Hawaiian Monarchy Persuasive Essay
Thought the entire Hawaiian monarchy there were 8 monarchs that ruled Hawaii. There are numerous reasons to argue on how the monarchy was overthrown. Kauikeaouli, also known as Kamehameha the Third was the first Hawaiian monarch to allow any sort of land ownership in Hawaii. This was a completely new idea to the Hawaiians. He also started a group of land commissioners to record and document the land claims from foreigners and Hawaiians. The last thing with land ownership that Kamehameha the third did was start the Kuleana act. This made it very difficult for Hawaiians to legally own land. When Kamehameha the third began land ownership through land commissioners and the Kuleana act, it was a big cause leading to the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.
The concept of owning land was a completely new idea for the Hawaiian people. This "land ownership" idea was a major demand from foreigners. To the Hawaiian people, land belonged to the gods. People were not meant to own land, just care for it. Foreigners were very frustrated with the fact that they needed permission from the king to build a house, church, etc… Even then it could be revoked and the house or church would be ripped to the ground. Some of these foreigners acted as they did own the land that they lived on and expected their home governments to back them up. On November 16th, 1836 British war ships came to Hawaii with a treaty attempting to solve the land disagreements.
In 1845 a group of land commissioners was appointed by none other than Kamehameha the third himself. Their jobs were to determine the land rights and claims for Hawaiians and foreigners. This group decided that there were three groups of people who had rights to own land. The three were the government, the landlords (konohiki), and the tenants (maka'ainana). The group of people who pushed for land ownership was foreign businessmen, missionaries, and traders. The American missionaries tried to