Pre-treaty history
The contact period (1642-1840)
The contact period began in 1642 with the arrival of Captain Abel Tasman and his crew in search for trade goods such as gold , tea ,spices etc . They were the first Europeans to have sighted New Zealand on December 13 1642 .The first contact left an undesired taste between the two races.It all began when Tasman and his crew misinterpret the horn that the Maori blew ,Tasman and his crew took the sound as a sign of welcome but in reality it was an invitation to war, unknowingly Tasman and his crew blew back the Maori accepting the challenge .This later led to Maori attacking Tasman and his crew and in result lead to injured luckily Tasman was able to escape but vowed to never set foot in New Zealand again " (We left immediately) since we could not hope to enter into friendly encounter with these people ..We must consider the inhabitants of this country as enemies - Tasman' Diary Tasman would name later rename golden bay as murders bay .Tasman would later marked New Zealand on the maps and no one visited New Zealand for another 127 years . |
Captain James Cook (1769)
Captain James Cook was the second explorer to discover New Zealand , 127 years after Tasman. Captain Cook arrived on the 6th of 4October 1769 in Poverty bay. Cook unlike Tasman wasn't rejected by the Maori people as he had brought his Tahitian translator Tupaia .Cook would use Tupaia to communicate with maori which resulted in a co-perative relations with another .Cook would also circumnavigate NZ .Cook often strict amoung his crew and refused to have women on board ,men would have to sleep outside where they were likely to be attacked,
Jean De Surville (1769) and Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne
These men were both French explorers . They were both initially accpeted when they arrive but after a few day they had appered to have overstay their welcome . During there stay the French were described a "amourous" as they had relations with the Maori females causing them to catch sexual transmitted diseases.While both of them overstayed their welcome Du Fresne broke tapu and it resulted in him and his crewbeing killed and eaten , While with De surville he killed a Maori village because he belived that they were stealing from the ship and after he kills people from the village he then kidnaps one of the chiefs at the time .