What Is In a Name? New Zealand's Civil War

The wars of the 1860s had been called many things, Māori wars, rebellions, land wars, a contest over sovereignty, one of England's little wars and wars of colonial expansion. James Belich fell back on the New Zealand Wars, a term used at the time, but chosen to define the wars as generally as possible.

Despite this, for Belich the wars were primarily about the expansion of empire, turning the Crown's notional sovereignty into something more effective on the ground. This lecture will explore these wars more as civil wars, acknowledging parallels between another great conflict occurring at the time, the US Civil War.

Both the British Crown and the Māori forces opposing can be seen as disputing not so much Māori independence, but the nature the new society which had been created in 1840 and its future.
Entry by $3 donation to the Royal NZ Engineers Charitable Trust.

Event Central, Ground Floor, Central Library.

Presented by Professor Michael Belgrave.