Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
to Lahaina. Labor was the main issue, however. Upon realizing their contracts amounted
to indentured servitude, many of the Hawaiians refused to work. Chinese laborers were
brought in, but rather than slaving for three dollars a month, they often abandoned their
contracts and went on to start other businesses. Japanese laborers were then tried, and they
worked 10 hour days, 6 days a week, for $20 a month plus housing. Eventually sugar was
doing so well the industry seemed promising to foreigners who needed work. Boatloads
of immigrants from Japan, Portugal, Germany, and Russia came to the islands, and their
religions, foods, customs, and cultures mixed together in the multiethnic plantation com-
munities. As the sugar industry boomed, the plantation owners became the new “chiefs”
of Hawai'i who would carve up the land and dispense favors. With the power of the sugar
barons growing with each passing year, the writing was on the wall that the Hawaiian mon-
archy would soon be eliminated.
As with the Hawaiian people themselves, the Kamehameha dynasty was dying from with-
in. King Kamehameha IV (Alexander Liholiho) ruled 1854-1863, and his only child died
in 1862. He was succeeded by his older brother Kamehameha V (Lot Kamehameha), who
ruled until 1872. With his passing, the Kamehameha line ended. William Lunalilo, elec-
ted king in 1873 by popular vote, was of royal, but not Kamehameha, lineage. He died
after only a year in office and, being a bachelor, left no heirs. He was succeeded by David
Kalakaua, known far and wide as the “Merrie Monarch,” who made a world tour and was
well received wherever he went. Kalakaua died in 1891 and was replaced by his sister, Ly-
dia Lili'uokalani, last of the Hawaiian monarchs.
When Lili'uokalani took office in 1891, the native population was at a low of 40,000.
When the McKinley Tariff of 1890 brought a decline in sugar profits, she made no attempt
to improve the situation, and planters saw her as an obstacle to economic growth. Lorrin
Thurston, a Honolulu publisher, gathered a group of 30 men and challenged the Hawaiian
monarchy. Naturally, the conspirators could not have succeeded without some solid assur-
ances from a secret contingent in the U.S. Congress as well as outgoing President Ben-
jamin Harrison, who favored Hawai'i's annexation. Marines from the
Boston
went ashore
to “protect American lives,” and on January 17, 1893, the Hawaiian monarchy came to
an end. As for Lili'uokalani, she remained staunchly loyal to her people until her death in
1917, and her struggles are documented in
Hawaii's Story,
a powerful read detailing the
history of the era.
