Settlement Research

New Zealand is one of the world’s leading agricultural exporters in the world. But how did they get to where they are now? As

talked about in Jared Diamond’s film Guns, Germs, and Steel all civilizations start out with a small group of hunter gatherers. It is not

until the group figures out how to cultivate crops and domesticate animals until the group can start to develop into a civilization and

build their population. Once a civilization’s population is big enough and they can support their population and don’t need everyone to

farm, people can start developing special skills like steel working and weaponry. New Zealand was not discovered until sometime

between 1250-1300 AD. This is a couple thousand years after the people of the fertile crescent discovered how to cultivate crops and

domesticate animals. From the fertile crescent, these ideas travel east and west and then south down to the tip of Africa and through

south-east Asia.

As people started migrating from south-east Asia throughout the South Pacific and settling the Pacific islands, resources

became scarce as more people inhabited the islands. This pushed explorers to continue their expedition further and further east. Until,

the Maori finally landed in Aotearoa or what is known as today, New Zealand. In Guns, Germs, Steal narrated by Jared Diamond he

explains why this west to east movement was possible. He explained that as you move east or west on the same latitude zone, the days

are the same length and the climates are similar. This made it very easy for new settlers to adapt to their new areas amongst the pacific

islands. To travel from island to island, the Maori people used canoes to sail from island to island. The fact that there were not enough

resources to support a very many people suggest that the Maori people were hunters and gatherers. As their population started getting

to big they set out to discover more islands to inhabit.

The climate in New Zealand is perfect for agriculture. The land is very fertile with many nutrients and supports a plethora of

vegetation. When we look at a world map, we can see that both New Zealand and the Fertile Crescent are both between Latitude lines

thirty to forty-five degrees away from the equator. This could be a reason for why the land is so fertile and supports a large amount of

plants. As stated in Guns, Germs, and Steel, areas among the same latitude lines tend to have similar climates. Similar climates also

support the same plants and animals. New Zealand’s geography is also very different from the fertile crescent though. The landscape

varies from towering mountains covered with snow that melts and feeds water into the deep valleys filled with farm land. New

Zealand’s culture has been built around agriculture. Cattle, sheep, and goats are all farmed in the grass farmlands of New Zealand and

today New Zealand is recognized as the largest sheep exporter in the world.

When the Maori People first arrived in New Zealand, they continued being hunters and gatherers. The Maori people who

settled in New Zealand were a couple thousand years behind the first cultivators of the fertile crescent which in turn delayed their

development to create and expand their population. Once they figured out how to cultivate crops and domesticate animals, their

population started growing and advancing. When the first British explorer landed on the island the Maori had no steel weapons of any

kind and were still using stone weapons. The British seeing this took control of the island and pushed British law on New Zealand. It

wasn’t until 1947 that New Zealand gained full independence from Britain and they could start developing their own country. Today

New Zealand exports Dairy cows, sheep, cattle, salmon, oysters, and mussels. They also export peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots,

cherries, apples, pears, kiwi, avocadoes, and grapes to the rest of the world.

The Maori people traveled throughout the pacific islands and eventual landed in New Zealand around 1250 AD. Once they

arrived in New Zealand they found the climate to be similar to that of the fertile crescent where the people they descended from

learned about cultivating crops and domesticating animals. They traveled throughout the pacific on canoes designed to sail the open

ocean and discover new islands. Once in New Zealand the Maori people went on hunting and gathering and soon after learned how to

cultivate crops and domesticate animals. It wasn’t until British explorers landed in New Zealand and pushed their religion and laws on

the Maori that they learned of Steel working. New Zealand got their full independence from Britain in 1947 and started developing

their country under their own beliefs. It wasn’t even until last year in May that New Zealand developed a rocket that could make it

into space.
 Work Cited

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from https://www.newzealand.com/us/feature/new-zealand-climate-and-weather/

BBC. (2017, October 31). New Zealand profile - Timeline. Retrieved January 24, 2018, from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-

pacific-15370160

New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. (2017, August 02). Pacific Migrations. Retrieved January 24, 2018,

from https://teara.govt.nz/en/pacific-migrations/page-8

Population and Settlement. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24, 2018, from http://bberrynewzealand.weebly.com/population-and-settlement.html

Religion in New Zealand. (2018, January 09). Retrieved January 24, 2018, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_New_Zealand#/media/File:NZ_Religious_denominations_by_TA_2013.svg

Whitmore, R. (n.d.). The Maori. Retrieved January 24, 2018, from http://history-nz.org/maori.html