Waikato War and the siege of Ōrākau

In July 1863 British and colonial troops invaded the Waikato, heartland of the Māori King movement. After hard fighting at Rangiriri, about 300 Māori under Rewi Maniapoto, women and children among them, held an unfinished pā at Ōrākau for three days in 1864 against a force of up to 1,800 before breaking out under fire. The Crown then confiscated some 480,000 hectares of Waikato land.