History of Maui facts for kids
Maui is an important island in Hawaii because of its central location. This article shares the story of Maui, from ancient legends to more recent times.
Contents
Ancient Maui: Legends and Early Life
Legends of Maui
Long ago, a hero named Māui lived near Hana. Stories say he used his magical fishing hook to pull the Hawaiian Islands out of the ocean. But his brothers stopped paddling their canoe, so the islands stayed spread out. Māui also helped his grandmother by slowing down the sun. He stood on top of Haleakalā mountain and lassoed the sun's rays, making it move slower so there was more daylight for growing food and drying cloth.
Other legends tell of the Menehune, tiny, magical people. Some think these stories came from European tales, while others believe the Menehune were Hawaii's first settlers. These early people might have been pushed into the forests by new arrivals from Tahiti. Over time, the Menehune became legendary, known for their magical powers and for helping good people.
First Settlers on Maui
People from Polynesia first settled Maui in waves. The earliest might have come from the Marquesas Islands before 450 AD. Later, more settlers arrived from the Marquesas around 450 AD, and then from Tahiti around 700 AD. The Tahitians brought many important parts of Hawaiian culture, like their language, ways of life, a system of social classes, and the strict kapu system, which were rules that guided everything. Hawaiian history tells of 25 rulers of Maui, starting with Paumakua.
Maui's oldest known temples, called heiaus, are at Halekiʻi and Pihana. They were built around 1200. Legends say the Menehune built them in one night! But it's more likely they grew over time. These temples were important places for religious ceremonies.
Maui's Chiefs and Kingdoms
For a long time, Maui had three main chiefdoms: Wailuku, Lele (Lahaina), and Hana. Eventually, West Maui united under Wailuku. Around 1550, West and East Maui joined together when King Piʻilani married the daughter of Hana's chief. From then on, Maui was ruled by one royal family. King Piʻilani and the rulers after him brought peace and good times. They built a highway around the island, and parts of it are still there today. They also built Hawaii's largest temple, Piʻilanihale, which is about 40 feet (12 m) high and 300 feet (91 m) long.
Many ancient structures on Maui are mentioned in stories but don't exist anymore. There was a fort at Kaʻuiki Head in Hana, where many battles took place. The Hauola Stone in Lahaina Harbor was believed to have healing powers, and it's still there.
Maui also has several petroglyph sites, which are ancient rock carvings. These carvings might show old journeys, historical events, or religious stories. One of the best places to see them is in the cliffs above Olowalu. Sadly, some sites have been damaged, so access is now limited.
Hawaiians had a smart system for sharing land. Maui was divided into twelve large districts called moku. Each moku was ruled by a chief's family. These moku were then split into smaller community units called ahupuaʻa. These units stretched from the mountains to the ocean, shaped like a triangle. This way, every family had access to mountain forests, farming lands, and the ocean.
Each district also had a special safe place called a puʻuhonua. If someone broke a rule or was in danger, they could go there for safety. After a time, they could return home. During wars, women, children, and elders could go to these sanctuaries to be safe. Maui's sanctuary was at Kukuipuka, near Waiheʻe.
The Kapu System
The social system was called the kapu system. It was based on social classes and religious practices. People were born into one of four groups:
- Aliʻi: The highest rank, who were the chiefs and rulers.
- Kahuna: Priests, spiritual advisors, and healers.
- Makaʻāinana: Commoners who farmed, fished, and did most of the work.
- Kauwa: Outcasts, who lived outside the community.
There were different kinds of kapu rules. Some were always in place, like men and women eating separately. Others were flexible, like rules about fishing at certain times of the year, which could be changed by local chiefs. Temporary kapu rules were for a few days, like not fishing after a funeral. These rules helped keep order in the community and protected nature by preventing overuse of plants and animals. The kapu system aimed to keep the mana, or sacredness, of the environment, bringing peace and stability.
Maui's Encounters with the World
Uniting the Islands
Kamehameha I, also known as Kamehameha the Great, was a powerful leader. He conquered all the Hawaiian Islands and created the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1810. He also made friends with powerful countries, which helped Hawaii stay independent. Kamehameha is remembered for many things, including a law called the "Law of the Splintered Paddle," which protected people who were not fighting during battles.
Early European Visitors
Stories say that some European sailors, probably Spanish, were shipwrecked on the islands between 1521 and 1530. On Maui, several white men and a woman were shipwrecked near Waihee during King Kakaalaneo's rule. These men married Hawaiian women and became ancestors of some chiefs.
On November 26, 1778, Captain James Cook was the first European explorer to see Maui. He couldn't find a good place to land, so he never stepped on the island. The first European to actually visit Maui was the French admiral Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse, who landed at La Perouse Bay on May 29, 1786.
Trouble with Traders
In 1790, an American trader named Simon Metcalfe arrived near Lahaina. Some Hawaiians took one of his small boats. In response, Captain Metcalfe fired his cannons at a nearby village and took some Hawaiians. They told him people from Olowalu were responsible. Metcalfe went to Olowalu and pretended to be friendly. When canoes full of Hawaiians came to trade, he suddenly fired his cannons, killing many people.
Around the same time, Metcalfe's son, Thomas Metcalfe, arrived in Hawaii. His ship was captured by Chief Kameʻeiamoku, who had been mistreated by Simon Metcalfe earlier. Thomas Metcalfe and his crew were killed, except for Isaac Davis. Another American from Simon Metcalfe's ship, John Young, was also captured. These two Americans, Young and Davis, later helped Kamehameha in battles.
Trade with Europe and China
Early trade with Europeans involved selling goods to China. Hawaiians didn't have much to trade until they found sandalwood trees, which were valuable in China for incense. King Kamehameha controlled this trade closely. However, sandalwood became very rare by the 1830s, and logging stopped.
Whaling ships started sailing the Pacific in 1818. Hawaii was a perfect stop between their hunting grounds. Lahaina and Honolulu became major ports for whaling ships. By 1824, over 100 ships visited Lahaina each year. Lahaina grew quickly, with new shops and inns. At its peak in the 1850s, more than 400 whaling ships visited Lahaina annually. Whaling declined by the late 1800s as kerosene and electricity replaced whale oil for lighting.
Europeans also brought new crops like coffee, potatoes, sugarcane, pineapples, and rice to the islands.
Changes to Traditional Life
When outsiders arrived, the traditional Hawaiian way of life began to change. The kapu system and old religious practices weakened. European visitors were often shocked by some Hawaiian customs and criticized the culture. Maui's rulers were influenced by these visitors, which further weakened their old systems. Eventually, the chiefs themselves ended the kapu and traditional religion.
Hawaiians also faced new diseases from Europeans, like smallpox and measles. These diseases caused many deaths, with some estimates saying up to 95% of the population died. This had a terrible impact on Hawaiian culture and society.
The New Religion: Christianity
When Kamehameha I died in 1819, Queen Kaʻahumanu became a co-ruler with his son, Kamehameha II. She challenged many old Hawaiian customs and ended the kapu system. Temples were destroyed, and religious images were burned. This left Hawaiians feeling confused about their spiritual life.
Early Missionaries Arrive
Within two years, the first Christian missionaries arrived from New England in 1821. They came just as Hawaiians were losing faith in their old ways. Dr. Holman was one of the first, building a house in Lahaina and teaching.
The missionaries helped create a written version of the Hawaiian language. They used Latin letters to represent Hawaiian sounds. This led to a twelve-letter Hawaiian alphabet. The first Hawaiian literature was printed in 1822. Hawaiians learned to read their own language very quickly.
In 1823, Reverends William Richards and Charles Stewart opened a mission in Lahaina. Richards built a stone house and later became a legal advisor and Minister of Education for Hawaii. He even helped write Hawaii's first constitution. Betsey Stockton, a formerly enslaved woman, taught many Hawaiians. By the time she left in 1825, she had taught 8,000 people! The missionaries also set up a printing shop to print Bibles and school materials. The first stone church, Waiola Church, was built in Lahaina in 1828. Many early Hawaiians and foreigners are buried there, including Queen Keōpūolani, the first royal to become Christian, and Queen Kaʻahumanu. In 1831, the Lahainaluna Mission School (now Lahainaluna High School) was started, printing Hawaiian language Bibles and educational books.
The missionaries changed some parts of Hawaiian culture but also helped preserve it. Their new religious teachings and strict Victorian ideas altered many customs. However, their efforts to teach reading and writing helped save native history and language for future generations.
Christianity Spreads
In the early 1830s, more missionaries arrived and built churches across Maui. A church was started in Wailuku by 1831. Records show that by 1832, about 3,000 people attended services in Wailuku on Sundays. By 1870, Hawaiian churches were in 13 places on Maui, all led by Hawaiian pastors trained at Lahainaluna Seminary. The missionaries taught Hawaiians and began writing down the islands' history, which until then had only been passed down through stories.
Missionaries believed they were "civilizing" Hawaiians. They wanted Hawaiians to read and write in both Hawaiian and English. They also tried to reduce gambling and crime and replace traditional Hawaiian religion with basic Protestant Christianity. They introduced American ideas about clothing, food, entertainment, education, and how people should live.
Maui in the 18th and 19th Centuries
Volcanoes and Battles
Around 1750, the last eruption on Haleakalā mountain happened near La Perouse Bay. This caused some villages to be abandoned.
In 1790, Kamehameha I decided to take control of the islands from Kahekili. With about 1,200 warriors and some cannons from Metcalfe, Kamehameha invaded Maui. He defeated Prince Kalanikūpule in the Iao Valley near Wailuku. Kamehameha finally gained full control of Maui in 1794 when he defeated Kalanikupule's army at the Battle of Nuʻuanu on Oahu. With Kalanikupule's death, the Kingdom of Maui ended.
Population Decline and New Arrivals
When Hawaiians came into contact with new diseases from other parts of the world, they had no protection against them. Diseases like smallpox, measles, and influenza caused a huge number of deaths. Estimates say that 30% to 50% of the population died within one generation. This was a disaster for Maui's culture. The Hawaiian social system began to break down, and outsiders started to gain more power.
Catholicism on Maui
In 1846, Father Aubert arrived in Lahaina to start the first Catholic church on Maui. He and his early followers faced some challenges from the Protestant missionaries, but Hawaiians soon welcomed them. The first Catholic church, Maria Lanakila (Victorious Saint Mary), was built in downtown Lahaina.
Later, in 1882, Father Beissel came to Makawao. In 1894, he finished building the Holy Ghost Mission Catholic Church at Kula. This church served the growing Portuguese population, many of whom were working in the sugarcane fields.
The Great Mahele and Land Changes
By 1848, land ownership had become very confusing. A new system called the Great Mahele was created to sort it out. However, most Hawaiians lost their traditional land rights. Sugar companies bought large amounts of land, completely changing the island's economy. Many native Hawaiians ended up working on these sugar plantations instead of their own family farms.
Agriculture Takes Over
Sugarcane Plantations
By the 1840s, sugarcane farming became very important, leading to the "plantation system." Descendants of early missionary families started businesses and used their connections to Hawaiian royalty to get special deals, including land. Large companies began to take over smaller farms.
Alexander & Baldwin (A&B) at Pāʻia was a very successful early plantation. They needed a port, so a dock was built nearby.
Immigrant Workers
There weren't enough local workers for the huge sugarcane fields, so plantation owners started bringing in workers from other countries. The idea was that these workers would stay for a while and then go home. The first workers came from China in 1852. To balance the Chinese workers, thousands of Japanese laborers arrived starting in 1868. Later, Koreans came in 1903, and Filipinos in 1909. Between 1878 and 1911, almost 16,000 Portuguese people immigrated to Maui, many with their families.
Life on the plantations was very hard. Workers often owed more money than they earned. About half of these contract workers went back to their home countries, but the rest stayed and made Hawaii their new home. These immigrants changed Maui's food, languages, customs, and population forever. The plantation system also meant that the remaining native Hawaiians had less power and influence. Foreign companies and local bosses became very powerful in the Hawaiian government.
Water for Sugar
In 1876, A&B Sugar Company decided to bring water from the wet north side of Maui to the dry central plains. They built a large ditch system, which is still used today by the East Maui Irrigation System to control water from Haleakalā. This led to other companies, like Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company (HC&S), also building water systems. A sugar mill was built at Hamakuapoko (near Paia) in 1879 to process the growing amount of sugarcane.
To move sugarcane from the plantations to the port at Kahului, Maui's first narrow-gauge railroad was built in 1878. It started running in 1879 between Kahului and Wailuku and was named the Kahului Railroad in 1881. It also carried passengers and mail.
Pineapple Farming
In 1889, David and Henry Perrine Baldwin bought land in West Maui and started growing pineapple as an experiment in 1890. Pineapples grew very well, leading to the founding of Haiʻku Fruit and Packing Company in 1903. Henry Baldwin later formed the Maui Land & Pineapple Company. By 1933, over 22,000 acres (89 km²) of pineapple were being grown.
Changes in Government
In 1845, Kamehameha III moved his capital from Lahaina to Honolulu. Honolulu was becoming the main center for business and transportation, and it had a much better harbor than Lahaina.
Queen Liliʻuokalani ruled Hawaii until 1893, when the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown. A year later, the Republic of Hawaii was formed. In 1898, the United States took over the Hawaiian islands, making them the Territory of Hawaii.
Maui in the 20th Century
Kahului's Growth and Challenges
In 1900, a bubonic plague outbreak stopped the development of Kahului as Maui's main port. The shanty town was intentionally burned down to get rid of the rats that carried the disease. The port was quickly rebuilt, and a breakwater was constructed in 1884 to improve the harbor.
Agriculture Continues to Grow
Sugarcane continued to be grown on Maui's west coast. A short railroad, the Lahaina Kāʻanapali and Pacific Railroad, carried cane to the Pioneer sugar mill in Lahaina. This railroad closed in the 1950s when trucks became more common.
HC&S built one of the world's largest sugar mills in 1901 at Puʻunene. The next few decades saw huge growth in the sugar industry, mainly because companies bought water rights and built more ditches and wells to bring water to the fields. Maui Agricultural Company also expanded its pineapple farming, which became the Maui Land & Pineapple Company.
In 1948, Maui Agricultural Company and HC&S merged, forming the largest sugar production company in the islands. They replaced their old narrow-gauge railway with trucks.
Government and Parks
Maui County was created in 1905, including the islands of Maui, Lanai, Molokini, Kahoʻolawe, and part of Molokaʻi. The county seat is in Wailuku.
In 1916, Prince Jonah Kuhio, Hawaii's delegate to the U.S. Congress, helped create Hawaii National Park, which included the top of Haleakalā. The park grew over time, and in 1960, Haleakalā National Park was separated from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. In 1969, the entire mountain was made a federal wilderness area, protecting its unique nature forever.
In 1937, a trade union called Vibora Luviminda led a labor strike against four Maui sugarcane plantations. The workers wanted higher wages. After 85 days, they won a 15% wage increase.
Air Travel on Maui
Maui's first airport was built at Maʻalaea in 1927. Regular air service began in 1929 for planes that could land on water. Dirt runways were built in 1930, but they were not good in wet weather. By 1938, the Maʻalaea airport was considered too close to the mountains for larger planes.
A new airport was surveyed at Puʻunene in 1936, but it wasn't built until 1938. It opened with one paved runway. After World War II, this airport became Kahului Airport, Maui's main airport today.
Maui During World War II
After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, all airfields in Hawaii became military bases. Maui became an important staging area, training base, and place for soldiers to rest during World War II. At its peak in 1943-44, over 100,000 troops were stationed on Maui. Beaches were used for practice landings and training. Thousands of soldiers who served in Hawaii later returned as tourists, which helped build Maui's modern economy.
Tourism Begins
Maui's first resort hotel, Hotel Hana, opened in 1946. In 1961, Maui's first planned resort community, Kāʻanapali, opened on what used to be part of a pineapple plantation.
Pop Culture Influence
In 1969, the first "hippies" arrived and settled in south Maui. Other communities were formed near Pāʻia and on the slopes of Haleakalā. They sometimes faced challenges from authorities.
Images for kids
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The twelve traditional mokus of Maui.
