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HISTORY OF HAWAII


Early History

The Polynesians and the Marquesas were the first to inhabit the islands around 1000 AD with the Tahitians soon to follow. With them they brought languages, beliefs and customs that would eventually become what is known as Hawaiian culture. Their social hierarchy was built upon the kapu system or taboo system. Most of this system related to the chiefs or kings but was also enforced throughout society.

Many of these kapus or taboos focused around particular foods that were regulated depending on the person’s gender; however, they also practiced kapus in fishing as to not over fish during certain times of the year. The system was in place until 1819 when King Kamehameha II, acting with his mother Keopuolani and his father's queen Ka'ahumanu, abolished it by the symbolic act of sharing a meal of forbidden foods with the women of his court.

Capitan Cook


British explorer Captain cook arrived on the islands in 1778 and was the first westerner to come in contact with the islands and its inhabitants. While Cook died on Hawaii in a fight and was buried there, information on the islands and his travels were published in his journals, putting Hawaii on the map for the world to see.

 
   

King Kamehameha I, II and III

It was also during the time period of Cook's visit to the islands that the islands became a more political adhesive unit under the command of King Kamehameha. After his death in 1819, his son Liholiho (King Kamehameha II) took the reigns and shook up the political and social systems of the islands, causing the demise of the old Hawaiian religious belief system but without replacing it with anything.

In 1820, missionaries from New England Congregationalist missionary group, ABCFM, were allowed to come to the islands per King Kamehamha II and given a year to proselytize, converting many of the chiefs to Christianity with the general public soon following suit. The Hawaiian Declaration of Rights was issued in 1839 and the Constitution for the Hawaiian Islands in 1840 changing Hawaiian rule from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.

King Kamehameha III signed the Great Mahele or Land Division in 1848, which allowed the land to be surveyed and divided between the king, chiefs and commoners. The notion of land ownership was foreign to Native Hawaiian religious beliefs and practices; however, chiefs did not want Native Hawaiians to be disposed of land during the British Colonial occupation in the 1840s, and this allowed for land to be registered or purchased.

Kamehameha rule ended with the death of Lot, (King Kamehameha V) in 1872. He declared Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop heir to the throne, however, she declined in favor of leading a private life with her husband and Lot died before naming another heir.
   

Late 19th Century-Trading

In 1874, Hawaii signed a treaty granting Americans exclusive trading rights and then in 1875, the Kingdom of Hawaii and the United States entered into an agreement of a duty-free importation of Hawaiian sugar and rice to the U.S. This act had a dramatic effect on the Hawaiian landscape for it promoted sugar plantation agriculture as well as immigration; as this prompted a large influx of immigrants primarily from Asia to come to Hawaii to support the sugar industry, which provided an impetus for growing rice as well.

 

 

"Bayonet Constitution"

In 1887, some cabinet officials and advisors along with an armed militia forced King David Kalakaua to promulgate a new constitution, which critics call the "Bayonet Constitution".

Rising debt accrued by the king, a bribery scandal regarding opium licenses, and the King's ill-fated attempt to create a Polynesian Federation under his rule all led to this new 1887 constitution that took away much of the monarchy's authority and imposed income and property requirement for voting, which completely disenfranchised all Asians from voting and gave priority to Native Hawaiians and Europeans.

Some Native Hawaiians called King David Kalakua's rule "a golden age materially for Hawaii" because the King refused to renew the Reciprocity Treaty that would have allowed the US Navy to have a permanent base at Pearl Harbor. Most Native Hawaiians were opposed to a permanent US military presence on the Islands.

The monarchy’s authority was about to be restored with a new constitution under Queen Lili’uokalani in 1891 and the voting rights of Americans and Europeans were taken away, which she felt was supported by her cabinet and Native Hawaiians. However, in response to this, a group of Americans and Europeans formed a committee—“Committee of Safety” in 1893 in opposition to this new constitution and sought to remove the Queen and annexation to the U.S.

They felt that the new constitution claimed an imminent threat to American lives and property. With the assistance of some U.S. Marines from U.S.S. Boston and the Honolulu Rifles a militia group who defended the Kingdom against rebellion in 1893, Queen Lili’uokalani gave up her throne to the Committee of Safety.

An investigation was issued into the abdication, and the U.S. found that the diplomats and military abused their authority and were responsible for the change in government.

   
   

World War II and the 20th Century

Hawaii was the only U.S. state to see the affects of World War II personally. With the attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet and other military installations on December 7, 1941 in Pearl Harbor, the U.S. entered the war and the country would be forever changed.

The USS Arizona Memorial continues to be Hawaii's most visited attraction. The war years were difficult for people across the county; however, residents of Japanese ancestry living in Hawaii had a very difficult time. A small percentage of residents of Japanese ancestry were interned, yet many felt the distrust of neighbors and friends.

The Nisei, which are second generation Japanese Americans and Americans by birth joined a regiment consisting solely of Japanese-American soldiers to prove their loyalty.
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