New Zealand Company ships
The New Zealand Company was a 19th-century English company that played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand. The company was formed to carry out the principles of systematic colonisation devised by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who envisaged the creation of a new-model English society in the southern hemisphere. Under Wakefield's model, the colony would attract capitalists who would then have a ready supply of labour—migrant labourers who could not initially afford to be property owners, but who would have the expectation of one day buying land with their savings.
Foreign relations of New Zealand
New Zealand was first settled by Polynesians at some point between 800 and 1300 AD. From the 1760s New Zealand was visited by various European explorers and traders, and later missionaries and settlers. An informal system of trade was established, especially in Northland, and some iwi (tribes) became wealthy and powerful. As Māori was a tribal-level society of many shifting chiefdoms, relationships with Europeans were ad hoc and informal. In 1835 a group of Northland chiefs, under the guidance of British resident James Busby, signed a declaration of independence, which was recognised by Britain.