User talk:Adjei32

August 2021
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Which country was the hardest one to conquer during the colonial era?
What if I asked you to list the most warlike cultures in history? No doubt the same island people would come to mind for most, this warlike culture is famous the world over - The Māori.

The Scottish settlers quickly realised they were in trouble, when the Māori warriors turned up to fight, dancing and sticking their tongues out.

The Māori Wars, 1843–1872.

By the mid-1800, the British had already fought practically everyone worth fighting, only 30 years previously they had finally defeated mighty France once and for all, ending a near-constant state of war between the two great military powers, that had raged for 700 years, between 1109 - 1815.

Reader rolls eyes - Surprise surprise, the British whooped the French yet again, boringly predictable result.

Ok, well how about just 1 year earlier in 1842, when the British Empire had invaded China and gave the powerful Qing Dynasty of China a beating to remember, during the First Opium War. The British won with ease only losing 69 men throughout the entire conflict and seizing Hong Kong in perpetuity.

Spanish King's letter of condolences to the emperor of Qing China - I know it stings bro, I still can’t believe those fracking pirates seized Gibraltar and defeated our empire, it hurts so bad. You should come to our BB (battered by Britain) support group. France is still in shock and has turned to neurotically cooking, while excessively drinking red wine, and talking too much, about their cooking and red wine.

Anyway, random history tangent out of the way, back to the Māori tribes of New Zealand that fielded warriors who were often taller and more physically powerful than then Europeans. However, the British had handily defeated many other physically intimidating warlike societies in the past. What truly made the Māori so different from the others, was that their isolated islands had functioned much like the British Isles and Japanese Islands, resulting in centuries of never-ending tribal warfare, that had culminated in the Musket Wars, 1807–1837.

Put simply, the Māori were fierce warlike people whose society had been forged over centuries of constant warfare, and who had spent the last 30 years fighting a new style of intense tribal wars amongst themselves, armed with European muskets and weapons they had purchased. The Māori fielded capable warriors hardened by recent battle experience, who were brave, highly disciplined, capable of fiendish tactics and commanded by skilled military leaders.

What had started out as land disputes between settlers and individual Māori tribes, eventually escalated into an all-out war when a powerful coalition of tribes unified and started to wage a brutally efficient style of asymmetrical warfare. This resulted in a war, akin to a high-level game of chess, between two of the great historically warlike cultures on earth.

The Māori were outnumbered, not as well equipped, and could not hope to compete with the British in European style open-field warfare. So the Māori decided to fight an ambush based guerrilla conflict, with strong defensive Pahs.

What is a Pah, you say? The name for a style of effective fortifications built by the Māori, using earthworks, wooden palisade walls, trenches, kill boxes and even bunkers that could provide shelters from British artillery barrages.

The Māori fortifications were so effective during the conflict that they neutralised the advantages in numbers and technology held by the British.

Battle of Gate Pā, 29 April 1864.

When roughly 250 Māori warriors arrived at an old Pah that had guarded a key road, they began expanding and improving the fortifications that straddled a wide low hill sitting between two treacherous swamps.

The small Māori force quickly built the Gate Pah, or Gate Pā, or just Gate fort, creating a seriously strong defensive position with secure flanks and layers of defence, ambush positions and a trench network that zigzagged up the slope.

The British had despatched an army of some 1,700 soldiers under the command of a veteran officer of the Crimean War (when the British had invaded Russia and predictably trashed them) to put down the local Māori tribal resistance.

At Gate Pā the British heavily outnumbered the Māori by as much as 8 to 1, yet the experienced British commander didn't take any risks - he ordered an intensive artillery barrage of the outnumbered Māori, who had no artillery to return fire, this lasted for hours.

Meanwhile small detachments of British light had moved through the swamps on the flanks and took up strong positions behind the Māori fort, blocking the enemies retreat. It was these detachments that informed the artillery gunners that they had been firing hundreds of shells at a false unmanned section of the fort for hours.

Recovering from this embarrassing mistake, the artillery gunners corrected their aim and pounded the long fortified hill until night fell.

At first light, the artillery and mortar crews unleashed an intense eight-hour bombardment that left the wooden palisade shattered and in ruins, all Māori fight seemed gone and an eerie silence floated on the still evening breeze that carried but dust and smoke across the carnage of the earthen fort and abandoned palisade.

As evening approached, the British commander ordered an assault by a 300 strong force that included a marine boarding party with experience in close-quarter combat, these men charged with bayonets straight into the fortification, some fell taking light fire as they approached, and once inside a brief fight flared against what resistance remained, but the 300 strong force overwhelmed what few Māori they could find still standing.

Within a few minutes, the fort fell silent again and appeared all but abandoned, dozens of Māori lay scattered around where they had fallen. The British walked around slightly surprised that they had taken such a large fort with such ease.

For a while the British soldiers wandered around the maze of trenches, exploring the impressive redoubt. When suddenly an eruption of gunfire and screams exploded from all around, for the Māori had been hiding and baiting the invaders into their fiendishly laid trap.

The survivors of the roughly 250 Māori warriors garrisoned in the fort had remained hidden in their bunkers and tunnels, waiting for the enemy to spread out and lower their guard. The Māori commanders had ordered his well-disciplined warriors to remain completely silent and wait for a set signal to spring the trap.

Those warriors were armed with double-barrel shotguns and traditional Māori melee weapons. When the signal came, they shoot nearly all the British officers in the first volley, and fell on the remaining stunned and leaderless soldiers, dominating them in hand to hand combat with ferocious melee skill.

Of the 300 British soldiers that stormed the fort, over a third died or were wounded, with officers and NCOs making up most of the casualties. Those who could run fled the slaughter, fleeing in chaos from the smouldering ruins of the fort, and an ambush that had stunned the largest empire in human history.

While the Māori Wars continued for a few more years, this victory changed the mindset of the settlers and British leadership, who decided to limit further tribal land confiscation.

With their tribal lands secure, the Māori handed over their weapons and thereafter hostilities ceased. The Māori, while vastly outnumbered and facing an equally warlike foe that was technologically superior and held every conceivable advantage, still managed to inflict disproportionate casualties on their foe, while securing their lands against extreme odds. Adjei32 (talk) 09:12, 26 June 2022 (UTC)

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We are an independent media built on nonpartisan journalism. It is therefore our obligation to report or tell the truth in the form of reliable accurate facts put in a meaningful context. Adjei32 (talk) 07:55, 24 August 2022 (UTC)