Social studies - treaty of waitangi

In 1830 there were 100,000 Māori and 200 Europeans living in New Zealand. The behavior of the Whalers, the Missionaries’ desire to help protect Māori rights, and the Musket Wars were reasons that a treaty was needed. The Declaration of Independence was another contributing factor to the need for a treaty.

One reason that a treaty was needed was the lawless behavior of some of the British Settlers like whalers. Whalers were from lots of countries like France, America, and Australia but the majority were from Britain, they needed permission from the Maori to live on their land. There were 200 whalers in New Zealand at the time the musket wars happened. At sea, they spent a few months on ships at a time. The port they got to New Zealand in was called Kororareka, and when they got to shore they would party and drink every single time than would start to fight, this happened every time they got drunk. I think a treaty would help this problem but that is only if they would sign it (this was only because of their lawless behaviors).

Another reason that a treaty was needed was to protect Māori rights. One group that felt strongly about this was the missionaries. The relationship between the Maori and the Missionaries was good, they were nice to each other. The missionaries taught Maoris some Christianity so they could become religious; they taught them English, reading, and writing as well, teaching them English was helpful to the missionaries so that they could understand what the Maori were saying (I think). The Missionaries started to get worried about the Maori because the musket war was happening at the time, and a lot of Maoris were getting killed because of the musket wars. I think the Missionaries wanted the treaty so that the Maori wouldn’t keep fighting as they did, the treaty was also there to keep Maori from fighting over their own land and to have more rights to their land and to share more of it.

Another reason that a treaty was needed was the Musket Wars. The time the musket wars started was in 1800. More than 20,00 people died in the musket wars. The first tribe to get the musket was Ngai Puhi. The reason Ngai Puhi got the muskets first was that they would trade things to get those muskets, they would sell potatoes and pigs. They would just trade and trade and that was because they wanted more and more muskets to kill other people in other tribes. The tribes changed their boundaries because of the muskets otherwise they would have gotten killed. The treaty for the musket wars was needed because they were killing and using lawless behaviors, and more and more Maoris were getting killed along the way so that's why the treaty was needed.

What was the date for the declaration of independence?  The declaration was signed On the 28th of October 1835 by 34 Rangatira (Maori leaders) and four British Residents. Interestingly this declaration states the sovereignty that existed in 1835 and was designed to promote and protect the rights of Maori, and again this was because the Maoris kept on fighting with each other and that’s why those rules came in place. This declaration gave the Maoris the ability to trade things. This changed New Zealand because Maoris wouldn’t fight with each other anymore and got along more. They also had more land to share with each other, instead of fighting. 

 

In conclusion, a treaty was needed because whalers wouldn’t stop drinking when they got to land and would start fights. Another reason for the treaty was that Maoris would keep fighting with each other and killing with muskets. I think the treaty was good to put in place otherwise Maori would keep on fighting each other and the population of Maori would’ve gone down a whole bunch, another reason why I think the treaty was a good idea was that the whalers would get drunk on land and would fight so that’s another reason. Anyway, I think the treaty worked.