History of Hawaii, part II

Source material: DK Eyewitness Travel

An ambitious chief from Kohala (Hawai'i Island), Kamehameha could claim a direct kinship to the powerful chief Pili, who lived 500 years earlier.  A skilled warrior and shrewd opportunist, he managed to quell centuries of internecine warfare (mutually destructive to all sides) by systematically conquering each of the islands.  In 1790 he demoralized the Hawai'i Island chiefs by constructing Pu'ukohola Heiau and sacrificing his key rival on its altar.  In 1795 he stormed Maui, terrifying the enemy with a cannon plundered from an American ship.  O'ahu fell the same year after bloody fighting along the Nu'uanu pali (cliffs).  Twice he tried to invade Kaua'i, but storms turned back his fleet.  Kamehameha then invited chief Kaumuali'i to visit him on O'ahu.  Through threats and rewards, he forced the chief to cede Kaua'i, and Hawai'i became a united kingdom in 1809.
When the old conqueror died in 1819, he left a leadership void that his son Kamehameha II was unable to fill.  The drunken youth was coerced that same year to abandon the strict kapu system.  The crucial moment came when he shared a meal with women--his mother Keopuolani and his father's favorite wife, Ka'ahumanu.  This act of 'ai noa (free eating) was taken as a symbolic deed that invalidated all traditional rules.  Thus the kingdom was reduced to a class of leaders with no precise set of laws.

Missionaries arrived several months later and established a church in Lahaina, Maui, the whaling capital.  They not only had run-ins with the rowdy whalers, but also influenced royalty as well.  The dying queen mother, Keopuolani asked to be baptized and commanded her people to embrace Christianity.
Kamehameha II had bankrupted the kingdom by now, despite stripping the land of sandalwood to sell to China.  Leaving his troubles behind, he sailed with his wife to England where they hoped to be greeted by throngs and meet King George IV.  Instead, they went unnoticed and both contracted measles, and died of the disease in July, 1824.
The kingdom now fell to Kamehameha III, who was only 11 years old.  He was guided by his formidable mother and regent, Queen Ka'ahumanu.  By the time of her death eight years later, Ka'ahumanu had engineered the peaceful conversion of the entire kingdom to Christianity.

Stay tuned for Part III: America's Rise and the End of the Monarchy