Fatal Frontiers: A New History Of New Zealand In The Decade Before The Treaty

by Paul Moon

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2007

About the author

Dr Paul Moon is Professor of History at Auckland University of Technology. Among his twenty-five published books are A Savage Country: The untold story of New Zealand in the 1820s; This Horrid Practice: The myth and reality of traditional Maori cannibalism; A History of New Zealand in the Twentieth Century; biographies of Governors Hobson, FitzRoy and the Ngāpuhi chief Hone Heke; and Encounters: The creation of New Zealand, which was shortlisted for the 2014 Australasian Ernest Scott Prize in History.

Reviews

[Ian Lambert · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting addition to stories of the period. It's basically a European history with a very Eurocentric view. Moon's attitudes towards Maori and the stories he relates and the way he tells them are a bit uncomfortable. There are occasionally silly comments. The most interesting parts for me were the relationships between Busby and the NSW administration and the background of the formation of the NZ Company. In some senses this book is once-over-lightly but it has some detail I haven't read elsewhere.

[Grant Hodgson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Paul has written a perceptive, fair, and mercifully selective history of events in a crucial decade leading up to the Treaty. His selection of the important themes is very interesting, covering the role of the missionaries, their printing presses, and their attempts to turn iwi away from their time-honoured rituals of utu, supercharged and distorted by the advent of the foreign musket technology. No one comes out unscathed from his judgements, which is probably a realistic assessment of an accidental , bumbling story of ‘progress’, which all parties are still struggling to make sense of, and usually lay blame in the wrong place. It is what it was!

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting view into 1830s New Zealand, when English and other European settlers were establishing themselves with very minimal support from their governments back home, and how those events affected the future of New Zealand.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every New Zealander should read this book, especially if they have a Maori ancestry.