Man, fuck the British Empire. They are everything they accuse indigenous peoples of being: stupid savage lying thieves. They dispossess the other of their land, sovereignty, and culture through juridical obfuscation and military violence. It's telling that when one tactic doesn't work they swap to the other; that when talk fails they invade. They're the fuckboys of capitalism, pushing and pushing the limits of those they encounter until acquiescence or violation. Behind the façade of liberal progress is capital drenched in blood. They can't even follow their own laws: they murder unarmed prisoners, burn down civilian villages and crops, rape women, maim children; they arrest Māori leaders through false accusations, and imprison and execute them without trial. Even Cameron, one of the leading Pākehā generals of the Crown, resigned in disgust during the Land Wars. He was by no means an ally, but he saw the cruelty of the Crown firsthand, and he came to understand that Māori were fighting for their literal lives, not for property and profit.

The best part about this book is its emphasis on the technological and strategic innovations of Māori leaders and soldiers (they had trenches, trapdoors, and underground tunnels — a century before WW1 and the Vietnam War). There are many times Māori are outnumbered by British forces and yet they fuck shit up anyway. When British forces finally defeat them, all they gain are empty garrisons. It's hilarious. Yet, despite these victories, British forces overwhelm them in the long run with sheer numbers (received from predominantly Ireland). They commit cruel and illegal massacres, evictions, occupations, and blockades that terrorise Māori civilians into siding with the Crown. Despite the mana of Māori combatants, non-combatants are disrespected, starved, tortured, and killed by imperialist forces. Māori resistance is demonised by the Crown as savage, fanatical, and unreasonable, despite repeated assertions from Māori leaders that all they desire is peace and co-sovereignty, as legally enshrined in the Treaty of Waitangi.

There's something deeply tragic and perverse about the Land Wars, for even though it was settler demands for land that drove the Crown's forces, it was the Crown that had promised settlers of a new start, first and foremost. The settlers' resentment of Māori was driven by Crown lies over a romanticised terra nullius — a paradise to settle and shape. Furthermore, many Māori and Pākehā got along fine before this shit. It was the New Zealand state's forceful confiscation of Māori land that led to resistance. Māori were pushed into a corner, then villainised for fighting back. Honestly, what the fuck would you do if the state illegally claimed your home, burned your crops, and imprisoned your partner without trial? What would you do if this was happening all across the country to families specifically of your ethnic group? It was genocide.

This book is heavy on concrete details (military conflicts, factions, leaders, numbers, deaths, and so on), and light on economic and political analyses. It's a little frustrating to read a book about the theft of land and not once get a definition of primitive accumulation, capitalism, or heck even globalisation. O'Malley states that it was racism that led to British generals underestimating Māori soldiers, as well as settlers feeling aggrieved over their lack of land (which was seen as occupied by those inferior to themselves). There's no deeper analysis of where such racist ideas come from, and how they support imperialist violence, slavery, and cultural genocide, as well as the accumulation of capital. I would argue that you can't understand the Land Wars without an understanding such things. You can't understand the depth and continuing effects of the Land Wars without an understanding of what drove them (the material system of capitalism and the ideological system of racism). Racism is a complex of ideas, from the Christian civilising mission and manifest destiny to phrenology and degeneration theory; it modulates between condescending paternalism and violent xenophobia, built atop a foundation of white supremacy. The ways Pākehā still scoff at the idea of Māori sovereignty and reparations is a continuation of such imperialist hatred and ignorance.

E hoa, ka whawhai tonu mātou, Āke! Āke! Āke!