On this day in 1840, the British and the Māori tribes of North Island signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi). Aotearoa—the name given to the land by Māori tribes—had become an unstable place by the 1830s, with various groups of European settlers competing for influence and control. To Māori leaders, the Treaty of Waitangi was a solution to the chaos, promising British “protection” from other settlers. The problem, however, proved to be the treaty’s translations. In the English version, the British claimed full sovereignty over New Zealand, while the version in te reo Māori limited British influence. In the following years, the British continued to revise the treaty in their favor, eventually annexing New Zealand in full. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]