Foreign relations of New Zealand

The foreign relations of New Zealand are oriented chiefly toward developed democratic nations and emerging Pacific economies. The country’s major political parties have generally agreed on the broad outlines of foreign policy, and the current coalition government has been active in promoting free trade, nuclear disarmament, and arms control.

In summer 2013 Foreign Minister Murray McCully reported that:

New Zealand was first settled by Polynesians at some point between 800 and 1300 AD. From the 1760s New Zealand was visited by various European explorers and traders, and later missionaries and settlers. An informal system of trade was established, especially in Northland, and some iwi (tribes) became wealthy and powerful. As Māori was a tribal-level society of many shifting chiefdoms, relationships with Europeans were ad hoc and informal. In 1835 a group of Northland chiefs, under the guidance of British resident James Busby, signed a declaration of independence, which was recognised by Britain.

Many Māori were still worried that a European power might invade and dispossess them, and some iwi were having difficulties controlling the large numbers of Europeans who visited and settled in their areas. English missionaries were also concerned about the levels of lawlessness, which were undermining their efforts to convert Māori to Christianity. The British Colonial Office, influenced by the missionaries and by reports that the independent New Zealand Company was planning to privately colonise the islands, sent naval captain William Hobson to negotiate a treaty. The subsequent Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840, made New Zealand part of the British Empire, established a Governor of New Zealand, and gave Māori the rights of British subjects.

The annexation of New Zealand by Britain meant that Britain now controlled New Zealand's foreign policy. Subsidised large-scale immigration from Britain and Ireland began, and miners came for the gold rush around 1850-60. In the 1860s, the British sent 16,000 soldiers to contain the New Zealand wars in the North Island. The colony shipped gold and, especially, wool to Britain. From the 1880s the development of refrigerated shipping allowed the establishment of an export economy based on the mass export of frozen meat and dairy products to Britain. In 1899-1902 New Zealand made its first contribution to an external war, sending troops to fight on the British side in the Second Boer War. The country changed its status from colony to dominion with internal self governance in 1907.

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Wikipedia