Product details
Biographical note
Ian Knight is a leading international expert on colonial-era warfare, notably the Anglo-Zulu War. He has written, co-written or edited over 30 books, many for Osprey, including FOR 081 Maori Fortifications.Between 1845 and 1872, various groups of Maori were involved in a series of wars of resistance against British settlers.
The Maori had a fierce and long-established warrior tradition and subduing them took a lengthy British Army commitment, only surpassed in the Victorian period by that on the North-West Frontier of India. Warfare had been endemic in pre-colonial New Zealand and Maori groups maintained fortified villages or pas.
By the 1860s many Maori had acquired firearms and had perfected their bush-warfare tactics. In the last phase of the wars a religious movement, Pai Maarire (‘Hau Hau’), inspired remarkable guerrilla leaders such as Te Kooti Arikirangi to renewed resistance.
Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork and fascinating early photographs, this book tells the parallel stories of the fierce Maori resistance to British colonial expansion, and of the adaptation of British and local New Zealand forces to bush fighting.
Introduction: pre-colonial Maori society and warfare
The musket wars: from early 18th-century white contacts, to Hongi Hika’s wars of expansion in 1820–35
The wars of conquest, 1840s: Hone Heke’s campaigns – British forces in New Zealand: infantry, artillery, engineers, Naval Brigade
The 1860s campaigns: British tactical adaptations – assaults on fortified positions – Maori responses
1865–72: the Pai Maarire movement – guerrilla warfare – Te Kooti Arikirangi’s campaigns – local Volunteer, Militia and Constabulary units – pro-government Maori groups
Bibliography
Plate commentaries
Index