One man unified eight islands in 28 years, producing the first Hawaiian Kingdom (Wikipedia, Kamehameha I). Another tried to unite a broken country ten times before finally doing so, but even then the country was still divided (Britannica School, Sun Yat-Sen). These two ambitious achievers are the great men Kamehameha I and former Chinese President of the Kuomintang Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. Kamehameha I was the first ruler of the Hawaiian Kingdom, implementing trade, building foreign relationships, and securing the control of the Hawaiian monarch (Potter, Kadson, and Rayson, 23). On the other hand lies Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, considered the founder of modern China. He devoted his entire life to the overthrow of the Qing government and the incorporation of …show more content…
The first and the last are very intertwined, and shall be included with each other. Kamehameha I had a court of ali’i and foreign advisors to help him decide on how to govern the islands. Kamehameha placed governors to control the various islands under his name (Britannica School, Kamehameha I). He could be heavily swayed by them, as they were so important as to be called, “the iron cable of Hawai’i” (Potter, Kadson, and Rayson, 23). His advisors were what held Hawai’i together. Unlike Kamehameha, Dr. Sun had many jumbled allegiances, and he jumped around from revolutionary party to revolutionary party, never staying with one until he formed the KMT (Kuomintang). He governed the Kuomintang with an ideal called Democratic Socialism (Wikipedia, Socialist Ideology of the Kuomintang), which includes distinct principles of democracy and a socialist economy. As for foreign weaponry and ideas, Kamehameha used them violently to take control. What was modern then, cannons and muskets, were put to the test in fierce battles. Sun Yat-Sen used them more passively, with Western ideas like government, industrial, and scientific methods reeling in his mind as he tried to transform China into a more Western-style country (Digital Term Papers, The Western Influence on His …show more content…
Sun and Kamehameha I were the “founders” of their modern states. The two men added reforms to benefit the people, made their nations more economically powerful, and united them under a single ideal (In Sun Yat-Sen’s case however, he was addressed as if he united China in a single swoop. Instead, he created a party in which united China after his death in 1925, after the Warlord era.). They were both very similar, benevolent men and would sacrifice blood, sweat, and tears to improve the livelihoods of their kin. Yet, they were very different at the same time. However, one thing can be said about both Kamehameha I and Dr. Sun Yat-sen: They were both extremely effective