New Zealand is generally considered to have been colonised by Britain from 1840, when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed and British sovereignty was asserted later that year.

Key dates in colonisation

  • The Treaty of Waitangi was first signed on 6 February 1840 between representatives of the British Crown and many Māori chiefs, and it is widely treated as the formal beginning of British colonisation of New Zealand.
  • On 21 May 1840, Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson proclaimed British sovereignty over New Zealand, and in 1841 it became a separate Crown colony rather than being governed as part of New South Wales.

Before formal colonisation

  • Polynesian settlers, ancestors of the Māori, were the first humans to colonise the islands, arriving roughly between 1250 and 1300 CE and developing a distinct Māori society long before Europeans appeared.
  • The first known European contact came much later, in 1642, when Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted and mapped parts of the coastline, followed by James Cook’s detailed mapping voyages from 1769, which opened the way for later traders, missionaries, and, eventually, large-scale British settlement in the 19th century.

So, if you are asking “when was New Zealand colonised?” in the British imperial sense, the pivotal year is 1840, but both earlier Māori settlement and gradual European involvement are important parts of the broader colonisation story.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.