New Zealand History/Polynesian Settlement: Difference between revisions

Around 950 AD, it is believed Polynesian settlers used subtropical weather systems, star constellations, water currents, and animal migration to find their way from their native islands, in central Polynesia to New Zealand. As the settlers colonized the country, they developed their distinctive MaoriMāori culture.

According to MaoriMāori, the first Polynesian explorer to reach New Zealand was Kupe, who traveled across the Pacific in a Polynesian-style voyaging canoe. It is thought Kupe reached New Zealand at Hokianga Harbour, in Northland, about 1070 years ago.

For a long time during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was believed the first inhabitants of New Zealand were the MaoriMāori people, who hunted giant birds called moas. The theory then established the idea that the MaoriMāori people migrated from Polynesia in a Great Fleet and took New Zealand from the Moriori, establishing an agricultural society. However, new evidence suggests that the Moriori were a group of mainland MaoriMāori who migrated from New Zealand to the Chatham Islands, developing their own distinctive, peaceful culture. There was also another tribe onDuring the Chatham[[w:Moriori islandsGenocide]], thesemost were Maori who migrated away from New Zealand. They called themselvesof the Moriori there were akilled few skirmishes and in theor endenslaved, thewith Moriori werefew wipedremaining outtoday.