New Zealand became part of the British Empire in 1840 through the interaction of three different pressures. First, during the 1830s, the spontaneous and inexorable colonization of parts of New Zealand by individual British subjects and the impact of their increasing numbers and the widening range of activities upon indigenous Maori society, created a lawless and anarchic imperial frontier. Secondly, missionary and colonization groups in Britain used imformation about this frontier situation to pressure the Colonial Office to intervene in New Zealand to serve their own purposes. Thirdly, politicians and civil servants in the Colonial Office generally felt a responsibility to control and protect both the activities of the British subjects beyond the boundaries of the Empire, and the indigenous societies with whom they were involved.
