History d'Hawaï

Landing near Ka Lae, south of the island of Hawai'i, between the years 500 and 700 AD, Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands were the first to discover and populate Hawai'i.

Arrival in Hawaii of a second wave of Polynesians from Tahiti. The Tahitians settle permanently and dominate the Marquesans. They imported their language, their traditions but also the foundations of the Hawaiian religion. Establishment of a feudal organization of the society dominated by the supreme chiefs who owned the land, followed by the nobles (the alii) who maintained relations with the divinities and finally the makaainana (commoners) who had neither rights nor property. The mele (traditional songs) allowed us to learn more.

Captain Cook, the first European to land on the archipelago, discovered Hawaii. He arrived there almost by chance, while searching for the northern passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic. Cook made a quick stop in Hawaii (in Waimea Bay, on the island of Kauai), naming the archipelago "Sandwich Islands" in honor of his friend, Lord Earl Sandwich, who had financed the expedition. During this short period of time, the crew members would have introduced invasive western plants and, above all, the first venereal diseases to the archipelago

Back from Alaska, Cook landed this time on the island of Hawai'i, on Kealakekua Bay. Cook and his men were very well received by the Hawaiians. And for good reason... They took Cook for the human incarnation of the god of the harvest Lono, because he disembarked at the precise moment when the natives were celebrating festivities in honor of this same god! They thus receive numerous offerings and trade with the Hawaiians. After two weeks of continuous festivities, they set off again but violent storms damaged their boats and forced them to turn back after a week. Fatal error! The Hawaiians realize that Cook is only a human being because a god could not have been worried by a simple storm. From then on, fights broke out and the Hawaiians tried to recover their offerings. The captain tried to negotiate, but in vain, and ended up being murdered with some of his men on February 14, 1779.

A noble warrior from Big Island named Kamehameha managed to unify the islands after subduing one by one all the warrior chiefs who dominated them. From then on, Kamehameha I ruled the kingdom for 9 years. During his reign, sandalwood was successfully exported to China and trade with the United States and Great Britain developed. Spanish explorers introduced pineapples to the archipelago.

The first whalers arrived in Kealakekua Bay, a very lucrative sale. However, thanks to this trade, more and more foreigners came to settle in Hawaii and gradually undermined the power of King Kamehameha I. When Kamehameha I died in 1819, his son Liholiho succeeded him and became Kamehameha II (1819-1824). However, according to historians, it was the king's wife who actually ruled. Named Kaahumanu, she had managed to convince the king to abandon the ancestral Hawaiian religion. This began with the abolition of thekapu(forbidden) system, which prohibited women and men from eating at the same table. Next, theheiau(temples) and idols were destroyed. Queen Kaahumanu thus became the first woman in the Hawaiian kingdom to exert real influence on power. But she herself was influenced by the early missionaries from Boston who came to Hawaii to convert the people. She was one of the first converts, the missionaries having persuaded her that the religion of her ancestors was only barbaric.

The king and his wife made their first...and last official trip to England. As with all native Hawaiians, their immunity to Western diseases was very low; both contracted measles, but only the king died. Kamehameha I's third son, Kauikeaouli, just 9 years old, ascended the throne and became Kamehameha III (1824-1854). The young king was placed under the regency of Kaahumanu and remained so until her death in 1832. Educated by the Protestant missionaries, the king did not really know which way to turn: he found himself torn between the interests of his people and those of the colonists (among others, the same missionaries who influenced him so much).

The king established the first Hawaiian constitution, which set up a parliament, allowed religious freedom and gave the right to vote to all men living in Hawaii, including settlers

The king passed the "Great Mahele" (the Great Division) treaty on property ownership, which put an end to the unjust feudal property system that favored thealii(nobles) at the expense of the makaaina(commoners). Kamehameha III thus laid the first legal foundation for private property ownership, which was now open to everyone, including settlers and investors. Settlers and investors bought almost all the land in the islands, leaving the native Hawaiians with only 0.9 percent of the land. If native Hawaiians did not rush to buy land, it is because ownership was not a concept that was really implanted in their culture... For them, the land belonged to everyone! An idealistic vision at the antipodes of that of the businessmen of the time, who, thanks to these newly acquired lands, were going to become a full economic and political power in Hawaii. With this new land, the settlers developed sugar and pineapple plantations at a time when the whaling industry was running out of steam. However, at the time of this industrial boom, the factories were sorely lacking in manpower. This is why, in 1850, a law was passed allowing the hiring of foreign workers. These workers came from China, Japan, the Philippines and even Portugal (the only European country from which workers emigrated to Hawaii). The current diversity of the Hawaiian population is a direct result of this immigration.

The Dole Company, named after its owner James D. Dole, became the largest pineapple producer in the world! Initiated in 1901 on Oahu and expanded to the island of Lanai in 1922, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company was exported all over the world.

David Kalakaua (1836-1891) became king. His reign was marked by the rehabilitation of Hawaiian traditions to which he was attached, but also by his taste for luxury, as shown by his dissolute life and his frequentation of foreign industrialists. He reintroduced Hawaiian culture through two fundamental acts: he reintroduced the hula (which had been forbidden by the missionaries) and wrote the lyrics of the Hawaiian national anthem Hawaii Ponoi.

As soon as he came to power, he went to the United States; he was the first king of Hawaii to make such a trip. He signed a reciprocity treaty with the American president in Washington in 1875: in exchange for the cession of Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian sugar was tax-free on the US market, which considerably increased the income of the planters and accentuated the boom of the sugar industry. At the same time, some American products were sold tax-free in Hawaii. Through this treaty, the Americans saw their commercial supremacy reinforced on the Hawaiian market, both outside and inside the archipelago (many American industrialists invested in Hawaiian sugar).

Under pressure from the Hawaiian Landowners League, the king signed the Bayonet Constitution, which limited the right to vote to landowners and once again discriminated against Hawaiians, who had only 0.9 percent of the land remaining, and immigrant workers who did not own land. Unsuccessful attempt at revolt by natives.

It was Liliuokalani (1838-1917), sister of David Kalakaua, who became queen in 1889. In 1893, she was determined to have a new constitution voted, less favorable to foreigners and more equitable for native Hawaiians. But, very quickly, a committee of public salvation was formed by Americans living in Hawaii and on the continent, to oppose the queen's projects. They overthrew her in 1893 and the Hawaiian monarchy was abolished. A provisional government made up of American settlers took the reins of power. At its head was Sanford Dole, one of the ancestors of the Dole dynasty. All the Western powers, except England, recognized this new government. The next day, a commission requested the annexation of the archipelago to the United States and martial law was voted. However, the American president Cleveland, begged by Princess Kaiulani (heir to the throne), refused the annexation.

1894 > The Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed with Sanford Dole as president. A revolt broke out, seeking to return power to Queen Liliuokalani, but the repression was bloody and the Queen, accused of complicity, was arrested and put under house arrest for 5 years.

1898 > Official annexation of Hawaii by the United States under the presidency of William McKinley, Cleveland's successor.

Hawaii became an American territory and Sanford became its governor. The Hawaiians quietly boycotted the ceremony. Shortly after the annexation, the Americans undertook major work on the base of Pearl Harbor, which would become, over the following decades, the largest military base on the planet. The First World War, in which the United States entered late (1917), went almost unnoticed in Hawaii..

Creation of the "Hawaiian Home Lands", concessions leased to Hawaiians in order to redistribute land to them. But, once again, the system proved unfair to the locals. This was also the time when a few American millionaires came to Hawaii for tourism. But this is only the beginning!

7 December 1941 > Attack of Pearl Harbour by Japan. Taken by surprise, the United States suffered heavy losses before declaring war on Japan.

1942-1945 > Battle of Midway won by the United States. Hawaii became a strategic military base of primary importance for the Americans in the Pacific. Many Hawaiians served the United States during the war. For example, many Hawaiians of Japanese descent served as interpreters for American soldiers during the capture of Japanese enemies. Many Hawaiians also fought valiantly on the front lines in Europe. With the German surrender on May 8, 1945, and the Japanese surrender on September¹, the fighting stopped in the Pacific.

Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States. The question of Hawaii's entry into the American Union had in fact been raised since the end of the monarchy in the U.S. Congress, where there were passionate debates on the subject. The strategic role of Hawaii during the Second World War encouraged the Americans to make it a state in its own right, but they feared the community conflicts that were stirring up the archipelago and found it too far away geographically from the American continent. Finally, on August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state.

First tourism boom in the archipelago. With the end of World War II and the development of air traffic, real estate developers invested more and more in the tourism industry in Hawaii. From the 1950s on, Americans began to travel there en masse and, from then on, their enthusiasm for the archipelago grew. Among them, a certain Elvis Presley, who fell in love with Hawaii, contributed considerably to the popularization of this paradisiacal destination by giving numerous concerts and by shooting several films there.

Birth and strengthening of a movement of native Hawaiian activists aroundaloha aina (love of the land). The "Kahoolawe Ohana" project is established by activists to get the U.S. military off the island of Kahoolawe and to stop training there. In the 1990's, many political efforts were made towards native Hawaiians to redress past injustices. In 1992, the closing of the Dole Company, the giant pineapple plantation on Lanai, and in 1995, the closing of the last active sugar industry on the island of Hawai'i, greatly contributed to calming the spirits.

Withdrawal of the U.S. Army from the island of Kahoolawe, which becomes a protected reserve. Vote of the "Apology Resolution" decree, the United States apologizes to the native Hawaiians for having overthrown their monarchy and deprived them of their right to self-determination. A symbolic act that begins a new discussion.

Election of Barack Obama, the first President of the United States born in Hawaii. Indeed, the 44th president of the United States was born on August 4, 1961 at Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu. He is also the first African-American in history to be elected and then re-elected in 2012. He is the one who welcomes the Japanese Prime Minister to Pearl Harbor in 2017.

The Supreme Court authorizes the construction of the giant TMT telescope on top of Mauna Kea despite the protests of many native Hawaiians and after several years of conflict that had prevented the work. A step forward for science but a giant step backwards in the discussions on the rights of Hawaiians and the respect of customs.

2019 > Hawaii passes 10 million visitors, a record. The locals start to voice their concerns about the respect of nature and the degradation of the archipelago.

January-March 2021: Tourism resumes in Hawaii. The state will only have experienced six months of real travel restrictions before reopening to Americans. However, it will be necessary to wait until the beginning of 2022 for the reopening to foreigners. Visitors are returning in droves: the number of travelers reached 1.9 million in the first quarter of the year. It was 2.5 million over the same period in 2019.