The Māori King Movement ("Kīngitanga") began in the 1850s partly as a means of focusing Māori power in a manner which would allow them to negotiate with the Governor and Queen on equal footing. The chiefs justified this by the treaty's guarantee of "rangatiratanga" (chieftainship), but in the early 1860s the government used the Māori King Movement as an excuse to invade lands in the eastern parts of the North Island, culminating in the Crown's confiscation of large parts of the Waikato and Taranaki from Māori - the government arguing that the chiefs of Waikato and Taranaki were rebels against the Crown.