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Pada awal abad ke-19, penduduk Māori begitu terganggu dengan perangai dan niat para peniaga, pemburu-pemburu paus dan anjing laut yang tiba ke negara ini, terutamanya di Bay of Islands. Teknologi senapang lantak yang diperkenalkan telah mengurangkan pendudukan orang Māori secara drastik nya melalui beberapa perang yang berlaku pada awal abad ke-19. Pada tahun 1831, tiga belas rangatira daripada hujung utara negara bertemu di Kerikeri untuk mengutus surat kepada Raja William IV memohon perlindungan ke atas tanah mereka. Secara telitinya, ketua-ketua ini meminta pertolongan Perancis, "puak Marion", di mana ia merupakan surat pertama yang ditulis orang Māori meminta campur tangan British. Kerajaan British bertindak menghantar James Busby pada 1832 menjadi Residen New Zealand. Pada 1834, Busby membuat sebuah draf dokumen yang dikenali sebagai Perisytiharan Kemerdekaan New Zealand di mana ia ditandatangani beliau dan 35 orang ketua puak Māori utara di Waitangi pada 28 Oktober 1835, menetapkan ketua-ketua tersebut sebagai wakil sebuah proto-negara di bawah nama Puak-puak Bersatu New Zealand (United Tribes of New Zealand). Dokumen ini tidak diterima dengan baiknya oleh Pejabat Jajahan di Britain, dan suatu persepakatan dibuat untuk membentuk polisi baru yang perlu untuk New Zealand.

Pada May hingga Julai 1836, seorang pegawai Tentera Laut Diraja British bernama Kapten William Hobson, diperintahkan Richard Bourke untuk melawat New Zealand melakukan penyiasatan terhadap dakwaan huru-hara di jajahan tersebut. Hobson mencadangkan dalam laporannya bahawa New Zealand diletakkan bawah kedaulatan British dalam skala kecil sepertimana peranan Syarikat Teluk Hudson di Kanada. Laporan Hobson itu diserahkan kepada Pejabat Jajahan dan dari April hingga Mei 1837,  Dewan Pertuanan mengadakan sebuah suruhanjaya rahsia terhadap keadaan pulau-pulau New Zealand (State of the Islands of New Zealand). New Zealand Association (kemudiannya Syarikat New Zealand), para mubaligh serta Tentera Laut Diraja menghantar surat kepada suruhanjaya tersebut. Suruhanjaya ini mencadangkan sebuah perjanjian yang bakal dimeterai dengan orang Māori.

Historian Claudia Orange claims that the Colonial Office had initially planned a "Māori New Zealand" in which European settlers would be accommodated, but by 1839 had shifted to "a settler New Zealand in which a place had to be kept for Māori" due to pressure from the New Zealand Company which hurriedly dispatched the Tory to New Zealand on 12 May 1839 (arriving in Port Nicholson (Wellington) on 20 September 1839 to purchase land) and plans by French Captain Jean François L'Anglois for a French colony in Akaroa.

On 15 June 1839 new Letters Patent were issued to expand the territory of New South Wales to include the entire territory of New Zealand, from latitude 34° South to 47° 10’ South, and from longitude 166° 5’ East to 179° East. Governor of New South Wales George Gipps was appointed Governor over New Zealand. This was the first clear expression of British intent to annexe New Zealand.

Captain William Hobson was called to the Colonial Office on the evening of 14 August 1839 and given instructions to take the constitutional steps needed to establish a British colony. Historian Paul Moon believes the instructions were written by Sir James Stephen, then head of the Colonial Office. However, T. Lindsay Buick in his landmark 1914 book 'The Treaty of Waitangi:or how New Zealand became a British Colony', clearly reproduces written instructions drafted by Edward Cardwell of the Colonial Office (Cardwell later became Viscount Cardwell and was most noted for his reforms of the British Army after the disaster of the Crimean War). Hobson was appointed Consul to New Zealand. He was instructed to negotiate a voluntary transfer of sovereignty from Māori to the British Crown as the House of Lords select committee had recommended in 1837. Hobson left London on 15 August 1839 and was sworn in as Lieutenant-Governor in Sydney on 14 January, finally arriving in the Bay of Islands on 29 January 1840. Meanwhile a second ship, the Cuba, had arrived in Port Nicholson on 3 January with a survey party to prepare for settlement. The first ship carrying immigrants arrived on 22 January – the Aurora.

On 30 January 1840 Hobson attended the Christ Church at Kororareka (Russell) where he publicly read a number of proclamations. The first was the Letters Patent 1839, in relation to the extension of the boundaries of New South Wales to include the islands of New Zealand. The second was in relation to Hobson's own appointment as Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand. The third was in relation to land transactions (notably on the issue of pre-emption).

Without a draft document prepared by lawyers or Colonial Office officials, Hobson was forced to write his own treaty with the help of his secretary, James Freeman, and British Resident James Busby, neither of whom was a lawyer. Historian Paul Moon believes certain articles of the Treaty resemble the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the British Sherbo Agreement (1825) and the Treaty between Britain and Soombia Soosoos (1826). The entire treaty was prepared in four days. Realising that a treaty in English could be neither understood, debated or agreed to by Māori, Hobson instructed missionary Henry Williams and his son Edward to translate the document into Māori and this was done overnight on 4 February.