Trading Blows

During the first decades of the nineteenth century, New Zealand was swept by inter-tribal warfare of unprecedented scale, in struggles that became known as the Musket Wars. They lasted a generation and profoundly shaped modern New Zealand, with influence extending to the locations of main centres—Auckland, Wellington, New Plymouth, Nelson, and Napier among others. Multiple race-relations issues today can be traced to the same events.

And yet these dramatic years have largely gone under the historical radar. Even the colonial name Musket Wars has survived, although muskets did not feature in quantity until the wars were well under way.

In this significant work, historian Matthew Wright goes beyond the battles to look at the causes of this dramatic and exciting period, a time when Britain's full range of industrial products crashed into New Zealand and drove a Māori economic revolution.

He explores why one consequence of that revolution was warfare, how the new technologies altered Māori life, and why the cycle of utu ended, in clear prose supported by helpful maps.