HISTORY AND DEMOCRACY. Cont'd.

 

It was not too hard for the worldly missionaries to impress upon the simple native chiefs of Hawaii that a constitution would be an improvement for everyone, even though once this form of government was implemented, none of the chiefs had any experience operating such a government, and they gradually became totally reliant on the missionaries. Thus the missionaries soon ascended to Cabinet positions, giving them control over key segments of the native government. Soon the missionaries pushed through a series of complex new "reforms" that they claimed were "democratic," but which ultimately only benefited a small elite. The "reforms" allowed foreigners to buy native Hawaiian land from the chiefs and the government, and before long less than 1% of the land was in the possession of the native Hawaiian people. The Hawaiians had lived in large multi-generational tribal groupings, just like the native American indians, and they really had no conception for the private ownership of property. Private ownership was alien to them, and no one went to any great effort to instruct them in the ins and outs of the private property convention; instead, their ignorance was ruthlessly exploited, and their families were scattered. Of course, families not only provided functional services, they also provided the heart and soul of the native society, and once the tribal families were scattered, it caused cultural devastation as well as economic hardship. The remnants of these tribal groupings moved to the towns, where they had to sell themselves as menial laborers to the missionaries, who were enriched by this destruction of the native culture by the acquisition of the native lands. Now the missionaries became prosperous plantation aristocrats, with a permanent interest in the government of Hawaii.
 

Photo: Hula dancers featured on an early Hawaii postcard.

Ironically, it was the sugar business that ultimately led to the destruction of the native Hawaiian Kingdom. In 1874 an intensely nationalistic prince came to power as King Kalakaua, who was known by the title, The Merry Monarch. He brought back the Hula dance, and his intention was to limit the power of the missionaries over the government of the Kingdom. He was joined in this intention by his sister and heir, Lilioukalani. In 1876 he traveled to Washington DC to negotiate a treaty that opened up the U.S. market to Hawaiian sugar tax free. This enabled the sugar business to realize enormous profits, which would later become the dagger at the heart of the native culture. The booming sugar business started to suffer from a shortage of labor, which led to the importation of large numbers of Asians to do the work. The Asians soon outnumbered the native-born Hawaiians in their own country. The tactic of importing people, such as slaves, was repeated everywhere the Europeans set up colonies, because the white man recognized the importance of diluting the influence of the natives through numbers, "democratic" theories all relying on the idea of majority rule. The plantations, by 1885, were almost all in the hands of foreigners. Of course, they were the descendants of the first missionaries, so that they, themselves, now also had a kind of claim to being native born. Their plantations became the centers of European influence in Hawaii, importing the latest technology from the U.S. for the sugar production, so that soon Hawaii was the largest sugar producer in the world.

The article continues on the following pages.