Battlefield of Orakau

Invasion of the Waikato
Part of the New Zealand Wars
Date 17 July 1863 – April 1864 Location Waikato, New Zealand Result British victory. King Movement defeat and retreat into King Country; large scale land confiscation by the colonial government.
Belligerents
New Zealand government British Army Māori allies	Māori King Movement Various allied North Island tribes
Commanders and leaders
Sir Duncan Cameron	Waikato chiefs including Rewi Maniapoto, Wiremu Tamihana, and Tāwhiao
Strength
14,000 British and colonial troops, several hundred British-allied Māori troops	~4000 troops, including 170 from Ngāi Tūhoe allies
Casualties and losses
700	1000, plus 80 taken prisoner

The Invasion of the Waikato was the biggest and most important campaign of the 19th century New Zealand Wars, fought in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federation of Māori tribes known as the "Kingitanga Movement". The Waikato is a territorial region with a northern boundary somewhat south of the city of Auckland.

Hostilities lasted for nine months, from July 1863 to April 1864. The invasion was aimed at crushing Kingite power, which was seen as a threat to British authority, and also at driving Waikato Māori from their territory in readiness for occupation and settlement by Europeans. The campaign was fought by a peak of about 14,000 Imperial and colonial troops and about 4,000 Māori warriors drawn from more than half the major North Island tribal groups.

Plans for the invasion were drawn up at the close of the First Taranaki War in 1861 but were opposed by the Colonial Office and New Zealand General Assembly and suspended by incoming Governor Sir George Grey in December of that year. Grey reactivated the invasion plans in June 1863 amid mounting tension between Kingites and the colonial government and fears of a violent raid on Auckland by Kingite Māori. Grey used as the trigger for the invasion Kingite rejection of his ultimatum on 9 July 1863 that all Māori living between Auckland and the Waikato take an oath of allegiance to Queen Victoria or be expelled south of the Waikato River. Troops crossed into Waikato territory three days later and launched their first attack on 17 July at Koheroa, but were unable to advance for another 14 weeks.

The subsequent war included the Battle of Rangiriri—which cost both sides more men than any other engagement of the New Zealand Wars—and the three-day-long Battle of Ōrākau, probably the best-known engagement of the New Zealand Wars and which inspired two films called Rewi's Last Stand. The campaign ended with the retreat of the Kingitanga Māori into the rugged interior of the North Island and the confiscation of about 12,000 km² of Māori land.

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