Question: What were the most important reasons for Europeans to migrate to New Zealand in the 1800s?
New Zealand, a country in the pacific, increased its population rapidly over a period of time in the 1800s by emigration. Some of the main reasons are the gold rush in Otago and the difference between homeland and New Zealand.
Around 140 years ago, the young area of Otago was shaken up by the discovery of gold. Many rivers such as Arrow River and Shootover river had gold and people rushed to each scene in order to make a profit and become rich. A lot of miners in got rich from the total of around 2 million ounces of gold which was dug out in Otago, June, 1867. This meant there would be more gold and as long as there were more gold, the miners would think that they could become rich which also increased emigration to New Zealand.
Many of the European immigrants that immigrated to New Zealand were from Britain in the 1800s. In those days life in Britain was hard due to several reasons. These reasons included: poverty, disease and no freedom of religion. Britain had only a few amounts of upper-class citizens and the rest were average citizens. In Britain if you were born poor, then you would most likely be poor in the future. Since living was hard they moved to different countries for a fresh new start. Also, streets in Britain were completely disgusting. Rubbish roamed the streets freely which could generate disease very easily. As New Zealand was only recently discovered there were small chances of getting sick from a disease.
Also, in Britain, if you believed in the wrong type of religion there were dire consequences such as fines, imprisonment and the worst of all execution. In New Zealand there were no choices of religion. Although the missionaries tried converting the Maoris into Christianity it was a choice of wanting to change or not changing at all. Therefore, freedom of religion supports the fact of immigrating to New Zealand.
In conclusion, New Zealand, a country in the Pacific, has many reasons to emigrate to in the 1800s.
