New Zealand is presented as a microcosm of European colonialism due to its short and relatively well documented history. The islands are ecologically unique, with the vast majority of species existing nowhere else in the world. Niches occupied by mammals in most of the world are instead occupied by flightless birds and creatures like the weta. The area was first settled by Polynesians about 1000 years ago, and these Māori people made short work of transforming much of the thick forest into farmland for Polynesian crops like taro. Unique New Zealand species like the giant flightless moa were extinct by the time the first Europeans, Abel Tasman and James Cook, set foot on the New Zealand coast.

Despite their own colonial efforts, the Māori had a number of disadvantages to the Europeans. They did not embark on long sea journeys like their Polynesian ancestors, so no trade of cultural or physical goods existed to help them add to their suite of crops or develop advanced weapons. Since Polynesia is tropical, many of the plant species brought with the first Māori failed to thrive in temperate New Zealand. They lived in divided tribes, so Europeans made a concerted effort to align with certain Māori groups and use their local knowledge to defeat the tribes who were more resistant to the incomers, much like they did in the Canary Islands and other locations without united societies.