American New Zealand

Challenge make New Zealand a US territory around the same time as Hawaii.

My personal way is that the maori United like hawaii and the British left them alone while the US did basically what they did in hawaii with a coup to annex them.
 
Get the British to BTFO (the proximity to Australia is gonna be kinda hard), and encourage Americans to come over to eventually overthrow the government(s). It’s gonna be harder through since the US will have Hawaii and the Philipeans as ports. Plus Hawaii produces all that sweet Sugar cane (along with pinapples.) I think it’s plausible for New Zealand to be American, but I only see it happening after Hawaii.
 
American Whalers provide guns to chieftains that force the rest of the islanders to submit. Allow the creation of a monarchy and then force them to submit to the US.

Reality is NZ doesn't have the things that made Hawaii enviable.
 
Dang it... now I’ve got to dig up my NZ history books! I vaguely remember reading that an American or group of Americans was involved in influencing some of the Maori chiefs that would eventually sign the treaty of Waitangi. If we wave our hands and make that influence a little stronger, maybe enough of the chiefs pass on the Brits treaty offer to make it a non-starter, opting instead for a US-style republic with various iwi playing the parts of states. Manifest destiny being at the height of it’s popularity means the relationship with the States might evolve into a protectorate and, around the turn of 20th century, a territory. Maybe the North and South Island get admitted as states 51 and 52 in the 1950’s.
 
Dang it... now I’ve got to dig up my NZ history books! I vaguely remember reading that an American or group of Americans was involved in influencing some of the Maori chiefs that would eventually sign the treaty of Waitangi. If we wave our hands and make that influence a little stronger, maybe enough of the chiefs pass on the Brits treaty offer to make it a non-starter, opting instead for a US-style republic with various iwi playing the parts of states. Manifest destiny being at the height of it’s popularity means the relationship with the States might evolve into a protectorate and, around the turn of 20th century, a territory. Maybe the North and South Island get admitted as states 51 and 52 in the 1950’s.

One state tbh, the population of New Zealand is less than that of massachusetts
 
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