History! For 3/11/09, The Flagstaff War!

So on this day in history in 1845 we see the beginning of the Flagstaff War, a British affair with the Maori in New Zealand. The whole thing began when Britain (busily sailing around the world putting flags and bodies in things) arrived in what would become New Zealand. Noticing that there was open space with a handful of indigenous people on it the British got revved up and began settling, starting with a document called the Treaty of Waitangi, which was vague on a number of important points. Vague in so much as it convinced the British they could start emigrating, whilst at the same time convincing the Maori they could keep their land and heritage intact, well we all know where this going. New Zealand is annexed in 1840, which irks the Maori, then things start going downhill in the relations between the two "tribes". There were land skirmishes between independent companies in the region and the regular list of crimes to be expected in such an action, eventually one of the original signatories of the treaty, Hone Heke, a tribal leader was notified by the French and Americans that the British flag over the island meant the Maori's were slaves. Naturally Hone believed the other two imperial powers and took matters into his own hands.



Hone requested that a young girl from his tribe, who had been living with a butcher, be returned post haste. She refused, apparently enjoying her new found Englishness, leading Hone to march into town with a few friends and ransack the shop taking the girl back. On his way back he noticed the "slave" flagpole (which was actually a gift from him to the British) and chopped it down. This upset the British to no end, forcing them to send for the 96th regiment to handle the situation. The pole was replaced by Hone after some negotiations, then chopped down again after everyone realized there had been no trial of strength between the Maori and English, moreover there were now more Europeans than expected so things were getting uncomfortably "continental". The 96th arrived replaced the flag, only to find that this one was almost immediately cut down.



Then came this day in history March 11, 1845, the stubborn British replaced this third flagpole with one sheathed in iron and surrounded by guards, no fuckers come onto British soil and chop down the Queen's own flag, fuckers. Well the Maori came back...with a vengeance, incensed that their craftsmanship was not being appreciated they charged up to the guard shack killed the soldiers and chopped down the flagpole again. Meanwhile at a nearby settlement another tribe began burning buildings after a semi orderly evacuation of the premises. They opted to not burn the missions however.



With great jubilation Hone Heke watched as the H.M.S. Hazard departed with a few escorts, loaded with Europeans, headed for Auckland to get away from the flagpole haters.



The war continued naturally, it's not as though the 96th was going to sit idly by and watch British subjects getting evicted by people who didn't wear starched collars. The 96th returned on March 28th and burned a fortified village called a Pa. For whatever reasons however (to almost everyone in attendance's confusion) they burned the village of a Chief who was strongly neutral since the outset of problems and had even made efforts to bring more Europeans in to trade with his village.



The war went surprisingly well for the Maori in the end, in spite of suffering serious losses and a few villages (one of which was designed as a target for the British) the British accepted a ceasefire and left the flagpole down, and minimized their incursions into the Maori lands.