Maori North Island

[Ricardolindo]

There were and still are far more Maori in the North Island than in the South Island. Could some Maori have managed to unify the tribes of the North Island and get some sort of protectorate deal with the British? How would a Maori state in the North Island develop?

 

[Napoleone the Kiwi]

They did to a degree. The United Tribes of New Zealand was a very hands off union of Northern North Island Iwi, but it was the body by which negotiations for most of Nga Puhi took place and was a Protectorate of the British Empire . Unification of the North Island was unnecessary to have a Māori majority on Te Ika a Maui. Merely have the British respect and acknowledge Te Tiriti as the basis of government in the colony. Tribes would centralise and form a "Parliament" analogue that ran Māori affairs in the nation, likely to the tikanga of that particular iwi, while the Crown governed Settler populations and negotiated over land.

Māori would have maintained the communal ownership model that allowed them to largely outcompete early settlers economically, and sold goods to the growing settlements in Australia. It took the New Zealand wars to unseat Māori economic hegemony in the Settler colonies and then using Land Courts to divide and break up Māori iwi and hapu confiscations as well. Without the destruction of economic hegemony and an earlier respect for Māori sovereignty, you'd likely have a far more Māori North Island.

Key areas of development would have been the Northland region, Waikato-King Country, Bay of Plenty, Tairawhiti, and Taranaki. Likely run by local council of chieftains and largely autonomous. Travel by ship would be far more common as the impetus for road building was largely to make infrastructure to invade Māori tribes. So more disconnected local economies with a greater focus on rail and shipping. All would probably compete in British and local Pacific markets when technology allows for it. Far greater preservation of Māori culture and values, especially that of local iwi.

 

[Ricardolindo]

They did to a degree. The United Tribes of New Zealand was a very hands off union of Northern North Island Iwi, but it was the body by which negotiations for most of Nga Puhi took place and was a Protectorate of the British Empire . Unification of the North Island was unnecessary to have a Māori majority on Te Ika a Maui. Merely have the British respect and acknowledge Te Tiriti as the basis of government in the colony. Tribes would centralise and form a "Parliament" analogue that ran Māori affairs in the nation, likely to the tikanga of that particular iwi, while the Crown governed Settler populations and negotiated over land.

Māori would have maintained the communal ownership model that allowed them to largely outcompete early settlers economically, and sold goods to the growing settlements in Australia. It took the New Zealand wars to unseat Māori economic hegemony in the Settler colonies and then using Land Courts to divide and break up Māori iwi and hapu confiscations as well. Without the destruction of economic hegemony and an earlier respect for Māori sovereignty, you'd likely have a far more Māori North Island.

Key areas of development would have been the Northland region, Waikato-King Country, Bay of Plenty, Tairawhiti, and Taranaki. Likely run by local council of chieftains and largely autonomous. Travel by ship would be far more common as the impetus for road building was largely to make infrastructure to invade Māori tribes. So more disconnected local economies with a greater focus on rail and shipping. All would probably compete in British and local Pacific markets when technology allows for it. Far greater preservation of Māori culture and values, especially that of local iwi.

Could the Maori industrialize?

 

[Napoleone the Kiwi]

Could the Maori industrialize?

They lacked a lot of infrastucture to do so, but they certainly built their own mills to process products and chiefs and chieftainesses pursued education quite ruthlessly, leading to the relatively quick conversion of Māori to Christianity (pragmatic decisions by Māori leaders since the Missionaries were teaching, and we were eager to learn).

They may be behind everyone else I industry, but Māori maintained perfectly modern lifestyles in the pā and homesteads, becoming quite prosperous before the wars. New Zealand never really took off with much industry anyhow, becoming Britain’s Food Cupboard for much of its history, so Māori perusing mercantile interests and supplementing their food-to-market and resource extraction interests with freezeworks, processors, and mills is certainly possible.

One the big changes maybe the retention of Māori gender and sexual equality. Without a driving pressure to conform with 19th century British perspectives, Māori likely will stay communally driven and something of a wonderland of equality in the 19th-20th centuries.

Centuries of an egalitarian culture that saw children as the most sacred thing (Tamariki the Māori word for children is a portmanteau of Tama(boy/child) and Ariki(Chiefly, divine etc) and had a variety of chieftainesses (many of who are only now being recognised as having signed the treaty) was replaced with the patriarchal model ( where the head of the family was a man, and the family was subservient to him, legally) that actively altered our myths to remove much of the female aspects in them and promoted nuclear families that isolated the whanau from each other and caused much of issues we see in Māori today.

It was still a 19th century culture, but Māoridom would be something of note (it certainly was during the period)

 

[Julius Vogel]

There were and still are far more Maori in the North Island than in the South Island. Could some Maori have managed to unify the tribes of the North Island and get some sort of protectorate deal with the British? How would a Maori state in the North Island develop?

Think so yes.

Not quite sure how.

There is an economic POD tho. One of the key milestones in the development of NZ as a settler colony was the economic boost to the South Island in early 1860s. The capital accumulation and settler rush was then sufficient to in effect demographically swamp the Maori.

If that gold rush wave was delayed a decade somehow then there would be less British settlers in the South Island and therefore resources for expanding deeper into the North Island. This might give Maori more time to consolidate

 

[Ricardolindo]

Think so yes.

Not quite sure how.

There is an economic POD tho. One of the key milestones in the development of NZ as a settler colony was the economic boost to the South Island in early 1860s. The capital accumulation and settler rush was then sufficient to in effect demographically swamp the Maori.

If that gold rush wave was delayed a decade somehow then there would be less British settlers in the South Island and therefore resources for expanding deeper into the North Island. This might give Maori more time to consolidate

I'm seeking a Maori majority in the North Island. Is there any way, that, the British could focus on the South Island, that had and still has far fewer Maori, while the North Island remains Maori majority?

 

[Julius Vogel]

I'm seeking a Maori majority in the North Island. Is there any way, that, the British could focus on the South Island, that had and still has far fewer Maori, while the North Island remains Maori majority?

There are loads of options. Not sure which works best.

If you look at demographics, Maori population was only surpassed by British -Euro about 1861ish. Then latter rapidly grew and within several years massively outnumbered Maori.

So the POD I think has to be before 1861, as if it isn't, Settler British, as per OTL will inevitably take over.

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/maori-and-european-population-numbers-1838–1901

 

[Napoleone the Kiwi]

There are loads of options. Not sure which works best.

If you look at demographics, Maori population was only surpassed by British -Euro about 1861ish. Then latter rapidly grew and within several years massively outnumbered Maori.

So the POD I think has to be before 1861, as if it isn't, Settler British, as per OTL will inevitably take over.

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/maori-and-european-population-numbers-1838–1901

Butterflying away the NZ company or making initial contact with Māori go worse with Cook could potentially cool any settlement plans.

Another Murderer’s Bay incident or a Boyd’s incident would put a dampener on many colonial ambitions by the common settler, with missionaries and whalers maintain the that contact to allow a more Māori-paced development.

Either that or earlier New Zealand Wars while the settler population is just settling in.

The most peaceful POD I promoted was simple respect of Te Tiriti as it was signed in Māori, in the first place. You’d have Pakeha urban localities in some regions of the country while Māori “pastoral” pa and homesteads supplied agri and hort products to these urban populations and the wider global market once refrigeration is invented.

Big Cultural differences but you’d see Māori maintaining their local models with tribes being loosely connected as a confederation of sorts when full cooperation is inevitable. With Māori keeping their economic strength, they have ample resources to develop until they’re too difficult to remove.

Maintaining their communal lifestyle may get cooperatives and collaborative industries and corporations more widely recognised earlier and internationally when they look at the economic benefits.

 

[Julius Vogel]

I just don't see the South Island remaining Maori. Maybe Nelson-Bays, but the rest is so lightly populated that Australian based settlers or others are going to trickle in

 

[Ricardolindo]

I just don't see the South Island remaining Maori. Maybe Nelson-Bays, but the rest is so lightly populated that Australian based settlers or others are going to trickle in

I already said, that, I'm seeking a Maori majority on the North Island. The South Island had far fewer Maori and had gold so the British were more interested on it. If the Maori of the North Island had united and gotten a protectorate with the British, maybe the North Island could remain Maori majority.

 

[Julius Vogel]

I was responding to poster above