New Zealand provides a manageable case study of the process of ecological transformation--the creation of a neo-Europe
historians don't just make generalizations, they look at how the story unfolds in a particular time and place
how do you decide any given example is typical? or do you want to use an extreme example because it highlights the issues

It was particularly unique because of its extreme isolation

• 89% of native plants are endemic (exist nowhere else in the world)
• many familiar kinds of animals were missing and other animals had taken those niches
  
• before the aborigines (Maori) arrived there were no land mammals but the bat (therefore birds took many of the ecological niches usually taken by mammals--for example, the only large grazing animals were birds)
  
• also the culture of the people was unusual

one way to think about an ecosystem is as a series of niches--ecological opportunities
what fills these niches if the usual animals aren't there?
Another animal filling the niche of the mouse was the Stephens Island Wren

A flightless songbird--one of only three flightless songbirds ever known and the world's smallest

• Lived on a one square mile island off the northern tip of the South Island--a remnant of the ecosystem as it had been before the Maori brought with them rats
  
• "It was only seen live on two occasions when it was disturbed from holes in rocks. It was thought to have been semi nocturnal and ran very fast like a mouse." (source)
  
• At the Ornithologists Club in London in 1894 a collector proudly displayed 10 specimens of the wren that had been killed by the lighthouse keeper's cat
• He also announced that the species was now extinct due to the cat
  

the largest flightless birds, the moas, filled the niche of grazing animals

All 11 species of Moa were hunted to extinction by the Maori in the 13th and 14th century.  They only laid one or two eggs at a time and took 10 years to grow to maturity so were wiped out easily.

"Second only in weight to the extinct elephant bird of Madagascar, the largest moa was the tallest bird on earth, with the top of its' back 6 feet above the ground" (source)

The largest Moa still weighed over 500 lbs.  They ate mostly bushes and the lower branches of trees.  Their beaks were strong, able

The Haast's eagle, with wingspan of 3 meters, preyed on the Moa and died out with it


The environment needed to be transformed to make it appealing to European settlers

• the climate was suitable
• they set out to change the ecosystem
  
• the Maori took up growing potatoes, giving them something to trade with Europeans
• pigs went wild quickly and the population grew
• some weeds (white clover) couldn't spread without insect pollination--bees were brought in 1839
  
• you couldn't have a lot of grazing animals until European grasses spread
  

compare to other natives the Europeans met:

• some more organized societies almost immediately saw the Europeans as a threat
• some people weren't very interested in what the Europeans brought
• the Maori were different--not technologically sophisticated but well organized and open to new ideas, had a culture based on warfare
  

Maori adopted European ways with enthusiasm (more Maori history)

• the Maori grew cash crops and raised pigs to sell the the Europeans
• they wanted iron tools and axes and muskets for inter-tribal warfare
• Europeans sold them large numbers of guns
• they weakened themselves by fighting among themselves
• missionaries introduced the plow in 1820
• they learned quickly from the Europeans, even building mills to grind the grain they had stated to grow
  

Maori were very vulnerable to disease:

• few bacteria that affect humans had made it to New Zealand
• their culture didn't know how to cope with disease
• diseases like smallpox and measles got there slowly because it was such a long ship journey the disease didn't get there at first
  
• their culture made them vulnerable to venereal disease--practices of sexual hospitality
• venereal diseases reduce the birth rate
  

then the Europeans started to settle

• In the early 1800s the Maori embraced Christianity and literacy
• (European technology was equivalent to magic so must have something to do with religion)
  
• Maori attempts to copy the Europeans and meet them as equals didn't stop the Europeans from stealing their land
• they ignored the claims of the native people or took advantage of different understandings of land ownership
• "Traditional Māori society did not have a concept of absolute ownership of land. Whānau (extended families) and hapū (sub-tribes) could have different rights to the same piece of land. One group may have the right to catch birds in a clump of trees, another to fish in the water nearby, and yet another to grow crops on the surrounding land. Exclusive boundaries were rare, and rights were constantly being renegotiated." (source)
• the 1862 Native Land Act sought to assign individual ownership to Maori land so it could be readily traded
  
• side note:
  
• our modern American system of land ownership is quite unusual
• if you own land you can do anything you want with it
• in other places you often had only partial rights to land (even today)
• many limits on what you can do with your land
  
• Maori tried to meet the Europeans as equals and were cheated
  
• eventually in the 1850s the Maori resorted to war, and were smart enough to work together
• but already they were already outnumbered by settlers and couldn't sustain the fight
• by 1870 only 1/5 the population were Maori

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