Waikato War map

Waikato War map

On 12 July 1863, Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron’s forces crossed the Mangatāwhiri Stream and invaded Waikato. Adapted from plate 38 of the New Zealand historical atlas (Bateman, 1997), this map is oriented to the troops’ direction of travel, with north at the bottom.

After his return as governor in 1861, George Grey decided that the Kīngitanga, with its determination not to sell land, presented a serious challenge to imperial authority.

In 1862 and 1863 troops extended the Great South Road from Auckland and built a string of redoubts as a forward base for the invasion. Between July 1863 and April 1864 imperial troops, accompanied by locally raised Pākehā units, advanced as far south as Kihikihi.

Major battles were fought at Rangiriri on the Waikato River and at Ōrākau on the southern edge of the central Waikato district, which was occupied by British troops. Māori from lower and central Waikato took refuge in lands to the south and east. The conflict also spread into Bay of Plenty in 1864.

The Waikato campaign was the largest and most successful of the British military operations in the colony between 1845 and 1866. Although one of the government’s main aims was achieved the Waikato basin was largely cleared of Māori for European settlement the King movement was not vanquished.

Community contributions

14 comments have been posted about Waikato War map

What do you know?

admin

Posted: 03 Apr 2009

Hi History Project Probably not much good to you, but we are planning a major feature on the Waikato War later this year. In the meantime there is quite a bit of information in our King Movement topic. Also there are a couple of Calendar events that have more detail on specific events: British forces invade Waikato and Maori surrender at Rangiriri Other sources can be found on our NZ Wars Further information page (including a link to the Jamie Belich documentary about the NZ Wars on NZOnScreen website.) Hope this helps Jamie Mackay Web editor www.nzhistory.net.nz

history project

Posted: 02 Apr 2009

can anyone show me any good sites containing info about the moari wars especially in the waikato area

admin

Posted: 17 Sep 2008

Hi John - this map is based one that originally appeared in the NZ Historical Atlas. Like many of the plates in this publication the map challenges the 'normal' perspective of events, in this case seeing the Waikato as the British forces saw it - a place to be invaded starting from the north. Jamie Mackay

John Rowe

Posted: 16 Sep 2008

The map is upside down, and the wrong way round

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