Hawaii - Jeff Campbell [14]
However, when Cook set sail some weeks later, he encountered storms that damaged his ships and forced him to return. Suddenly, the mood had changed: no canoes rowed out to meet them, and mistrust replaced welcome. A series of small conflicts escalated into an angry confrontation on the beach, and Cook, in an ill-advised fit of pique, shot and killed a Hawaiian while surrounded by thousands of natives. The Hawaiians immediately descended on Cook, killing him in return.
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KAMEHAMEHA THE GREAT
In the years following Cook’s death, a small, steady number of trading ships sought out Hawaii as a mid-Pacific supply point, and increasingly the main item Hawaiian chiefs traded for was firearms. Bolstered with muskets and cannons, Kamehameha, one of the chiefs on the island of Hawai’i, began a tremendous military campaign in 1790 to conquer all the Hawaiian Islands. Other chiefs had tried this and failed, but Kamehameha not only had guns, he was prophesied to succeed and possessed an unyielding, charismatic determination. Within five bloody years he conquered all the main islands but Kaua’i (which eventually joined peacefully); for more, Click here.
Kamehameha was a singular figure whose reign established the most peaceful era in Hawaiian history. A shrewd politician, he configured multi-island governance to mute competition among the ali’i. A savvy businessman, he created a highly profitable monopoly on the sandalwood trade in 1810 while protecting trees from overharvest. He personally worked taro patches as an example to his people, and his most famous decree – Ka Mamalahoe Kanawi – established a kapu that protected innocent travelers from harm on the road.
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Of Hawaii’s eight ruling monarchs, only King Kamehameha I begot children who inherited the throne.
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Most of all, Kamehameha successfully absorbed growing foreign influences while fastidiously honoring ancient religious customs. He did this despite creeping doubts among his people about a divine social hierarchy and system of punishment that seemed oddly limited to Hawaiians. When Kamehameha died in 1819, he left the question of how to resolve this discrepancy in the hands of his son and heir, 22-year-old Liholiho.
Within the year, pressured by his stepmother Queen Ka’ahumanu and other powerful leaders, Liholiho deliberately broke the kapu and willingly abandoned Hawaii’s gods in one sweeping, stunning act of repudiation (see the boxed text, Click here). Suddenly and unexpectedly unmoored from its spiritual anchor, Hawaiian society immediately drifted into confusion.
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MISSIONARIES & WHALERS
Into the midst of this upheaval, on April 19, 1820, the brig Thaddeus landed in Kailua on the Big Island, delivering a group of New England missionaries at a fateful moment. The missionaries’ Christian zeal to save pagan souls was, however, matched by a deep disdain of Hawaiians themselves and of nearly every aspect of their traditional culture, which they soon worked tirelessly to stamp out.
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In 1839, New England missionaries needed five months to sail to Hawaii, and later steamships took five weeks. Today, airplanes can cross the continent and the ocean nonstop in half a day.
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The missionaries arrived expecting the worst, and that’s what they found: public nakedness, ‘lewd’ hula dancing, polygamy, gambling, drunkenness, fornication with sailors. To them, all kahuna were witch doctors, and Hawaiians hopelessly lazy. Converts to Christianity came, since the missionaries’ god was clearly powerful, but these conversions were not deeply felt; Hawaiians often abandoned the church’s teachings to enjoy their typical lives. However, the missionaries found one thing that attracted avid, widespread interest: literacy.
The missionaries established an alphabet for the Hawaiian language, and with this tool, Hawaiians learned to read with astonishing speed. In their oral culture, Hawaiians