Colonization

In 1837 Edward Gibbon Wakefield organized in London the New Zealand Association (later Company). Failing to win government support of his plans, he prepared to found a colony as a private enterprise. France also began making plans to send settlers.

In 1839 Great Britain decided to take sovereignty over New Zealand and sent out Captain William Hobson. In January, 1840, the first group of Wakefield's colonists landed at the site of Wellington. A week later Captain Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands and called a meeting of Maori chiefs at Waitangi. Under the Treaty of Waitangi, signed February 6, 1840, the Maoris agreed to accept British sovereignty in return for protection of their land rights. A few days later a small French party landed at Banks Peninsula in the South Island. When informed that they were in British territory, they accepted British sovereignty.