In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire.

In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which in its English version declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. Between about 12, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. It is the sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. It consists of two main landmasses-the North Island ( Te Ika-a-Māui) and the South Island ( Te Waipounamu)-and over 700 smaller islands. New Zealand ( Māori: Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

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