Editing Niue (section)

===Religious colonialism===
[[File:Stamp niue 0,5 d.jpg|upright|thumb|left|200px|A 1932 stamp of Niue inscribed "Cook Islands Niue"]]

The next documented European visitors represented the [[London Missionary Society]], who arrived on the ''Messenger of Peace''. After many years of trying to land a European missionary, they abducted a Niuean named [[Nukai Peniamina]] and trained him as a pastor at the [[Malua]] Theological College in Samoa.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor1-last=Juergensmeyer |editor1-first=Mark |editor2-last=Roof |editor2-first=Wade C.|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Global Religion |title=Nukai Peniamina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwJzAwAAQBAJ |date=18 October 2011 |publisher=Sage Publishing|isbn=978-1452266565|page=925}}</ref>

Peniamina returned in 1846 on the ''[[John Williams (ship)|John Williams]]'' as a missionary with the help of Toimata Fakafitifonua. He was finally allowed to land in Uluvehi [[Mutalau]] after a number of attempts in other villages had failed. The chiefs of Mutalau village allowed him to land and protected him day and night at the fort in Fupiu.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://niuepocketguide.com/a-brief-history-of-niue/ |title=A Brief History of Niue |date=14 July 2023 |publisher=Niue Pocket Guide |access-date=19 December 2023}}</ref>

Christianity was first taught to the Mutalau people before it spread to all the villages. Originally other major villages opposed the introduction of Christianity and had sought to kill Peniamina.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} The people from the village of Hakupu, although the last village to receive Christianity, came and asked for a "word of God"; hence, their village was renamed "Ha Kupu Atua" meaning "any word of God", or "Hakupu" for short.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}

In July 1849, [[John Erskine (Royal Navy officer)|Captain John Erskine]] visited the island in [[HMS Havannah (1811)|HMS ''Havannah'']].<ref name="Oct1853">{{cite web |title= The Church Missionary Gleaner, October 1853 |work= Savage Island |access-date= 18 October 2015 |url= http://www.churchmissionarysociety.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Images/CMS_OX_Gleaner_1853_10/5 | publisher = [[Adam Matthew Digital]] |url-access=subscription }}</ref>