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1642
New Zealand was discovered -
1810
Many thousands of Māori died in the intertribal Musket Wars between the 1810s and the 1830s. -
1831
Growing lawlessness among Europeans in New Zealand and fears of a French annexation of the country led 13 northern chiefs to ask King William IV for his protection -
1844
In July 1844 Ngāpuhi chief Hōne Heke Pōkai organized the felling of the flagpole above Kororāreka (later Russell) in a protest about unfulfilled promises of British colonization. -
1852
The (British) New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 set up New Zealand's parliamentary system, based on the Westminster model. -
1877
The Education Act 1877 (passed into law on 29 November) established free, compulsory and secular education for all Pākehā New Zealand children.