What myth? Isnt it fact that the Maori, once they relearned ocean sailing, attacked the Moriori and wiped them out, at least culturally. Is that wrong, or is there some other myth?
Australia Cut Off After the Third Fleet
- Thread starter DaleCoz
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What myth? Isnt it fact that the Maori, once they relearned ocean sailing, attacked the Moriori and wiped them out, at least culturally. Is that wrong, or is there some other myth?
Some other myth.
Edit - read the Wikipedia link. Your understanding of the history is not necessarily wrong (if a little inaccurate), it is more what people, the descendants of Settlers thought of the Moriori and their relations with Maori. Specifically that the Moriori people were a distinct race of people different from the Maori and the bloody treatment the Maori meted out to the Moriori people with a European ship is analogous to how the Europeans / British / settlers treated the Maori, so why should the Maori expect any sort of compensation well after the fact if they also have bloody hands?
Sort of "Everyone were jerks in the 19th century, lets forget that we ignored the Treaty of Waitangi and so please be shutting up about your historical grievances with the NZ government"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moriori_people
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It was once believed that the Moriori of the Chatham Islands had also inhabited the New Zealand Islands before the arrival of the Maori who then had wiped them out. The Moriori had develope a non-violent passive social structure to enable their survival on the harsh Chatham enviroment. The Maori on the other hand had a warrior culture which meant when they found out about the Chatham island they bought a ship and raided it for slaves..
There was a similar myth in Australia that the Tasmania aborigines because of their differing culture and curler hair were the remains of the original mainland population driven out/killed off by the now mainland aborigines.
Much like the old if the Japanese/French/Germans/Chinese etc had arrive first how much worse it would have been for the Aborigines/Maori. It served to easy the conscience of the new conquerors, after all if the Aborigines/Maori had taken the land from other peoples it was alright to take it from them.
Yeah the French or Russians, outside of some rogue captain, deliberately massacring a large colony of white Christian settlers wasn't really something that was likely to happen in the 19th century, because it would cause outrage throughout Europe and Britain would be very quick to publicize it.
True. The biggest threat to a totally isolated colony from the French or Russians would probably be allowing the colonists to leave with them, which, after a couple years of isolation, wouldn't be a hard sell. Second biggest threat would be doing the local aborigines enough harm to get them really PO'd, then leaving.