A Brief History of Maui

The Early Days

The 1800's

History 1900's

Kaho’olawe

The 1800's

Kamehameha I moved his royal court to Lahaina. In 1803 he built the “Brick Palace”. Among his 21 wives were Ka’ahumanu, his favorite, born in a cave near Hana, and Keopuolani who fathered 11 of the King’s children, two of whom later became Hawaiian monarchs. After Kamehameha I died (1819, also the first year that a whaling ship arrived in Lahaina), Ka’ahumanu proclaimed Liholiho (Kamehameha II, 1819-1824) his successor and they jointly ruled the kingdom.

Ka’ahumanu persuaded Liholiho to abolish the kapu system and destroy the kingdom’s temples and sacred images. A few weeks later, Protestant missionaries left Boston bound for Hawai’i, 18,000 miles and six months away by sea, to save the natives’ souls. The missionaries would not have turned up in Hawaii if not for the arrival in Boston of a young Hawaiian who became a Christian convert and revealed the homeland of his “heathen” brethren. By the time that the missionaries arrived in Lahaina, in 1823, the whalers in Lahaina already were notorious. Along with the export of sandalwood, whaling had become the island’s most important economic activity and Lahaina was the only port other than Honolulu suitable for whaling ships.

Queen Regent Ka’ahumanu was unsympathetic to the newly arrived missionaries until she fell very ill and was nursed back to health by the minister’s wife. Ka’ahumanu’s conversion to Christianity spurred many chiefs and commoners to follow her lead and covert, and then learn to read and write in Hawaiian. Lahainaluna High School sitting above Lahaina was founded by missionaries in 1831 to educate the native population.

The missionaries’ successful (at least for 12 years) crusade against whaler debauchery circuitously led to a declaration of rights for Hawaiians in 1839, a constitution in 1842, and subsequent recognition by the U.S. and European nations of Hawaii’s independence. Kamehameha III officially declared Hawaii’s first constitution (1840) from his capital in Lahaina. Catholic and Mormon missionaries soon followed the Protestants and converted far more Hawaiians to their ranks as evidenced by their churches dotting Maui. As Liholiho’s reign weakened, he and his Queen Kamamalu sailed for England to seek the advice of King George IV. Misfortune struck and Liholiho contracted measles and died.

Ka’ahumanu remained Queen Regent as Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III (1825-1854), became king at the age of nine. Despite Rev. Hiram Bingham’s best efforts, Kauikeaouli not only remained pro-Hawaiian but also courageously issued an edict (the Great Mahele or Division) in 1848 dividing all Hawaiian land ownership among the monarchy, government and the commoners (maka’aina) of Hawaii.

The first legal basis for private land ownership in Hawaii had noble intentions but counterproductive results. As whaling declined and died out in the 1850s, landowners, including missionaries and their offspring, were now able to buy up huge acreages and establish sugar plantations. Within 40 years foreigners had bought up as much as two-thirds of all the land in Hawaii, much of it from unsophisticated Hawaiian landowners who received land under the Great Divide.

After the death of Kamehameha III, Alexander Liholiho, grandson of Kamehameha I, became Kamehameha IV (1854-1863) and Emma became his queen. A brief, tragic reign brought Alexander’s older brother, Lot (Kamehameha V, 1863-72), to the throne as the last of Kamehameha’s lineage. Lot rejected the constitution of 1852 and proposed a new one that would substantially strengthen the monarchy.

After Lot’s death without marriage or an heir, “Whisky Bill” Lunalilo was elected monarch but died after 13 months in office. During his reign, the U.S. government acquired a lease to Pearl Harbor in return for duty-free access for Hawaii to the U.S. sugar market. For Hawaii the so-called Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 was a double-edged sword: Hawaiian sugar gained a more favorable position in U.S. markets, and American business gained supremacy in Hawaii.

During the preceding decades local sugar plantation owners imported indentured laborers from China, Japan, Portugal, the Philippines and Korea, guaranteeing Maui’s ethnic diversity. Maui’s first sugar cane plantation opened in Hana in 1851. The Pioneer Sugar Mill was built in Lahaina in 1862. Construction of the Hamakua Ditch began in the late 1870s to bring irrigation water to the sugarcane fields of Henry Baldwin and Samuel Alexander. When the supply of sugar cane from the U.S. was cut off in the 1860s by the Civil War, sugar production on Maui boomed. The treaty with the U.S. that allowed the importation of Hawaiian sugar without tariffs became an invitation for people like Californian Claus Spreckels to wheel and deal their way into ownership of valuable water rights and a vast sugar growing empire.

David Kalakaua (1874-1891), who defeated Queen Emma for the throne, revived Hawaiian heritage, brought back hula that had been banned, spent money lavishly to build the opulent ‘Iolani Palace in Honolulu, and generally provoked resentment among American and British landowners and merchants. Using his musical talent, Kalakaua composed “Hawai’i Pono’i,” the state anthem. Under the threat of mass disturbances, “The Merrie Monarch” was forced to accept what became known as the “Bayonet Constitution” (1887) stripping the monarchy of political power and transferring it to a cabinet dominated by Americans.

Kalakaua’s sister, Lydia Lili’uokalani (1891-1893), became queen after he died on a trip to San Francisco. Also musically talented, Lili’uokalani wrote over 160 melodies and chants, including one of the four Hawaiian anthems (see http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/hawaii/legacy.htm). More important for Hawaii, Lili’uokalani rejected the constitution forced on Hawaii and she wrote a new one that gave only native Hawaiians the vote. Three times she attempted to appoint members of the National Reform Party, which supported the Queen, to the Cabinet and was defeated each time.

A committee of haole plantation owners, the Annexationist Club, decided to form a Committee of Public Safety as part of a plan to overturn the monarchy, set up a provisional government and seek annexation by the U.S. While Lili’uokalani attempted to restore power to the throne and voting rights to Hawaiians, these American businessmen -- supported by the U.S. Government and Marines -- overthrew the monarchy. Queen Lili’uokalani abdicated in 1893. In 1894 Hawaii was proclaimed a republic and Sanford Dole was designated president. In 1895 Lili’uokalani was arrested and accused on trying to regain the throne.

Released the next year from confinement in ‘Iolani Palace, Lili’uokalani went to Washington to ask President Cleveland for help. President Cleveland, who knew that Hawaiians did not support the change in their government, sent a representative to investigate. The President’s representative, James Blount, confirmed that plantation owners overthrew the Queen’s government against the people’s will. In 1898, based on a joint resolution of Congress, President McKinley annexed Hawaii. Two years later Hawaii became a U.S. Territory. Queen Lili’uokalani lived for another 17 years.