New Zealand Settlements Act — raupatu
Te raupatu whenua
- When
- 1863–1867
- Reach
- Nationwide
The Crown took roughly 1.2 million hectares from iwi deemed to be in rebellion — including from communities that had never fought.
Confiscation was framed as punishment and as payment for the wars, and applied by proclamation over whole districts rather than to individuals. Much of the best land in the Waikato, Taranaki and Bay of Plenty passed to military settlers and the Crown. Loyal iwi and neutral hapū lost land alongside those who had fought. Raupatu is the single largest source of historical Treaty grievance, and the basis of the major settlements of the 1990s.
Regions affected
Sources
Written for this project from these references rather than copied from them. Follow a link to check the account against the original.
Related
The Native Land Court is established
The court converted customary communal title into individual freehold — the mechanism by which most remaining Māori land was lost, without a shot fired.
The Musket Wars
Musket-armed war parties reshaped the map of Māori New Zealand. Perhaps 20,000 died and whole districts changed hands before the fighting burned out around 1840.
New Zealand enters the First World War
About 100,000 served overseas from a population of just over a million. Around 18,000 died and 41,000 were wounded — proportionally among the heaviest losses of any country.
New Zealand declares war on Germany
‘Where she goes, we go’ — 140,000 served overseas and nearly 12,000 died, from a population of 1.6 million.