The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict/ James Belich.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 377-388) and index.

Cover; Title Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; Acknowledgements; Preface; Introduction; PART ONE : The Northern War; 1 : A Limited War; 2 : The Ohaeawai Campaign; 3 : The Paper Victory; PART TWO : The Taranaki War; 4 : A Question of Sovereignty; 5 : The Intervention of the King Movement; 6 : The Maori Strategy and the British Response; PART THREE : The Waikato War; 7 : The Invasion of Waikato; 8 : Rangiriri; 9 : Paterangi and Orakau; 10 : The Tauranga Campaign; PART FOUR : Titokowaru and Te Kooti; 11 : A New Kind of War; 12 : Titokowaru and the Brink of Victory; 13 : The Turn of the Tide.

PART FIVE : Conclusions14 : The Maori Achievement; 15 : The Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict; Glossary of Maori Terms; References; Bibliography;

The New Zealand Wars is a powerful revisionist history. Revealing the enormous tactical and military skill of Maori, and the inability of the 'Victorian interpretation of racial conflict' to acknowledge those qualities, this account of the New Zealand Wars changed how the country's history was understood. Belich undertakes a complete reinterpretation of the crucial episode in New Zealand history and the result is a very different picture from the one previously given in historical works. Maori, in this new view, won the Northern War and stalemated the British in the Taranaki War of 1860-61 only to be defeated by 18,000 British troops in the Waikato War of 1863-64. The secret of effective Maori resistance was an innovative military system, the modern pa, a trench-and-bunker fortification of a sophistication not achieved in Europe until 1915. According to the author: 'The degree of Maori success in all four major wars is still underestimated - even to the point where, in the case of one war, the wrong side is said to have won.' Here, Belich sets out to show how historical distortions have arisen over time and revises our understanding of New Zealand history by using fresh evidence and a systematic re-analysis of old evidence.