Under the leadership of British statesman Edward G. Wakefield, the first British colonists to New Zealand arrived at Port Nicholson on Auckland Island.
In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman became the first European to discover the South Pacific island group that later became known as New Zealand.
The islands, which were named after the Dutch province of Zeeland, did not attract much additional European attention until the late 18th century.
When English explorer Captain James Cook traveled through the area and wrote more details about the areas of New Zealand then New Zealand came into being in the year 1770.
In 1840 the British Government signed an agreement with the Maoris, the natives of New Zealand, which put New Zealand under British protection.
The Treaty of Waitangi 1840 was a highly contentious document that still carries a lot of weight in present-day politics.
Both the English and Maori versions stipulated different things: the former mandated that the Crown would have full control over New Zealand’s territories, while the latter indicated that Maori would have full sovereignty over their tribal lands.
British settlers began to migrate to New Zealand in the 1870s and the government began investing in the expansions of towns and railways in order to accommodate the country’s newest residents.
A gold rush culminated in the South Island’s Otago region in the 1860s, helping transform Dunedin into the country’s largest city.
In 1867, Self-Government was given to New Zealand. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant all women the right to vote and first to offer state pensions.
In the late 1890s, New Zealand turned down the chance to join the Australian Federation and became an independent Dominion in 1907.
In 1907 New Zealand became a dominion and full independence was granted in 1931 and ratified by New Zealand in 1947.