From 1845 to 1875, New Zealand experienced a succession of conflicts that stretched from the Bay of Islands to Wellington. What they meant has been debated ever since. To some they were land wars, to others, the Maori wars; lately we are calling them the New Zealand wars. Why were they fought? Who really won them? In reality these wars were fought over both land and sovereignty. In the process, the British, settlers and allied Maori ended up fighting other Maori, and by the late 1860s the wars had really become a civil war. And the fighting was tough for all who fought in them. Matthew Wright outlines what happened and why.