Colonial New Zealand - Rule By Musket & Royals:

In the 1850's here in the South Pacific there was lots of gunfire - mostly from large bore musketry. The period between 1845 and 1872 is now known as 'The Maori Wars' but there was plenty of inter-tribal warfare earlier - and some even later.

At the same time that this deadly inter-tribal rivalry was at it's hottest - white Europeans were moving into New Zealand to grab control and ownership of the best lands for settlement.

The earlier period of conflict 1807-1842 - is called 'THE MUSKET WARS' .. when in 1820 Chief Hongi Hika traveled to Sydney  .. then to London .. and again to Sydney. On all occasions he concluded trading and land-for-guns deals - gaining his first bulk consignment of some 500 muskets from Sydney in 1821.

The whole era 1800 to 1875 was truly a free-for-all punch-up with tribe against tribe and pakeha settlers circling the land with intent. Well before this time there was plenty of warfare and enemy-eating too - but the difference now is MUSKETS and cannon.

The greater armed military strength of some tribal groups gave conquest - and conquest gave slaves to work the land - more land and workers gave more produce to trade for more guns and powder.

Pigs, potatoes, smoked heads, flax, and land passed from capitalist Maori to European traders in exchange for technology, Christianity and the English Monarchy.

(That "Honi Pense" bit roughly means "Shame on the one sees something bad in it!"(what?)... The 'Dieu et mon droit' bit means "God and my right." (I know my rights).

In 1857 some Maori attempted to unify as one people by electing Pōtatau Te Wherowhero as the first Maori King to rival Queen Victoria (Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld - Reuss-Ebersdorf).

As you might guess this Kingitanga development met with a mixed response from Pakeha colonists - and from some other non-compliant tribes.

 However - to this day - here in New Zealand we have TWO royal families - the unelected Queen Elizabeth Mountbatten-Windsor II (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) with her husband The Duke of Edinborough (Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glūcksburg - Battenberg) .. and the elected Maori King who has little recognition but is currently under scrutiny about possible financial irregularity..

A small side issue here - but it would be rude of me not to mention - The European female figure sharing our Coat of Arms with a Maori Chief - is "ZEALANDIA" (Mother of The Nation and Daughter of Britannia).

- Following the election of the First National Government in 1949, the new Attorney-General, Jack Marshall requested the woman to be re-drawn based on the likeness of Grace Kelly, an American favorite actress of his. (Grace Kelly ended her film career with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1956 by becoming herself a "Royal" "Princess of Monaco" by marrying Prince Rainier III.(Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi).

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There was a Royal family in an US State - also Polynesian. In 1810 the islands of Hawaii were united as one Kingdom under the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1887 the US leased Pearl Harbor - However in 1893 the Hawaiian royal family was deposed and imprisoned following a State Department approved landing by 162 US Marines & sailors from the USS 'BOSTON' in 1889.

USS BOSTON Landing Force Honolulu January 16 1893.

- It's all about control of land and the product of land .. Muskets help to secure it.

Marty K.