New Zealand - History

    New Zealand is a country in the south-western Pacific Ocean. It has two large islands, the North Island and the South Island, and its capital is Wellington.

   The first people in New Zealand came from Polynesia in boats about a thousand years ago. We don’t know exactly when they came. They developed their own culture and today we call them Maoris. For a long time the Maoris were the only people in the country. Then, in 1642, the Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman, arrived with two ships.

    Unfortunately, there was a fight between the Europeans and the Maoris and many people died. Tasman left and Europeans did not come again for many years. In 1769, the British explorer, James Cook, sailed to New Zealand and made the first maps of its coastline.

 After that, many European and North American ships arrived. They wanted to hunt for whales in the Pacific and trade with the Maoris.

     In the nineteenth century, many British people came to live in New Zealand and they bought land from the Maoris. In 1840, the British government signed an agreement with the Maoris, the Treaty of Waitangi, and New Zealand became part of the British Empire. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the right to vote.

Today New Zealand is a quiet country with a high standard of living.

 http://kblog.pl/nowa-zelandia-na-krancu-swiata/

Opracowała: Renata Podwojska