Eruption of Taupo volcano was possibly described by Romans and Chinese because it affected far away lands
This chapter mentions a theory that suggests that Kumara (sweet potato), a staple from Polynesias, came from South America (likely Peru) and that’s evidence of pre-European contact between Polynesians and Natives from South American.
The East Polynesias that arrived at Chatham Islands became culturally different from the Maōri in New Zealand and were called Moriori.
This chapter describes the first European incursions in the area. In particular, Abel Tasman from the Dutch VOC landed just north of Punakaiki (a famous tourist spot today in South island) but apparently he didn’t spend much time inland. Tasman also names places like the Tasman Sea and the island of Tasmania.
The West coast of Australia used to be called New Holland.
Mentions the visit from other Europeans, Captain Cook, Jean du Surville and George Vancouver. Cook was exploring other Polynesian islands and had with him an interpreter from Tahiti that could communicate with the Maōri. Vancouver also “discovered” the Chatham Islands and gave its current name.
An observation made is that Maōri were considered more violent and organized than Australian aborigines in the eyes of Europeans so this delayed colonization, which was good for the natives since with time Europeans became more “enlightened” and humanistic.
This chapter focuses on the collaboration between Maōri and Europeans on extrativist endeavors, including sealing, whaling, extracting flax and timber. At this time Europeans were still based largely on the East coast of Austrlia.
Gods: Describes early missionary work, mainly from the English Church with some Catholic French.
Guns: Refers to the fact that Europeans started providing guns to Maōri and this changed the warfare. Tribes with guns had tremendous advantage, so they either obliterated competing unarmed tribes or an equilibrium between armed ones happened.
This focuses on the treaty of Waitangi which was vague and the Maōri translation was poor. It was largely used by Europeans to get land from the Maōri tribes.
The treaty was signed by some Maōri chiefs, many not understanding the extension of the treaty, also since Maōri were not a unified entity, there’s debate on whether it had validity across the entire islands.
This describes the Northern Wars between Maōri and settlers in the North island.
The Otago gold rush in the 1860’s the attracted a lot of immigrants to the South island, including Chinese. This increase the wealth of the Scottish settlement of Dunedin (the Gaelic name of Edinburgh). This led to outcomes such as it creating the first university in the country, the University of Otago.
Mentions the Waikato Wars, which was the second and last armed conflict between Maōri and Europeans.
New Zealand abandoned provincial government and opted to a centralized one, unlike the US for example.
There was a depression in the decade of 1980. The technology of refrigeration saved New Zealand’s economy because they could now export meat (lamb) and dairy back to England (its main trade partner).
Describes the rise of the Liberal party which led to a lot of progressive reforms such as land, labor and public health reforms. Women’s suffrage also happened during this time but apparently this was not supported by the party.
I learned that Ernest Rutherford was from New Zealand.
Covers the participation of New Zealand in World War I. Western Samoa (now just Samoa) was under German occupation and New Zealand took over.
They formed an alliance with Australians called the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps). This expeditionary fought against the Ottoman empire in Turkey, at Gallipoli. The casualties were very high and this became memorialized as the ANZAC day (April 25th), a national holiday.
Covers the great depression of 1929. One interesting observation made is that the depression years caused people to look up socialist ideals.
Focuses on discrimination by male European descendants towards other minorities, including Chinese, Māori, women, homosexuals.
Covers New Zealand’s participation in World War II, in particular the battles in Greece and Crete where they failed to repel the Germans. Then the North African campaign (Egypt and Lybia) against Erwin Rommel and the Italians.
Mentions Edmund Hillary, from Auckland, as the first person known to have climbed Mount Everest.
Claims that the Korean war created a boom for New Zealand wool, possibly for the soldier uniforms.
Focuses on the increase care about the environment, focusing in particular on the Save Manapouri campaign.
Lyndon B Johnson was the first president in office to visit New Zealand. England joined the European Community (which eventually became the EU) in 1973. This required New Zealand to diversify its trading outside of Europe.
Rapid Māori urbanization due to farming not being able to sustain a growing population. Clash of cultures in urban centers (before these two populations had largely lived separated).
Reagan insisted New Zealand to be left out of ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand and United States Security Treaty), because of their refusal to let nuclear vessels in.
Treaty of Waitangi was reinterpreted to benefit Māori, for example by allow them to win settlements.
Mentions that European descendants in New Zealand (known as Pākehās) want some form of recognition of their own culture as distinct from that of Europe, in face of the Māori cultural renaissance.