The First Documented Contact Between Europe And Hawaii

In the beginning, Hawaii was unknown to any humans. Polynesians eventually came across its islands, and decided to make it their home. In the early days, each island was ruled by a chief, and many times the islands were in conflict with each other. Centuries like this passed, but then "in 1782, [Queen Lili'uokalani's] cousin Kamehameha set out to conquer and unite the islands". Thirteen years later, in 1795, Kamehameha

The first missionaries arrived to the Hawaiian Islands in 1820 and made a lot of changes to Hawaii when they arrived, both good and bad. When the missionaries arrived to the islands they thought of the natives as savages. They all needed to become converts to followers of Christ, drop their own beliefs and pick up new ones. They also sought out to “civilize” the natives, by teaching them how to read and write, sing and Christianize them. Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston were the first of many missionaries to arrive in Hawaii. The Queen at the time, Kaahumanu accepted the arrival of the missionaries from New England to teach their religion. Although there were many positive affects of missionary that came to the Hawaiian Islands, there

In Ancient Hawaii, King Kamehameha the Great unified the Hawaiian Islands. After Kamehameha unified the islands he rewarded his loyal followers making them chiefs and letting them rule over the land. Then after Kamehameha the Great died his son Kamehameha III did very little to change the land ownership in Hawaii. But Kamehameha III divided the land into two separate categories with the Act of 1848 “The Great Mahele”. There was the Crown Lands that he kept for himself and the Government lands which were to be split between the commoners, government, and the chiefs. The Great Mahele of 1848 had social, political, and economical effects on the Native Hawaiians.

After discovering how the island was conspired into this seizure, Cleveland recommended that the monarchy should be restored. In a message to the Congress, specifically addressing Minister Wallis, Cleveland urged to restore the condition of the island as it was previous to the “lawless landing” of the forces of the United States at the Honolulu. He proposed that “the past should be buried” and the “restored Government should resume its authority” without being affected. But Congress did not act upon this command. In 1894, Hawaii came under Stanford Dole, who, declared himself president of the Republic without much consent from the natives. The queen was placed under house arrest held for the guilt of treason. A fine of $5000 was also placed on her. In 1896, the Republican Party called for the annexation of Hawaii in the presidential election. In 1990, Hawaii legitimately became a U.S. territory under William McKinley, out of fear that it may be annexed by Japan. He also feared that he lacked majority support for the annexation in the Senate. Eventually, several immigrant laborers from all over the world joined the sugar business. Today Hawaii comprises of people belonging to China, Japan, and Portuguese from Madeira and the Azores including Puerto Rican’s, Koreans and Filipinos. This resulted in Hawaii

Many Portuguese farmers and their families faced a rough time back home with many crops being infected by fungus in the early 1800s. This along with Portugal being economically unstable at the time, pushed the Portuguese to move to Hawaii. Why Hawaii out of all the other places in the world you may ask? Well, “The greatest number of Portuguese immigrants to Hawaii originated from Medeira and the Azores,

After the European influence upon indigenous Hawaiian culture, “Hawaiians radically reinterpreted and transformed their culture… part of this transformation was the abandonment of the kapu system in 1819.” The meaning of the organization of architecture no longer reflects upon ideology of the Hawaiians, but the adaptation of more technological advanced living space. As a result, “many temples were dismantled or destroyed, leaving only he foundation stones” (Ladegoged, #).

The circumstances surrounding the annexation of Hawaii are often left unsaid and remain unknown by citizens of the United States. Hawaii was first annexed into the United States of America in 1898 after white settlers refused to give up control of the Hawaiian government. However, previously President Cleveland opposed annexation and retracted the annexation treated proposed to the Senate. Cleveland supported a restoration of the Hawaiian monarchy and used his administration to oppose annexation. He used James Blount to discover the views of the Hawaiian natives on annexation,

The Spanish-American war gave the push that the American government needed to make a final decision over Hawaii. The Hawaiin Islands were known as the

The United States annexes Hawaii in 1900. At first missionaries and whalers were the first americans to settle in hawaii, and then american settlers started growing sugar to

To understand the native Hawaiian’s perspective of the Mahele, one must first learn the Hawaiian mentality. In Hawaiian culture it is believed that Wakea (sky-father) and Papahanaumoku (earth-mother) are the parents of the Hawaiian islands. If anything the Hawaiian islands belonged to Wakea and Papa. The islands, being born from an akua (God) was therefore an akua itself. Land in

The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, which happened from January 17, 1893 to August 12, 1898, happened because the sugar planters and businessmen wanted more power over the Hawaiian Islands, both economically and politically. These foreigners tried to overthrow the Hawaiian Monarchy by using force, and the Hawaiians tried to stop the act of annexation. During the overthrow, some foreigners, such as Sanford B. Dole, Lorrin A. Thurston, and John L. Stevens, created the Hawaiian League, the Committee of Public Safety, and the Annexation Club to promote annexation on Hawaii. When the United States promoted the McKinley Tariff Act in 1891, it harmed the sugar industry in Hawaii, increasing the calls for annexation. At the same time, King David

In 1848, a great land revolution called the Great Mahele came to Hawaii. Foreigners thought that if commoners owned their own land that the commoners would give up their lazy ways. Foreigners saw land division to bring tough works 151 years ago (Borreca). Foreigners wanted land to make sugar since they wanted to make money so, King Kamehameha III wanted to divide the land equally to everyone. The Mahele of 1848 was unjustified since Hawaiians had no money, children were eating raw food, and their land was sold to foreigners before they could even buy it.

In the 1820’s Missionaries have been starting to visit Hawaii inspired by Henry Obookiah who the first Hawaiian Missionary. Henry Obookiah was a Hawaiian missionary that told the English about the Hawaiian religion and how it works, and it convinced the English to go and spread their religion. But not everything ended well according to the plan for the Hawaiians. People only notice the negative effects that the missionaries cause the Hawaiians to go through, but they miss the benefits that the missionaries gave the Hawaiians. Although the missionaries have brought negative effects to the Hawaiians, they also have given the Hawaiians some benefits with the new religion, new language, and new technology.

As a result to new people coming into colonizes Hawaii and its people, the Hawaiians suffered many consequences. Formerly, the Hawaiian Islands remained isolated from the rest of the world. Once they were tainted with outside contact, the Hawaiians quickly fell ill with disease causing their population to go on rapid decline. Smaller populations allowed the missionaries to eventually gain more control. Eventually hula was prohibited, as well as the language and other past times, the final straw coming down to Hawaii's illegal annexation. The Hawaiian culture was almost lost completely; but if so it would have been legitimate to the missionaries because they were indeed "helping" these indigenous peoples become less savage like and closer to God.

Then in the 1980's came the voyages of rediscovery navigated by Nainoa Thompson from Hawaii to Tahiti and from Tahiti back to Hawaii. Thompson was the first Hawaiian to sail this route in over 500 years. The voyages in between took the Hokule'a (some 16000 miles) to the Society Islands, Cook Islands, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa and back home via Aitutaki, Tahiti, Rangiroa in the Tuamotu Archipelago (Baybayan, Kawaharada, 1996). The Hokule'a became the symbol of pride in Polynesian heritage that links all the people of Polynesia together.