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On 18-19 December 1642, while searching for the great southern continent, Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman anchored in Golden Bay. The Māori blew a war horn and Tasman replied with trumpets. Following an attack on a ship's boat by some Māori, the Dutch returned fire before sailing away. Tasman named the area Murderers' Bay.

Captain James Cook, commanding HMS Endeavour, sighted the East Coast at Poverty Bay and came ashore at Tūranganui (now Gisborne) on 9 October 1769. Misunderstandings resulted in the sailors using their firearms and several Māori were killed. Cook sailed away along the East Coast on 10 October, searching for food and provisions. He did not formally claim New Zealand for Great Britain by right of discovery, which would have given the British Crown sovereignty under international law at the time.

The Reverand Samuel Marsden, the Anglican Chaplain to the British penal colony in New South Wales, was one of the first missionaries in New Zealand. Despite an earlier visit in 1807, a Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission was not established at Rangihoua until December 1814. Three lay missionaries, William Hall, Thomas Kendall and John King, accompanied Marsden, who preached a sermon on Christmas Day – to Māori. This was interpreted for them by local chief Ruatara, who had earlier met Marsden in England. Marsden purchased a supply ship for the mission (the Active), and this was sent on a preliminary voyage in June 1814. At the same time, offences committed against Māori, whether on land or on board ships, led to Thomas Kendall being appointed as Resident Magistrate in the Bay of Islands by New South Wales Governor Macquarie. This was New Zealand's first judicial appointment.

Offshore whaling had been commonplace in New Zealand waters since 1791. However, it was not until 1827 that the first shore whaling stations emerged. Operating from April to October each year, they processed whales for oil and whalebone. Primarily financed by Australian merchants, there were approximately 30 stations around New Zealand by the end of the 1830s, sited mainly on the North Island's East Coast and in the lower South Island. The size of operations varied. For example, the large Weller station in Otago boasted at its peak approximately 80 cottages and 120 men, a quarter of whom were Māori. It was common for the Pākehā workers to be welcomed into local tribes and to marry Māori women.

Lawlessness by sailors, escaped convicts and adventurers from New South Wales began to increase and there were growing fears of French annexation of New Zealand. Therefore, at the suggestion of New South Wales Governor Darling, missionary William Yate assisted 13 northern chiefs to prepare a letter to King William IV, asking for his protection and signed with their moko. The fear of unscrupulous sailors had increased after the Elizabeth affair, when her captain allowed the vessel to be used in a Ngāti Toa raid from Kapiti on Ngāi Tahu in Akaroa. The British Crown acknowledged the petition and promised protection.

In order to protect Māori, the growing number of British settlers and its own trade interest, the British Government appointed James Busby as its official Resident (a sort of junior consular representative, without effective powers because New Zealand was not within British jurisdiction). He arrived in May 1833 and built a house on land he bought at Waitangi. Described as a 'man-o'-war [naval warship] without guns', he was unable to exert much control over British subjects beyond mere persuasion or much influence over Māori.

In 1830 a New Zealand-built ship, the Sir George Murray, was seized by Customs in Sydney for breaking British navigation laws by sailing without a flag or register. As New Zealand was not yet a British colony its ships could not sail under a British flag, without which trading ships and their valuable cargoes would continue to be seized. On 20 March 1834 Busby met with some 25 northern chiefs and British naval officers to agree on a flag for the growing number of New Zealand-built ships. The chiefs chose from three designs devised by Busby and CMS missionary Henry Williams. The preferred design was one already used by the Church Missionary Society and it remained in use until the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi six years later.