What were the Musket Wars?

BRY2K

The fighting that swept New Zealand during the early nineteenth century is usually, if inaccurately, called the 'Musket Wars' - a period moniker that stands in defiance of the military point that muskets were not key weapons until the last third of the period. The more crucial European product was the potato, which, as has been argued, effectively fuelled the conflict.` This helped translate the wars to a stunning scale, dwarfing the New Zealand Wars that followed. There were over 500 engagements. Taua thundered from one end of New Zealand to the other. Up to 40,000 Maori were dislocated, either through enslavement or migration," nearly half the estimated total population of the late eighteenth century. To this can be added casualties of perhaps 20,000 - spread over the period, but still about 19 or 20 percent of the estimated population. http://nzhistory.blogspot.com/2009/03/musket-wars-wright-and-ballara.html http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/new-zealands-19th-century-wars/the-musket-wars Jun 14 10, 6:04 PM