Pacific Islands

Peter Dillon and the South Seas

J.W. Davidson describes how whalers, traders, and settlers represented the first waves of Western colonisation of the Pacific islands.

Bougainville and Tahiti

Arnold Whitridge describes how, in April 1768, Bougainville reached ‘an enchanting island’ in the South Pacific.

The Maoris in New Zealand History

When the British and Maori signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, Governor Hobson declared: 'We are one people'. Today, as Professor Keith Sinclair shows, this hope has still to be realised.