Musket Wars - Examine a significant situation in the context of change

The Musket Wars

These activities form part of a larger examination of New Zealand before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. To help you complete them refer to the relevant feature on NZHistory.net.nz as well as any other material you might have. It is a good opportunity to explore the issue of change in early nineteenth-century New Zealand and to consider some of the historiographical debate surrounding these wars.

War had a great impact on New Zealand in the nineteenth century. Firearms revolutionised warfare around the Pacific and their acquisition became a feature of early contact between Maori and Pakeha. The inter-tribal wars waged between 1818 and the 1830s often involved the widespread use of muskets. The campaigns have become known as the Musket Wars. This label implied that the musket was the dominant feature of these wars. Those who supported the notion of fatal impact argued that Europeans had introduced the musket so it was contact with Europeans and their technologies that were to blame for these wars.

This highlights an important part of both studying history and successfully writing a sustained argument for the purposes of assessment - historiography.

Historiography is a term many students have never encountered before Level 3. Essays for NCEA Level 3 require students to demonstrate sustained argument which not only refers to a clearly stated, articulate argument that is supported with sound reasoning but also has relevant, accurate and significant examples/evidence. This is where historiography comes in.

One definition of historiography is that it is the study of the way history has been and is written - in effect the history of historical writing. When you study 'historiography' you do not study the events of the past directly, but the changing interpretations of those events in the works of historians.

Historian Angela Ballara argues that Maori decided on their terms how the musket would be incorporated into Maori society. She offers a revision of the interpretation of these wars, looking at the nature of Maori society itself as the cause of the wars. Warfare was endemic in Maori society and the musket and other aspects of European technology contributed to Maori history but did not determine it.

Before contact with Europeans war was the ultimate sanction in resolving disputes. These wars were about tikanga or custom as iwi sought to redefine their boundaries in the wake of contact with Europeans.

Ballara argues that the Musket Wars would have occurred whether muskets were available or not and therefore, whether Pakeha contact had taken place or not; the technology made the conflict more destructive but was not the cause of fighting.

James Belich described the process by which Maori selected, on their terms, which aspects of European contact they would adopt and which they would reject. How they responded and adapted to new ideas has been referred to as Maori agency or as Giselle Byrne's described it Dual Agency - the blending or mixing of two worlds according to Maori criteria. Maori decided how they would use things like new ideas and technologies. In 1815 John Nicholas an associate of Samuel Marsden described a meeting with Te Puhi, a Maori chief who had beaten an iron bar into the form of a patu. Te Puhi's adaptation of European materials to fit Maori needs is the embodiment of Maori agency.

The incorporation of the musket or ngutu parera into Maori society is perhaps a more extreme example of this. Muskets became an important trade item for Maori and considerable changes occurred to economic practices to enable iwi to acquire them in sufficient numbers. These weapons did not come cheap however. Around 1820 one musket could cost Maori as much as 200 kete or baskets of potatoes meaning Maori now had to produce surplus food for trade. Slaves captured during the musket wars were often put to work increasing cultivation so as to fund further arms deals. Tribes changed their economy to supply traders with the flax, pigs, potatoes or timber required to acquire guns.

Tom Brooking has questioned the value of this new weapon in the heat of battle. Trained warriors armed with traditional hand held weapons like taiaha and patu were more effective than those armed with muskets, as when Ngati Whatua defeated Nga Puhi in 1807. The musket was awkward, slow to reload and unreliable when under pressure over more than 50 metres. On a large scale it could guarantee success but Brooking believed that the musket's greatest value was as a mechanism for utu when executing prisoners.

Due to the fact that the greatest point of contact took place initially in the Far North, Nga Puhi were able to get a jump on their rivals and became the dominant iwi between 1818 and 1825. Brooking argues that Hongi Hika acted from Maori motives such as utu - two of his brothers had been killed in the battle with Ngati Whatua in 1807. The period of Nga Puhi dominance that was achieved certainly advanced the mana of his iwi as well as him as a leader.

As other iwi acquired muskets, Nga Puhi dominance declined and ended by 1825. Iwi increasingly struggled to maintain warfare on such a large scale with part-time warriors and the pressure to produce more to trade for muskets with Europeans. Maori also adapted their pa to accommodate the use of muskets and to minimise their impact; a stalemate situation was reached. Within a few years of the death of Hongi in 1828 large-scale battles became a rarity.

Results of the wars

Tom Brooking believes the Musket Wars coincided with a phase of a competitive Maori society seeking readjustments in the face of new and much deadlier technology.

Campaigns in Auckland, the Waikato and Bay of Plenty drove many tribes out of their traditional areas and into exile and resulted in confused issues of ownership. Those forced to flee faced resistance from tangata whenua (local peoples) and in this way the conflict spread further afield and introduced other reasons for fighting.

References

Ballara, Angela, Taua: 'Musket Wars', 'Land Wars' or Tikanga? Warfare in Maori Society in the Early Nineteenth Century, Penguin, Auckland, 2003

Brooking, Tom, Milestones: Turning Points in New Zealand History, Mills Publications, Wellington, 1988