New Zealand Background

Pākehā Settlement

• The private NZ Company settlement in 1841 of New Plymouth, Taranaki.
    
• Resistance from local Māori, the British Crown and English settlers (land hadn’t been surveyed – problems?)
    
• Treaty of Waitangi, 1840
• Ideas of partnerships, sovereignty and rangatiratanga.

Conflict

• Musket Wars – marauding tribes from Ngati Maniapoto (Waikato) forced Taranaki from their land.
    
• Led to (and fuelled by) a musket “arms” race.
    
• Taranaki Wars in the early 1860s fought over land and control (mana).
• First war – 3,500 Brits Vs 1000 Māori. Stalemate.
• Second war – Seen as a defensive war for Māori

  FURTHER READING: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/taranaki-wars
  

Parihaka Before 1881

Before 1881

• Founded in 1867 by Te Whiti O Rongomai.
    
• Intended to help prevent further bloodshed by being open rather than a fortress.
    
• Māori were attracted to it as a site of Māori autonomy, away from colonial settlements.
    
• By 1870s Parihaka was one of the most prosperous and populous Māori settlement in the country.
    
• Parihaka became a model of hard work, enterprise and communal responsibility.
• slaughterhouse, bakery, bank and generated its own electricity.

  

Threats to Parihaka

• Te Whiti refused to accept illegal confiscation.
    
• Monthly meetings warned against increasing bribery and corruption from Colonials for land.
    
• European visitors were still welcomed with hospitality, dignity and courtesy.
    
• BUT they were living illegally on confiscated land – calls to thwart a rebellious enemy were made.
    
• Surveying of the land for roads, telegraph and settlement using land at Parihaka started July 1878

Role of Government

Colonial Government

• Sir George Grey – Governor General 1861-68.
    
• Sought “substantive sovereignty.”
    
• Julius Vogel – Premier 1873- 76.
    
• Assisted passage, confiscation of land to pay debt and provide settlers with land.
    
• Possible Māori Reserves
    
• NZ Government borrowed money to pay for new migrants who wanted land.
    
• Land was to be confiscated from ‘rebellious’ Māori rather than ‘loyal’ Māori.
    
• In practise, little distinction was shown.
    
• Increasing pressure to confiscate land from Maori who had fought (or not) in order to sell farmland to new migrants.
    
• 1.19 million acres in Taranaki.
    
• Māori reserves were promised but not delivered.
    
• By doing this government could pay back debts and prevent financial crisis.

Government Role

• Government bribed Māori to leave confiscated land.
    
• Te Whiti suggested the bribes meant that confiscation were a sham and by working “occupied” land Māori could reassert their right to it.
    
• John Bryce, Native Minister was adamant Parihaka must be removed.
    
• Under Bryce, Māori were to be given 'the greatest facilities for…placing their land before the public for sale'

FURTHER READING: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/the-new-zealand-settlements-act-passed

Ploughing Campaign

Intrusions

• There was little evidence that promised reserves were going to be delivered.
    
• Surveying of confiscated land began in 1878.
    
• Surveyors cut lines through cultivations, fences and trample cash-crops.
    
• Māori retaliated by uprooting survey pegs.
    
• Then Native Minister John Sheehan rode to Parihaka to force Te Whiti to comply – He did not.
    
• Sheehan reported Parihaka could only be taken by force. So Tohu evicted the surveyors.

First Resistance

• Māori began to plough farmers’ fields in Taranaki.
    
• Farmers angry – Governor (Hercules Robinson) made a special visit and “exploded with indignation.”
    
• Te Whiti asserted ploughing was directed at government – not at farmers.
    
• 100 armed men confronted Ploughers at Hawera – intending to shoot them. They were talked out of violence by those they had come to shoot.

The Empire Strikes Back

• June 29 1879 Armed Constabulary start arresting ploughmen.
    
• Te Whiti said that those with greatest mana should be the first to plough.
    
• This led to the arrest of many prominent Māori.
    
• By August 200 people had been arrested.
    
• British were facing prospect that there wouldn’t be enough room to hold them all.
    
• On August 10th Te Whiti agreed to a truce.

  

Fencing Campaign

West Coast Commission

• Late 1879 – 1880.
   
• Chairman, William Fox insisted no land surveys around Parihaka be carried out until report was completed.
   
• Bryce agreed unless necessary road repairs were required.
   
• In April 1880 he sent in 550 armed soldiers to “repair” a new road leading directly to Parihaka.

Fencing

• Te Whiti responded with hospitality – giving the soldiers food.
   
• The soldiers intentionally tore up fences around Parihaka crops – leaving them to the mercy of wandering stock.
   
• Soldiers marked out road lines across crops and cultivations.
   
• Every night the Māori would come out and rebuild the fences.

British Response

• The Constabulary began arresting the Māori.
    
• As arrests grew Māori came from around the country to take part.
    
• Eventually there were so few men left at Parihaka they were arresting boys and old men.
    
• About 400 ploughers and fencers were imprisoned in poor conditions. Many died in their cells.

   

French Society

Ancien Régime

• Literally the Old Regime.
   
• A term used to describe the Absolute Monarchy which ruled France before the Revolution.
   
• An Absolute Monarchy is when a King or Queen has complete power and control and is not answerable to any elected government (popular representation).
   
• Focuses on the “Divine Right” of Kings.

The Estates System
[You should have your own notes from the text regarding the Estates System.]

Economic Causes

Money

• The standard currency was the livre.
   
• It was printed as paper money at this time.
   
• A farm labourer would earn 1 livre for 1-2 days work.
   
• 1 livre = 3 pounds of butter, 2 geese or a bushel of rye.
   
• Rent for an average farm was 500 livre per year.

Tax System

• Chaotic and inefficient. 
   
• Main tax, called the taille, fell mostly on the third estate. 
   
• Peasants in particular were burdened. 
   
• Indirect taxes targeted food, salt and even goods entering a town. 
   
• Taxes were collected by tax farming which reduced the tax take. 
   
• This caused resentment and deficit. 
   
• So, King Louis XVI borrowed more money.

Changing Attitudes

The Enlightenment

• Intellectual movement of writers and thinkers.
   
• Challenged ideas about religion, nature and absolute monarchy.
   
• Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu led the way in France
   
• They targeted church and despotic govt
   
• The church was seen as wealthy, corrupt and intolerant.
   
• The King was challenged as God’s servant.
   
• These ideas appealed to revolutionaries. 

 
Growing Resentment

• Between tithes, feudal dues, taxes and corrupt laws/judges anger grew.
   
• Taxes were raised between 1749 and 1783 to pay for France’s wars. Church tithes alone took between 5-10% of peasants’ income.
   
• Rents, however, increased as the population grew and demand for farms grew – Popn: (1705 - 22.4m) to (1790 - 27.9m).
   
• Urban workers’ prices rose by 65% (1726-1789) but wages only went up by 22%.

Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy is the ideas and actions a nation takes in relation to nations outside its borders.

The Seven Years War

• France had been long term enemies with Austria and Britain since the 1400s. 
    
• 7 Years War brought Austria and France into alliance.
   
• 7 Year War was an epic fail for France, with massive defeats to Britain and their American Colonies.
   
• France lost nearly all territory in North America and West Africa.
   
• This left them grumpy, and yearning for revenge!  

The American Revolution

• France saw a chance for vengeance and joined the 13 American Colonies in Revolt (1778-1783)
   
• This wasn’t because they agreed with the Enlightenment principles but because they wanted to minimise British influence in America (Mercantilism).
   
• Managed to significantly help in the defeat of Britain.
   
• But this introduced soldiers to revolutionary ideas.
   
• France incurred massive national debts.

Financial Crisis

Money Problems

• Louis XVI ran huge deficits

• This accounted for 20% deficit.
   
• In 43 yrs, war had cost 1066 million livres.
   
• Tax had reduced, and the privileged classes were unwilling to change.
   
• Louis XVI had his officials attempt reforms of the tax system, including tax on all land, whether the owners were from any estate.
   
• These failed and as high class revolt spread, Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates General
   
• It contained 939 representatives of the church, nobility and third estate.
   
• Considered unreliable it had last met in 1614.
   
• With financial crisis, Louis XVI had ended payments from the royal treasury in Aug 1788

Economic Crisis

Economy in Crisis

• In the 1700s, good harvests had helped population growth and prosperity.
   
• Bad harvests were a major event in 1788 as a result of a wet spring and freak hailstorms.
   
• This led to unemployment.
   
• Food price rises led to less demand for manufactured goods at a time when workers and farmers needed income.
   
• The percentage of a labourer’s daily wage to pay for bread increased from 50% to 88%.
   
• Textile industry output halved
   
• Tithe owners and landowners were blamed for hoarding grain and causing price rises.
   
• Food riots occurred

 

Meeting of the Estates General

The Fall of the Ancien Régime

• 1789 is not only one of the most important years in French history, it is also central to European history.
   
• As events escalated out of Louis XVI’s control, resulting in the collapse of the Ancien Régime in France, new structures were created.
   
• The emergence of a more democratic system of govt as a consequence of popular upheaval set a precedent for other people in Europe.

Key Dates

Estates-General Meeting 

• All three Estates met on 5 May 1789 aimed to stop absolute rule and to limit the King with an elected assembly.
   
• The Third Estate declared themselves National Assembly on June 17. The Clergy voted to join on June 19th.
   
• A royal session was prepared by the King to announce reforms in reaction on June 23.
   
• The Third Estate were not allowed in their usual hall on 20th June as it was being prepared for the Royal Session. They instead met outside in a tennis court…

Tennis Court Oath

• Call to remain united.
   
• Pledged to remain until the constitution was written “upon solid foundations”