Māori Toa

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The Māori, like the Japanese, had a distinct warrior class known as the Toa. The Toa rose out of the Iwi or tribes vying for land and coastal Trading Pā or Fort which was considered important to the growth of an Iwi. In Māori culture, all males were considered Toa and were trained from as young as five. They are recognised as being among the most fearsome warriors in history, using similar battle tactics to the Spartans in the Mediterranean. Prior to the 19th century, the Maori warriors were masters of hand-to-hand combat and utilised weapons such as the taiaha (carved spear with a flat blade on one end) as well as the patu and mere (clubs made from wood, bone and jade with bladed edges) amongst others. From the mid 1800s onward, during the Maori Wars, the Maori warriors began to utilise firearms and quickly adapted to this new style of conflict, inventing the modern-day trench and bunker warfare systems which European military forces implemented during the First and Second World Wars. The Maori have retained their reputation as highly committed and fearsome Toa's by displaying those same fighting qualities during World War Two with the famous Maori Battalion and more recently with the award of the revered Victoria Cross to Maori SAS soldier, Willie Apiata V.C. for his act of valour in Afghanistan in 2004.