A Concise History of New Zealand

New Zealand was the last major landmass, other than Antarctica, to be settled by humans. The story of this rugged and dynamic land is narrated, from its origins in Gondwana some 80 million years ago to the twenty-first century. [In this book, the author] highlights the effects of the country's smallness and isolation, from its late settlement by Polynesian voyagers and colonisation by Europeans, and the exchanges that made these people Maori and Pakeha, to the dramatic struggles over land and more recent efforts to manage global economic forces. In the late twentieth century, new upheavals saw governments demolish institutions that had once defined New Zealand, and economic problems damage a country dependent on exports. [This book] places New Zealand in its global and regional context, linked to Britain, immersed in the Pacific and part of Australasia. It unravels the key moments: the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Anzac landing at Gallipoli, the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, showing their role as nation building myths and connecting them with the less dramatic forces, economic and social, that have also shaped contemporary New Zealand. --Back cover.