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Historical profile
Migrants from Polynesia arrived in New Zealand and colonised it between 800<196>1000AD.
1642 Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to sight New Zealand.
1769 and 1779 British explorer James Cook charted the islands of New Zealand. After his second voyage, British and other European settlers began to arrive.
1815 The first British missionaries arrived in New Zealand.
1840 European settlers and the Mäori tribes signed the Treaty of Waitingi, under which European settlers agreed to respect Maori land rights in return for recognition of British rule.
1845--47 Mäoris revolted against land loss.
1852 New Zealand became a self-governing British colony.
1858 A series of major Mäori revolts began in response to encroachments by Europeans on to Mäori land.
1860--72 Mäoris revolted again. The conflict was resolved after the Europeans promised to abide by the Treaty of Waitingi.
1893 New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote.
1898 The government introduced old age pensions.
1907 New Zealand became an independent dominion within the British Empire.
1914–18 New Zealand fought alongside the UK during the First World War and suffered heavy casualties in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey in 1915.
1931 The Westminster Declaration established the concept of a Commonwealth between the UK, New Zealand and several other former British colonies.
1939–45 New Zealand fought alongside the UK during the Second World War.
1947 Dominion status began to be phased out and replaced by the Commonwealth.
1951 New Zealand formed the ANZUS military pact with Australia and the US.
1975 A legal tribunal ruled that there should be an investigation into whether Mäori land rights under the Treaty of Waitangi had been systematically ignored. This led to a vast number of lawsuits under which Mäori tribes demanded financial reparations for the illegal confiscation of their lands.
1984 Prime Minister David Lange declared New Zealand a 'nuclear free zone' and forbade nuclear-powered vessels to dock at New Zealand ports.
1985 French secret agents bombed and destroyed the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, killing one person.
1986 US suspended ANZUS obligations towards New Zealand.
1989 Lange resigned and was replaced by Geoffrey Palmer.
1990 The National Party (NP) won its first election victory for 10 years, with Jim Bolger becoming prime minister.
1993 The NP won elections. A referendum on electoral reform showed a majority in favour of proportional representation.
1996 New Zealand adopted a new parliamentary electoral system called Mixed Member Proportional (MMP), which was designed to give better representation for smaller parties and for the Mäori community.
1997 Bolger resigned rather than face a leadership challenge from cabinet minister Jenny Shipley, who went on to become New Zealand's first woman prime minister.
1998 The NP-led coalition collapsed, leaving the NP as a minority government reliant on support from independent MPs.
1999 New Zealand sent troops to join UN peace-keeping forces in East Timor. In the November general elections, the NP was defeated by the New Zealand Labour Party (NZLP) and its leader Helen Clark became prime minister of a coalition government.
2001 The government re-nationalised Air New Zealand 12 years after it was privatised.
2002 After the parliamentary elections, which were won by the NZLP, a coalition government was formed.
2003 In June, Horizon Oil of Australia reported that the offshore Taranaki Maari field could produce about 30,000 barrels of oil a day from early 2006.
2004 Opinion polls indicated that the National Party had overtaken the Labour Party in voting intentions for the 2005 election. On 4 May, Prime Minister Helen Clark's government survived a confidence vote (62–58).
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