Editing Taranaki (section)

==History==

The area became home to a number of Māori tribes from the 13th century. From about 1823 the Māori began having contact with European [[whaler]]s as well as traders who arrived by [[schooner]] to buy [[New Zealand flax|flax]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pukeariki.com/en/stories/immigration/barrettngamoto.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927000443/http://www.pukeariki.com/en/stories/immigration/barrettngamoto.htm|url-status=dead|title=Puke Ariki Museum essay|archivedate=27 September 2007}}</ref> Around the 1820s and 1830s, whalers targeted [[Southern right whale]]s in the [[South Taranaki Bight]].<ref>{{Cite Q|Q58677530}}</ref> In March 1828 [[Dicky Barrett (trader)|Richard "Dicky" Barrett]] (1807–47) set up a trading post at Ngamotu (present-day [[New Plymouth]]).<ref name="Caughey">{{cite book | author=Angela Caughey | title=The Interpreter: The Biography of Richard "Dicky" Barrett | year= 1998 | isbn=1-86953-346-1 | publisher=David Bateman Ltd }}</ref> Barrett and his companions, who were armed with muskets and cannon, were welcomed by the Āti Awa tribe for assisting in their continuing wars with [[Waikato]] Māori.<ref name="Caughey" /> Following a bloody encounter at Ngamotu in 1832, most of the 2000 Āti Awa<ref name="Caughey" /> living near Ngamotu, as well as Barrett, migrated south to the [[Kāpiti Coast|Kāpiti]] region and [[Marlborough Region|Marlborough]].

In late 1839 Barrett returned to Taranaki to act as a purchasing agent for the [[New Zealand Company]], which had begun on-selling the land to prospective settlers in England with the expectation of securing its title. Barrett claimed to have negotiated the purchase of an area extending from [[Mokau]] to [[Cape Egmont]], and inland to the upper reaches of the [[Whanganui River]] including [[Mount Taranaki/Egmont|Mt Taranaki]]. A later deed of sale included New Plymouth and all the coastal lands of North Taranaki, including [[Waitara, New Zealand|Waitara]].

Organised European settlement at New Plymouth gathered pace with the arrival of the ''William Bryan'' in March 1841. European expansion beyond New Plymouth, however, was prevented by Māori opposition to selling their land, a sentiment that deepened as links strengthened with the [[King Movement]]. Tension over land ownership mounted, leading to the outbreak of [[First Taranaki War|war]] at Waitara on 16 March 1860. Although the pressure for the sale of the Waitara block resulted from the colonists' hunger for land in Taranaki, the greater issue fuelling the conflict was the Government's desire to impose British administration, law and civilisation on the Māori.<ref name=Belich>{{cite book
| first= James
| last= Belich
| year= 1986
| title= The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict
| edition= 1st
| publisher=Penguin 
| location= Auckland
| isbn= 0-14-011162-X}}</ref>

The war was fought by more than 3,500 imperial troops as well as volunteer soldiers and militia against Māori forces that fluctuated from a few hundred and to 1,500.<ref name=king>{{cite book | author=Michael King | title=The Penguin History of New Zealand | year= 2003 | isbn=0-14-301867-1 | publisher=Penguin Books}}</ref> Total losses among the imperial, volunteer, and militia troops are estimated to have been 238, while Māori casualties totalled about 200.

An uneasy truce was negotiated a year later, only to be broken in April 1863 as tensions over land occupation boiled over again.  A total of 5,000 troops fought in the [[Second Taranaki War]] against about 1,500 men, women and children. The style of warfare differed markedly from that of the 1860–61 conflict as the army systematically took possession of Māori land by driving off the inhabitants, adopting a "[[scorched earth]]" strategy of laying waste to the villages and cultivations of Māori, whether warlike or otherwise. As the troops advanced, the Government built an expanding line of redoubts, behind which settlers built homes and developed farms. The effect was a creeping confiscation of almost a million acres (4,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of land.<ref name=kaupapa>{{Cite web|url=https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927200826/http://www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz/reports/downloadpdf.asp?reportid=%7B3FECC540-D049-4DE6-A7F0-C26BCCDAB345%7D.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Home|archivedate=27 September 2007|website=Waitangi Tribunal}}</ref>

The present main highway on the inland side of [[Mount Taranaki]] follows the path taken by the colonial forces under Major General [[Trevor Chute]] as they marched, with great difficulty, from [[Patea]] to New Plymouth in 1866.

Armed Māori resistance continued in South Taranaki until early 1869, led by the warrior [[Tītokowaru]], who reclaimed land almost as far south as [[Wanganui]]. A decade later, spiritual leader [[Te Whiti o Rongomai]], based at [[Parihaka]], launched a campaign of passive resistance against government land confiscation, which culminated in a raid by colonial troops on 5 November 1881.

The confiscations, subsequently acknowledged by the New Zealand Government as unjust and illegal,<ref name=Awa10>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070317062622/http://www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz/reports/viewchapter.asp?reportID=A949CD08-4825-48BF-B038-FAC923793297&chapter=11 Ngati Awa Raupatu Report, chapter 10, Waitangi Tribunal, 1999.]</ref> began in 1865 and soon included the entire Taranaki district. Towns including [[Normanby, Taranaki|Normanby]], [[Hāwera]] and Carlyle ([[Patea]]) were established on land confiscated as military settlements.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document/1878_-_Wells%2C_B._The_History_of_Taranaki/CHAPTER_XXV%3A_CONFISCATION_OF_LANDS_AND_ESTABLISHMENT_OF_MILITARY_SETTLEMENTS?action=null|title=B. Wells, ''The History of Taranaki'', 1878, Chapter 25.}}</ref> The release of a [[Waitangi Tribunal]] report on the situation in 1996 led to some debate on the matter. In a speech to a group of psychologists, Associate Minister of Māori Affairs [[Tariana Turia]] compared the suppression of Taranaki Māori to the [[Holocaust]], provoking a vigorous reaction<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.radionz.co.nz/popular/treaty/events-1990s|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710044058/http://www.radionz.co.nz/popular/treaty/events-1990s|url-status=dead|title="A Taranaki Holocaust?" (2000) Downloadable Radio New Zealand broadcast|archivedate=10 July 2011}}</ref> around New Zealand, with Prime Minister [[Helen Clark]] among those voicing criticism.