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People settled the region in three waves of migration, show on the map in this section.
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In Polynesia, kingdoms extended over entire groups of islands.Like other Polynesians, the Maori lived in small settlements.
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In the late 1700s, British explorer James Cook claimed Australia and New Zealand for great Britain. Cook's expeditions increased European interest in the region.
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The Aboriginal Protection Act, enacted in 1869 by the colony of Victoria, Australia gave extensive powers over the lives of Aboriginal people to the government's Board for the Protection of Aborigines, including regulation of residence, employment and marriage.
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the British settlement of Australia increased rapidly in the 1800s. British officials often forced Aborigines to give up their lands to colonists.
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Signed in 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi is an agreement between the British Crown and Maori.
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In 1851, colonists discovered gold, and the British population soared.
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Colonizers claimed some islands because of their natural resources.
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Australia and New Zealand gained their independence peacefully in the early 1900s
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In Western Samoa(now Samoa), the nonviolent Mau movement worked for independence, which Samoa won in 1962.
