New Zealand was the last major landmass on Earth to be settled by people. Its islands are the highest parts of Zealandia, a largely sunken continent that broke away from Gondwana about 85 million years ago, and for millions of years they were a land of birds, of moa and Haast's eagle. East Polynesian voyagers reached Aotearoa around 1250–1300 in double-hulled canoes, and their descendants became Māori, living in iwi and hapū across both main islands; others settled Rēkohu, the Chatham Islands, and became Moriori.

Abel Tasman sighted the islands in 1642, but lasting contact began only with James Cook in 1769. Sealers, whalers, traders and missionaries followed, and muskets transformed Māori warfare. In 1840 rangatira and the British Crown signed the Treaty of Waitangi, whose Māori and English texts differ in meaning. Organised settlement followed, and through the New Zealand Wars, confiscation and the Native Land Court most Māori land passed out of Māori hands.

The colony became a pioneering democracy, with four Māori seats from 1867 and, in 1893, the first national vote for women in a self-governing country, followed by industrial arbitration, old-age pensions and, under the first Labour government, a welfare state. New Zealand became a dominion in 1907, fought at Gallipoli, on the Western Front, in North Africa, Italy and the Pacific, and adopted full legislative independence in 1947.

Since the 1970s Māori protest, the Waitangi Tribunal and Treaty settlements have reshaped the relationship between Māori and the Crown, while economic reform, a nuclear-free policy and proportional representation remade the country. Earthquakes, the Christchurch mosque attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic have marked the twenty-first century. Explore the twelve ages below through selected events from the timeline.