page_title: History of Auckland
section_title: Arrival of Europeans
hierarchical_section_title: History of Auckland / Māori occupation / Arrival of Europeans
caption_attribution_description: Captain William Hobson, first Governor of New Zealand. Inscription on verso: Copy by J. McDonald, Dominion Museum, 1913, copied from the small painting presented to Auckland by the Hon. W. Mitchelson, M.L.C. Small portrait for Government House copied from this.
context_page_description: The human history of the Auckland metropolitan area stretches from early Māori settlers in the 14th century to the first European explorers in the late 18th century, over a short stretch as the official capital of New Zealand in the middle of the 19th century to its current position as the fastest-growing and commercially dominating metropolis of the country.
context_section_description: Ngāti Whātua and Tainui tribes were the main groups living in the area when Europeans arrived in New Zealand. European settlement to the north enabled traditional rivals Ngāpuhi and allied northern iwi to acquire muskets by trade. Initially no military advantage accrued; despite lacking muskets, Ngāti Whātua defeated a Ngāpuhi force, who had a few muskets, in the battle of Moremonui north of the Kaipara Harbour (in 1807 or 1808), killing at least 150.
  Āpihai Te Kawau (c. 1790–1869), leader of the Ngāti Taou hapu (sub-tribe) of Ngāti Whātua, was a good friend of Samuel Marsden. Over a ten-month period in 1821–1822 he played a principal part in the 1,000-mile (1,600 km) Amiowhenua expedition. This series of battles raged through much of the central and southern North Island.
  Also in 1821, Ngāpuhi war leader Hongi Hika acquired several hundred muskets in Sydney and this changed the balance of power between iwi. In September 1821 Hongi Hika led an expedition that attacked and took the two Ngāti Pāoa pā of Mauinaina and Mokoia at present-day Panmure. Hongi Hika continued with attacks at present-day Thames and in the Waikato. Te Kawau's Amiowhenua expedition ended when his Ngāti Whātua forces, uniting with the Taranaki they were embattled with, jointly defended Tainui's Matakitaki pā from Hongi Hika's forces. In 1825 Hongi Hika was victorious over Ngāti Whātua in the battle of Te Ika a Ranganui near Kaiwaka, and pursued survivors into the Waikato. From this time the Auckland area was all but deserted.
  Europeans also brought new diseases (notably smallpox and tuberculosis) which, as elsewhere, lead to significant mortality and morbidity amongst immunologically naive Māori. The result was the Auckland isthmus remained a virtually vacated buffer zone between iwi, with a population probably under 500 in 1840.
   
  As the Musket Wars drew to a close, pressure for British intervention to quell lawlessness, in large part driven by missionary pressure to protect the Māori, led to the annexation of New Zealand and the despatch of Lt Governor Hobson to sign the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. (James Cook had claimed New Zealand for Britain by right of discovery, and it was part of New South Wales until 1840.)
  On 20 March 1840 in the Manukau Harbour area where Ngāti Whātua farmed, now paramount chief Āpihai Te Kawau signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi). Ngāti Whātua sought British protection from Ngāpuhi as well as a reciprocal relationship with the Crown and the Church. Soon after signing the Treaty, Te Kawau offered land on the Waitematā Harbour to Hobson, the new Governor of New Zealand, for his new capital.
  As the Māori population declined for nearly a century, so did the quantity of land held by Ngāti Whātua. Within 20 years, 40% of their lands were lost, some through government land confiscation. At close to the lowest level of population, Ngāti Whātua land holding was reduced to a few acres at Orakei, land which Te Kawau had declared "a last stand". By the end of the 1840s, Māori were a minority in the Auckland area. Despite scares during the New Zealand wars, Māori re-emerged as a cultural and political force only after the Bastion Point occupation and Māori cultural revival of the late 20th century.
caption: New Zealand's first Governor, William Hobson (pictured), established Auckland as the colony's capital in 1841 on land offered by Ngāti Whātua.
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