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10 Most Famous Historical Events that Happened in New Zealand

New Zealand is a country with a rich historical background and it features events that changed the trajectory of the country. The events provide great insight into how the events have made the country the way it is now in that each event has an impact on the way the country is managed.

Therefore, this article will explore the ten most famous historical events that happened in New Zealand. This article will be critical in increasing the reader’s knowledge of the country and also enlightening them on the impact of some events so that they can be aware of the decisions made in their own countries by the government.

1. The treaty of Waitangi

The treaty is considered to be New Zealand’s founding document and it was signed in 1840. The document was an agreement between the Maori chiefs and the British Crown that gave Britain full sovereignty of the country. This treaty was controversial in that the Maori version and the British version were different which means that the chiefs were duped into signing an agreement that did not entail what they had discussed.

The events had a huge impact in that they meant that New Zealand had given full authority to Britain and thus resulting in problems such as land wars cropping up. In contemporary society, the treaty is honoured in court proceedings and legislation.

2. The New Zealand Wars

There were a series of land wars from 1845 to 1872. The inter-tribal Musket Wars destroyed many Maori tribes and resulted in several land ownership complications. Coupled with the Treaty of Waitangi, the country had a collection of conflicts as people wanted to protect their territory from the European settlers who were coming in.

Many of the casualties in New Zealand’s war were the Maoris as they did not have sophisticated weapons to fight the Europeans.

3. Women’s voting rights

New Zealand was progressive in terms of women’s voting rights. In 1893 the country became the first self-governing country to grant women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Lord Glasgow who was the governor during that time signed the Electoral Act. The act was enacted after years of petitions and suffrage movements.

These campaigns were led by Kate Sheppard who was inspired by the American-based Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

4. The Gallipoli Campaign and World War 1

The Gallipoli Campaign happened during the First World War. It is said that the campaign created a sense of National identity in New Zealand. The First World War enlisted men who were between the age of 20 and 45 to go to battle. Most of them were killed and wounded and thus affected many communities and families who were back home.

In present times, there is a memorial day on 25^th April that commemorates the death of those soldiers that were killed in battle.

5. The Hawke’s Bay Earthquake

This was the deadliest earthquake that happened in New Zealand. Hawke’s bay was the region that was struck by a magnitude quake of 7.8. The earthquake took 256 lives but some unofficial accounts say that 258 people were killed in the earthquake.

A silver lining that came from the earthquake resulted in the transformation of Hawke’s Bay into a thriving Art Deco region. This in turn made the region beautiful and thus attracted people to settle the region.

6. New Zealand’s independence

Bew Zealand was officially recognised as a British Empire Dominion in 1907 and it stooped being a colony. However, the change did not have a big impact on the country when the legal and political standing is looked at. Therefore, the people of New Zealand wanted full independence from Britain.

Even though the Statute of Westminster of 1931 revoked London’s right to legislate for The British Dominions without proper permission, this change did not take effect in New Zealand until 1947.

7. The Dawn Raids

The Dawn Raids are known for being perhaps of the most obscure moments in New Zealand race relations. Somewhere in the range of 1974 and 1976, the police started attacking the homes of thought ‘overstayers’ – seasonal workers with expired visas. This was typically done around the evening time or in the early hours of the morning. Samoan and Tongan travellers were singled out, notwithstanding the way that numerous brief settlers had come from Australia and Britain.

8. MMP voting system

A referendum was held in 1993 in New Zealand that sought to change the voting system from the traditional first past the post method to the mixed member proportional method that was more inclusive. This event was considered a dramatic change in that it allowed more political parties to be formed and thus ensured that the parliament had representatives from different levels of society.

The change was considered a positive one because there had been no events that had an impact on the voting policies since the time of the women’s suffrage movement.

9. The first female prime minister in the country

After a successful effort to remove her predecessor, Jim Bolger, Jenny Shipley was elected as New Zealand’s first female prime minister. She held several ministerial positions between 1990 and 1997, including those for women’s affairs, social welfare, and health, the latter two of which were the ones where she generated the greatest controversy. Shipley resigned from the legislature in 1998, allowing Helen Clark, the first elected woman prime minister, to take office in 1999.

10. The Foreshore and Seabed Act in 2004

Early colonial times can be used to trace disagreements over Maori claims to the foreshore (the area of land covered by the tide) and the seabed (the area of the ocean close to the coast). But the Foreshore and Seabed Act of 2004—which firmly established the Crown as the land’s owner—was only established as a result of a 1997 lawsuit launched by Maori in the Marlborough Sounds. The Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011, which institutes a “no ownership” policy, was passed in response to several protests and ongoing discussions.