The last of Titokowaru's forces surrendered to the New Zealand government, ending his uprising.
Ttokowaru's War was a military conflict that took place in the South Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island from June 1868 to March 1869 between the Ngti Ruanui and Ngruahine Mori tribes and the New Zealand Government. The conflict, near the conclusion of the New Zealand wars, was a revival of hostilities of the Second Taranaki War as Riwha Ttokowaru, chief of Ngaruahine, responded to the continued surveying and settlement of confiscated land with well-planned and effective attacks on settlers and government troops in an effort to block the occupation of Mori land.
The war, coinciding with a violent raid on a European settlement on the East Coast by fugitive guerrilla fighter Te Kooti, shattered what European colonists regarded as a new era of peace and prosperity, creating fears of a "general uprising of hostile Moris", but once Ttokowaru was defeated and the East Coast threat minimised, the alienation of Mori land, as well as the political subjugation of Mori, continued at an even more rapid pace.Ttokowaru, who had fought in the Second Taranaki War, was a skilful West Coast Mori warrior. He was also a priest and prophet of the extremist Hauhau movement of the Pai Mrire religion, reviving ancient rites of cannibalism and propitiation of Mori gods with a heart torn from the first enemy slain in a battle. Although Ttokowaru's forces were numerically small and initially outnumbered in battle 12 to one by government troops, the ferocity of their attacks provoked fear among settlers and prompted the resignation and desertion of many militia volunteers, ultimately leading to the withdrawal of most government military forces from South Taranaki and giving Ttokowaru control of almost all the territory between New Plymouth and Wanganui.
Ttokowaru provided the strategy and leadership that had been missing among tribes that had fought in the Second Taranaki War. His forces never lost a battle during their intensive campaign, but abandoned their resistance after being pursued into their headquarters in the swamps of Ngaere by Colonel George Stoddart Whitmore, commander of the colonial forces, on 24 March 1869, although Ttokowaru himself managed to escape.Ttokowaru's apparent invincibility created a security crisis in 1868, with the government fearing attacks on Wanganui and Manawatu. Yet according to historian James Belich, his achievements were gradually watered down to the point where his name was erased from the most widely read New Zealand histories. Belich concluded: "As a result, the military crisis of which he was the principal architectperhaps the greatest threat to European dominance in the history of New Zealandhas all but disappeared from the received version."
Riwha Tītokowaru (c. 1823–1888) was a Māori leader in the Taranaki region of New Zealand.