Aotearoa

  

Aotearoa Maori: Rangatiratanga o Aotearoa
Flag Coat of arms
Capital	Tāmaki-Tūpuna
Other languages	Maori English
Government
• Emperor	Oikarewa II
• Prime Minister	TBD
GDP (PPP)	TBD estimate
• Total	TBD (TBD)
• Per capita	TBD
GDP (nominal)	TBD estimate
• Total	TBD
• Per capita	TBD
Currency	TBD

Aotearoa, officially the Kingdom of Aotearoa (Maori: Rangatiratanga o Aotearoa) is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses, Te Ika-a-Māui (North Island), Te Waipounamu (South Island) and 700 smaller islands. Bordered by the Tasman Sea to the east, and sits roughly 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) off the coast of mainland Meganesia, and roughly. Aotaaroa is a part of the Ring of Fire, and 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the islands of Fiji, Tonga and New Caledonia. It is the sixth-largest island country country, with a landmass of 268,021 square kilometres (103,500 sq mi). Aotearoa is site to the world's strongest concentration of youthful rhyolitic volcanoes and was site of the the world's largest eruptions in geologically recent times. The nation has a varied topography with prominent mountain ranges, the Moana Range, various valleys and plains, the most historically important being the Hauraki Plains. Aotearoa's largest city and capital is Tāmaki-Tūpuna.

Settlement of Aotearoa occurred in three distinct waves, first by Neolithic Austronesians between 1200–1100 BC, then by Polynesians between 1270-1280, and recently by Europeans and Asians.

History

Main article: History of Aotearoa

Prehistory

Main article: Tuatahi settlement of Aotearoa

Aotearoa was first settled by Austronesians during the Austronesian expansion (also called the "Out of Taiwan" model) by the Tuatahi. Radiocarbon dating, evidence of deforestation and mitochondrial DNA variability within the Tuatahi population indicates that the group arrived in Aotearoa between 1200 and 1100 BC from New Caledonia. Archaeologists believe that the Tuatahi reached New Caledonia between 1300 and 1100 BC, originating from the Polillo Islands, east of the Tondonese island of Luzon. The Tuatahi were closely related to some of the earliest Austronesian groups that settled Northern Luzon including the Ivatan and Taiwanese Austronesians. Anthropologists hypothesize that environmental factors caused tensions to flare between the Tuatahi and Lapita. Over the centuries the Tuatahi settlers developed a district culture. The population formed into different tribes and subtribes, which at times would cooperate or compete for resources, with the most powerful of the tribes concentrated on the North Island.

Throughout the Austronesian migratory waves, several domesticated plants and animals were introduced to islands throughout the Southeast Maritime world known as "canoe plants". The most important introduction of plants to Aotearoa was the temperate variety of japonica rice. After the initial dispersal of the various Tuatahi tribes across the Northern and Southern islands, between 900 and 800 BC major clusters of population began to develop around the Wairoa River and Waikato River. These communities engaged in wet-rice farming, and created a distinct style of pottery. According to Tuatahi legend, Tsamak founded the Chiefdom of Madjavay in 450 BC along the banks of the Wairoa River, which established dominace over the Tokerau Peninsula.

Aotearoa's Tuatahi developed a writing system based on glyphs between 340 and 240 BC, independent from other inventions of other writings similar to the development of Rongorongo on Easter Island. Prior to the introduction of the Maori religion, the Tuatahi had developed a indigenous religion that was informally supported by shamans (pulingaw) on both the North and South Islands, while in Waikato and Wairoa they were formally supported by priests.

In 232, the Lanak and other North Island tribes were affected by the Hatepe eruption. Between 250 and 520 AD, Aotearoa has been likened to that of Maya civilization, with multiple city-states engaged in a complex network of alliances and enmities. During the Late Antique Little Ice Age (536-660), stability declined as tribes from the southernmost portion of the North Island sought to migrate north to the warmer Tokerau Peninsula. In 547 Uka of Madjavay led a intervention against the weakened Lanak in the city of Latjigiulan located on the Waihou River, installing a Madjavay backed dynasty. Kalivayan of Lanak launched the Tāmaki War of 552 in an effort to push Madjavay back across the Tāmaki River and reestablish Lanak dominance south of the Tokerau Peninsula. Several wars proceeded between Lanak and Uka, causing the long-term political destabilization of the North Island. During the Medieval Warm Period (950-1250) tensions between the North Island tribes temporarily subsided as rice productivity increased and food scarcity decreased.

Instability returned after the Tuatahi was struck by a consecutive set of droughts, which was accompanied with the the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1013 and a series of wildfires that engulfed the Waikato Plains. Lanak dissipated as a polity and Madjavay splintered into several warring factions caused by a succession dispute.

Maori settlement

Main article: Māori settlement of Aotearoa

According to Maori oral tradition, the rangatira of Hawaiki known as Kupe was the first Polynesian to discover Aotearoa. Traditional genealogies (Whakapapa) state that Kupe led forty founding canoes (waka) from Hawaiki to Aotearoa. Although Hawaiki is considered the spiritual homeland of many eastern Polynesian societies, it is stated by some researchers to be fictional. Those that claim that Hawaiki is a physical place, often point to Raiatea in the Leeward Society Islands. According to local legends on the Cook Islands, the founding canoes of Aotearoa split off from a Tahiti canoe party bound for Rarotonga sometime between 1100 and 1200 AD. Archaeological discoveries found on the Wairau Bar in 1939 connected the Aotearoa Maori to the Marquesas, which has put the "Great Fleet" hypothesis into question. Emerging archeological evidence supports that the Maori settled Aotearoa through several coordinated migrations from Polynesia.

The first interaction between the Tuatahi and Maori occurred in the Bay of Plenty near the city of Tauranga in 1274 AD. Waves of Maori settlement continued, and one landing party which landed on Tokerau in 1278 AD at Tokerau was turned away by Madjavay chief Kivi. This continued migratory effort is hypothesized as being a part of an internal struggle that occurred within the Tuʻi Tonga Empire during the 10th and 11th centuries. According to Tonga oral history, a group from Tahiti fled to the south after ʻAhoʻeitu was killed by his brothers. The Māori iwi of Ngāpuhi and Tuatahi clan of the Madjavay joined forces in 1312 AD to repel the allied forces of Lanak and the iwi of Ngāti Maniapoto during the Tekohanga War. Ngāpuhi and Madjavay were victorious in the war, leading to a political marriage that joined the two groups and established the Kingdom of Rerenga. According to Tuatahi and Maori tradition, this marked the joining the lineage of Kupe and Tsamak.

The Ao period (1318-1401) marked the ascendance of a centralized Aotearoa state, and the incarnation of the first Emperor of Aotearoa (Ahurei o Aotearoa), Ahinariki. According to Aotearoa legend, Madjavay princess Tjagul and Ngāpuhi prince Raatana were unable to bear children, and that Atuaotera created Ahinariki from a ray of sunlight at Cape Reinga. Historians believe that the early Ahurei were confined to religious duties as shamanistic kings, who were not involved in warfare or policy making. The tribal chief (rangatira) of Rerenga, Uawhaki, became the dominant political leader in the region and led a series of campaigns to incorporate the iwi of Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Tamaterā, Waikato Tainui and Ngāti Tūwharetoa during the Waikato War of 1367. Uawhaki incorporated the various sub-rangatira into the court, inviting them to court at Kirikiriroa in 1343.

Ahinariki and his closest priests (tohunga ahurewa) began efforts to standardize religious practices, and established the Runanga Amokapua ("Assembly of Priests") in 1346 AD. The Runanga Amokapua developed Tuhitapu, a script based off the ancient glyphs of the Tuatahi, to write the religious codex known as Paerewa Tapu in 1357 AD. After the death of Uawhaki in 1388, his successor Maatua Ahu launched the unsuccessful Tararua War in 1393 against the Rangitāne and Muaūpoko. Maatua Ahu was overthrown by the sub-rangatira of Tainui, Oanaka in 1401, beginning the Oanaka period (1401-1621). Effects from the Little Ice Age caused a decline rice production throughout the North Island, leading to the century long Raru Takiwātanga ("Troubled Era").

Tokerau's climate allowed for rice production to be more reliable, and the remainder of the North Island became more dependent on its agricultural output. Emperor Kahea utilized Tokerau's position in 1464 to consolidate power, which he utilized to build a series of roads and water transportation routes across Rerenga. Oanaka's son, Erehe, launched the successful Second Tararua War in 1473, successfully unifying the North Island under Rerenga control. Erehe moved Rerenga's rangatira court from Kirikiriroa to Waiuku in 1481 in response to the ongoing Waikato Civil War, a conflict which would not end until the intervention of Kahea in 1489.

European discovery

Main article: Age of Discovery

In 1512, 21 malnourished Portuguese seafarers of the Portuguese India Armadas, originally apart of Afonso de Albuquerque's fleet which conquered Malacca, were the first non-Austronesian peoples to discover Aotearoa. Landing near Whangārei, the malnourished crew of the Estrela de la Mar were granted sanctuary on Aotearoa by Emperor Ihangarangi. The Portuguese crew presented a Tamil bell to a local chief as gift of goodwill. Rangatira Haatuatua confiscated the ocean-going carrack, holding the ship for roughly five years to construct a functioning replica. During this period Portuguese captain Viriato Azevedo worked alongside Haatuatua in the logistics of shipbuilding, while friar Ciríaco Guimarães worked to translate the Maori language to Portuguese. Maori priests Hae Puru and Mariano Florencio were taught Portuguese.

On February 11, 1518, Azevedo and his surviving crew, Florencio along with 21 Maori sailors set sail on the Haatuatua following the northern migratory path of the bar-tailed godwit. Guimarães remained in Aotearoa, in hopes of evangelizing the indigenous population to Roman Catholicism. The voyage of Haatuatua led to the discovery of New Caledonia, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. From 1520 to 1521 the Haatuatua traveled throughout the Indonesian Archipelago. In 1522 the ship arrived in Sunda Kelapa where the Portuguese and Sunda Kingdom were engaged in diplomatic talks to establish a treaty between the two nations. Viriato Azevedo, one Māori representative and the surviving Portuguese crew departed from the Haatuatua, returning with Captain Henrique Leme to Malacca on the São Sebastião to Malacca. These expeditions opened Aotearoa the Maritime Southeast Asia and the Maritime Silk Road. The Haatuatua returned for Aotearoa on September 9, 1523, during which it discovered settlements of the Makassar on the coast of the Australian continent. Cultural and economic exchanges between Aotearoa and the Javanese people became common place, allowing for the introduction of Islam and Buddhism to Aotearoa. The Javanese syncretism of Shaivism, Kejawèn and Buddhism were well received by the courts of Ihangarangi, and its belief systems were further synthesized to fit the Aotearoa blend of Māori and Tuatahi religious practices.

Establishing trade routes with both the indigenous peoples and Europeans in Southeast Asia brought innovation, new species of flora, fauna and disease to the island. Disease ravaged Aotearoa throughout the 15th century, the most devastating being smallpox, cholera, malaria and typhus. Roughly 14% of the Māori population was destroyed during this period, which lead to internal instability and the 1535 Māui Rebellion initiated by the first Christian rangatira, Maamari. Haatuatua banned Christianity in 1536, persecuting and executing those who practiced the religion. Both the Dutch and Portuguese had established relations with Aotearoa by 1583, introducing European weaponry and technology to the island.

During the Conquest of the South Island in 1598, the rangatira of the North Island split into two factions; the Raahiriāti and the Kutuāti. Both factions had begun utilizing European weapons and technology to subdue their neighboring iwis, with the Kutuāti claiming the eastern half of the island while the Raahiriāti claimed the western half (excluding Tokerau). During 1600 Battle of Taupo, the Raahiriāti were victorious over the Kutuāti and assumed national leadership. Upon the return of Kuramoetaea from the South Island the Oanaka aligned with the Raahiriāti, beginning the Raahiriāti period (1601-1835).