Thursday, February 09, 2012
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More about New Zealand
| Zoe Bell 01/04/2009  Bell was born in New Zealand to Tish and Andrew Bell. She has a younger brother named Jake. She grew up on Waiheke Island in Auckland. At a young age she participated in competitive gymnastics, and [ ... ] |
Polynesian Settlement 15/11/2009  Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand, which translates as 'Land of the Long White Cloud') was first settled by Maori between 950 and 1130 AD. Highly sophisticated ocean navigators, Maori journ [ ... ] | More about New Zealand | ||
In 1642 the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman “discovered” Aotearoa. Tasman did not venture ashore but named his discovery Nieuw Zeeland (after a province in Holland). Over 100 years later, in 1769, Captain James Cook was the first European to extensively map and explore New Zealand, making two scientific expeditions to the islands and claiming them for Britain.
From the 1790s onwards European settlement was sporadic, mainly consisting of whalers, traders and missionaries, who lived in scattered settlements throughout the country. It was not until 1840 when a number of Maori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, ceding governance to Britain, that the new colony was opened for mass European settlement.
European settlement in Aotearoa had a profound effect on Maori life and customs. Policies of enforced assimilation meant the loss of traditional Maori society, traditions and language. European endemic diseases such as Influenza also spread rapidly amongst Maori, who possessed no immunity to such diseases. The Maori population, estimated at 85,000 in the mid 1700s, fell to just over 40,000 by the end of the 19th century
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