What Is The Great Mahele Act Of 1848 Unjustified?

530 Words3 Pages

The Mahele was an important event, changing the way the land was divided. The Hawaiians would realize they would be going to lose their lands to the foreigners. The Mahele was unnecessary and caused great suffering for the Hawaiians. The only person who really needed it was the foreigners, it was a horrible idea. The Great Mahele Act of 1848 was unjustified because foreigners didn’t need to make new laws, Hawaiians lost land, and poverty came (http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=288) . Prior to the Great Mahele, the Hawaiians used a land division system called ahupua`as. Ahupua`as divided each location into small sections, creating different districts of land for people to live on. Guided by foreign advisors, the king divided lands that had before been held in common and administered by chiefs and their konohiki. The Mahele allocated 23% of land in the Islands to the king (crown lands), 40% assigned to konohiki lands to be divided among at least 245 chiefs, and 37% was declared government lands, to be awarded to commoners who worked the land as active people . …show more content…

Land people were required to file their claims to specific places in order to gain permanent title. A kuleana plot was entirely independent of the traditional ahupua'a in which it was situated and it could also be sold to parties with no historical ties to the area. Lands historically controlled by the king and other ali`i were formally divided and commoners were given an opportunity to claim their traditional family lands. Due in part to different cultural beliefs of property, many claims were never established and foreigners were able to acquire large tracts of land