New Zealand is a young nation, nestled in the Pacific Ocean. It was first sighted by Europeans in 1642, by Abel Janszoon Tasman, although it was already inhabited by the Maori since 800 A.D. Abel Tazman dubbed the land Staten Landt, although the name did not survive to mainstream use. By 1645 New Zealand was referred to as Nova Zeelandia, in reference to the Dutch province of Zeeland, this was later Anglicized to the current new Zealannd. It was left alone until 1769, when British explorer, James Cook, returned and mapped the entire coastline of the nation. A number of trading, exploratory, and settlement missions arrived in New Zealand in increasing frequency from various nations. In 1840, actions were taken to secure New Zealand in British interests. On the 6th of February 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed British Crown and Maori representatives. While disputes still arise as to the translation and implementation of the Treaty of Waitangi, it is in essence the founding document of New Zealand as a nation. The increasing levels of settlement necessitated the passing of the 1852 New Zealand Constitution Act, which in effect allowed New Zealand a representative government. The New Zealand parliament met for the first time in 1854, although had not yet attained "responsible government status" from the British Crown. The 2nd New Zealand parliament was the first which was allowed to govern the country in all matters, bar native policy. It met for the first time in 1856, and the nation of New Zealand has been effectively self-governing ever since, not needing ultimate approval from the British Crown in regards to most matters.

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. The parliament building resides in the capital, Wellington, in a building dubbed "The Beehive". Queen Elizabeth II is currently the Queen of New Zealand, although is represented by Governor-General Anand Satyanand. The Governor General of New Zealand is able to exercise a certain number of reserve powers like the appointment and dismissal of Governors and Prime Ministers, dissolving of Parliament, and refusing the Prime-Minister's request for an election. In a ceremonial sense the Governor-General is the de-facto head of state, as such the position entitles its bearer the same privilege and status as that of the actual head of state. The position entails with itself the further role of Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Force. This leads to interesting hypothetical constitutional arguments, in regards to what exact role is played by the Governor-General if their wishes happen to differ from that of the Prime-Minister, but due to New Zealand's peaceful history and nature this has never had to be tested.



While New Zealand does not have one ultimate constitution, it does have a formal statement of constitutional structure in the Constitution Act 1986. Further, the effective constitution of New Zealand consists of a number of statues, Treatise, court decisions, Letters patent and conventions. Prior to 2004 New Zealand's highest court was the Privy Council in London, although since the passing of the Supreme Court Act 2003 it has been the Supreme Court of New Zealand.

New Zealand is an island nation located 2000 kilometers south-east of Australia. It is comprised of two primary landmasses, known as the North and South Islands, and a significant number of smaller islands. The largest city in New Zealand is Auckland, in the top half of the North Island, while the capital, Wellington, lies in the Southern tip of the northern island. The land mass of New Zealand consists of 368,680 square kilometers, making it the 75th biggest nation in the world and covers 0.18% of the world's surface.

New Zealand Gross Domestic Product per capita is $30,234, comparable to Hong Kong, Italy and Spain. The total GDP for the nation is USD$128.1 billion. As a country that exports nearly a quarter of its annual output, New Zealand is heavily dependent on trade. Subsequently New Zealand holds a number of Free-Trade Agreements such as the Trans Pacific Economic Partnership between New Zealand, Singapore, Chile and Brunei, there are talks of Australia, Peru and the United States joining also. Along with Australia, New Zealand holds free trade deals with Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia, Brunei Darussalam, as the nations of The Association of Southeast Asian Nations. New Zealand is also a respected member of APEC.

The New Zealand economy draws heavily on the service industry (tertiary sector), which produces nearly 70% of its GDP annually; this is followed by manufacture and construction (secondary sector) at 27%; and the rest in the farming and raw material industry (primary sector). Due to the reputation of New Zealand as a holiday destination, 8.9% of the New Zealand GDP comes from services centered around the tourism industry. Estimates have placed the increase of tourists to New Zealand as rising by 4% each, until 2013.



New Zealand is a developed country in all understandings of the term. The banking, economic and infrastructure system ranks amongst the best in the world. New Zealand has a thorough, complete and tested set of laws relating to its economic system, along with its own perks and unique features like New Zealand Foreign Trusts.

While due to its reliance on foreign trade New Zealand can be exposed to price fluctuations on equity markets, the country is highly stable in all other aspects of its economic structure. New Zealand has been relatively unscathed by the economic turbulence experienced by many world markets since the year 2000. Namely, New Zealand and neighboring Australia did not face recessions like the United States. More recently, unlike many developed nations of the world, New Zealand felt no serious repercussions from the 2008 financial market breakdown. This was due heavily to New Zealand's low reliance on foreign debt markets and the active preventative measures taken by the New Zealand government.