In Guns, Germs and Steel, how did the natural environment of the Chatham Islands cause the Moriori to develop so differently from the Maori?

The answer to this question can be found in Chapter Two of
this excellent historical study of global historical development. The author makes it
clear that the way in which the Maori were able to so easily enslave and kill the
Moriori was a result of the disparate development of these two island societies. It is
all down to environment, as the chapter makes clear. The Moriori were forced to become
hunter-gatherers because of the different climate of the Chatham Islands that made
growing their crops impossible. Because of this, they did not produce enough food to
enable nonhunting craft specialists. Their prey could be killed using nothing more
technologically sophisticated than clubs. The distance of the Chatham Islands from any
other islands meant that the Moriori had to remain on them and learn to get along with
each other peacefully, renouncing war, resulting in a small, technologicaly
unsophisticated civilisation without organisation or
leadership.

In contrast, the Maori developed on the warmer
part of New Zealand, where they were able to engage in farming, increasing in population
and thus developing specialists who could advance their level of technology. Thus we can
see how one common group of ancestors developed very differently because of
environment:

readability="9">

The outcome clearly illustrates how environments
can affect economy, technology, political organisation, and fighting skills within a
short time.

The stage was set
for the conflict that led to the colonisation of the Chatham
Islands.