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Researchers estimated the first settlement of the Hawaiian islands occurred between 300 and 800 CE by Polynesian long-distance navigators from the Samoan Islands and the Marquesas Islands. Upon their arrival, the settlers grew kalo (taro), maiʻa (banana), niu (coconut), ulu (breadfruit), and raised puaʻa (pork), moa (chicken), and ʻīlio (poi dog), although these meats were eaten less often than fruits, vegetables, and seafood. In addition to the foods they brought, the settlers also acquired ʻuala (sweet potato), which began to be cultivated across Polynesia around the year 1000 or earlier, with the earliest evidence of cultivation in Hawaii around 1300AD.
The new settlers built hale (homes) and heiau (temples). Archaeologists currently believe that the first settlements were on the southern end of the Big Island of Hawaii and that they quickly extended northwards, along the seacoasts and the easily accessible river valleys. As the population increased, settlements were made further inland. With the islands being so small, the population was very dense. Before European contact, the population had reached somewhere in the range of 200,000 to 1,000,000 people. After contact with the Europeans, however, the population steeply dropped due to various diseases including smallpox.
A traditional town of ancient Hawaii included several structures.
Ancient Hawaiʻi was a caste society developed from Polynesians. The main classes were:
Hawaiian youth learned life skills and religion at home, often with grandparents. For "bright" children a system of apprenticeship existed in which very young students would begin learning a craft or profession by assisting an expert, or kahuna. As spiritual powers were perceived by Hawaiians to imbue all of nature, experts in many fields of work were known as kahuna, a term commonly understood to mean priest. The various types of kahuna passed on knowledge of their profession, be it in "genealogies, or mele, or herb medicine, or canoe building, or land boundaries", etc. by involving and instructing apprentices in their work. More formal schools existed for the study of hula, and likely for the study of higher levels of sacred knowledge. The kahuna took the apprentice into his household as a member of the family, although often "the tutor was a relative". During a religious "graduation" ceremony, "the teacher consecrated the pupil, who thereafter was one with the teacher in a psychic relationship as definite and obligatory as blood relationship". Like the children learning from their grandparents, children who were apprentices learned by watching and participating in daily life. Children were discouraged from asking questions in traditional Hawaiian culture.
The original rulers of the Hawaiian islands (noho aliʻi o ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻAina) were a line of native Hawaiians who were independent monarchs of various subdivisions of the land and islands of Hawaii. The caste system of ancient Hawaiian society was established around 1200 AD and separated the people into 4 distinct ranks that were all below the supreme ruler (ali‘i nui) of the island. The ali‘i nui would distribute the land to the lower ranking chiefs who would run the land and collect offerings and taxes. The ali‘i nui would also ultimately be responsible for the sacred kapu, a system of rules designed to control social order.
The House of Kamehameha (Hale O Kamehameha), or the Kamehameha dynasty, was the reigning Royal Family of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, beginning with its founding by Kamehameha I in 1795 and ending with the death of Kamehameha V in 1872 and Lunalilo in 1874. The kingdom would continue for another 21 years until its overthrow in 1893 with the fall of the House of Kalakaua. The origins of the House of Kamehameha stems from the progenitor, Keōua Kalanikupuapa`ikalaninui who was the sacred father of Kamehameha I and by the royal court of his brother Kalaniʻōpuʻu[3] who later became king and gave his war god Kuka'ilimoku to Kamehameha I and he became the king by conquest, uniting all the Hawaiian islands into one kingdom under his undivided rule. After Kalaniʻōpuʻu's death, Kīwalaʻō would take his father's place as first born and rule the island while Kamehameha would have religious authority. A number of chiefs supported Kamehameha and war soon broke out to overthrow Kīwalaʻō. After a number of battles the king was killed and envoys sent for the last two brothers to meet with Kamehameha. Keōua and Kaōleiokū arrived in separate canoes. Keōua came to shore first where a fight broke out and he and all aboard were killed. Before the same could happen to the second canoe, Kamehameha intervened. By 1795, Kamehameha would conquer all but one of the islands Kaua'i. By 1796 King Kamehameha conquered Kaua’i thus unifying all Hawaiian islands.
After Kamehameha I's death, his first born son Liholiho left Kailua for a week and returned to be crowned king. At the lavish ceremony attended by commoners and nobles of the kingdom he approached the circle of chiefs, as Kaʻahumanu, the central figure in the group and Dowager Queen, spoke: "Hear me O Divine one, for I make known to you the will of your father. Behold these chiefs and the men of your father, and these your guns, and this your land, but you and I shall share the realm together" Liholiho agreed officially, which began a unique system of dual-government consisting of a King and co-ruler similar to a co-regent. The new Kamehameha II would share his rule with his stepmother, Kaʻahumanu. She would defy Hawaiian kapu by dining with the young king, violating the law separating genders during meals and leading to the destruction of the old Hawaiian religion. Kamehameha II died, along with his wife, Queen Kamāmalu in 1824 on a state visit to England where they succumbed to measles. He was King for only 5 years. When Kamehameha II and his queen died in England, the remains of the couple were returned to Hawaii by Boki. On board the ship, "The Blond" his wife Liliha and Kekūanāoʻa would be baptized as Christians. Kaʻahumanu would also convert and become a heavy Christian influence on Hawaiian society until her death in 1832. Since the new king was only 12 years old, Kaʻahumanu was now senior ruler and named Boki as her Kuhina Nui. Boki would leave Hawaii on a fatal trip to find sandlewood to cover a debt and would be lost at sea. His wife, Liliha would be left the governorship of Maui and would unsuccessfully attempt to whip up revolt against Kaʻahumanu, who, upon Boki's departure, had installed Kīnaʻu as a co-governor.
With the death of the Kuhina Nui, the young king demanded to come into the possession of his full inheritance. He immediately rebelled against the Christian church and suspended all laws except murder and theft, which was a common tradition after the death of a chief. Distilleries were re-opened and the ban of alcohol lifted as was the ban on Hula. For his co-ruler, Kamehameha chose his aikāne (same sex partner), Kaomi. a young, half Tahitian man who had helped to heal the king and had been in a close relationship for years. The church was outraged. Kaomi was granted true authority which he yielded. Eventually Kamehameha III, under pressure from the church, would remove the young man and would name Liliha to be the next Kuhina Nui. In November 1833, Hoapili (Liliha's father), Kekūanāoʻa, Kanaina and Kīnaʻu, along with armed royal attendants, including Kilinahe, went to the king's home to persuade him not to pick Liliha as Kuhina Nui. Hoapili begged the king to kill him if he should choose his daughter so the people would not blame him for her elevation. They pleaded with the king to choose Kinau as a true daughter of the House of Kamehameha. The King agreed and when he sent for Liliha to tell her the news, she was found drunk at home. Kīnaʻu would be succeeded by Kekāuluohi as Kuhina Nui, acting for the true heir to the position, Victoria Kamāmalu, Kīnaʻu's infant daughter. Kekāuluohi would be styled as Kaʻahumanu III. After Kekāuluohi died in 1845, the next Kuhina Nui would be Keoni Ana, the son of John Young, one of Kamehameha I's important foreign advisors. Kauikeaouli named an heir, his nephew, Alexander ʻIolani Liholiho who took the throne styled as Kamehameha IV in 1855. The third Kamehameha instituted the Great Mahele, which gave up millions of acres of land passed from his brother, who inherited it from Kamehameha I, leaving all to him as the ruler of the kingdom. Kamehameha III had illegitimate twin sons by Jane Lahilahi named Kīwalaʻō (died young) and Albert Kūnuiākea (1851–1903).
Alexander ʻIolani Liholiho was the nephew of Kamehameha II and grandson of Kamehameha I. He reigned as Kamehameha IV. Along with his wife Queen Emma, Kamehameha IV would establish the Queen's Medical Center. He was the son of Kīnaʻu, daughter of Kamehameha I and Kekūanāoʻa, a high ranking warrior chief from the conquest of the islands who became Governor of Oahu. He ascended the throne at the age of 21. He was a tall man often described as handsome. His wife was, Emma Naea Rooke, granddaughter of John Young. The couple had one child, a son named Albert Edward Kauikeaouli who died at the age of 4 years old leaving the throne to pass to his uncle.
Lot Kapuāiwa became king in 1863 styled as Kamehameha V. Lot was a bachelor up to his death in 1872 bringing to an end the Kamehameha Dynasty.However, Lot had an illegitimate daughter Keanolani by his classmate Abigail Maheha at the Chiefs' Children's School. On his deathbed, before his passing, he offered the throne to Elizabeth Keka'aniau and Bernice Pauahi Bishop but they both refused it. Finally, Kamehameha V stated: "The throne belongs to Lunalilo; I will not appoint him, because I consider him unworthy of the position. The constitution, in case I make no nomination, provides for the election of the next King; let it be so." He would die the following morning. This enabled an election from the original stock of ali'i who were groomed for the position to rule by royal decree of King Kamehameha III. The Princes and Chiefs of rank, eligible to be rulers who were groomed at the original Chiefs' Children's School.
William Charles Lunalilo was the highest chief in the Hawaiian Kingdom of his time. He became the first elected monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom and would be the last of the Kamehameha dynasty. Lunalilo was the son of Charles Kanaʻina and Miriam Auhea Kekauluohi, a niece of Kamehameha I through her father Kalaimamahu, Kamehameha I's half-brother. However, she was a formal member of the House of Kamehameha as a wife of the founding monarch in his last years. Lunalilo was also a member of the House of Keōua and the House of Moana. His mother was taken by Kamehameha, after her birth and given to Kaʻahumanu because she could not conceive. Kekauluohi was a punalua child, having dual parentage. Lunalilo was the last Kamehameha monarch.
An expedition led by British explorer James Cook is usually considered to be the first group of Europeans to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands, which they did in 1778. However, Spanish historians and some other researchers state that the Spanish captain Ruy López de Villalobos was the first European to see the islands in 1542. The Spanish named these islands "Isla de Mesa, de los Monjes y Desgraciada" being on the route linking the Philippines with Mexico across the Pacific Ocean, between the ports of Acapulco and Manila, which were both part of New Spain.
Sugar became a major export from Hawaii soon after Cook's arrival. The first permanent plantation began in Kauai in 1835. William Hooper leased 980 acres of land from Kamehameha III and began growing sugarcane. Within thirty years plantations operated on the four main islands. Sugar completely altered Hawaii's economy. American influence in Hawaiian government began with U.S. plantation owners demanding a say in Kingdom politics. This was driven by missionary religion and sugar economics. Pressure from these plantation owners was felt by the King and chiefs as demands for land tenure. After the brief 1843 takeover by the British, Kamehameha III responded to the demands with the Great Mahele, distributing the lands to all Hawaiians as advocated by missionaries including Gerrit P. Judd. Kamehameha III also tried to modernize Hawaii's legal system by replacing indigenous traditions with Anglo-American common law. During the 1850s, the U.S. import tariff on sugar from Hawaii was much higher than the import tariffs Hawaiians were charging the U.S., and Kamehameha III sought reciprocity.[104] The monarch wished to lower U.S. tariffs and make Hawaiian sugar competitive with other foreign suppliers. In 1854 Kamehameha III proposed a policy of reciprocity between the countries, but the proposal died in the U.S. Senate. U.S. control of Hawaii was considered vital for the defense of its west coast. The military was especially interested in Pu'uloa, Pearl Harbor. The sale of one harbor was proposed by Charles Reed Bishop, a foreigner who had married into the Kamehameha family, had risen to be Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs and owned a country home near Pu'uloa. He showed two U.S. officers around the lochs, although his wife, Bernice Pauahi Bishop, privately disapproved of selling Hawaiian lands. As monarch, William Charles Lunalilo, was content to let Bishop run most business affairs, but the ceding of lands became unpopular with Hawaiians. Many islanders thought that all the islands, rather than just Pearl Harbor, might be lost and opposed any cession. By November 1873, Lunalilo canceled negotiations but his health declined swiftly, and he died on February 3, 1874, at age of 39.
Lunalilo left no heirs. The legislature was empowered by the constitution to elect the monarch in these instances. The legislature decided to hold a public referendum and to choose who the public voted for. Queen Emma and David Kalākaua both declared their candidacy. Kalākaua won the election. However, Queen Emma and her supporters were not satisfied. While the legislature was formally voting to certify Kalākaua as King pursuant to the public referendum, Queen Emma's supporters descended on the capitol and attacked the legislators. 13 legislators supporting Kalākaua were injured, including one who died after being tossed from a window. The monarchy had no army and the police deserted, thus the Hawaiian government requested the support of American troops to quell the riot. The legislature then duly elected Kalākaua as Lunalilo's successor. The new ruler was pressured by the U.S. government to surrender Pearl Harbor to the Navy. Kalākaua was concerned that this would lead to annexation by the U.S. and to violating the traditions of the Hawaiian people, who believed that the land ('Āina) was fertile, sacred and not for sale. From 1874 through 1875, Kalākaua made a state visit to Washington DC to gather support for a new treaty. Congress agreed to the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 for seven years in exchange for Ford Island (Pearl Harbor). After the treaty, sugar production expanded from 12,000 acres to 125,000 acres in 1891. At the end of the seven-year term, the United States showed little interest in renewal.
On January 20, 1887, the United States began leasing Pearl Harbor. Shortly afterwards, a group of mostly non-Hawaiians calling themselves the Hawaiian Patriotic League began the Rebellion of 1887. They drafted their own constitution on July 6, 1887. The new constitution was written by Lorrin Thurston, the Hawaiian Minister of the Interior who used the Hawaiian militia to threaten Kalākaua. Kalākaua was forced to dismiss his cabinet ministers and sign a new constitution that greatly lessened his power. It would become known as the "Bayonet Constitution" due to the threat of force. Lorrin Thurston, Minister of the Interior (Hawaii) Grover Cleveland was president at the time, and his secretary of state Thomas F. Bayard sent written instructions to the American minister George W. Merrill that in the event of another revolution in Hawaii, it was a priority to protect American commerce, lives and property. Bayard specified, "the assistance of the officers of our Government vessels, if found necessary, will therefore be promptly afforded to promote the reign of law and respect for orderly government in Hawaii." In July 1889, there was a small scale rebellion, and Minister Merrill landed Marines to protect Americans; the State Department explicitly approved his action. Merrill's replacement, minister John L. Stevens, read those official instructions, and followed them in his controversial actions of 1893. Although Kalākaua's signature alone had no legal power, the new constitution allowed the monarch to appoint cabinet ministers, but stripped him of the power to dismiss them without approval from the Legislature. Eligibility to vote for the House of Nobles was altered, requiring that both candidates and voters own property valued three thousand dollars or more, or have an annual income of six hundred dollars or more. This disenfranchised two thirds of native Hawaiians and other ethnic groups who had previously been eligible to vote. This constitution benefited the foreign plantation owners. With the legislature now responsible for naturalizing aliens, Americans and Europeans could retain their home country citizenship and vote as citizens of the kingdom. Along with voting privileges, Americans could hold office and still retain their American citizenship, something not afforded in any other nation and even allowed Americans to vote without becoming naturalized. Asian immigrants were no longer able to acquire citizenship or vote.
The Wilcox Rebellion of 1888 was a plot to overthrow King David Kalākaua and replace him with his sister in a coup d'état. This was in response to increased political tension between the legislature and the king under the 1887 constitution. Kalākaua's sister, Princess Liliʻuokalani and wife, Queen Kapiolani returned from Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee immediately after news reached them in Great Britain. Kalākaua's distant cousin, a native Hawaiian officer and veteran of the Italian military, Robert William Wilcox returned to Hawaii at about the same time as Liliʻuokalani in October 1887 when the funding for his study program stopped. Wilcox, Charles B. Wilson, Princess Liliʻuokalani, and Sam Nowlein plotted to overthrow King Kalākaua and replace him with Liliʻuokalani. 300 Hawaiian conspirators hid in Iolani Barracks and an alliance was formed with the Royal Guard, but the plot was accidentally discovered in January 1888, less than 48 hours before the revolt. No one was prosecuted, but Wilcox was exiled. On February 11, 1888, Wilcox left Hawaii for San Francisco, intending to return to Italy with his wife. Princess Liliʻuokalani was offered the throne several times by the Missionary Party who had forced the Bayonet Constitution on her brother, but she believed she would become a powerless figurehead like her brother and rejected the offers. In January 1891, Kalākaua traveled to San Francisco for his health, staying at the Palace Hotel. He died there on January 20. She then ascended the throne. Queen Liliʻuokalani called her brother's reign "a golden age materially for Hawaii".
Liliʻuokalani assumed the throne in the middle of an economic crisis. The McKinley Act had crippled the Hawaiian sugar industry by removing the duties on sugar imports from other countries into the US, eliminating the previous Hawaiian advantage due to the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875. Many Hawaii businesses and citizens lost revenue; in response Liliʻuokalani proposed a lottery system to raise money for her government. Controversially, opium licensing was proposed. Her ministers and closest friends were all opposed to this plan; they unsuccessfully tried to dissuade her from pursuing these initiatives, both of which came to be used against her in the brewing constitutional crisis. Liliʻuokalani's chief desire was to restore power to the monarch by abrogating the 1887 Bayonet Constitution and promulgating a new one. The 1893 Constitution would have extended suffrage by reducing some property requirements. It would have disenfranchised many non-citizen Europeans and Americans. The Queen toured several islands on horseback, talking to the people about her ideas and receiving overwhelming support, including a lengthy petition in support of a new constitution. However, when the Queen informed her cabinet of her plans, they withheld their support, uncomfortable with what they expected her opponent's likely response to be. Liliʻuokalani's attempt to promulgate a new constitution on January 14, 1893, was the precipitating event leading to the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii three days later. The conspirators' stated goals were to depose the queen, overthrow the monarchy, and seek Hawaii's annexation to the U.S. The conspirators were five American, one English and one German national.
The overthrow was led by Thurston, who was the grandson of American missionaries and derived his support primarily from the American and European business class and other supporters of the Reform Party of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Most of the leaders of the Committee of Safety that deposed the queen were American and European citizens who were Kingdom subjects. They included legislators, government officers and a Supreme Court Justice of the Hawaiian Kingdom. On January 16, the Marshal of the Kingdom, Charles B. Wilson was tipped off by detectives of the planned coup. Wilson requested warrants to arrest the 13 Council members and put the Kingdom under martial law. Because the members had strong political ties with U.S. Government Minister John L. Stevens, the requests were repeatedly denied by Attorney General Arthur P. Peterson and the Queen's cabinet, fearing if approved, the arrests would escalate the situation. After a failed negotiation with Thurston, Wilson began to collect his men for the confrontation. Wilson and Captain of the Royal Household Guard Samuel Nowlein rallied a force of 496 men who were kept at hand to protect the Queen. The overthrow began on January 17, 1893. A policeman was shot and wounded while trying to stop a wagon carrying weapons to the Honolulu Rifles, the paramilitary wing of the Committee of Safety. The Committee feared the shooting would bring government forces to rout the conspirators and stop the coup before it could begin. The Committee of Safety initiated the overthrow by organizing the Honolulu Rifles made of about 1,500 armed local (non-native) men. The Rifles garrisoned Ali'iolani Hale across the street from ʻIolani Palace and waited for the Queen's response. John L. Stevens, an American diplomat, conspired to overthrow the Kingdom of Hawaii
As these events were unfolding, the Committee of Safety expressed concern for the safety and property of American residents in Honolulu.
The coup efforts were supported by U.S. Government Minister John L. Stevens. The coup left the queen under house arrest at Iolani Palace. The Kingdom briefly became the Republic of Hawaii, before annexation by the United States in 1898. Advised about supposed threats to non-combatant American lives and property by the Committee of Safety, Stevens summoned a company of uniformed U.S. Marines from the USS Boston and two companies of U.S. sailors to take up positions at the U.S. Legation, Consulate and Arion Hall on the afternoon of January 16, 1893. 162 armed sailors and Marines aboard the USS Boston in Honolulu Harbor came ashore under orders of neutrality. The sailors and Marines did not enter the Palace grounds or take over any buildings, and never fired a shot, but their presence intimidated royalist defenders. Historian William Russ states, "the injunction to prevent fighting of any kind made it impossible for the monarchy to protect itself."
In March 1897, William McKinley, a Republican expansionist, succeeded Democrat Grover Cleveland as U.S. President. He prepared a treaty of annexation but it lacked the needed 2/3 majority in the Senate given Democratic opposition. A joint resolution, written by Democratic Congressman Francis G. Newlands to annex Hawaii passed both the House and Senate; it needed only majority support. The U.S. Supreme Court gave tacit recognition to the legitimacy of this annexation in De Lima v. Bidwell, . The Spanish–American War had broken out and many leaders wanted control of Pearl Harbor to help the United States to become a Pacific power and protect the West Coast. In 1897 Japan sent warships to Hawaii to oppose annexation. The possibility of invasion and annexation by Japan made the decision even more urgent, especially since the islands' fourth population was Japanese who were largely sympathetic to their country's goal in doing so.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Hawaii#United_States_territory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rulers_of_the_Hawaiian_Islands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Hawaii
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Kamehameha#Cook's_arrival_and_death
https://www.ushistory.org/us/44b.asp