Term paper on Post War New Zealand

Post War New Zealand Essays

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During World War II New Zealand greatly depended upon Britain and her

Royal Navy to provide New Zealand with security and protection

throughout the Pacific region. But after a while New Zealand and

Australia as neighbouring countries began to provide their own defence

for the Pacific. So when Britain began to build Naval Bases in

Singapore, both Australia and New Zealand contributed to its cost.

Also the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Navy

were established in order to provide more protection. Even though New

Zealand was becoming more independent in providing most of their

security, she still depended a lot upon Britain and this trust and

dependence broke when the Pearl Harbour was attacked sinking two of

Britain^s battleships ^Prince of Wales^ and ^Repulse^ and the fall of

Singapore did contribute to New Zealand drift from Britain for

security. So New Zealand turned to the United Stated of America for

security in the Pacific. Now New Zealand began to take responsibility

for foreign affairs and had her own for! eign policies.


Since WWII New Zealand had close relations with Australia considering

that they are neighbouring countries. So in 1944 New Zealand and

Australia signed the Canberra Pact. After the war the two countries

agreed to set up a ^regional zone of defence^ in the South West and

South Pacific including Australia and New Zealand and the islands north

and north west of Australia across to Western Samoa and the Cook

Islands. Through the Canberra Pact the governments of the two

countries agreedthat on matters of common interest they will consult

each other before expressing their views to others. The two

governments also agreed to establish an advisory regional organisation,

which could be called the South Seas Regional Commission, on which

there might be representatives of Australia, New Zealand, Britain,

France and USA.


New Zealand now looked upon to the United Nations for security for she

too believed in maintaining world peace through collective security.

New Zealand joined the fifteen specialised agenises of the UN which

aimed at raising living, health and educational facilities to backward

countries to prevent causes of war and international bitterness. Also

she supported formations of economic and social council, contributed to

the annual budget and took responsibility for Western Samoa.


New Zealand also tried to establish security through the Commonwealth.

There are Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting (CHOGM) every two

years where all the heads of states from all forty nine countries in

the Commonwealth come and discuss their activities and plans for the

future. Through the Commonwealth New Zealand was mainly active in

relations of the Pacific and Asia and all the Pacific members would

meet at the South Pacific Forum and CHOGRM (Commonwealth Heads of

Government Regional Meetings).


From 1945 New Zealand wanted firm ties with USA . USA was mainly

interested in Pacific because communism had started spreading world

wide by then. By 1949 China was fully communist. In 1950 Communist

North Korea supported by the USSR invaded South Korea and USA was

involved in helping South Korea. So USA was anxious to conclude a

generous peace treaty with Japan in the hope of ensuring that Japan

cooperated with the non-Communist countries. USA also want Australia

and New Zealand to support her in this cause against communism. But

they still regarded Japan as a threat to their security and made it

clear that an agreement needs to be signed reassuring them that Japan

rearming will not affect the security of the Pacific in any way. So in

1951 the ANZUS pact, a defence treaty between Australia, New Zealand

and the United States was signed. This defence treaty agreed upon

discussing any international disputes the parties may be involved in

and find a solution peacefully. The parties of the treaty agreed to

develop and maintain their individual and collective capacity to resist

armed attack. One of the most important articles in the ANZUS treaty

was article III which said ^The Parties will consult together whenever

the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of

the Parties is threatened in the Pacific. ANZUS was a landmark in New

Zealand foreign policy for this was the first treaty signed by New

Zealand that which didn^t include Britain.


In 1949 Britain, New Zealand and Australia consulted to help plan

defence with Malaya and to coordinate defence agreements. So in 1955

ANZAM was established. This was not a treaty but a defence agreement

so it did not involve commitment of troops. ANZAM was designed to

coordinate regional defensive policies between the three parties.


Communist struggle in South East Asia continued even after the Korea

War. So in 1954 New Zealand along with Australia, Britain, France,

Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and the United States formed a

collective defensive treaty based on the Asian region, the South-East

Asia Treaty Organisation. SEATO was mainly aimed at preventing the

spread of communism in the Pacific, so New Zealand was protected from

communism through this treaty. To help prevent any further spread of

communist forces, Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam were added to the

list of SEATO signatories. For Australia and New Zealand SEATO was

more than just a prevention of communism. New Zealand accepted SEATO

because it further strengthened ties with the United States and it

brought Britain back into defensive arrangement in the region. In

Article III of the treaty the desire to promote economic and social

development in the region is expressed. Also, SEATO involved New

Zealand in South East Asian affairs more directly then ever before.

For the first time we had Asian allies.


New Zealand developed good ties with Australia, the United States,

Britain, the rest of the Pacific and Asia after post-war years but many

events took place causing relationships between these countries to

change within the 1970s and 1980s. One of the major events that

changed the relationship between New Zealand and USA was the Vietnam

War against the Viet Cong guerillas. This took...

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