New day and new life

New Zealand participated in world politics, taking part in the First and Second World Wars as part of the British Empire[46], and also suffered from the Great Depression[47]. As a result of the depression, the first Labor government was elected and the construction of a welfare state with a protectionist economy began[48]. The prosperity of New Zealand began after the end of the Second World War[49], at the same time, the Maori began to move to the cities from the villages in search of work[50]. A Maori protest movement emerged, criticizing Eurocentrism and dealing with issues such as raising awareness of Maori culture and settling disputes over the Treaty of Waitangi.[51] In 1975, the Waitangi Tribunal[en] was organized to investigate alleged violations of the terms of the treaty, and ten years later a decision was made[33]. The government claims the end of the settlement of disputes[en] with many iwi, but already in the 2000s there were frictions over the ownership of the tidal strip of the coast and the seabed

In 1891, the first political party came to power in the country - the Liberal Party [en] under the chairmanship of John Ballance. The Liberal government, later headed by Richard Seddon, passed many important socio-economic laws. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world to give all women the right to vote[en][42], and in 1894, for the first time in the world, it passed a law on the procedure for resolving disputes between employers and trade unions[en][43]. In 1898 the government of Seddon passed the Old Age Pension Act, the first in the British Empire.

Mount Ernsloe[en], John Thomson, oil on canvas, 1888
New Zealand became a separate colony of the same name from New South Wales on May 3, 1841[38]. In 1852, the colony received a representative government[en], and two years later the first meeting of the first parliament[en][39] was held. In 1856, the colony received self-government, and all internal issues, except for policy towards the native population, were resolved there independently. New Zealand gained control of colonial policy in the mid-1860s[39]. Fearing that the South Island might want to form a separate colony, the head of the colony, Alfred Domett, issued a decree moving the capital from Auckland to Cook Strait [40]. Wellington was chosen as the new capital for its location in the center of the country and a convenient bay. Parliament first met in Wellington in 1865. With the increase in the number of migrants, conflicts over land broke out, resulting in the New Zealand land wars of the 1860s and 1870s, as a result of which many lands were confiscated from the Maori

In 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip accepted the post of governor of the new British colony of New South Wales[en], which at that time included New Zealand[30]. The British government appointed James Busby as British Resident in New Zealand in 1832 after receiving a petition from northern Maori[31]. Three years later, upon learning of the appearance of the French settlement of Charles de Thierry, the confederation of Maori tribes sent a declaration of independence[en] to King William IV, asking for protection[31]. Unrest, a proposal to settle in New Zealand by the New Zealand Company, which by that time had already sent a ship to the islands to acquire land from the Maori, and the ambiguous legal status of the declaration of independence, forced the Colonial Office to send Captain William Hobson to New Zealand to establish British sovereignty there and sign agreements with Maori[32]. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in the Bay of the Islands on February 6, 1840[33]. In response to attempts by the New Zealand Company to establish an independent settlement at Wellington[34] and French settlers to acquire land at Akaroa[35], Hobson declared British sovereignty over all of New Zealand on May 21, 1840, although by that time not all copies of the Treaty had been signed by the Maori[36 ]. After that, the number of immigrants, especially British ones, began to grow

The first Europeans to reach New Zealand arrived by ship with the Dutchman Abel Tasman in 1642[23]. As a result of skirmishes with the locals, four members of the team were killed, and at least one Maori was wounded by buckshot[24]. The next visit of Europeans took place only in 1769: the British explorer James Cook mapped almost the entire coastline of the islands[23]. Following Cook, many European and North American whalers and sealers visited New Zealand, as well as merchant ships that exchanged food, metal tools, weapons and other goods for timber, food, artifacts and water[25]. These merchants brought potatoes and a musket to the Maori, which radically changed the agricultural and military way of this people. Potatoes became a reliable source of food, allowing for longer military campaigns[26]. As a result of intertribal musket wars, which united more than 600 battles in 1801-1840, from 30 to 40 thousand Maori were killed [27]. From the beginning of the 19th century, Christian missionaries began to settle in New Zealand, converting most of the natives to their faith[28]. In the 19th century, the autochthonous population of the country decreased to 40% of the pre-contact level; imported diseases were the main reason for this.

The name given to the country by the Maori before the arrival of the first Europeans has not survived, but it is known that the island of North Maori was called Te Ika-a-Maui (Maori Te Ika-a-Māui), which can be translated as "fish belonging to Maui." Maui is a demigod in Maori legends who caught a huge fish in the ocean, which then turned into an island. The South Island had two common names: Te Wai Paunamu (Maori Te Wai Pounamu) and Te Waka-a-Maui (Maori Te Waka a Māui)[5]. The first name can be translated as "jade water", and the second as "a boat belonging to Maui", the demigod of Maori legends already mentioned above. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the North Island was often referred to by the natives of Aotearoa (Aotearoa (inf.)), which can be translated as "the country of the long white cloud" (ao = "cloud", tea = "white", roa = "long"), and later it was this name that became the generally accepted name in the Maori language for the whole country

Industrialized country with a developed economy. The volume of GDP at purchasing power parity for 2017 amounted to 189 billion US dollars (about 39,000 US dollars per capita). The monetary unit is the New Zealand dollar.Go to the section " "
In the XI-XIV centuries, the country was settled by people from other islands of Polynesia, European explorers discovered the islands in 1642. The active development of land by Great Britain began in 1762.

Located on two large islands (North and South) and a large number (approximately 700) adjacent smaller islands, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. One of the main features of New Zealand is its geographical isolation. The closest neighbors of the country: to the west - Australia, separated by the Tasman Sea (the shortest distance is about 1700 km); to the north - the island territories of New Caledonia (about 1450 km), Tonga (about 1850 km) and Fiji (about 1900 km).Go to the section "Geographical location"

The capital is Wellington. The official languages ​​are English, Maori and New Zealand Sign Language.Go to the section " languages"
Unitary state, constitutional monarchy.Go to the section " -political structure"
It is divided into 17 districts, 9 of which are located on the North Island, 7 on the South Island, and 1 on the Chatham Archipelago. The Kingdom of New Zealand includes the governmentally independent but loosely associated island nations of the Cook Islands and Niue, as well as the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Tokelau and the Antarctic Ross Territory. Go to the section " -territorial structure"

New Zealand (eng. New Zealand [ˌnjuː ˈziːlənd], Maori Aotearoa [aɔˈtɛaɾɔa]) is a state in Polynesia. The population, according to the results of the official 2013 census, is more than 4 million people (according to estimates at the beginning of 2017 - more than 4.8 million people), the territory is 268,680 km², according to both of these indicators it is the largest country in Oceania. Ranked 121st in the world by populationGo to the " " section and 75th by area.Go to the " location" section