I agree with you, however that diplomacy was based on false documents. The Treaty of Waitiangi signed in 1840 between the Crown and most of the Maori chiefs was poorly translated. The English thought the Maori had accepted the crown’s sovereignty over them and their land, whereas the Maori thought that the English could govern their own colonists. The Maori were shafted by a greedy and cunning imperial power hungry for land (and willing to sink to lies to accomplish their mission)

Belich was never afraid to shy away from big calls – for example, he argued that Maori were the first to invent trench warfare (the modern pa I referred to in the post) and that a well constructed modern pa, particularly the ones built in the Waikato, could have easily slotted into the British front line at the Ypres Salient in the Great War.

This idea has generated a lot of heated debate, most of it arguing against. Personally, I think that Belich’s argument is compelling – but it’s an unusual claim to fame – like saying that someone invented poison gas or the heavy bomber.

On New Zealand history, again Belich – Making Peoples(1996), which covers the period up to the 1880s including the wars, while the second volume (Paradise Reforged, 2001) goes up to the present day. These are very good works, though quite long. For a succinct single volume, Michael King’s The Penguin History of New Zealand (2003) is good.