Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The epic scene has become legendary, and it has been the subject of artwork
such as Herb Kane's paintingKapiʻolani Defying Pele. While the story is likely to
have been embellished over the years, you can still appreciate how profound Kap-
iʻolani's confidence in the new religion must have been to test the power of a god-
dess who was all too real for ancient Hawaiians.
The Great Mahele: Losing the Land
Amid often conflicting foreign influences, some Hawaiian leaders decided that the only
way to survive in a world of more powerful nations was to adopt Western ways and
styles of government. Hawaiʻi's absolute monarchy had previously denied citizens a
voice in their government. Traditionally, no Hawaiian ever owned land, but the
aliʻi
man-
aged it in stewardship for all. None of this sat well with resident US expats, many of
whose grandparents had fought a revolution for the right to vote and to own private prop-
erty.
Born and raised in Hawaiʻi after Western contact, King Kamehameha III
(Kauikeaouli) struggled to retain traditional Hawaiian society while developing a politic-
al system better suited to foreign, frequently American tastes. In 1840 Kauikeaouli pro-
mulgated Hawaiʻi's first constitution, which established a constitutional monarchy with
limited citizen representation. Given an inch, foreigners pressed for a mile, so
Kauikeaouli followed up with a series of revolutionary land reform acts beginning with
the Great Mahele ('Great Division') of 1848.
It was hoped the Great Mahele would create a nation of small freeholder farmers, but
instead it was a disaster - for Hawaiians, at least. Confusion reigned over boundaries and
surveys. Unused to the concept of private land and sometimes unable to pay the neces-
sary tax, many Hawaiians simply failed to follow through on the paperwork to claim
titles to the land they had lived on for generations. Many of those who did - perhaps feel-
ing that a taro farmer's life wasn't quite the attraction it once was - immediately cashed
out, selling their land to eager and acquisitive foreigners.
Many missionaries ended up with sizable tracts of land, and more than a few left the
church to devote themselves to their new estates. Within 30 to 40 years, despite supposed
limits, foreigners owned fully three-quarters of the kingdom, and Hawaiians - who had
already relinquished so much of their traditional culture so quickly during the 19th cen-
tury - lost their sacred connection to the land. As historian Gavan Daws wrote in
Shoal
of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands
, 'So the great division became the great dis-
possession.'
