Fatal frontiers : a new history of New Zealand in the decade before the Treaty / Paul Moon.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-247) and index.

1. PARADISE IN DISGUISE -- 2. UNNATURAL BOUNDARIES -- 3. UNRAVAGED WEALTH -- 4. IMPERIAL SEEDS -- 5. 'SOME FRESH HUMBUG' -- 6. A FRENCH INTERLUDE -- 7. YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE -- 8. DOWNCAST LOOKS FROM LONDON -- 9. THE INFLAMED AIR -- 10. A SHARED FATE -- 11. SINISTER VISITATIONS.

A fascinating new account of New Zealand in the colourful and pivotal 1830s. Some of the most interesting and important events in New Zealand history took place in the 1830s. In this period the French almost beat the British to claim New Zealand, aggressive English merchants were applying pressure on the country's natural resources, and growing numbers of European settlers were beginning to demand land. Meanwhile, Maori were still heavily in the majority and starting to explore commercial opportunities. But there was turmoil everywhere. Intertribal warfare raged, while many tribes were trying to decide how to accommodate the Europeans in their midst. Historian Paul Moon demonstrates it is wrong to regard the 1830s as simply an inevitable lead-up to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. For those people in New Zealand at the time, there was no such certainty. What would happen as the decade closed was far from obvious, and as Fatal Frontiers shows, this turbulent period deserves consideration in its own right.