The Sparks the Logs and the Gasoline: the long road to the New Zealand Wars

Probably every New Zealander has heard of “The New Zealand Wars” but how many actually know anything about them? What were these wars about? Who wanted what and why? How did New Zealand get to that place?

The Spark, the Logs and the Gasoline aims to answer these key questions in an easily understandable way for the general reader.

The cause of the New Zealand Wars cannot be dumbed down to any single event – that is just bad history. The road to the wars was long and twisting, a forty-year sequence of events all of which were preconditions for the wars and all of which we need to understand if we are to do justice to history.

This book carefully separates the many strands of the story, lays them out logically and breaks them down in simple terms. Compellingly written in an easy style for the everyday reader it cuts straight to the documented historical facts, presented wherever possible in the words of the key Maori and European players of the time, putting us in their shoes, facing their dilemmas and examining their choices, motives and reasoning as seen from their own perspective and as judged by the norms and standards of their own time.

Along the long path to war we will take in many pivotal events in general New Zealand history, including the Musket Wars, the ravages of Te Rauparaha, the Treaty of Waitangi, the arrival of the New Zealand Company, the emergence of the King Movement – and much more .

The Spark, the Logs and the Gasoline is an essential read for every New Zealander who wants to understand this key part of our history.