Mahele's Impact On Hawaii

In 1850, the Kuleana Act meant that maka’ainana, commoners, could own land instead of leasing it, and the Resident Alien Act that followed ensured that foreigners could too (Cachola 79-85). This was the start of the Great Mahele, the land-owning system that was created by the Hawaiian government after years of foreign pressure on the Hawaiian government and King Kamehameha III, or Kauikeaouli. The foreigners wanted to be able to own land in Hawaii, as they realized they could get rich off of sugar cane, which grew excellently in Hawaii (Potter et al. 97-100). After thinking about the future of Hawaii, the government came up with the Mahele, a land division and ownership system for Hawaii. According to A History of Hawaii by Menton, Linda K.,

Before the Mahele and the years of other land ownership rules, the Native Hawaiians had a fairly strong relationship with their government, as they shared the same morals and rules, worked together with logic to come up with solutions, and helped the community. After the Mahele, since foreigners started to dominate the economic scene and most of the big businesses in Hawaii, the government slowly started to lose power and control over Hawaii. This was seen when many ali’i had to sell large portions of their lands because their workers, the maka’ainana, were moving away to get better-paying jobs (Lâm 233-288). The ali’i had no choice but to sell their land because they couldn’t pay the land taxes, and the foreigners could then buy the land for themselves since they had the experience and the money. The konohiki became unfair at sharing resources sometimes, making everyday life a struggle for the maka’ainana (Hio et al.). This was a political change because the government that they were supposed to trust to help the people weren't doing that, because of changing circumstances. The relationship that the Native Hawaiians and their government had with each other was negatively changed, as they had to adapt to changes with little support because the government was slowly losing control and stability. They couldn’t even rely on their land agents to be fair and help them

The people of Hawaii were sent into poverty because of the new economic changes that were taking place in Hawaii, mostly driven by foreigners. After the Mahele went into effect, many Native Hawaiians lost their land and resources, with foreigners buying all of their lands. When the people pleaded with the government, the government couldn’t help much, as they began to lose power slowly as pressure caved in on them to make changes to adapt to the modern world. As the number of Native Hawaiians rapidly decreased, a lot of that can be attributed to the Mahele when many Hawaiians were left with few resources. Countless Native Hawaiians haven’t gotten their original lands back to this day, and are still waiting for the government to serve justice (ProPublica). The Great Mahele was a substantial change to life for the Hawaiians, however, they weren’t prepared to change their ways after centuries of the same systems, so it resulted in dreadful outcomes for them and the Hawaiian government in the