What Were The Benefits Of The Mahele Of 1848

488 Words2 Pages

The Mahele of 1848 was very beneficial to the foreigners. They agreed with the Mahele because not only did they believe that enacting it would cure the Hawaiians of their diseases and laziness, but they also believed in owning their own land for themselves (Cachola). The foreigners also didn’t understand the Hawaiian’s beliefs in sharing the land - they only cared about keeping it. The Mahele did benefit the foreigners because it left business men very prosperous and it put the lives of the Hawaiians in their land. As mentioned before, the Mahele of 1848 left many business men very prosperous. As the Hawaiian’s property were put up to auction, aspiring businessmen swooped up the properties and turned them into cattle ranches and sugar cane farms (Puamana). Sugar cane farms especially brought businessmen to the top of the economical chain in Hawaii. Sugar cane farms were in demand because around that time Hawaii was the best place for sugar plantations, so they satisfied the demand with large plantations that took over hundreds of acres …show more content…

As the foreigners developed massive businesses and corporations, they started to hire Hawaiian employees to maintain the massive demand for workers for their businesses (Potter, Kasdon, and Rayson 95). This wasn’t hard since the Hawaiians needed money because they lost their land. However, as the Hawaiians began to rely on foreign businesses for their money, the power that the foreigners had soon were elevated to another level . Richard Borreca said Hawaiians became fully dependant upon foreign forces to stay alive, and the foreigners recognized that. This is a political impact because it caused the foreigners to have control over things that only the ali’i should be able to control, such as distribution of power over the lands and cash flowing into Hawaii (Menton and Tamura 35).