Discovery and settlement of Hawaii facts for kids

There is no definitive date for the Polynesian discovery of Hawaii. However, high-precision radiocarbon dating in Hawaii using chronometric hygiene analysis, and taxonomic identification selection of samples, puts the initial first settlement of the Hawaiian Islands sometime between 1219 and 1266 A.D., originating from earlier settlements first established in the Society Islands around 1025 to 1120 A.D., and in the Marquesas Islands sometime between 1100 and 1200 A.D.

Ancient Hawaiian population

The frequently hypothesized model of constant population growth is that once people first arrived the population growth was constant until James Cook's arrival and thus halted by disease and then rapidly decreased. This theory though relies on a hypothetical settlement date that radiocarbon dating in Hawai'i has since refuted as well as linear growth on the islands. Notwithstanding this, this theory is still used to support an estimate of between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people in 1778.

The constant population growth theory of Hawaii has scant support from the archaeological data and this is contradicted by paleo-environmental evidence and radiocarbon dating of historical sites. Because as the population increases so does their imprint on the land as more and more people would require more and more food, light, and heat; thus there would be more fires, and thus more wood charcoal produced correlated to the number of people. Accordingly the evidence indicates rather an interesting model of arrested population growth, especially as a consequence of island life. This theory finds corroboration in archaeological censuses of abandoned habitation sites on leeward Hawai'i island and Kaho'olawe Island which indicate that population levels reached a peak before Cook's arrival The arrested-growth model fits well with an estimated pre-contact-era population of between 100,000 and 150,000, derived primarily from the study of historical records.

Population estimates based on an initial discovery and settlement of Hawaii settlement date, of around AD 1150, and a proposed growth rate at the highest in the world, and relying on the paleo-environmental evidence of early human impact on the land completely contradicts the constant population growth theory. Instead, the estimated population curve can be divided into three sections, pre-settlement where there were no people, the initial settlement growth phase of approximately 100 people around 1150 AD to the population peak in 1450 of approximately 150,000 people. The third phase between 1450 to 1778 reflected a relatively stable population, where apparent declines were followed by periods of growth.

Simply and briefly, as the population grew so did their agricultural imprint (forest clearing by burning) and building of heiau at those sites, as well as the decline of plants. The paleo environmental data showed that during 1450-1778 the construction of heiau pace slowed dramatically as well as the clearing of agricultural land. Accordingly, the estimated population in 1778 around Cook's arrival was between 110,000 and 150,000.

Pre-western contact

James Cook was not the first westerner to visit Hawaii. Although Hawaiian tradition does not record the nationalities of the shipwrecks on Maui in Kiwi, Kona in Hawaii as well as in Kauai, except to characterize them as white people arriving between years 1521-1530 AD, many scholars believed that they were Spanish. It was further discovered that Japanese boats landed at Makapu'u Point on the island of O'ahu in the year 1258. In 1270 a separate group of Japanese sailors carrying sugar cane went ashore at Kahului, Maui.

There are many parallels between Hawaiian and Japanese cultures, especially the similarity of Japanese knives and iron blades in the possession of Hawaiians at the time of Cook's first landing at Kaua'i, were thought to have developed through culture contact, most likely voyages from Japan to Hawai'i in the period A.D. 1550—1630. The shipping practices in shogunate Japan were highly regulated and show that there were up to a dozen successful voyages to Hawai'i from Japan between 1600 and 1778.

Western contact

Economic and demographic factors in the 18th to 19th centuries reshaped the Kingdom of Hawaii. With unfamiliar diseases such as bubonic plague, leprosy, yellow fever, declining fertility, high infant mortality, introduction of alcohol, and emigration off the islands or to larger cities for trade jobs the natives in the Kingdom of Hawaii fell from around 150,000 in 1778 to 71,000 by 1853. Alternatively, faced with depopulation and a changing economy Kamehameha I and others sought tradesmen, including navigators, blacksmith, armorer, carpenter, sailmakers, etc. These men could expect to receive a gift of land and one or more native wives if they agreed to stay.

Rapid depopulation

The rapid depopulation of the Hawaiian race is traced to many causes. Missionary William Ellis described deserted villages and abandoned enclosures which he attributed to "the frequent and desolating wars during Kamehameha's reign, the ravages of a pestilence brought in by foreign vessels". Otherwise Hawaii State Statistician Robert C. Schmitt explained the severe depopulation as a result of declining fertility, high infant mortality, and emigration.

The Hawaiians' customs and land use system also caused a downward spiral in the population from which after the diseases they could not recover from. The family unit was centered around a "punahele" or favored child; a first born who would inherit the grandparent's property and continue the kupana kin group. In this system grandparents were also responsible to then feed not only their children, but their children's children. Further families could simply not accommodate growing unless they were ceded new lands from a kapuna group or applied for new lands with the local konohiki and paid for with renewed acts of submission. During the nineteenth century young adults found other things to do than to go into servitude as a hoa'aina (tenant). Artemas Bishop at Ewa in 1845 stated, "the young people of both sexes are idlers of a most worthless character, and dependent, in most cases, upon others for their daily food. There is scarcely a truly respectable and industrious young person of adult age, among the uneducated classes."

Ultimately the family unit in Hawaiian culture was simply formed more for replacement rather than production.

Whaling industry

Between 1820 and 1845 American commercial involvement in Hawai'i surged and so did the whaling industry. Between the first few ships in 1819 by the 1840s there some 400-500 ships which made semi-annual visits to the islands on their way back to New England Ports for provisions, recreation and labor. For instance a Census of 1840 in Nantucket, Massachusetts which was a center of whaling ships, indicates 793 Native Hawaiians had emigrated there alone.

Early immigration

With fewer natives to work on the sugar plantations and the rapid depopulation from emigration on ships and whalers recruiters started to fan out across Asia and Europe for more male labor. As a result, between 1850 and 1900 some 200,000 contract laborers from China, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Portugal, Germany, Norway and elsewhere came to Hawaii under contracts. This greatly diversified the islands. While most left the sugar plantations on schedule, mostly to California as Hawaii was viewed by migrants as a place to earn money rather than settle and raise families (there was only one Chinese women per seventeen Chinese males.

In response to the rising immigration, King Kamehameha V established the Board of Immigration to control the importation of foreign labor, although criticized that Chinese male laborers were treated like slaves and whipped, the Hawaiian government asserted that the primary purpose was population reinforcement of the labor force to combat high mortality and depopulation off the islands. However, by 1881 they were prohibiting immigration of Chinese men all together for a period because of mistreatment and exploitation of Chinese labor.

However, there were still large numbers of Chinese and Japanese stayed after their contracts ended creating a small Chinatown in Honolulu; by 1893 Chinese and Japanese male workers represented 51.9% of the population. By 1900 once Hawaii was annexed federal law applied and prohibited further Chinese immigration altogether. Then came Koreans until 1905, and by 1908 in total 180,000 Japanese had workers arrived. By 1908 though no more Japanese were allowed in, but 50,000 remained permanently. However records from 1852 to 1875 indicate that in total 56,720 Chinese arrived during that time period, however there were thousands of duplicates in the number of arrivals records because of re-entry of those who had left the islands and returned. The first US census in 1900 put the population of Chinese at 22,296 men and 3,471 females.

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Images for kids

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  King Kamehameha I of Hawaii

See also

In Spanish: Descubrimiento y asentamiento de Hawái para niños