# data[].attributes.body
Until European contact, Hawai`i was a highly stratified society with strictly maintained castes. The ali`i (chiefs) headed the social pyramid and ruled over the land. Prior to European contact Native Hawaiian rulers divided the Hawaiian Islands into distinct political regions. On each of the four larger islands—Kaua'i, O'ahu, Maui, and Hawai'i—lands were divided into wedge-shaped districts called moku.

The moku were further divided into land sections called ahupua'a. Ahupua'a were often bounded by ridgelines and typically encompassed an entire valley from mountain summit to outer reef. This type of land division allowed for each ahupua'a to contain nearly all the resources that its inhabitants required for survival.

# data[].attributes.body
With the arrival of Christianity came the overthrow of the kapu system, the laws that had governed interactions involving people, nature and the gods for hundreds of years. The result was a huge change in social structure and lifestyle. These changes, along with changes in diet and a significant loss of population due to the introduction of foreign diseases, had a long lasting and often devastating effect on the Native Hawaiian population.

Important economic and social changes took place over the following decades. Former agriculture based on communal lands was replaced with a western style land tenure/ownership and capitalist economies based on sugar, lumbar (sandalwood), ranching and whaling. Foreign economic and political control increased with the rise of those industries.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

# data[].attributes.body
The Hawaiian society and economy has its roots in extended families ('ohana) working cooperatively on an ahupua'a, a land unit running from the mountains to the sea. Numerous tropical root, tuber, and tree crops were cultivated.

# data[].attributes.body
The long-prevailing political equilibrium began to disintegrate shortly after the introduction of guns and the spread of new diseases to the Islands. In 1784, the most powerful ali’i nui, Kamehameha, began a war of conquest, and with his superior use of modern weapons and western advisors, he subdued all other chiefdoms, with the exception of Kaua’i, by 1795.
The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co., was started on Kaua’i in 1835, and the sugar industry achieved moderate growth through the 1850s. Hawai’i’s sugar exports to California soared during the U.S. Civil War, but the end of hostilities in 1865 also meant the end of the sugar boom.
Colonization resulted in significant change in agriculture and they introduced many new food industries.

# data[].attributes.body
Prior to the first arrival of Europeans in 1778, the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands lived in a highly organized, self-sufficient social system, with a sophisticated language, culture, religion, and land tenure that bore a remarkable resemblance to the feudal system of ancient Europe.

# data[].attributes.body
The culmination of foreign influence eventually resulted in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy by a group of Caucasian businessmen, many of them American or of American descent, who then offered the Hawaiian Islands to the US government. Although the US did not initially accept this offer, the strategic location of the islands in the middle of the Pacific and the onset of the Spanish American war settled Hawai’i’s fate. Despite strong objections by Native Hawaiians, the island nation became a US territory in 1900. By this time, the Native Hawaiian population had been permanently affected by a series of events (foreign infectious diseases, out-migration, etc.) that together had decreased the Native Hawaiian population by 87.5% since 1778.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Just Prior to the first arrival of Europeans in 1778, the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands lived in a highly organized, self-sufficient, social system, with a sophisticated language, culture, religion and a land tenure that bore a remarkable resemblance to the feudal system of ancient Europe.

The monarchical government of the Hawaiian Islands was established in 1810 by His Majesty King Kamehameha I (pictured right). He ruled the Hawaiian Islands from April 1810 until his death in May 1819. Upon the death of King Kamehameha I, his son King Kamehameha II was successor to the throne and ruled the Hawaiian Islands from May 8, 1819 to July 1824 when he died of measles in London. His Majesty King Kamehameha III, the second son of His Majesty King Kamehameha I, was successor to the throne upon the death of Kamehameha II in July 1824.

The Hawaiian Kingdom was governed until 1838, without legal enactments, and was based upon a system of common law, which consisted partly of the ancient kapu (taboo) and the practices of the celebrated Chiefs, that had been passed down by tradition since time immemorial. The Declaration of Rights, proposed and signed by His Majesty King Kamehameha III on June 7, 1839, was the first essential departure from the ancient ways.

Establishing a Constitutional form of Government
for the Hawaiian Kingdom (circa. 1839).

The Declaration of Rights of 1839 recognized three classes of persons having vested rights in the lands; 1st, the Government; 2nd, the Chiefs; and 3rd, the native Tenants. It declared protection of these rights to both the Chiefly and native Tenant classes. These rights were not limited to the land, but included the right to "...life, limb, liberty, freedom from oppression; the earnings of his hands and the productions of his mind, not however to those who act in violation of the laws."

One year later on October 8, 1840, His Majesty King Kamehameha III (pictured left) voluntarily relinquished his absolute powers and attributes, by promulgating a constitution that recognized three grand divisions of a civilized monarchy; the King as the Chief Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary. The Legislative Department of the Kingdom was composed of the King, the House of Nobles, and the House of Representatives, each had a negative on the other. The King represented the vested right of the Government class, the House of Nobles represented the vested right of the Chiefly class, and the House of Representatives represented the vested rights of the Tenant class. The Government was established to protect and acknowledge the rights already declared by the 1839 Declaration of Rights.

The Constitution generally defined the duties of each branch of government. Civilly, the laws embraced the usual rights and duties of the social relations between the three classes of people, and initiated the internal development of the country with the promotion of industry and commerce. In these laws, the fundamental basis of landed tenure was declared, and cultivation of the soil, under a feudal tenancy not much differing that of ancient Europe, was encouraged by relaxing the vassal service of the Chiefly and Tenant classes.

Hawaiian Kingdom recognized as an Independent State in 1843.

To counter the strong possibility of foreign encroachment on Hawaiian territory, His Majesty King Kamehameha III dispatched a Hawaiian delegation to the United States and Europe with the power to settle difficulties with other nations, and negotiate treaties. This delegation's ultimate duty was to secure the recognition of Hawaiian Independence from the major powers of the world. In accordance with this goal, Timoteo Ha`alilio, William Richards and Sir George Simpson were commissioned as joint Ministers Plenipotentiary on April 8, 1842. Sir George Simpson, shortly thereafter, left for England, via Alaska and Siberia, while Mr. Ha`alilio and Mr. Richards departed for the United States, via Mexico, on July 8, 1842.

On December 19, 1842, the Hawaiian delegation, while in the United States of America, secured the assurance of United States President Tyler that the United States would recognize Hawaiian independence. The delegation then proceeded to meet their colleague, Sir George Simpson, in Europe and together they secured formal recognition from Great Britain and France. On April 1, 1843, Lord Aberdeen on behalf of Her Britannic Majesty Queen Victoria, assured the Hawaiian delegation that, "Her Majesty's Government was willing and had determined to recognize the independence of the Sandwich Islands under their present sovereign."

On November 28, 1843, at the Court of London, the British and French Governments entered into a formal agreement for the recognition of Hawaiian independence. The Proclamation read as follows:

"Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and His Majesty the King of the French, taking into consideration the existence in the Sandwich Islands of a government capable of providing for the regularity of its relations with foreign nations, have thought it right to engage, reciprocally, to consider the Sandwich Islands as an Independent State, and never to take possession, neither directly or under the title of Protectorate, or under any other form, of any part of the territory of which they are composed.

The undersigned, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs, and the Ambassador Extraordinary of His Majesty the King of the French, at the Court of London, being furnished with the necessary powers, hereby declare, in consequence, that their said Majesties take reciprocally that engagement."

As a result of the recognition of Hawaiian Independence in 1843 the Hawaiian Kingdom entered into Treaties and Conventions with the nations of Austria, Belgium, Bremen (presently Germany), Denmark, France, Germany, Hamburg (presently Germany), Italy, Hong Kong (former colony of England), Japan, Netherlands, New South Wales (former colony of England), Portugal, Russia, Samoa, the Swiss Confederation, Sweden, Norway, Tahiti (colony of France), United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

The Organic and Statutory Laws of the State (circa. 1845-1886).

On June 24, 1845, a Joint Resolution was enacted by the Legislature and signed into law. The Attorney General was called upon to draw up a complete set of the existing laws embracing the organic forms of the different departments, namely, the Executive and Judicial branches. These laws were to outline their duties and modes of procedure. This brought forth the First Act of Kamehameha III to Organize the Executive Ministries, the Second Act of Kamehameha III to Organize the Executive Departments, and the Third Act of Kamehameha III to Organize the Judiciary Department. These Acts came to be known as the Organic Acts of 1845-46.

On September 27, 1847, the Legislature passed a law calling upon Chief Justice William L. Lee to establish a Penal Code. In 1850, a Penal Code was submitted to the Legislature by Chief Justice Lee and signed into law by His Majesty King Kamehameha III. The Penal Code had adopted the principles of the English common law. On June 22, 1865, the Judges of the Supreme Court were directed, by an act of the Legislature, to compile and ready to publish the Penal Laws of the Kingdom. The matter required a compilation of the amendments and additions made to the Penal Code since 1850. In 1869 a revised Penal Code was published.

In 1851, the Hawaiian Kingdom Legislature passed a resolution calling for the appointment of three commissioners, one to be chosen by the King, one by the House of Nobles, and one by the House of Representatives. The duty of these commissioners was to revise the Constitution of 1840. The draft of the revised Constitution was submitted to the Legislature and approved by both the House of Nobles and the House of Representatives and signed into law by the King on June 14, 1852. By its terms, the Constitution would not take effect until December 6, 1852.

On April 6, 1853, Alexander Liholiho was named successor to the office of the Constitutional Monarch by His Majesty King Kamehameha III in accordance with Article 25 of the Constitution of 1852. Article 25 provides that the "...successor (of the Throne) shall be the person whom the King and the House of Nobles shall appoint and publicly proclaim as such, during the King's life..."

One year later on December 15th, His Majesty King Kamehameha III passed away and Alexander Liholiho ascended to the office of Constitutional Monarch. He was thereafter called King Kamehameha IV (pictured right).

Since the passage of the Organic Acts of 1845-46, a Joint Resolution was passed by the Legislature and signed into law in 1856, calling upon Prince Lot Kamehameha, Chief Justice William L. Lee, and Associate Justice George M. Robertson to form a committee and prepare a complete Civil Code and to report the same for the sanction of the Legislature in 1858. Pursuant to the resolution, on May 2, 1859, a Civil Code was finally passed by the Legislative Assembly and signed into law on May 17, 1859. Session laws subsequently enacted by the Legislature amended or added to the Civil and Penal Codes.

The nationality or political status of persons ancillary to the Hawaiian Kingdom are termed Hawaiian subjects. The native inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands became subjects of the Kingdom as a consequence of the unification of the islands by His Majesty King Kamehameha I at the turn of the 19th century. Since Hawai'i became constitutional, foreigners were capable of becoming Hawaiian nationals either through naturalization or denization. Under the naturalization laws of the Kingdom, foreigners who resided in the Hawaiian Islands for at least five years could apply to the Minister of Interior for naturalization, whereby "Every foreigner so naturalized, shall be deemed to all intents and purposes a native of the Hawaiian Islands, be amenable only to the laws of this Kingdom, and to the authority and control thereof, be entitled to the protection of said laws, and be no longer amenable to his native sovereign while residing in this Kingdom, nor entitled to resort to his native country for protection or intervention. He shall be amenable, for every such resort, to the pains and penalties annexed to rebellion by the Criminal Code. And every foreigner so naturalized, shall be entitled to all the rights, privileges and immunities of an Hawaiian subject."

Denization was a constitutional prerogative of the Office of the Monarch, whereby, a foreigner may have all the rights and privileges of a Hawaiian subject, but is not required to relinquish his allegiance to his native country as is required under naturalization. Denization was "dual citizenship," which was accompanied by an oath of allegiance to the Hawaiian Kingdom. It was reserved to those foreigners who may not have resided in the Kingdom for five years or more, but their services were necessary in the affairs of government both local and abroad. The children of Hawaiian denizens born on Hawaiian territory were considered Hawaiian subjects. Examples of Hawaiian denizens were special envoys who negotiated international treaties and officers serving in the Hawaiian government.

On November 30, 1863, His Majesty King Kamehameha IV passed away unexpectedly, and consequently, left the Kingdom without a publicly proclaimed successor. On the very same day, the Kuhina Nui (Premier) in Privy Council publicly proclaimed Lot Kapuaiwa the successor to the Throne, in accordance with Article 25 of the Constitution of 1852. He was thereafter called King Kamehameha V. Article 47, of the Constitution of 1852, provides that "...whenever the throne shall become vacant by reason of the King's death the Kuhina Nui (Premier) shall perform all the duties incumbent on the King, and shall have and exercise all the powers, which by this Constitution are vested in the King."

When His Majesty King Kamehameha V (pictured right) ascended to the throne, he had refused to take the oath of office until the Constitution was altered. This refusal was constitutionally authorized by Article 94 of the 1852 Constitution which provided that "...[t]he King, after approving this Constitution, shall take the following oath..."

This provision implied a choice to take or not take the oath, which His Majesty King Kamehameha V felt should be constitutionally altered. Another provision of the 1852 Constitution needing alteration was the sovereign prerogative provided in article 45 which stated that "...[a]ll important business of the Kingdom which the King chooses to transact in person, he may do, but not without the approbation of the Kuhina Nui (Premier). The King and Kuhina Nui (Premier) shall have a negative on each other's public acts."

This sovereign prerogative allowed the Monarch the constitutional authority to alter or amend laws without Legislative approval. These anomalous provisions needed to be altered along with the instituting of voter qualifications for the House of Representatives. His Majesty King Kamehameha V, in Privy Council, resolved to look into the legal means of convening the first Constitutional Convention.

On July 7, 1864, a Convention was called for by His Majesty King Kamehameha V in order to draft a new constitution. The Convention was not comprised of delegates elected by the people with the specific task of altering the constitution, but rather their elected officials serving in the House of Representatives, together with the House of Nobles and the King in Privy Council who would convene in special session. Between July 7 and August 8, 1864, each article in the proposed Constitution was read and discussed until they arrived at Article 62. Article 62 defined the qualification of voters for the House of Representatives. After days of debate over this article, the Convention arrived at an absolute deadlock. The House of Representatives was not able to agree on this article. As a result, His Majesty King Kamehameha V, in exercising his sovereign prerogative by virtue of Article 45 of the constitution, dissolved the convention and proclaimed a new constitution on August 20, 1864.

In His Majesty King Kamehameha V's speech at the opening of the Legislative Assembly of 1864, he explained his abovementioned action of dissolving the Convention and proclaiming a new constitution. He stated that the "...forty-fifth article (of the Constitution of 1852) reserved to the Sovereign the right to conduct personally, in cooperation with the Kuhina Nui (Premier), but without the intervention of a Ministry or the approval of the Legislature, such portions of the public business as he might choose to undertake..."

This public speech before the Legislative Assembly occurred without contest, and therefore must be construed as a positive statement of the approbation of the Kuhina Nui (Premier) as required by Article 45 of the said Constitution of 1852. However, this sovereign prerogative was removed from the 1864 Constitution, thereby preventing any future Monarch of the right to alter the constitution without the approval of two-thirds of all members of the Legislative Assembly. All articles of the constitution previously agreed upon in convention remained, except for the voter requirements for the House of Representatives. The property qualifications instituted in Articles 61 and 62 were repealed by the Legislature in 1874.

Contrary to recent historical scholars, the 1864 Constitution did not increase the authority of the Monarch, but rather limited the power of the Monarch formally held under the 1852 Constitution. Under what has been termed the Kamehameha Constitution (1864), the Monarch was now required to take the oath of office and the sovereign prerogative was removed. Also removed was the office of the Kuhina Nui (Premier), which was found to be overlapping with the duties of the Minister of Interior. The bi-cameral nature of the legislative body was also removed. Where once the legislature would formally sit in two distinct Houses (House of Nobles and the House of Representatives), it now was changed to a uni-cameral House where the "...[l]egislative power of the Three Estates of this Kingdom is vested in the King, and the Legislative Assembly; which Assembly shall consist of the Nobles appointed by the King, and of the Representatives of the People, sitting together."

On December 11, 1872, His Majesty King Kamehameha V passed away without naming a successor to the office of Constitutional Monarch. As a consequence to the passing of the late King, the Legislative Assembly readied itself to exercise the constitutional authority it possessed to elect, by ballot, a native Chief to be the Constitutional Monarch. Article 22 of the Constitution of 1864 of the Hawaiian Kingdom provides such authority and states "..should the Throne become vacant, then the Cabinet Council, immediately after the occurring of such vacancy, shall cause a meeting of the Legislative Assembly, who shall elect by ballot some native Ali'i (Chief) of the Kingdom as Successor to the Throne...".

On January 8, 1873, William Charles Lunalilo was elected as successor to the office of Constitutional Monarch in accordance with Article 22 of the Constitution of 1864. One year later on February 3rd, 1874, His Majesty King Lunalilo (pictured right) died without naming a successor. The Hawaiian Legislature once again met in special session and elected David Kalakaua to the office of Constitutional Monarch on February 12th, 1874. In accordance with the Constitution, His Majesty's first royal act was to nominate and confirm his younger brother, William P. Leleiohoku, as successor.

On April 10, 1877, following the death of heir-apparent William P. Leleiohoku, King David Kalakaua (pictured left) publicly proclaimed Lydia Kamaka'eha Dominis to be his successor to the office of Constitutional Monarch in accordance with Article 22 of the Constitution of 1864.

In 1880, the Legislative Assembly passed an Act to Provide for the Codification and revision of the Laws of the Kingdom. His Majesty's Ministers requested an opinion of the Justices of the Supreme Court, in regard to the 1880 Act, to determine what needed to be done. The Justices stated there was no need to establish another code, but rather a compilation be made of the laws, then in force, and as they stood amended, but without any changes in the words and phrases of statutes. Pursuant to the opinion of the Justices and in accordance with the 1880 Act, a book was published in 1884 entitled the " Compiled Laws of the Hawaiian Kingdom."

On October 16, 1886, the Hawaiian Legislature was adjourned by King David Kalakaua after it met in Legislative session for 129 days. This Legislature was not scheduled to reconvene in Legislative Session until April of 1888. Article 46 of the Constitution of 1864 provides that the "...Legislative Body shall assemble biennially, in the month of April, and at such other time as the King may judge necessary, for the purpose of seeking the welfare of the nation."

The Bayonet Constitution of 1887.

In 1887, while the Legislature remained out of session, a minority of subjects of the Hawaiian Kingdom and foreign nationals, which included citizens of the United States, met in a mass meeting to organize a takeover of the political rights of the native population in the Kingdom. These individuals were organized under the name "Honolulu Rifles." On July 1, 1887, these individuals threatened His Majesty King David Kalakaua with bodily harm if he did not accept a new Cabinet Council. On July 7, 1887, a new constitution was forced upon the King by the members of this new cabinet. This new constitution did not obtain the consent nor ratification of the Legislative Assembly who had remained adjourned since October 16, 1886.

Under this so-called constitution deriving itself from the Executive branch and not the Legislative branch, a new Legislature was elected while the lawful Legislature remained out of session. The voters, which for the first time included aliens, had to swear an oath to support the so-called constitution before they could vote. The insurgents used the alien vote to offset the majority vote of the aboriginal Hawaiian population, in order to gain control of the Legislative Assembly, while the so-called 1887 constitution provided the self imposed Cabinet Council to control the Monarch. This new Legislature was not properly constituted under the Constitution of 1864, nor the lawfully executed Session Laws of the Legislative Assembly of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

In spite of the illegal efforts to promulgate this so-called constitution, the 1886 Legislative Assembly did not ratify this so-called constitution pursuant to Article 80 of the 1864 Constitution. Article 80 states "Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in the Legislative Assembly, and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members thereof, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on its journal, with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and referred to the next Legislature; which proposed amendment or the next election of Representatives; and if in the next Legislature such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by two-thirds of all members of the Legislative Assembly, and be approved by the King, such amendment or amendments shall become part of the Constitution of this country."

Organized resistance by the native subjects of the country resulted in the creation of the Hawaiian Political Party, also known as the Hui Kalai'aina, who protested against the so-called constitution of 1887. Hui Kalai'aina consistently petitioned His Majesty King David Kalakaua to resort back to the 1864 constitution because it was the legal constitution of the Country.

Notwithstanding the extortion of the so-called constitution of 1887, commonly known as the "bayonet constitution," the Constitution of 1864 and the Session laws of the Legislative Assembly enacted since October 16, 1886, still remain in full force and have legal effect in the Hawaiian Kingdom until today. Article 78, of the Constitution of 1864, provides that all "...laws now in force in this Kingdom, shall continue and remain in full effect, until altered or repealed by the Legislature; such parts only excepted as are repugnant to this Constitution. All laws heretofore enacted, or that may hereafter be enacted, which are contrary to this Constitution, shall be null and void."

On January 20, 1891, His Majesty King David Kalakaua passed away in San Francisco, while visiting the United States. His named successor, Lydia Kamaka'eha Dominis, ascended to the office of Constitutional Monarch and was thereafter called Queen Lili'uokalani (pictured left). On January 14, 1893, in an attempt to counter the effects of the so-called constitution of 1887, Her Majesty Queen Lili'uokalani, drafted a new constitution that embodied the principles and wording of the Constitution of 1864. This draft constitution was not Kingdom law, but remained subject to ratification by two-thirds of all members of the legitimate Legislative Assembly, that had been out of session since October 16, 1886.

The revolutionaries who actively participated in the extortion of the so-called 1887 constitution were also the same perpetrators affiliated with the unsuccessful revolution of January 17, 1893. Between 1887 and 1893, the self imposed government officials who were installed under the so-called 1887 constitution became an oligarchy, as they tried to combat the organized resistance within the Kingdom.

Read about Hawaii's post-1893 history under U.S. Occupation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Web site of the acting Hawaiian Kingdom Government presently operating within the occupied State of the Hawaiian Islands.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Historical Background: Westernization of Hawaiian Islands

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 1778, Captain James Cook was the first documented European to land on the shores of the Hawaiian Islands. With the arrival of Christianity came the overthrow of the kapu system, the laws that ha...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Until European contact, Hawai`i was a highly stratified society with strictly maintained castes. The ali`i (chiefs) headed the social pyramid and ruled over the land. Highly regarded and sometimes feared, the kahuna (professionals) were experts on religious ritual or specialists in canoe-building, herbal medicine, and healing. The maka`ainana (commoners) farmed and fished; built walls, houses, and fishponds; and paid taxes to the paramount chiefs and his chiefs. Kauwa, the lowest class, were outcasts or slaves. Later in Hawaiian history, a united Kingdom of Hawai'i emerged under King Kamehameha I and subsequent kings and queens.

A system of laws known as kanawai enforced the social order. Certain people, places, things, and times were sacred-they were kapu, or forbidden. Women ate apart from men and were restricted from eating pork, coconuts, bananas, or a variety of other foods. Kapu regulated fishing, planting, and the harvesting of other resources, thus ensuring their conservation. Any breaking of kapu disturbed the stability of society; the punishment often was death.

Prior to European contact Native Hawaiian rulers divided the Hawaiian Islands into distinct political regions. On each of the four larger islands-Kaua'i, O'ahu, Maui, and Hawai'i-lands were divided into wedge-shaped districts called moku.

The moku were further divided into land sections called ahupua'a. Ahupua'a were often bounded by ridgelines and typically encompassed an entire valley from mountain summit to outer reef. This type of land division allowed for each ahupua'a to contain nearly all the resources that its inhabitants required for survival.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Laws, Governance & Social Structure - Hawai'i (U.S. National Park Service)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Until European contact, Hawai`i was a highly stratified society with strictly maintained castes. The ali`i (chiefs) headed the social pyramid and ruled over the land. Highly regarded and sometimes feared, the kahuna (professionals) were experts on religious ritual or specialists in canoe-building, herbal medicine, and healing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 1778, Captain James Cook was the first documented European to land on the shores of the Hawaiian Islands. With the arrival of Christianity came the overthrow of the kapu system, the laws that had governed interactions involving people, nature and the gods for hundreds of years. The result was an overwhelming change in social structure and lifestyle. These changes, coupled with changes in diet and a significant loss of population due to the introduction of foreign diseases, had a long lasting and often devastating effect on the Native Hawaiian population (Bushnell, 1993; Kanahele, 1996).

Important economic and social changes took place over the following decades. Subsistence agriculture based on communal lands was replaced with a western style land tenure/ownership and capitalist economies based on sugar, lumbar (sandalwood), ranching and whaling. Foreign economic and political control increased with the rise of those industries (Mitchell, 1992).

The culmination of foreign influence eventually resulted in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy by a group of influential Caucasian businessmen, many of them American or of American descent, who then offered the Hawaiian Islands to the US government. Although the US did not initially accept this offer, the strategic location of the islands in the middle of the Pacific and the onset of the Spanish American war settled Hawai'i's fate. Despite strong objections by Native Hawaiians, the island nation became a US territory in 1900. By this time, the Native Hawaiian population had been permanently affected by a series of events (i.e. foreign infectious diseases, out-migration, etc.) that together had decreased the Native Hawaiian population by 87.5% since 1778 (Blaisdell, 1993).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Historical Background: Westernization of Hawaiian Islands

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 1778, Captain James Cook was the first documented European to land on the shores of the Hawaiian Islands. With the arrival of Christianity came the overthrow of the kapu system, the laws that ha...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sumner La Croix, University of Hawai'i and East-West Center

The Hawaiian Islands are a chain of 132 islands, shoals, and reefs extending over 1,523 miles in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Eight islands - Hawai'i, Maui, O'ahu, Kaua'i, Moloka'i, Lana'i, Ni'ihau, and Kaho'olawe - possess 99 percent of the land area (6,435 square miles) and are noted for their volcanic landforms, unique flora and fauna, and diverse climates.

From Polynesian Settlement to Western Contact

The Islands were uninhabited until sometime around 400 AD when Polynesian voyagers sailing double-hulled canoes arrived from the Marquesas Islands (Kirch, 1985, p. 68). Since the settlers had no written language and virtually no contact with the Western world until 1778, our knowledge of Hawai'i's pre-history comes primarily from archaeological investigations and oral legends. A relatively egalitarian society and subsistence economy were coupled with high population growth rates until about 1100 when continued population growth led to a major expansion of the areas of settlement and cultivation. Perhaps under pressures of increasing resource scarcity, a new, more hierarchical social structure emerged, characterized by chiefs ( ali'i) and subservient commoners ( maka'ainana). In the two centuries prior to Western contact, there is considerable evidence that ruling chiefs ( ali'i nui) competed to extend their lands by conquest and that this led to cycles of expansion and retrenchment.

Captain James Cook's ships reached Hawai'i in 1778, thereby ending a long period of isolation for the Islands. Captain James King observed in 1779 that Hawaiians were generally "above the middle size" of Europeans, a rough indicator that Hawaiians generally had a diet superior to eighteenth-century Europeans. At contact, Hawaiian social and political institutions were similar to those found in other Polynesian societies. Hawaiians were sharply divided into three main social classes: ali'i (chiefs), maka'ainana (commoners), and kahuna (priests). Oral legends tell us that the Islands were usually divided into six to eight small kingdoms consisting of an island or part of an island, each governed by an ali'i nui (ruling chief). The ali'i nui had extensive rights to all lands and material goods and the ability to confiscate or redistribute material wealth at any time. Redistribution usually occurred only when a new ruling chief took office or when lands were conquered or lost. The ali'i nui gave temporary land grants to ali'i who, in turn, gave temporary land grants to konohiki (managers), who then "contracted" with maka'ainana, the great majority of the populace, to work the lands.

The Hawaiian society and economy has its roots in extended families (' ohana) working cooperatively on an ahupua'a, a land unit running from the mountains to the sea. Numerous tropical root, tuber, and tree crops were cultivated. Taro, a wetland crop, was cultivated primarily in windward areas, while sweet potatoes and yams, both dryland crops, were cultivated in drier leeward areas. The maka'ainana apparently lived well above subsistence levels, with extensive time available for cultural activities, sports, and games. There were unquestionably periods of hardship, but these times tended to be associated with drought or other causes of poor harvest.

Unification of Hawai'i and Population Decline

The long-prevailing political equilibrium began to disintegrate shortly after the introduction of guns and the spread of new diseases to the Islands. In 1784, the most powerful ali'i nui, Kamehameha, began a war of conquest, and with his superior use of modern weapons and western advisors, he subdued all other chiefdoms, with the exception of Kaua'i, by 1795. Each chief in his ruling coalition received the right to administer large areas of land, consisting of smaller strips on various islands. Sumner La Croix and James Roumasset (1984) have argued that the strip system conveyed durability to the newly unified kingdom (by making it more costly for an ali'i to accumulate a power base on one island) and facilitated monitoring of ali'i production by the new king. In 1810, Kamehameha reached a negotiated settlement with Kaumuali'i, the ruling chief of Kaua'i, which brought the island under his control, thereby bringing the entire island chain under a single monarchy.

Exposure to Western diseases produced a massive decline in the native population of Hawai'i from 1778 through 1900 (Table 1). Estimates of Hawai'i's population at the time of contact vary wildly, from approximately 110,000 to one million people (Bushnell, 1993; Dye, 1994). The first missionary census in 1831-1832 counted 130,313 people. A substantial portion of the decline can be attributed to a series of epidemics beginning after contact, including measles, influenza, diarrhea, and whooping cough. The introduction of venereal diseases was a factor behind declining crude birth rates. The first accurate census conducted in the Islands revealed a population of 80,641 in 1849. The native Hawaiian population reached its lowest point in 1900 when the U.S. census revealed only 39,656 full or part Hawaiians.
Table 1: Population of Hawai'i
Sources: Total population from http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/db99/index.html, Table 1.01, Dye (1994), and Bushnell (1993). Native Hawaiian population for 1853-1960 from Schmitt (1977), p. 25. Data from the 2000 census includes people declaring "Native Hawaiian" as their only race or one of two races. See http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_ts=18242084330 for the 2000 census population.

The Rise and Fall of Sandalwood and Whaling

With the unification of the Islands came the opening of foreign trade. Trade in sandalwood, a wood in demand in China for ornamental uses and burning as incense, began in 1805. The trade was interrupted by the War of 1812 and then flourished from 1816 to the late 1820s before fading away in the 1830s and 1840s (Kuykendall, 1957, I, pp. 86-87). La Croix and Roumasset (1984) have argued that the centralized organization of the sandalwood trade under King Kamehameha provided the king with incentives to harvest sandalwood efficiently. The adoption of a decentralized production system by his successor (Liholiho) led to the sandalwood being treated by ali'i as a common property resource. The reallocation of resources from agricultural production to sandalwood production not only led to rapid exhaustion of the sandalwood resource but also to famine.

As the sandalwood industry declined, Hawai'i became the base for the north-central Pacific whaling trade. The impetus for the new trade was the 1818 discovery of the "Offshore Ground" west of Peru and the 1820 discovery of rich sperm whale grounds off the coast of Japan. The first whaling ship visited the Islands in 1820, and by the late 1820s over 150 whaling ships were stopping in Hawai'i annually. While ship visits declined somewhat during the 1830s, by 1843 over 350 whaling ships annually visited the two major ports of Honolulu and Lahaina. Through the 1850s over 500 whaling ships visited Hawai'i annually. The demise of the Pacific whaling fleet during the U.S. Civil War and the rapid rise of the petroleum industry led to steep declines in the number of ships visiting Hawai'i, and after 1870 only a trickle of ships continued to visit.

Missionaries and Land Tenure

In 1819, King Kamehameha's successor, Liholiho, abandoned the system of religious practices known as the kapu system and ordered temples ( heiau) and images of the gods desecrated and burnt. In April 1820, missionaries from New England arrived and began filling the religious void with conversions to protestant Christianity. Over the next two decades as church attendance became widespread, the missionaries suppressed many traditional Hawaiian cultural practices, operated over 1,000 common schools, and instructed the ali'i in western political economy. The king promulgated a constitution with provisions for a Hawai'i legislature in 1840. It was followed, later in the decade, by laws establishing a cabinet, civil service, and judiciary. Under the 1852 constitution, male citizens received the right to vote in elections for a legislative lower house. Missionaries and other foreigners regularly served in cabinets through the end of the monarchy.

In 1844, the government began a 12-year program, known as the Great Mahele (Division), to dismantle the traditional system of land tenure. King Kauikeaouli gave up his interest in all island lands, retaining ownership only in selected estates. Ali'i had the right to take out fee simple title to lands held at the behest of the king. Maka'ainana had the right to claim fee simple title to small farms ( kuleana). At the end of the claiming period, maka'ainana received less than ~40,000 acres of land, while the government (~1.5 million acres), the king (~900,000 acres), and the ali'i (~1.5 million acres) all received substantial shares. Foreigners were initially not allowed to own land in fee simple, but an 1850 law overturned this restriction. By the end of the 19th century, commoners and chiefs had sold, lost, or given up their lands, with foreigners and large estates owning most non-government lands.

Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa (1992) found the origins of the Mahele in the traditional duty of a king to undertake a redistribution of land and the difficulty of such an undertaking during the initial years of missionary influence. By contrast, La Croix and Roumasset (1990) found the origins of the Mahele in the rising value of Hawaii land in sugar cultivation, with fee simple title facilitating investment in the land, irrigation facilities, and processing factories.

Sugar, Immigration, and Population Increase

The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co., was started on Kaua'i in 1835, and the sugar industry achieved moderate growth through the 1850s. Hawai'i's sugar exports to California soared during the U.S. Civil War, but the end of hostilities in 1865 also meant the end of the sugar boom. The U.S. tariff on sugar posed a major obstacle to expanding sugar production in Hawai'i during peacetime, as the high tariff, ranging from 20 to 42 percent between 1850 and 1870, limited the extent of profitable sugar cultivation in the islands. Sugar interests helped elect King Kalakaua to the Hawaiian throne over the British-leaning Queen Emma in February 1874, and Kalakaua immediately sought a trade agreement with the United States. The 1876 reciprocity treaty between Hawai'i and the United States allowed duty-free sales of Hawai'i sugar and other selected agricultural products in the United States as well as duty-free sales of most U.S. manufactured goods in Hawai'i. Sugar exports from Hawai'i to the United States soared after the treaty's promulgation, rising from 21 million pounds in 1876 to 114 million pounds in 1883 to 224.5 million pounds in 1890 (Table 2).
Table 2: Hawai'i Sugar Production (1000 short tons)
Sources: Data for 1850-1970 are from Schmitt (1977), pp. 418-420. Data for 1990 and 1999 are from http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/db99/index.html, Table 22.09. Data for 1850-1880 are exports. Data for 1910-1990 are converted to 96° raw value.

The reciprocity treaty set the tone for Hawai'i's economy and society over the next 80 years by establishing the sugar industry as the Hawai'i's leading industry and altering the demographic composition of the Islands via the industry's labor demands. Rapid expansion of the sugar industry after reciprocity sharply increased its demand for labor: Plantation employment rose from 3,921 in 1872 to 10,243 in 1882 to 20,536 in 1892. The increase in labor demand occurred while the native Hawaiian population continued its precipitous decline, and the Hawai'i government responded to labor shortages by allowing sugar planters to bring in overseas contract laborers bound to serve at fixed wages for 3-5 year periods. The enormous increase in the plantation workforce consisted of first Chinese, then Japanese, then Portuguese contract laborers.

The extensive investment in sugar industry lands and irrigations systems coupled with the rapid influx of overseas contract laborers changed the bargaining positions of Hawai'i and the United States when the reciprocity treaty was due for renegotiation in 1883. La Croix and Christopher Grandy (1997) argued that the profitability of the planters' new investment was dependent on access to the U.S. market, and this improved the bargaining position of the United States. As a condition for renewal of the treaty, the United States demanded access to Pearl Bay [now Pearl Harbor]. King Kalakaua opposed this demand, and in July 1887, opponents of the government forced the king to accept a new constitution and cabinet. With the election of a new pro-American government in September 1887, the king signed an extension of the reciprocity treaty in October 1887 that granted access rights to Pearl Bay to the United States for the life of the treaty.

Annexation and the Sugar Economy

In 1890, the U.S. Congress enacted the McKinley Tariff, which allowed raw sugar to enter the United States free of duty and established a two-cent per pound bounty for domestic producers. The overall effect of the McKinley Tariff was to completely erase the advantages that the reciprocity treaty had provided to Hawaiian sugar producers over other foreign sugar producers selling in the U.S. market. The value of Hawaiian merchandise exports plunged from $13 million in 1890 to $10 million in 1891 to a low point of $8 million in 1892.

La Croix and Grandy (1997) argued that the McKinley Tariff threatened the wealth of the planters and induced important changes in Hawai'i's domestic politics. King Kalakaua died in January 1891, and his sister succeeded him. After Queen Lili'uokalani proposed to declare a new constitution in January 1893, a group of U.S. residents, with the incautious assistance of the U.S. Minister and troops from a U.S. warship, overthrew the monarchy. The new government, dominated by the white minority, offered Hawai'i for annexation by the United States from 1893. Annexation was first opposed by U.S. President Cleveland, and then, during U.S. President McKinley's term, failed to obtain Congressional approval. The advent of the Spanish-American War and the ensuing hostilities in the Philippines raised Hawai'i's strategic value to the United States, and Hawai'i was annexed by a joint resolution of Congress in July 1898. Hawai'i became a U.S. territory with the passage of the Organic Act on June 14, 1900.

Economic Integration with the United States

In 1900 annexation by the United States eliminated bound labor contracts and freed the existing labor force from their contracts. After annexation, the sugar planters and the Hawaii government recruited workers from Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Spain, Portugal, Puerto Rico, England, Germany, and Russia. The ensuing flood of immigrants swelled the population of the Hawaiian Islands from 109,020 people in 1896 to 232,856 people in 1915. The growth in the plantation labor force was one factor behind the expansion of sugar production from 289,500 short tons in 1900 to 939,300 short tons in 1930. Pineapple production also expanded, from just 2,000 cases of canned fruit in 1903 to 12,808,000 cases in 1931.

La Croix and Price Fishback (2000) established that European and American workers on sugar plantations were paid job-specific wage premiums relative to Asian workers and that the premium paid for unskilled American workers fell by one third between 1901 and 1915 and for European workers by 50 percent or more over the same period. While similar wage gaps disappeared during this period on the U.S. West Coast, Hawai'i plantations were able to maintain a portion of the wage gaps because they constantly found new low-wage immigrants to work in the Hawai'i market. Immigrant workers from Asia failed, however, to climb many rungs up the job ladder on Hawai'i sugar plantations, and this was a major factor behind labor unrest in the sugar industry. Edward Beechert (1985) concluded that large-scale strikes on sugar plantations during 1909 and 1920 improved the welfare of sugar plantation workers but did not lead to recognition of labor unions. Between 1900 and 1941, many sugar workers responded to limited advancement and wage prospects on the sugar plantation by leaving the plantations for jobs in Hawai'i's growing urban areas.

The rise of the sugar industry and the massive inflow of immigrant workers into Hawaii was accompanied by a decline in the Native Hawaiian population and its overall welfare (La Croix and Rose, 1999). Native Hawaiians and their political representatives argued that government lands should be made available for homesteading to enable Hawaiians to resettle in rural areas and to return to farming occupations. The U.S. Congress enacted legislation in 1921 to reserve specified rural and urban lands for a new Hawaiian Homes Program. La Croix and Louis Rose have argued that the Hawaiian Homes Program has functioned poorly, providing benefits for only a small portion of the Hawaiian population over the course of the twentieth century.

Five firms-Castle & Cooke, Alexander & Baldwin, C. Brewer & Co., Theo. Davies & Co., and American Factors-came to dominate the sugar industry. Originally established to provide financial, labor recruiting, transportation, and marketing services to plantations, they gradually acquired the plantations and also gained control over other vital industries such as banking, insurance, retailing, and shipping. By 1933, their plantations produced 96 percent of the sugar crop. The "Big Five's" dominance would continue until the rise of the tourism industry and statehood induced U.S. and foreign firms to enter Hawai'i's markets.

The Great Depression hit Hawai'i hard, as employment in the sugar and pineapple industries declined during the early 1930s. In December 1936, about one-quarter of Hawai'i's labor force was unemployed. Full recovery would not occur until the military began a buildup in the mid-1930s in reaction to Japan's occupation of Manchuria. With the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, the number of U.S. military personnel in Hawai'i increased to 48,000 by September 1940.

World War II and its Aftermath

The Japanese attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 led to a declaration of martial law, a state that continued until October 24, 1944. The war was accompanied by a massive increase in American armed service personnel in Hawai'i, with numbers increasing from 28,000 in 1940 to 378,000 in 1944. The total population increased from 429,000 in 1940 to 858,000 in 1944, thereby substantially increasing the demand for retail, restaurant, and other consumer services. An enormous construction program to house the new personnel was undertaken in 1941 and 1942. The wartime interruption of commercial shipping reduced the tonnage of civilian cargo arriving in Hawai'i by more than 50 percent. Employees working in designated high priority organizations, including sugar plantations, had their jobs and wages frozen in place by General Order 18 which also suspended union activity.

In March 1943, the National Labor Relations Board was allowed to resume operations, and the International Longshoreman's Union (ILWU) organized 34 of Hawai'i's 35 sugar plantations, the pineapple plantations, and the longshoremen by November 1945. The passage of the Hawai'i Employment Relations Act in 1945 facilitated union organizing by providing agricultural workers with the same union organizing rights as industrial workers.

After the War, Hawai'i's economy stagnated, as demobilized armed services personnel left Hawai'i for the U.S. mainland. With the decline in population, real per capita personal income declined at an annual rate of 5.7 percent between 1945 and 1949 (Schmitt, 1976, pp. 148, 167). During this period, Hawai'i's newly formed unions embarked on a series of disruptive strikes covering West Coast and Hawai'i longshoremen (1946-1949); the sugar industry (1946); and the pineapple industry (1947, 1951). The economy began a nine-year period of moderate expansion in 1949, with the annual growth rate of real personal income averaging 2.3 percent. The expansion of propeller-driven commercial air service sent visitor numbers soaring, from 15,000 in 1946 to 171,367 in 1958, and induced construction of new hotels and other tourism facilities and infrastructure. The onset of the Korean War increased the number of armed service personnel stationed in Hawai'i from 21,000 in 1950 to 50,000 in 1958. Pineapple production and canning also displayed substantial increases over the decade, increasing from 13,697,000 cases in 1949 to 18,613,000 cases in 1956.

Integration and Growth after Statehood

In 1959, Hawai'i became the fiftieth state. The transition from territorial to statehood status was one factor behind the 1958-1973 boom, in which real per capita personal income increased at an annual rate of 4 percent. The most important factor behind the long expansion was the introduction of commercial jet service in 1959, as the jet plane dramatically reduced the money and time costs of traveling to Hawai'i. Also fueled by rapidly rising real incomes in the United States and Japan, the tourism industry would continue its rapid growth through 1990. Visitor arrivals (see Table 3) increased from 171,367 in 1958 to 6,723,531 in 1990. Growth in visitor arrivals was once again accompanied by growth in the construction industry, particularly from 1965 to 1975. The military build-up during the Vietnam War also contributed to the boom by increasing defense expenditures in Hawai'i by 3.9 percent annually from 1958 to 1973 (Schmitt, 1977, pp. 148, 668).
Table 3: Visitor Arrivals to Hawai'i
Source: Hawai'i Tourism Authority, http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/monthly/historical-r.xls at Table 5 and http://www.state.hi.us/dbedt/monthly/index2k.html.

From 1973 to 1990, growth in real per capita personal income slowed to 1.1 percent annually. The defense and agriculture sectors stagnated, with most growth generated by the relentless increase in visitor arrivals. Japan's persistently high rates of economic growth during the 1970s and 1980s spilled over to Hawai'i in the form of huge increases in the numbers of Japanese tourists and in the value of Japanese foreign investment in Hawai'i. At the end of the 1980s, the Hawai'i unemployment rate was just 2-3 percent, employment had been steadily growing since 1983, and prospects looked good for continued expansion of both tourism and the overall economy.

The Malaise of the 1990s

From 1991 to 1998, Hawai'i's economy was hit by several negative shocks. The 1990-1991 recession in the United States, the closure of California military bases and defense plants, and uncertainty over the safety of air travel during the 1991 Gulf War combined to reduce visitor arrivals from the United States in the early and mid-1990s. Volatile and slow growth in Japan throughout the 1990s led to declines in Japanese visitor arrivals in the late 1990s. The ongoing decline in sugar and pineapple production gathered steam in the 1990s, with only a handful of plantations still in business by 2001. The cumulative impact of these adverse shocks was severe, as real per capita personal income did not change between 1991 and 1998.

The recovery continued through summer 2001 despite a slowing U.S. economy. It came to an abrupt halt with the terrorism attack of September 11, 2001, as domestic and foreign tourism declined sharply.

References

Beechert, Edward D. Working in Hawaii: A Labor History. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985.

Bushnell, Andrew F. "The 'Horror' Reconsidered: An Evaluation of the Historical Evidence for Population Decline in Hawai'i, 1778-1803." Pacific Studies 16 (1993): 115-161.

Daws, Gavan. Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1968.

Dye, Tom. "Population Trends in Hawai'i before 1778." The Hawaiian Journal of History 28 (1994): 1-20.

Hitch, Thomas Kemper. Islands in Transition: The Past, Present, and Future of Hawaii's Economy. Honolulu: First Hawaiian Bank, 1992.

Kame'eleihiwa, Lilikala. Native Land and Foreign Desires: Pehea La E Pono Ai? Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1992.

Kirch, Patrick V. Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985.

Kuykendall, Ralph S. A History of the Hawaiian Kingdom. 3 vols. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1938-1967.

La Croix, Sumner J., and Price Fishback. "Firm-Specific Evidence on Racial Wage Differentials and Workforce Segregation in Hawaii's Sugar Industry." Explorations in Economic History 26 (1989): 403-423.

La Croix, Sumner J., and Price Fishback. "Migration, Labor Market Dynamics, and Wage Differentials in Hawaii's Sugar Industry." Advances in Agricultural Economic History 1 (2000): 31-72.

La Croix, Sumner J., and Christopher Grandy. "The Political Instability of Reciprocal Trade and the Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom." Journal of Economic History 57 (1997): 161-189.

La Croix, Sumner J., and Louis A. Rose. "The Political Economy of the Hawaiian Homelands Program." In The Other Side of the Frontier: Economic Explorations into Native American History, edited by Linda Barrington. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999.

La Croix, Sumner J., and James Roumasset. "An Economic Theory of Political Change in Pre-Missionary Hawaii." Explorations in Economic History 21 (1984): 151-168.

La Croix, Sumner J., and James Roumasset. "The Evolution of Property Rights in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii." Journal of Economic History 50 (1990): 829-852.

Morgan, Theodore. Hawaii, A Century of Economic Change: 1778-1876. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1948.

Schmitt, Robert C. Historical Statistics of Hawai i. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1977.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Hawaiian Islands are a chain of 132 islands, shoals, and reefs extending over 1,523 miles in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Eight islands - Hawai'i, Maui, O'ahu, Kaua'i, Moloka'i, Lana'i, Ni'ihau, and Kaho'olawe - possess 99 percent of the land area (6,435 square miles) and are noted for their volcanic landforms, unique flora and fauna, and diverse climates.