What if contact between New Zealand and the rest of Polynesia never ended?

What if contact between the Māori of New Zealand and tropical Polynesia never ended, using the Kermadec Islands as a stopover en route to the Cook Islands and Tahiti? How would European colonisation of New Zealand be affected with a Māori with a stronger maritime culture? Would pigs and chickens arrive in New Zealand? Would the Māori have a higher population density?
 
I think the main limiter of Maori population density is going to be cold weather and lack of pure calories, rather than some additional protein in their diet. While pigs and chickens might be introduced, they will not result in a Maori population explosion-in fact, feral pigs could cause a short-term population drop as they compete with the Maori for edible wild plants.

If the continued Maori contact with Polynesia is due to a Polynesian Age of Voyaging that has not stopped in general, then there is the opportunity to introduce maize to New Zealand from the Americas-most importantly, maize from in or near the Andes which has the gene necessary to adapt the plant to temperate cultivation. This will allow a much denser Maori population, at least on the North Island.
 
We need a plausible reason for it to carry on. What would make it worthwhile for say Maori to go back?

They may be able to trade say greenstone but what would they want from Polynesia?

Religion could help. Something to drive people to go on pilgrimage
 
We need a plausible reason for it to carry on. What would make it worthwhile for say Maori to go back?

They may be able to trade say greenstone but what would they want from Polynesia?

Religion could help. Something to drive people to go on pilgrimage

I'd suggest a trade network that sees the Maori acting as middlemen. The Andes have gold and silver as well nearby access to emeralds in abundance which is in demand in the rest of Asia. If you can establish a trade network between say, Manila or Southern China, Polynesia, and the Andes, you'd have both the incentive and the means to see a sharing of goods between the three regions.
 
We need a plausible reason for it to carry on. What would make it worthwhile for say Maori to go back?

They may be able to trade say greenstone but what would they want from Polynesia?

Religion could help. Something to drive people to go on pilgrimage

I think the biggest hurdle for trade to carry on between the Maori and the rest of Polynesia would be climate change messing the trade routes up. Even though Western Polynesia most likely had ships that were able to travel upwind, colonisation of both Easter Island and New Zealand were aided by windows of advantageous winds to these islands spanning many decades before the 1300's (see Climate windows for Polynesian voyaging to New Zealand and Easter Island by Goodwin et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 2014). Thus, a good way to keep this going is to engineer a scenario such that this lateen technology reaches the Maori by the closing of this climate window.

This is because New Zealand was not as self-sufficient as the other islands, especially the northern North Island. Kumara (or sweet potato) was the only crop from the Polynesian agricultural package that could grow in the cold New Zealand climate (from the top of the North Island to Banks Peninsula), though the cultivation of other crops was also attempted. The prehistoric distribution of the various species of moa, an important food in pre-Classical Maori times, was from the bottom of the South Island to around Wellington Region. Thus, people living north of Wellington would probably want food, as well as possibly tools in exchange for greenstone and obsidian. However, this also predicates on good food storage and/or preservation, which may or may not have occurred.

Greenstone or pounamu trade does seem viable, as IOTL, the Maori of the North Island did trade obsidian for pounamu from the South Island, especially as a conferral of mana, or respect rendered in a supernatural fashion. Extend this to the rest of Polynesia, and trade may take place.

Religion may also be a factor in the facilitation of trade. Taputapuatea Marae at Ra'iatea (apparently formerly known as Hawai'i) was thought to be the place with the most mana, with a legend based around it encompassing all of Polynesia (see the Fa'atau Aroha). However, worship at the marae tended to be around the new war god 'Oro, or Koro. As this god was not mentioned in Maori mythology (who still has the god Tū as the war god, or Maru as previously believed in the South Island).

Also, a climate window to New Zealand also appears from 1170 to 1230 with an origin of Tonga and Fiji, which could be interesting to explore.

However, however these trade routes are maintained in the beginning, I can definitely see how the (not)-Maori would become desperate enough to overcome the huge risk and energy to make contact with other landmasses as pounamu supplies decrease, and the demand for Polynesian food and tools are high.
 
This is because New Zealand was not as self-sufficient as the other islands, especially the northern North Island. Kumara (or sweet potato) was the only crop from the Polynesian agricultural package that could grow in the cold New Zealand climate (from the top of the North Island to Banks Peninsula), though the cultivation of other crops was also attempted. The prehistoric distribution of the various species of moa, an important food in pre-Classical Maori times, was from the bottom of the South Island to around Wellington Region. Thus, people living north of Wellington would probably want food, as well as possibly tools in exchange for greenstone and obsidian. However, this also predicates on good food storage and/or preservation, which may or may not have occurred.

What? Bottle gourd, yams and taro were grown in New Zealand, restricted to the northern North Island, but still grown.

Moa were only found in the South Island and Wellington? Have a look at this https://teara.govt.nz/en/map/23608/moa-and-seal-sites
 
What? Bottle gourd, yams and taro were grown in New Zealand, restricted to the northern North Island, but still grown.

Moa were only found in the South Island and Wellington? Have a look at this https://teara.govt.nz/en/map/23608/moa-and-seal-sites
Ah I must have misremembered from high school biology. Thank you for correcting me.

Edit: I definitely did misremember my high school biology: South Island moa was restricted to Wellington and the South Island, but there were North Island moa too. I also misremembered that the Maori did grow those crops up north, which puts a little dampener on the trade routes, I suppose.
 
Last edited:
Top