Timeline: New Zealand

A chronology of key events:

c.1000 AD - Maori arrive from other parts of Polynesia.

1642 - Dutch explorer Abel Tasman visits New Zealand.

1769 - British captain James Cook explores coastline, also in 1773 and 1777.

1815 - First British missionaries arrive.

1840 - Treaty of Waitangi between British and several Maori tribes pledges protection of Maori land and establishes British law in New Zealand.

1845-72 - The New Zealand Wars, also referred to as the Land Wars. Maori put up resistance to British colonial rule.

1893 - New Zealand becomes world's first country to give women the vote.

1898 - Government introduces old-age pensions.