Why the Treaty of Declaration was needed - Social Studies

In 1830 there were 100,000 Māori and 200 Europeans living in New Zealand. The behavior of the Whalers, the Missionaries’ desire to help protect Māori rights, and the Musket Wars were reasons that a treaty was needed. The Declaration of Independence was another contributing factor to the need for a treaty.

One reason that a treaty was needed was the lawless behavior of some of the British Settlers like whalers. The need for the treaty is important because the whalers had caused a negitave impact on the māori. Once the whalers got back from mounts at a time spent out at sea, the behavior of the whalers was detrimental. There were around 200 whalers that arrived at the port of kororarika. They were oblivious to the law and caused trouble at Kororarika; Which is now known as Russell. The whalers were from various countries such as France, America, and Australia. Or though the majority of them were from Britain. The trouble they caused was a tremendous amount of fighting, prostitution, and even diseases. With all the havoc that was brought with the whalers, kororarika was named the hell hole. 

Another reason that a treaty was needed was to protect Māori rights. One group that felt strongly about this was the Missionaries. The Missionaries went to kororarika to encourage their religion amongst the Maori, whilst being at kororarika the Missionaries connected with the Māori and had grown fond of them and the relationships they created. The Missionaries encouraged the enforcement of the treaty because of the relationships they had with the Māori and they held very strong opinions over the need for the treaty to be enforced. Their opinion had held a powerful toll on the creation of the treaty 

Another reason that a treaty was needed was the Musket Wars. The musket wars occurred in the 1800s, it killed too many of the Māori population; A fifth of the Māori population had been wiped out during the musket wars. The musket wars were due to the trading of muskets from the Nga Puhi tribe. With the muskets in motion, the smaller tribes lost land and the room to hunt which caused them to die from starvation. With the death caused by Muskets and starvation, the Māori population had gone down drastically. The whalers benefited from the death of the Māori as they gained more wealth. The Māori felt desperate to create more weapons such as muskets as their populating was decreasing.  

The final reason that a treaty was needed was the existence of the Declaration of Independence.

Why was the treaty created? Fortunately, the treaty of independence was created to Maintain mana and sovereignty but only allowed New Zealand to trade with the British. The treaty was created to create peace and set rules so the British couldn’t take complete control of the country, with the treaty intact New Zealand became an independent country. With the treaty created there were more rights for the Māori instead of the imbalance of power the whalers had held. Trading with the whalers gave the Māori muskets and the whaler gained wealth from the trades. The first trade of muskets caused more Māori to get muskets so they were protected and that ended up in musket wars. 

In conclusion, a treaty was needed because the trades that caused the possession of muskets and musket wars needed to come to an end. This essay demonstrated the need for a treaty to create peace among a country and land. The whalers were taking the land for their own and the treaty was needed to stop that and to keep the Māori in possession of their own country and land. The Māori’s rights were being outlooked because of how many there were against the whalers. The country needed to be saved from the doom they were facing. That is why the treaty was needed and created.