 New Zealand - national flag
The flag was officially adopted in 1902, but dates from 1869, when it was
used exclusively by government ships. The stars go back to a Maori national flag
from the early 1800's. The four stars form the constellation Southern Cross. The
Union Jack in the upper left corner should be reminiscent of New Zealand's ties
to Britain.
- Countryaah:
What does the flag of New Zealand look like? Follow this link, then you will
see the image in PNG format and flag meaning description about this country.
New Zealand - prehistory
The indigenous people of New Zealand, from whom the Maori originate, seem
akin to the people of eastern Polynesia, from which immigration probably took
place in the 1100's. The residents subsisted from the beginning by hunting,
fishing, collecting shellfish and gardening. The root vegetables taro, kumara
and yams were grown on terraces surrounded by stone dikes. The dog whose meat
was valued was the only domestic animal. The hunt for the large moa birds, which
could not fly, became fatal for the species and led to its extinction around
1500.
In the beginning, the settlement was linked to the coast, later it also
spread to the interior. The most densely populated were the east coast of the
South Island and the northern parts as well as the southern tip of the North
Island. With the growing population, armed conflicts became frequent, and in the
last centuries of prehistoric times, several thousand fortified villages were
built on high terraces, pa 's. Before the arrival of Europeans, the use
of metals was unknown.
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New Zealand - history
The first European in the area was the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who in
1642 named the islands after the Dutch province of Zeeland. James Cook mapped
the shores of the North and South Islands in 1769-70. Landings were attempted in
several places, but were often met by aggressive Maori; eventually, however,
managed to achieve friendly contact. For the next 50 years, it was especially
sailors, seal and whale hunters and later traders who settled in the primitive
barrack towns. They brought with them spirits, a number of diseases, and not
least weapons, which the Maori bought and used against each other in bloody
tribal wars. In 1814, the Anglican Church Missionary Society established the
first trading and mission station, and later a number of other societies
followed, trying with increasing success to influence and change the Maori way
of life not only in the religious sphere but also by training them in making
salable products.
In order to organize forestry and agriculture in the fertile area, labor had
to be procured from outside, and in the 1830's, European companies enticed poor
Europeans to emigrate. In 1839, the private New Zealand Company sent from London
a fleet of workers to cultivate land at present-day Wellington. To prevent
French expansion and accidental private immigration, naval officer William
Hobson annexed New Zealand on behalf of the British government in 1840, which
then had approximately 2000 European residents and about 100,000 Maori. Together
with a number of Maori chiefs, the British government signed the Treaty of
Waitangi in February 1840, which obliged the Maori to partly recognize the
British crown, partly only to sell land to the government. The British, in turn,
promised to respect and protect the property of the Maori; the Treaty proved
difficult to comply with in practice.
New Zealand Company, fortune hunters and missionaries continued to set up new
settlements, and around 1855 the number of Europeans exceeded the number of
Maori. When gold was found in the 1860's, even greater immigration began. Most of
the gold was bound in rocks that first had to be crushed so that the gold could
be extracted by chemical means. Capital-intensive mining companies took over the
extraction, which, however, created only a few jobs. The many new immigrants
wanted land, but it was difficult to meet the demand. The Maori were opposed to
selling, because they perceived the earth as a mother and thus a part of
itself. There were a series of bloody clashes between, on the one hand, Maori
and, on the other, provincial authorities and settlers, who often lacked an
understanding of Maori culture. Despite enmity, the various Maori clans were
forced to cooperate with each other. In 1862-70, actual wars were fought between
Maori and immigrants on the North Island. The war was lost by the Maori, who had
large tracts of land confiscated.
Under Julius Vogel (1835-89), who was Prime Minister 1873-75 and 1876, he
succeeded in resolving the disputes, expanding the infrastructure and
establishing a national identity and a British unitary state. However, the
problem of the Maori and their land was never really solved. Around 1905 there
were only approximately 40,000 Maori, but over 1 million. European immigrants. The
land was undergoing transformation from forest to steppe and agricultural
land. Most of the settler families were British, but at times immigrants from
other European countries also came. After 1864, a number of southern Jews
immigrated, inspired by former council president DG Monradand his family, who in
1866 settled in Palmerston North. Danish dairymen and farmers were pioneers in
New Zealand agriculture, who were inspired by the Danish cooperative
movement. Political parties first emerged in connection with the introduction of
the right to vote for men in 1879. Women were given the right to vote in 1893,
and the same year Richard J. Seddon of the Liberal Party came to power. As Prime
Minister until 1906, he implemented a series of reforms that laid the foundation
for the welfare state.
In 1901, Australia chose to become an independent state union, while the New
Zealanders chose to remain a British colony in exchange for a higher degree of
autonomy. In 1907, New Zealand became the dominion, autonomous territory, within
the British Empire. Around 1900, half the population lived on agriculture and
cattle breeding, and after the new refrigeration technology made it possible to
ship dairy products and meat to Britain in the 1880's, it became New Zealand's
main export market.
It was especially the neo-conservatives and peasants of the cities who were
behind the election of William F. Massey from the Reform Party as Prime Minister
1912-25. During his reign, approximately 100,000 young people joined ANZAC, the
Australian-New Zealand Army Corps that fought on the Allied side during World
War I, in which every third New Zealander between the ages of 20 and 40 died or
was wounded. The Labor Party won a majority in Parliament in the 1935 election,
and in a short time a number of social and health reforms were implemented. In
1939, ANZAC troops were sent to Egypt, where they joined the Allied side of
Europe. When Japan entered the war in 1941, the United States and New Zealand
made defense contacts, which were expanded after the war with the ANZUS
Pact (1951) and the membership of SEATO(1954). In 1947, New Zealand chose to
become an independent nation within the Commonwealth. The Conservative National
Party came to power in 1949 and ruled the country with short interruptions until
1984. The welfare state was developed and expanded, which was possible due to
low unemployment, steady population growth and a controlled immigration that
favored Europeans. In foreign policy, an anti-communist policy was pursued in
close cooperation with e.g. Australia and the United States, and in connection
with the wars in Korea and Vietnam, New Zealand made troops available.
The oil crises of the 1970's and the international downturn hit the country
hard. With the conservative Robert Muldoon as Prime Minister 1975-84, a series
of economic horse cures were carried out to rectify the economy. After French
agents sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbor in
1985, David Lange's Labor government teamed up with ANZUS partner the United
States and nuclear power France by declaring New Zealand a nuclear - weapon-free
zone. That same year, the countries committed to the South Pacific Forum, in
which New Zealand plays a prominent role, in order not to possess or have
nuclear weapons stationed in the future and not to dump nuclear waste. New
Zealand also denied US military access to ports and air bases. However, Prime
Minister James Bolger (b. 1935) of the National Party re-established relations
with the United States from 1990 and continued the reformation of New Zealand
society towards a liberal model state, where most public subsidies were
abolished: in the "New Zealand model" everything had to work on the terms of
free initiative and free market forces. In practice, however, it has created
major social and economic problems. In 1997, New Zealand got its first female
Prime Minister, Jennifer Shipley of the National Party.
The liberal reform policy pursued by changing governments under the Labor
Party and the National Party has had drastic consequences for large groups in
society, not least the Maori. The gap between high and low wage incomes has
widened and the number of marginalized has increased. The reform policy has led
to a break in the political party image: The two old parties have been hit by
internal divisions, and new parties have emerged, the populist party New
Zealand First, which has gained strong support from the Maori people. The new
proportional representation system from 1996, which has meant that no party can
rule alone with an absolute majority, has also weakened the stability of earlier
times. Thus, New Zealand First had a major influence on government policy,
creating internal unrest in the ruling party, the National Party, and opposition
to Prime Minister James Bolger. Bolger was ousted, and a new National Party
government under Jenny Shipley limited this influence, which, however,
contributed to the party losing the election in 1999. Labor formed a government
again, this time withHelen Elizabeth Clark as Prime Minister and supported by
several smaller parties. Clark was able to begin his third round as prime
minister when Labor won a narrow victory in 2005. The party has pursued a tight
economic policy that has provided economic growth but has promised to spend more
money on education, health and social services. In the 2008 general election,
Clark suffered defeat and was succeeded as Prime Minister by John Key of the
National Party. John Key regained the post in the 2011 and 2014 elections.
The Maori struggle for independence and land has been radicalized in the
context of the crisis and reform policies. In 1987, Maori became the official
language along with English, and the language has gained an increasing role in
both the education system and the public sphere. Official internet sites are
also available in Maori, for example. In the 1990's, the Maori claimed large
tracts of land and fishing rights. The government was under political pressure
to grant the rights - especially to fishing - to private investors, but the
Maori have been given land rights or financial compensation. The government also
apologized for the suffering and injustices the Europeans had inflicted on the
Maori. However, the social and economic differences between the Maori and the
pakeha (whites) are still great, and the Maori are still fighting for their
rights and for the preservation of their culture.
New Zealand pursues a less active foreign policy than Australia and has been
critical of international coalitions since the 1980's anti-nuclear policy. The
Clark government was against the war in Iraq in 2003, which led to a tense
relationship with the United States. However, New Zealand has contributed troops
to conflict areas, such as East Timor in 1999, Afghanistan and the Solomon
Islands in 2003. New Zealand is still characterized by immigration, but today an
increasing proportion of immigrants come from Asia. By 2021, it is expected that
13% of the population will be of Asian descent.
New Zealand - economy
New Zealand has a small, open economy in which agriculture plays a fairly
large role. The country has had a tradition of significant state interference in
the economy. This has involved a high degree of support for agriculture and
for the construction of a large number of publicly funded social welfare
schemes. In the 1960's, New Zealand experienced major balance of payments
problems, and developments worsened in the years following the two oil crises,
when a period of low economic growth, high inflation and dramatic foreign debt
set in.
Following the 1984 election, the Labor government launched extensive
reforms. The exchange rate of the New Zealand dollar was made floating so that
it could better reflect the competitiveness of the country, and most capital
restrictions were abolished. Export subsidies to agriculture were eliminated,
while import controls and tariffs were reduced, leaving business with much
stronger competition than before. Tax reforms reduced the highest income
tax rates at the same time as VAT was introduced. State-owned trading companies
were made profit-oriented, and a number of state-owned enterprises, especially
in the fields of transport and communications, were privatized.
Changing governments have since continued the reform policy. Social welfare
benefits have been reduced and the labor market deregulated; Among other
things, wage formation is made decentralized, and the former compulsory
membership of a trade union done voluntarily. It has also, through an active
investment policy, succeeded in attracting significant foreign investment to the
country. In light of this, however, in 1998 the government downplayed the
privatizations of strategically important state-owned enterprises and restricted
the right of foreigners to acquire ownership interests in airports, ports and
gas and power plants.
The extensive structural changes resulted in a relatively weak economic
development in the late 1980's, but from the early 1990's the pace increased
significantly, albeit with setbacks associated with the Asian crisis at the end
of the decade. Although the higher growth led to unemployment falling from
approximately 11% in 1992 to 4% in 2005, inflation was subdued. This is partly due to
the reforms in the labor market, and partly to the fact that the central bank,
which was made politically independent in 1989, strives to conduct monetary
policy so tightly that underlying inflation is kept within the announced target,
which since 1997 has been 0-3%. the year. The reform policy, which has led
to increased income inequality, has been modified somewhat since the late
1990's; eg the top tax has again increased,
New Zealand's economic interests were previously linked to the UK, but this
country's integration into the EU and European agricultural subsidies has led to
New Zealand orient themselves with the Pacific, notably Australia and Japan,
which together account for 1/3 of the total trade. In
particular, relations with Australia are close. Thus, since 1983, the two
countries have had a formalized cooperation, Closer Economic Relations,
which has led to the abolition of all tariffs and quantitative restrictions
on trade between the two countries in 1990. Periodically, the countries have
also discussed the possibility of creating a common market between them. New
Zealand also has free trade agreements with Thailand and Singapore and
negotiates with China.
In 2010, Denmark's exports to New Zealand were DKK 1.17 billion. DKK, and
imports were 931 mill. kr.
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