Historiography: Key Points, Quotes and References
If we accept that all historians are using evidence to support an argument, then logically an argument can change if new evidence is found. But how else can arguments change from historian to historian and from time to time?
1. Ommissions Example
2. Different emphasis Example
3. Weighting or ranking of reasons Example
4. Different cultural understandings Example
5. Counter factual History Example
Contact period
· Key issue is whether Maori were affected negatively orpositively or whether there was an accommodation between Maori and Pakeha
Orange: “workable accord”
Belich: FTWSSS (“flax, timber, whales, seals, sex and souls”)
Belich: “pursuit of mana” and “changing currency of mana”
Binney: “balance of terror” finally saw the Musket Wars subside
Harrison Wright: ‘Fatal Impact’ theory
Binney/Belich/Orange/Salmond: acculturation and active engagement by Maori
Pool/Belich: Maori an “immunologically virgin population”, causing high death rates
Christianity/conversion
· Key issue with conversion historiography is the extent to which Maori actively chose to convert to Christianity. All acknowledge that there is no single reason.
Orange: unlike earlier arrivals, the missionaries sought to change Maori
Wright: Eurocentric view that crises (disease, war) and missionary effectiveness caused conversion
Owens: impact of literacy and increasing missionary effectiveness, especially the work of Henry Williams
Binney: an active choice to find another way of life that would reduce death and disruption of war, plus an acceptance of the message of peace in the Bible
Reasons for signing the Treaty
Salmond: Maori intermediaries liked what they saw overseas
Sinclair: limited Maori understanding of just how many Pakeha would come
Henare: inter-hapu rivalry and alliances meant many non-northern tribes signed out of fear of ‘missing out’
Walker: Britain had no intention of sharing power or abiding by the high-sounding principles in the Treaty
Ward: Britain needed to be seen to be doing the right thing in its treating with Maori, but always had its own motives foremost
Adams: background of concerns about lawlessness
Tremewen: background of concerns regarding French intentions
Immigration/settlement
Belich: “ship beat the womb” until 1880s, and the idea of “swamping” of Maori population by huge number of British immigrants. Powerful myths and prophecies used as “bait” to lure migrants.
Belich: restrictions on Chinese women immigrating to prevent an increase in Chinese numbers
Fairburn: propaganda emphasised “natural abundance”
McKinnon: “kin-migration” (chain migration), especially in Wellington area
Olssen: male gender imbalance attracted females from a Britain with too few men
McDonald: rejects Olssen’s claim, saying that women migrated to get ahead and fre of Old World social restrictions too
Suffrage
Kate Sheppard
On the role of the WCTU, 1892: “The object of this Union shall be to educate public sentiment up to the standard of total abstinence, train the young, save the inebriate [drunkards], and secure the legal prohibition of the liquor traffic.”
On the injustice of denying women the vote, 1892: “… our parliament has given a vote to everyone over twenty-one years of age, excepting criminals, lunatics, aliens [foreigners], and women.”
Historiography
Tennant/McDonald: women were discriminated against in terms of the Victorian sexual double-standard and their economic vulnerability, especially if deserted.
Malone: women became third-class citizens upon marriage
Fairburn: New Zealand society characterised by “atomisation”, especially amongst men, meaning that there was a weak sense of community or “social glue”
Belich:
W.P. Reeves: “women woke up one fine morning to find they had the vote” – a too simplistic view.
Lady Stout: not simply a campaign to get prohibition via women’s suffrage; men as well as women played their part.
Grimshaw: suffrage was the result of energetic campaigning by Kate Sheppard/WCTU in a generally receptive egalitarian political environment. Suffrage was a further step in a long-running campaign. Suffrage did, however, mark a distinct step forward for women.
Coney: like Grimshaw Coney argues that suffrage occurred in an egalitarian environment where settlers were keen to break away from the Old World way of thinking. Attributes the success of the campaign to the energy and skill of Sheppard/WCTU.
Dalziel: women actually made little further progress after 1893, thus suffrage was not a big step but merely an extension of the ‘domestic sphere’, in order to purify politics, that did not affect the status quo.
Bunkle: women as “God’s police” who would purify politics.
Olssen: women as “God’s police” in order to put an end to the unsettled frontier society, in order to replace it with a settled society.
Race relations/features of the contact period:
· Claudia Orange
· “It was an uneasy racial partnership: Maori would accept Europeans only if they proved useful or harmless.”
· “Although contact would never be altogether predictable, the interdependence of the two races would be a crucial factor in determining relationships.” – this is the idea of a “workable accord”.
· “From one area to another there was great variation [in the contact experience]. Northern New Zealand, often regarded by contemporaries (and later by historians) as typical of the whole country, was unusual.”
· “Although by the 1830s Maori had a sense of 'Maoriness' gained from their shared experiences in the European world, their concerns were primarily tribal and would remain so for many years.” i.e a Maori New Zealand
Missionaries in the contact period:
· Claudia Orange
· “The sealers, whalers and traders had no other mission in New Zealand than to exploit the resources of land and sea and they did not actively seek to change Maori society; the missionaries did.”
· “Maori treated the missionaries much as they did traders they were useful for their goods and skills and for enhancing the mana of their patron chief.”
· “The acceptance of Christianity [by Maori] was, as with other European intrusions, adopted and adapted on Maori terms.”
· Samuel Marsden, CMS missionary on Maori:
· “The natives of New Zealand are far advanced in Civilization, and apparently prepared for receiving the Knowledge of Christianity more than any Savage nations I have seen.”
· Belich:
· “The missionaries have been credited with more influence than they exerted and blamed for more harm than they caused.”
Official contact and extension of the Crown’s sphere:
· Claudia Orange
· “… the expansion of New South Wales trading interests in the 1830s was confirming the country [NZ] as a colonial sphere of interest….”
· Declaration of Independence: (Orange) “Recognition of the flag [by Britain] became, in Maori understanding, acknowledgement of the mana of New Zealand and a special mark of Maori identity.”
Maori reasons for signing the Treaty
· British power: (Orange) “[Maori chief] Titore, acknowledging Britain's past conflict with France, offered to reserve certain trees from which spars could be cut in any future AngloFrench engagement.”
· Covenant: (Orange) “On his seven visits to New Zealand between 1814 and 1839, he [missionary Samuel Marsden] consistently promoted the belief that the Crown had a parental interest in protecting the Maori people… Maori came to expect a personal relationship with the Crown's representative and developed unrealistic expectations of continuing special treatment.”
Historiography references
THEME A – MAORI & PAKEHA
TOPIC / O & S (page refs) / OFNER (page refs)'Fatal Impact' versus acculturation
/ 11-12 (blue book)Maori Conversion to Christianity / 22 (blue)
Contact and Musket Wars / 8 (red book)
Benefits or not of colonisation
Declaration of Independence/Busby
Maori in the post-war period
Problems with translation of the Treaty / 47 (blue, 3rd para)
Views of the Treaty
Taranaki war
Waikato and Tauranga wars
Hauhau (Pai Marire)
Titokowaru
THEME B – ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL
TOPIC / O & S (page refs) / OFNER (page refs)
Maori economic activity / 7 (yellow)
Timber / 22 (yellow)
Gold – economic impact / 28 (yellow)
Grey and the Constitution Act, 1846 / 47 (yellow, last para)
Pastoralism’s social/political effects / 20,45 (red book)
Vogel and Vogelism
Vogel and railways / 63 (yellow)
Vogel/the ‘Long Depression’ / 67-8,72 (yellow)
Nature of politics up to 1890
Significance of 1890 election
The Liberals and their impact / 73-4 (land reform)
74 (labour reform)
THEME C – SOCIETY AND ATTITUDES (red book)
TOPIC / O & S (page refs) / OFNER (page refs)Reasons for Pakeha migration to NZ / 12-13 (red)
Wakefield’s colonisation scheme / 19 (red)
Nature of Pakeha communities / 39,42,45 (red)
Women: migration, lifestyle and legal status / 13,41,59-60 (red)
Social Issues / 46 (red)
Poverty and the poor / 54 (red)
Bibliography (with brief comments)