Episode 1 of 3

Declaration of Martial Law

When: 22 February 1860
Where: Taranaki region
Part of: Outbreak of the First Taranaki War

Governor Browne declared martial law in Taranaki on 22 February 1860 after Māori obstructed surveyors.

Māori resistance to the land sale led to the obstruction of surveyors. In response, Governor Thomas Gore Browne declared martial law throughout Taranaki on 22 February 1860. This legal measure preceded the military occupation and the subsequent outbreak of war.

Sources

First Taranaki War Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-22

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.