User blog:Elgb333/National Icons Pt. 2: Maori vs Bushrangers

 There's an old saying that stereotyping is the laziest way of differentiating people and promoting individuality, but you can't help it when one ethnic group adopts a mascot that they can unite and feel proud off one another. National icons and folk images symbolizes what a country sees itself as and how they want to be viewed with other people. Just ask all the Mexicans who got pissed when SJW Yanks tried to ban Speedy Gonzales for being "racist", not knowing that Speedy is a national icon and beloved mascot in Mexico.

So today, we'll be pitting two badass national warriors from the far reaches of Oceania. These two badasses have fought the British Empire to establish their country's identity, and while they failed, they succeeded in creating an image for the nation and making their fellow countrymen proud!

Maori Warriors: The intimidating tribal fighters from New Zealand!

vs

Bushrangers: The bloodthirsty criminals from the outbacks of Australia!

No rules, no safety, and no mercy! Its a duel to the death to decide who is... THE DEADLIEST WARRIOR!

Maori
The Māori (pronounced Māori: [ˈmaːɔ.ɾi], or commonly [ˈmaʊɹi] by English speakers) are the native or indigenous Polynesian people of New Oceania Maori Warrior Zealand (Aotearoa – The Long White Cloud). They arrived in New Zealand from eastern Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300 CE. Over several centuries in isolation, the Māori developed a unique culture with their own language, a rich mythology, distinctive crafts and performing arts. They formed a tribal society based on East Polynesian social customs and organisation. Horticulture flourished using plants they introduced, and after about 1450 a prominent warrior culture emerged. The arrival of Europeans to New Zealand starting from the 17th century brought enormous change to the Māori way of life. Māori people gradually adopted many aspects of Western society and culture. Initial relations between Māori and Europeans were largely amicable, and with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 the two cultures coexisted as part of a new British colony. However, rising tensions over disputed land sales led to conflict in the 1840s. Social upheaval, decades of conflict and epidemics of disease took a devastating toll on the Māori population. But by the start of the 20th century the Māori population had begun to recover, and efforts were made to increase their standing in wider New Zealand society. A marked Māori cultural revival gathered pace in the 1960s and is continuing.

Weapons
Main=Tupara Musket
 * Comes in various calibers, but most probably similar to a British Brown Bess which fired a .71 lead ball.
 * Only has a 40 meter range.
 * Smoothbore barrel made it easier and faster to reload than rifles and rifled muskets. Can be fired single shot, one barrel at a time or double barreled.


 * -|Secondary= Shark-Toothed Club
 * Aka the Leiomano, it is a wooden spade filled with shark teeth (preferably tiger sharks).
 * In some clubs, a marlin's bill is inserted in the handle to act as a dagger.


 * -|Special= Mere
 * A large blunt weapon used like a club to bash through skulls.
 * It is also shaped to create damage similar to push cuts from an axe.


 * -|Battlefield Tactics= Defensive Position and Maori Psychological Warfare
 * Battle of Gate Pa
 * Contrary to popular belief, Maori warfare don't just consist of face to face battles with clubs and spades. In fact, the majority of many Maori battles (in the early 19th century anyways) consist of sieges. Whenever an enemy force is spotted, Maori warriors would then retreat back to their pā and take positions. The resulting battle hinges on the ability of the Maoris to hold off their invaders, with the use of their ferocity and the effects of their battle cries on their enemies.


 * This is primarily evident during the Storming of Gate Pa on April 29, 1864, in which the Maori held off British forces for a considerable amount of time. When the British managed to break through the Maori defenses and started pouring into the fort, they are soon caught off guard when screaming Maoris ambushed them from all sides, resulting in them panicking and fleeing out of the pā. Many British soldiers died during the melee, and many others were trampled to death while trying to escape.

Bushrangers
The Bushrangers were bandits and criminals who used the outback or the "bush" to escape authority in Victorian Australia. They were originally escaped convicts or slave prisoners that were brought into Australia (which was a penal colony at the time) but soon consisted of thugs, young men and disillusioned farmers who were being abused by authority. They came from a wide background of English, Scottish and Irish descent. These men used the outback to conduct raids on settlements and escaping any pursuers from civilians, police and even military interventions.

Bushrangers were not just bandits like the Outlaws of the Old West or the Highwaymen of Old England. Many bushrangers targetted not just civilians, but even police and military convoys. Some bushranger gangs have even instigated rebellions against British rule of the area, such as the Bathurst Rebellion, uprisings at Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), and the social banditry perpetrated by Ned Kelly. The Bathurst Rebellion, led by Ralph Entwistle, was the biggest of these bushranging outbreak. His men numbered over 130 raided several settlements to free other convicts from their shackles, and even fought off police and the military in several occasions, making it one of the most well recorded instance of an "Australian Revolution".

Weapons
Main=Baker rifle
 * Fires 0.615 in. lead ball.
 * 183 meters range.
 * Used by the British military and by early colonists for hunting and defense.


 * -|Secondary= Hunting knife
 * Typical frontiersmen knives which are used both for defense and utility.
 * Knowing that alot of bushrangers where of Scottish and Irish descent, their design might resemble a dirk dagger, which has a 7-12 inches double edged straight blade.


 * -|Special= Boomerang
 * The iconic weapon in Australia, originating from the Aborigines who used it as a hunting weapon.
 * Primarily as a thrown weapon. Its range varies but it has a unique way of returning back to its user.
 * Many bushrangers have also kept boomerangs. In one recorded incident, a samurai was given by Australian escaped convicts a boomerang as an offering for docking their ship in Japan.


 * -|Battlefield Tactics= Luring Tactics
 * Battle of Bushranger's Hill
 * A classic guerilla-style strategy that many Australian bushrangers used from Ned Kelly's Gunfight at Stringyback Creek to Ralph Entwistle's Battle of Bushranger's Hill. Bushrangers, being bandits, forbade fighting pitch battles, preferring fastmoving raids instead. But when bushrangers are chased and forced to fight an ensuing battle, they use their speed and knowledge of the terrain to take the best defensive position to ambush and drive off their attackers.


 * This is primarily seen during the Bathruste Rebellion. Bushrangers led by Ralph Entwistle have been raiding settlements, all the while escaping through the clutches of the police. When a force led by Lieutenant James Brown of the 57th Regiment of Foot set his sights on the bushrangers, Entwistle led his pursuers to a bald hill known today as Bushranger Hill, and surprised the pursuing mounted police with an ambush, killing some of them and driving the rest back. When mounted soldiers arrived to take their turn, Entwistle and his bushrangers again drove them off.

X-Factors
Training=

There is an obvious difference between the Maoris and the Bushrangers when it comes to training and discipline. The Maoris may look primitive, but they are bred to be warriors. Their society revolved around training from a young age in constant warfare and they have a military lineage that spanned to the early settlements of Polynesians in New Zealand. The bushrangers were tough, but they are bandits compared to the professional warriors like the Maori. While many are seasoned criminals, thugs and other captured revolutionaries from all corners of the British Empire, many are still petty thieves or common folks. This can be seen in the many conflicts they fought in, the Maoris during the New Zealand Wars were disciplined even as Britain knocked on their front door, while the bushrangers during the Bathrust Rebellion fled and left their comrades when the fighting got hopeless.


 * -|Experience=

Each warrior group had their fair share of conflicts in their native lands. The maoris fought the British military, settlers and other Maoris. The bushrangers fought the British army as well, the Victorian police forces, settlers and hostile native Aborigines that were and were not allied with the British. While the Bushrangers existed far longer (New Zealand Wars lasted from 1845–1872 while the Bushranger Conflicts lasted from the 1830s to well over the 1900s), the Maoris certainly fought more wars with the British military. They probably killed far more people in a single battle than a Bushranger gang did in an entire lifetime.


 * -|Resources=

Its kind of difficult to say which groups had the better weapons and resources here. Hongi Hika did an amazing job in arming and modernizing the Maori warriors but the weapons they were stucked with were very low quality. And even in the following decades the Maoris tend to stick with what they have. The bushrangers had to buy or raid for their resources, but they certainly weren't shy of using what weapons were the best of their time. When rifles and revolvers came about, the bushrangers were quick to adapt to it, while the Maoris were still stuck with single shot muskets. The bushrangers were certainly more experienced when it comes to firearms and other modern tools of war like horses.