History of Maui
Encyclopedia
This article summarizes the history of the island of Maui
. Its relatively central location gave it a pivotal role in the history of the Hawaiian Islands
.
. He caught the islands of Hawaii
on a fishing trip with his magical fishing hook, but failed to pull them all together when his brothers quit paddling the canoe in which they were voyaging, so the islands were left spread apart from each other. Māui was later persuaded by his grandmother to slow the sun down, so she could grow more food and dry her tapa cloth
. Māui agreed to help, so he stood on the summit of Mount Haleakala
and lassoed the sun's ray legs and broke them off one by one, threatening to kill him if he didn't slow down. The sun obliged.
Maui legends include the magical deeds of the Menehune
. Scholars disagree as to the origin of Menehune stories. One theory is that the stories were borrowed from European brownie and pixie stories told by sailors or settlers. Another theory is that the Menehune actually were the descendants of Hawaii's earliest settlers from the Marquesas who were pushed into the forest by Tahitian newcomers. The Tahitian word 'manahune' refers to low-class workers who did the most menial tasks which, the theory goes, the second-class original settlers were forced to perform. In time the Menehune became legendary and were given magical powers to help the helpless and to punish evil actions. A third possible explanation is that the Menehune were later, non-Tahitian immigrants who were not permitted to live with or intermarry with descendants of Tahitians.
settled the island of Maui in at least three gradual waves; the earliest possibly from the Marquesas sometime before 450 A.D., then others from the Marquesas about 450 A.D., and lastly settlers from Tahiti
from 700 A.D. The Tahitian arrivals introduced the core pieces of Hawaiian traditional culture: language, economic activities, the hereditary class system, land tenure, religion, and customs such as the strict kapu
system that affected all aspects of life. Hawaiian oral tradition lists an unbroken chain of twenty-five rulers (the Moʻi of Maui) beginning with Paumakua
the first Ali'i Nui of Maui.
Maui's oldest known temple enclosures (heiau
s) are at Halekii and Pihana
from about 1200. The structures were, according to legend, built by the Menehune in a single night from stones on Paukukalo Beach. More likely they began as small structures and were expanded as the prestige of the Wailuku grew. The last additions were thought to have been made by King Kahekili. Pihana, also called Pihanakilani and Piihana, was a luakini
where human sacrifice was carried out. According to accounts written by outsiders, victims were most often kapu breakers or war captives.
married the daughter of Hoolae, the 6th Alii Nui of Hana. From that time until conquest Maui was ruled by a single joint royal family (Hawaiian: alii). Piilani and his successors were known for the peace and prosperity that followed. They constructed a highway that circled the island along its coast; remnants of which still exist. They also built the island's and Hawaii's largest temple enclosure. Today it is called Pi'ilanihale
, built on an older temple site from about 1294. It is about 40 feet (12.2 m) high and 300 feet (91.4 m) long. Other heiau were constructed at Olowalu and Waianapanapa.
which was the scene of several battles between chiefdoms on Maui or invasions from Hawaii. The last battle occurred when King Kahekili fought off a Hawaiian raid in the 1780s. On a small island at the tip of Kauiki Head a huge statue of Kawalakii was erected by King Umi of Hana to frighten off would-be invaders. The Hauola Stone in Lahaina Harbor was believed to have healing qualities; it is still there. Extensive archaeological
research has been undertaken at Kahikinui on Maui's southeast coast. Several heiau have been located, as well as villages, and fields. Heiau in the Wailuku area include: Keahuku, Olokua, Olopia, Malena, Pohakuokahi, Lelemako, Kawelowelo, Kaulupala, Palamnaihiki, and Oloolokalani. There were at least three additional heiau between Kahului Harbor and Wailuku. There is a partially collapsed heiau at Keoneoio (La Perouse Bay
.) In several parts of the island small shrines were set up, usually a single or cluster of standing stones where fishermen could pray and give offerings. Rarely walled canoe 'sheds' are still preserved. The Ke'anae Peninsula's taro
field system is a prehistoric field system still in use.
Maui has several petroglyph
sites that have been variously interpreted as ancestral voyages, historic events, and religious stories. One of the best remaining sites is in the cliffs above Olowalu
. Nearby Maalea had an extensive panel which was destroyed by a developer. Kaupo has little 'footprints' across a lava flow said to be the prints of Menehune. The Kula area has several sites on private land. There are some at Nuu as well. Unfortunately, vandalism to these sites has led to their closure or limited access to permit holders.
Each district had a sanctuary (Hawaiian: puuhonua) to escape vengeance or penalty. Maui's sanctuary was located at Kukuipuka on Maui's west side near Waihee. After fleeing there, making restitution and waiting a period of time, the offender could return home. During warfare, women, children, and elders could go there and not be harmed.
system. According to legend the system was brought to the islands from Tahiti
by the priest Paao perhaps as early as 1300. The kapu system was rooted in the class system and religious practice. People were born into one of four ranks. At the top were the alii. Next were the kahuna', those of priestly rank who conducted religious ritual ceremonies, served as spiritual advisers, and healers. The third rank were makaaina, the commoners who worked the farms, built canoes, gathered wood, fished and performed labor. The fourth rank, kauwa or outcasts, were outside the system and lived outside the community much like 'untouchables' in traditional Hindu
society.
There were three main kapu (rule) types: fixed kapu, flexible kapu, and temporary kapu. Examples of fixed kapu were the complete separation of men and women at meals and that menstruating women had to live outside the household. Other fixed kapu related to the alii which set them apart from commoners and maintained their status in a society with few material possessions. Flexible kapu could be altered by the local chief. For example, certain kinds of fish could not be caught at certain times of the year. Temporary kapus were invoked for a period of days. For example, following a funeral, no one could fish for a period of time. The effect was to maintain order in the community. Kapu also conserved the environment by protecting plants and wildlife from overuse. The end result of the kapu system was to preserve the mana or sacredness of the totality of the environment which would bring about peace, harmony and stability. Kapu breakers disrupted the mana and jeopardized the entire community.
, shipwrecked on the islands sometime between 1521 and 1530. Versions of this story are found on Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui. In the Maui version several white men and a woman were shipwrecked during the reign of King Kakaalaneo at Kiwi near Waihee. The captain's Hawaiian name was Kukanaloa. The men married, had families, and became ancestors of some of the chiefs.
Spanish ships sailed between Asia and Mexico or South America regularly. Analysis of documents purporting to record a 'discovery' of Hawaii by Manuel Gaetan in 1555 show that whatever islands he noted in his log were too far east to have been any of Hawaii's main islands.
became the first European explorer to see Maui. Cook never set foot on the island because he was unable to find a suitable landing. The first European to visit Maui was the French
admiral Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse
, who landed on the shores of what is now known as La Perouse Bay
on May 29, 1786.
r, Simon Metcalfe
, anchored his ship, the Eleanora south of Lahaina. During the night, a Hawaiian named Kaopuiki and several accomplices killed a guard and cut the ships's cutter loose and ran it ashore. The next morning when the incident was discovered, Captain Metcalfe fired his cannon into the closest village and kidnapped several Hawaiians who told him that people from the village of Olowalu
were responsible. Metcalfe moved his ship to Olowalu only to discover the village under a kapu for three days while the local chief celebrated a family occasion. As soon as the three days were over canoes from Olowalu flocked toward Metcalfe's ship to trade. Metcalfe, feigning peaceful intentions, waved the canoes around to his ship's landward side and then ordered broadside
s of ball
and shot
fired at point-blank range, which blasted the vessels to pieces. About one hundred Hawaiians were killed and several hundred wounded.
Metcalfe then sailed to Hawaii and, at Kealakekua Bay
, began what seemed to be friendly intercourse with the natives. Around the same time Metcalfe's son, Thomas Humphrey Metcalfe, arrived in the Hawaiian Islands, at Kawaihae Bay, in command of the Fair American, a small schooner owned by his father. His voyage to the Hawaiian Islands had been delayed because the Fair American and its crew had been seized by the Spanish Navy
during the Nootka Crisis
. The younger Metcalfe's vessel was captured by Chief Kameʻeiamoku, who had been insulted and flogged by Simon Metcalfe earlier that year. Kameeiamoku had vowed to exact revenge on whatever ship next came his way, and by chance that ship turned out to be the Fair American. Thomas Metcalfe and the entire crew were killed except for Isaac Davis
, who Kameeiamoku sent as a captive to Kamehameha along with guns and cannons taken from the Fair American. Another American from Simon Metcalfe's ship, John Young
, was also captured to prevent Metcalfe from hearing about his son's murder. The two Americans, Young and Davis, commanded the cannons at the bloody battle of Kepaniwai
.
trees, that were valuable in China for incense. King Kamehameha tightly controlled contact with foreigners and centralized the sandalwood trade under his personal oversight in 1805. It became the first important source of foreign goods and cash income for the alii. The resource was limited, however, and by the 1830s sandalwood became so scarce that logging stopped.
ships plied the Pacific along the coast of Peru and Japan as early as 1818. Hawaii sat directly between the two. Lahaina and Honolulu became the main Pacific ports for the north Pacific whaling fleet. Since Lahaina had no real harbor, ships anchored in the 'roads' off Maui's southwest coast for what would be called "rest & recreation" today. By 1824 more than 100 ships visited Lahaina a year. As Hawaii's capital, it quickly drew enterprising immigrants who opened tavern
s, brothel
s, inns, and shops. Hawaiians paddled out to the ships to trade fresh fruit and produce for trinket trade goods such a beads, mirrors, metal implements, and cloth. At its height in the 1850s more than 400 whaling ships a year visited Lahaina.
Whaling ships tended to stay several weeks rather than days which explains complaints about the drinking and prostitution
in the town at that time. Whaling declined steeply at the end of the 19th century as kerosene
and electricity
replaced whale oil
for lighting.
Hawaiians also began to plant many types of crops which were introduced to the islands: coffee, potatoes, sugar cane from which rum could be distilled, pineapples and rice. Sailors were introduced to the art of tattoos.
Hawaiians were exposed to the Europeans' communicable diseases, including enteric
, viral
, and venereal infections. A series of epidemic
s, killed up to 95% of the residents, destroying the social and cultural fabric of traditional Hawaiian life.
. She challenged many of the conventions of Hawaiian society, ending the kapu system. Heiau were destroyed, images burned or broken, and priests chased away. This threw the religious life of Hawaiians into confusion. Within two years the first Christian missionaries appeared, just as Hawaiians lost confidence in their traditional religion and social system.
. Among others, Hiram Bingham I
employed Latin letters that approximated Hawaiian sounds in English. The only exception was the okina
, a glottal stop, which precedes some vowels in many Hawaiian words. The result was a twelve letter alphabet
with additional vowel combinations. The first literature in Hawaiian was printed in 1822. By 1826 the final version had evolved by simplifying interchangeable letters b/p, k/t, l/r, v/w and eliminating several letter used only in writing foreign words. Hawaiians learned to read rapidly in their own language.
In late May 1823 Reverends William Richards
and Charles Stewart and their wives from the Congregational and Presbyterian American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
(ABCFM) opened a mission at Lāhainā at the invitation of Queen Kaahumanu. Richards was permitted to build a stone house on the present site of Campbell Park in downtown Lahaina. He gradually left missionary service and became a legal advisor, diplomatic envoy and Hawaiian Minister of Education. He drew up Hawaii's first constitution. Stewart remained in the islands for two and a half years, but when his wife became ill, he returned to New England. He kept a journal of his experiences which has become an important source for the time period. Betsy Stockton, an emancipated slave, came with the Stewarts and began to teach ordinary Hawaiians. Her efforts resulted in the first classes for commoners on Maui and by the time she left in 1825 with the Stewarts, she had taught 8,000 Hawaiians. The missionaries set up a printing shop and began printing bibles and educational materials which supplied schools throughout the islands. The first stone church was built in 1828 at Lahaina called Waiola Church
. The churchyard there contains the remains of many early foreigners and Hawaiians, among them, Queen Keōpūolani
, the first royalty converted to Christianity, and Queen Kaahumanu. In 1831 the Lahainaluna Mission School, later Lahainaluna Seminary was established, publishing Hawaiian language bibles, and educational materials.
The early missionaries came into direct conflict with whalers when they attempted to keep sailors out of the bawdy houses and to stop Hawaiian women from visiting the ships. In 1825 a crew attempted to demolish Richards' house for his efforts to keep Hawaiians and Americans apart. A small fort was built at Lahaina after a whaling ship, John Palmer fired its cannon after an altercation with missionaries about women visiting ships. Remains of the fort can still be seen. The missionaries both altered and preserved the native culture. The new religious teachings and strict Victorian ideas altered many aspects of Maui's culture while their literacy efforts preserved native history and language for posterity.
Missionaries believed they were "civilizing" Hawaiians. They tried to help Hawaiians become literate in their own language and English, and decrease drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, infanticide (exposing disabled children), gambling, theft, and murder. They attempted to replace Hawaiians' own religion with basic Protestant Christianity. They also introduced American notions about customs involving clothing, food, language, entertainment, education, hygiene and economy.
occurred from two vents on the south flank at Keoneoio above La Perouse Bay
. It caused the abandonment of several villages at Keoneoio.
After insulting Kamehameha I
, Princess Kaukooluaole was ordered to be sacrificed at Pihana after the defeat of Kalanikupule
in 1790. Poloahilani, a foster-sister of the princess, was sent to be sacrificed in the princess' place; the last time the heiau was used for that purpose. (Pihana was ordered destroyed in 1819 as part of a campaign against the old religion upon the death of Kamehameha I.) Near Pihana was a warrior training camp at Kauahea.
Also in 1790 Kamehameha I
set about to wrest control of the islands from Kahekili. With about 1,200 warriors and cannons and guns taken from Metcalf, Kamehameha invaded. He defeated Prince Kalanikupule
in the Iao Valley west of Wailuku. The name of the battle denotes the "damming of the stream" by the bodies of the warriors killed. Kalanikupule and his chiefs escaped by climbing the pali and escaping to Oahu.
Kamehameha gained ultimate control of Maui in 1794 when he defeated King Kalanikupule's army at the battle of Nu'uanu
on Oahu
. Kalanikupule was sacrificed to Kamehameha's war god at Papaenena heiau, built by Kahekili at the base of Diamond Head
above Waikiki
. With his death the Kingdom of Maui ended. In 1798 Kamehameha began a brick palace in European fashion as his capitol, but Queen Kaahumnu refused to live in it when it was completed in 1802. Successive rulers lived there until the 1840s when the king and his advisors began to spend more time in Honolulu.
, measles
, influenza
, tuberculosis
, cholera
, typhus
, typhoid fever
and sexually transmitted diseases decimated the population. Estimates range from 30% to 50% of the population died within a generation. The effect was catastrophic on the culture of Maui. The Hawaiian social system fell apart and outsiders filled the power vacuum.
(Victorious Saint Mary) was built in downtown Lahaina.
In 1882 Father Beissel arrived at Makawao. In 1894 he completed the Holy Ghost Mission Catholic Church at Kula, serving a growing Portuguese
population of cane workers.
(Hansen's Disease) cases. Citizens became alarmed at what they thought might be an epidemic. A doctor in Hana told the Board of Health that in Canada and the patients were isolated from the general population, provided with food and clothing until they recovered or died. In 1864 Dr. William Hillebrand
suggested a place such as a box canyon be found where lepers could be quarantined. A hospital at Kalihi on Oahu was used as a gathering place where those infected presented themselves for inspection. Those with leprosy were quarantined. Kalihi was only a temporary solution.
Property was purchased on the isolated north coast of Molokai
at Kalaupapa where lepers would have no outside contact. By December 1865 the "Leper Colony
" was ready. Once the colony was established, those determined to have leprosy were forced to move there. Kalihi initially sent 104 people to the island. This was complicated because ships could not get close to the beach. Patients were initially shuttled to shore by whaleboats, which was dangerous and terrifying to infectees who had already suffered separation by force from friends and families. Eventually, they were forced over the side at gunpoint to swim through the surf
. Patients were marched across the peninsula to Kalawao where they found huts and tiny cottages purchased for them in near ruin.
Father Joseph Damien
became the pastor of the leper colony, working from St. Philomena Catholic Church, until his death in 1893. The courage and service of his life and work among those suffering from Hansen's have inspired Hawaiians and others for generations.
, was established. Most Hawaiians lost their hereditary land rights. Sugar interests bought land and changed the economy of the island completely. Many native Hawaiians went to work in the cane fields instead of their own family small holdings.
Alexander and Baldwin (A&B) at Pāia
was an early success. The Alexander and Baldwin plantation at Pāia stretched as far west as the ancient landing site where Kamehameha's war fleet landed in 1790. The plantation needed a port facility so a dock was built.
Conditions on the plantations were terrible and the system ensured that workers always owed more than they had earned at the end of the season. Workers were more like indentured servants than contract laborers. About half the contract laborers returned to their homelands; the rest stayed to live on the islands. These immigrants forever altered the food, language, customs, and population of Maui. The imposition of the plantation system effectively disenfranchised the remaining native population of Maui. Foreign corporations and local bosses became the power behind the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
. This stimulated a competitor, Claus Spreckels
owner of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company (HC&S). Spreckels received a second lease to any water not captured by A&B. A third competitor, Maui Agricultural Company (MA) expanded alongside the others. A sugar mill at Hamakuapoko was built in 1879 to process Maui's increasing amounts of cane.
In 1878 the need for improved transportation from sugar plantations to the port at Kahului caused Thomas Hobron to build Maui's first narrow gauge railroad. Operation commenced in July 1879 between the tiny landing at Kahului and Wailuku; it was formally named the Kahului Railroad in 1881. K.R.R. added passenger service and was extended to Pāia in 1884 where a new mill was to be built. Hobron was named postmaster and obtained the government contract for carrying mail to the plantations and towns it serviced.
purchased land in west Maui at Honolua and Honokohau adding to property they already owned at Haiku in east Maui. They planted pineapple as an experimental crop in 1890. Pineapples did very well as a plantation crop and additional acreages were planted resulting in the founding of Haiku Fruit and Packing Company in 1903. Henry Baldwin did so well that he formed the Maui Pineapple Company
. The ranch at Honolua had tried a variety of crops and added pineapple at the suggestion of ranch manager David T. Fleming. The operations were so successful that by 1933 over 22000 acres (89 km²) of pineapple were under production.
Queen Liliuokalani ruled Maui and the other islands until the 1893 Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. One year later, the Republic of Hawaii
was founded. In 1898 the United States
annexed
the Hawaiian islands naming them the Territory of Hawaii
.
stopped Kahului's development as Maui's main port in 1900. The shanty-town was deliberately burned to the ground to destroy the rat
s which carried the disease. The port was quickly rebuilt and a rubble stone breakwater
was constructed to improve the harbor in 1884.
and Lahaina. A short line narrow-gauge railroad, the Lahaina Kāanapali and Pacific Railroad (L.K.&P. R.R. brought cane to the Pioneer sugar mill at Lahaina. The railroad closed in the 1950s when trucks were introduced.
HC&S built one of the world's largest sugar mills in 1901 at Puunene
. MA built its own sugar mill at Paia in 1906. The next decades brought explosive growth in the sugar industry. The key to cane's growth was water. Sugar companies purchased water rights. Maui Agricultural Company built the Waihee Ditch in cooperation with Wailuku Sugar. The new Wailoa Ditch brought additional east Maui water to the plantations. Companies also began to drill deep water wells. MA also began pineapple plantation farming as an experiment and it eventually became Maui Pineapple Company
. In west Maui the Honolua Ditch was reconstructed to the Pioneer sugar mill in Lahaina, supervised by David T. Fleming. In 1913 K.R.R. built a railroad to Hana including an enormous trestle
across Maliko Gulch, which was the highest trestle ever constructed in the islands at 230 feet (70.1 m).
In 1948 Maui Agricultural Company and HC&S merged under the name HC&S forming the largest sugar production company in the islands. HC&S began to make significant changes to its operations including the replacing of the narrow-gauge railway it had owned since 1899 with trucks.
In 1916 Prince Jonah Kuhio, Hawaii's territorial delegate in the U.S. Congress, achieved passage of an act establishing Hawaii National Park
, which included the summit of Haleakala. The first permanent ranger was assigned in 1935. The next year improvements were made to the road to the summit. Civilian Conservation Corps
and Work Project Authority funds and workers constructed the first visitor center.
The Vibora Luviminda
trade union
conducted the last ethnically-based labor strike in the Hawaiian Islands against four Maui sugar plantations in 1937. The union demanded higher wages and dismissal of five foremen. Manuel Fagel and nine other strike leaders were arrested and charged with kidnapping a worker. Fagel spent four months in jail while the strike continued. After 85 days on strike, the workers won a 15% increase in wages, but no contract was signed.
In 1960 Haleakala National Park
was separated from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
and expanded in 1969. The entire mountain was declared a federal wilderness area thereby protecting its unique character in perpetuity.
WPA funds paid for a survey for a new airport in 1936 at Puunene, but lack of funds prevented its construction until 1938 when it opened with one paved runway and others unpaved. A small US Navy facility opened at the airport for military use.
After the end of World War II the military decommissioned the naval air station at Kahului, so it could support commercial aviation
. In 1952 Congress turned Puunene airport over to the Territory and transferred all civilian air functions to Kahului.
Maui was involved in the Pacific Theater
of World War II
as a staging center, training base, and for rest and relaxation. At 1943-44 peak, the number of troops stationed on Maui exceeded 100,000. The main base of the 4th Marine Division was in Haiku. Beaches (e.g., in ) were used for practice landings and training in marine demolition and sabotage. MA converted its lime
kiln
facility to a cement
plant for the duration of the war. Thousands of former G.I.'s settled on the islands. Those who didn't not settle returned as tourists, which became the foundation of Maui's modern economy.
s arrived and settled in south Maui at Oneloa Beach. They introduced marijuana culture and established Maui reputation for the best marijuana. Other 'hippie' communities were established near Pāia and on the slopes of Haleakala. They were not well-received and confrontations with authorities resulted in arrests and protests.
Maui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...
. Its relatively central location gave it a pivotal role in the history of the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
.
Legend
According to legends, the hero, Māui, lived at Kauiki, across the bay from HanaHana
Hana as a given name may have several origins. It is a variant transliteration of Hannah, meaning Grace in Hebrew associated with God feminine which is the Jewish and Christian form, as well as an Arabic female name meaning happiness , a Persian female name meaning a type of flower , and a Kurdish...
. He caught the islands of Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
on a fishing trip with his magical fishing hook, but failed to pull them all together when his brothers quit paddling the canoe in which they were voyaging, so the islands were left spread apart from each other. Māui was later persuaded by his grandmother to slow the sun down, so she could grow more food and dry her tapa cloth
Tapa cloth
Tapa cloth is a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but as far afield as Niue, Cook Islands, Futuna, Solomon Islands, Java, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii...
. Māui agreed to help, so he stood on the summit of Mount Haleakala
Haleakala
Haleakalā , or the East Maui Volcano, is a massive shield volcano that forms more than 75% of the Hawaiian Island of Maui. The western 25% of the island is formed by the West Maui Mountains.- History :...
and lassoed the sun's ray legs and broke them off one by one, threatening to kill him if he didn't slow down. The sun obliged.
Maui legends include the magical deeds of the Menehune
Menehune
In Hawaiian mythology, the Menehune [pronounced meh-neh-HOO-neh] are said to be a people, sometimes described as dwarfs in size, who live in the deep forests and hidden valleys of the Hawaiian Islands, far from the eyes of normal humans. Their favorite food is the maia , but they also like...
. Scholars disagree as to the origin of Menehune stories. One theory is that the stories were borrowed from European brownie and pixie stories told by sailors or settlers. Another theory is that the Menehune actually were the descendants of Hawaii's earliest settlers from the Marquesas who were pushed into the forest by Tahitian newcomers. The Tahitian word 'manahune' refers to low-class workers who did the most menial tasks which, the theory goes, the second-class original settlers were forced to perform. In time the Menehune became legendary and were given magical powers to help the helpless and to punish evil actions. A third possible explanation is that the Menehune were later, non-Tahitian immigrants who were not permitted to live with or intermarry with descendants of Tahitians.
Early settlement
PolynesiansPolynesians
The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...
settled the island of Maui in at least three gradual waves; the earliest possibly from the Marquesas sometime before 450 A.D., then others from the Marquesas about 450 A.D., and lastly settlers from Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
from 700 A.D. The Tahitian arrivals introduced the core pieces of Hawaiian traditional culture: language, economic activities, the hereditary class system, land tenure, religion, and customs such as the strict kapu
Kapu
Kapu refers to the ancient Hawaiian code of conduct of laws and regulations. The kapu system was universal in lifestyle, gender roles, politics, religion, etc. An offense that was kapu was often a corporal offense, but also often denoted a threat to spiritual power, or theft of mana. Kapus were...
system that affected all aspects of life. Hawaiian oral tradition lists an unbroken chain of twenty-five rulers (the Moʻi of Maui) beginning with Paumakua
Paumakua
Paumakua may refer to:*Paumakua of Maui Legendary chief progenitor of the chiefs of Maui and Hawaii*Paumakua of Oahu Legendary chief progenitor of the chiefs of Kauai and Oahu...
the first Ali'i Nui of Maui.
Maui's oldest known temple enclosures (heiau
Heiau
A heiau is a Hawaiian temple. Many types of heiau existed, including heiau to treat the sick , offer first fruits, offer first catch, start rain, stop rain, increase the population, ensure health of the nation, achieve success in distant voyaging, reach peace, and achieve success in war . Only the...
s) are at Halekii and Pihana
Haleki'i-Pihana Heiau State Monument
Haleki'i-Pihana Heiau State Monument is a park containing two important luakini heiau on a high ridge near the mouth of Iao Stream in Wailuku, Maui...
from about 1200. The structures were, according to legend, built by the Menehune in a single night from stones on Paukukalo Beach. More likely they began as small structures and were expanded as the prestige of the Wailuku grew. The last additions were thought to have been made by King Kahekili. Pihana, also called Pihanakilani and Piihana, was a luakini
Luakini
In ancient Hawai'i, a luakini temple, or luakini heiau, was a Native Hawaiian sacred place where human and animal blood sacrifices were offered....
where human sacrifice was carried out. According to accounts written by outsiders, victims were most often kapu breakers or war captives.
Chiefdoms
Until the 15th century Maui comprised three chiefdoms: Wailuku, Lele (Lahaina), and Hana. Eventually all of West Maui was consolidated at Wailuku, with Hana remaining an independent chieftancy. West Maui and East Maui permanently merged about 1550 when King Pi'ilaniPi'ilani
Piilani was a political leader of ancient Hawaii.He ruled the island of Maui as the 15th Moʻi of Maui.The time of King Piilani is synonymous with the Golden Age of Maui...
married the daughter of Hoolae, the 6th Alii Nui of Hana. From that time until conquest Maui was ruled by a single joint royal family (Hawaiian: alii). Piilani and his successors were known for the peace and prosperity that followed. They constructed a highway that circled the island along its coast; remnants of which still exist. They also built the island's and Hawaii's largest temple enclosure. Today it is called Pi'ilanihale
Kahanu Garden
Kahanu Garden is a botanical garden located on the Hāna Highway near Hāna, Maui, Hawaii. It is one of five gardens of the non-profit National Tropical Botanical Garden, the others being McBryde, Allerton, and Limahuli Garden and Preserve on Kauai, and The Kampong in Florida.The garden was...
, built on an older temple site from about 1294. It is about 40 feet (12.2 m) high and 300 feet (91.4 m) long. Other heiau were constructed at Olowalu and Waianapanapa.
Heiau and other structures
Many ancient structures on Maui are named in story but no longer survive. There was a fort at Ka'uiki Head at HanaHana
Hana as a given name may have several origins. It is a variant transliteration of Hannah, meaning Grace in Hebrew associated with God feminine which is the Jewish and Christian form, as well as an Arabic female name meaning happiness , a Persian female name meaning a type of flower , and a Kurdish...
which was the scene of several battles between chiefdoms on Maui or invasions from Hawaii. The last battle occurred when King Kahekili fought off a Hawaiian raid in the 1780s. On a small island at the tip of Kauiki Head a huge statue of Kawalakii was erected by King Umi of Hana to frighten off would-be invaders. The Hauola Stone in Lahaina Harbor was believed to have healing qualities; it is still there. Extensive archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
research has been undertaken at Kahikinui on Maui's southeast coast. Several heiau have been located, as well as villages, and fields. Heiau in the Wailuku area include: Keahuku, Olokua, Olopia, Malena, Pohakuokahi, Lelemako, Kawelowelo, Kaulupala, Palamnaihiki, and Oloolokalani. There were at least three additional heiau between Kahului Harbor and Wailuku. There is a partially collapsed heiau at Keoneoio (La Perouse Bay
La Perouse Bay
La Perouse Bay is located south of the town of Wailea-Makena, Hawaii at the end of Makena Alanui Road at . The bay's Hawaiian name is Keoneoio....
.) In several parts of the island small shrines were set up, usually a single or cluster of standing stones where fishermen could pray and give offerings. Rarely walled canoe 'sheds' are still preserved. The Ke'anae Peninsula's taro
Taro
Taro is a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the family Araceae . Of these, Colocasia esculenta is the most widely cultivated, and is the subject of this article. More specifically, this article describes the 'dasheen' form of taro; another variety is called eddoe.Taro is...
field system is a prehistoric field system still in use.
Maui has several petroglyph
Petroglyph
Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...
sites that have been variously interpreted as ancestral voyages, historic events, and religious stories. One of the best remaining sites is in the cliffs above Olowalu
Olowalu, Hawaii
Olowalu is a community on the island of Maui in the state of Hawaii. It was the site of an incident in 1790 that had implications on the history of the Hawaiian Islands.-Pu'u Honua:...
. Nearby Maalea had an extensive panel which was destroyed by a developer. Kaupo has little 'footprints' across a lava flow said to be the prints of Menehune. The Kula area has several sites on private land. There are some at Nuu as well. Unfortunately, vandalism to these sites has led to their closure or limited access to permit holders.
Land tenure
Hawaiians developed a complex and effective land tenure system. The island of Maui was divided into nine districts with Lanai, Molokai, Kahoolawe as an additional three districts (Hawaiian: moku). Each district was ruled from earliest times by a family and later by a chief's family. Each moku was divided into many community units (Hawaiian: ahupuaa) which ran from the top of the mountain to the ocean in a roughly triangular shape ruled by subchiefs. Boundaries were natural features such as streams, rock outcrops, or forest. Each community unit was subdivided into extended family units (Hawaiian: ili) that also ran from the mountains to the ocean, so each family had access to mountain forests, uplands, coast plains for farming, and ocean.Each district had a sanctuary (Hawaiian: puuhonua) to escape vengeance or penalty. Maui's sanctuary was located at Kukuipuka on Maui's west side near Waihee. After fleeing there, making restitution and waiting a period of time, the offender could return home. During warfare, women, children, and elders could go there and not be harmed.
Kapu society
The social system was called the kapuKapu
Kapu refers to the ancient Hawaiian code of conduct of laws and regulations. The kapu system was universal in lifestyle, gender roles, politics, religion, etc. An offense that was kapu was often a corporal offense, but also often denoted a threat to spiritual power, or theft of mana. Kapus were...
system. According to legend the system was brought to the islands from Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
by the priest Paao perhaps as early as 1300. The kapu system was rooted in the class system and religious practice. People were born into one of four ranks. At the top were the alii. Next were the kahuna', those of priestly rank who conducted religious ritual ceremonies, served as spiritual advisers, and healers. The third rank were makaaina, the commoners who worked the farms, built canoes, gathered wood, fished and performed labor. The fourth rank, kauwa or outcasts, were outside the system and lived outside the community much like 'untouchables' in traditional Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
society.
There were three main kapu (rule) types: fixed kapu, flexible kapu, and temporary kapu. Examples of fixed kapu were the complete separation of men and women at meals and that menstruating women had to live outside the household. Other fixed kapu related to the alii which set them apart from commoners and maintained their status in a society with few material possessions. Flexible kapu could be altered by the local chief. For example, certain kinds of fish could not be caught at certain times of the year. Temporary kapus were invoked for a period of days. For example, following a funeral, no one could fish for a period of time. The effect was to maintain order in the community. Kapu also conserved the environment by protecting plants and wildlife from overuse. The end result of the kapu system was to preserve the mana or sacredness of the totality of the environment which would bring about peace, harmony and stability. Kapu breakers disrupted the mana and jeopardized the entire community.
Unification of the islands
Kamehameha I (Hawaiian pronunciation: [kəmehəˈmɛhə]; ca. 1758 – May 8, 1819), also known as Kamehameha the Great, conquered the Hawaiian Islands and formally established the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1810. By developing alliances with the major Pacific colonial powers, Kamehameha preserved Hawaii's independence under his rule. Kamehameha is remembered for many reasons and one is the Kanawai Mamalahoe, the "Law of the Splintered Paddle", which protects human rights of non-combatants in times of battle. Kamehameha's full Hawaiian name is Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kaui Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea.Castaways
Oral tradition indicates that castaways, most likely SpanishSpanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
, shipwrecked on the islands sometime between 1521 and 1530. Versions of this story are found on Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui. In the Maui version several white men and a woman were shipwrecked during the reign of King Kakaalaneo at Kiwi near Waihee. The captain's Hawaiian name was Kukanaloa. The men married, had families, and became ancestors of some of the chiefs.
Spanish ships sailed between Asia and Mexico or South America regularly. Analysis of documents purporting to record a 'discovery' of Hawaii by Manuel Gaetan in 1555 show that whatever islands he noted in his log were too far east to have been any of Hawaii's main islands.
Captain Cook
On November 26, 1778, Captain James CookJames Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
became the first European explorer to see Maui. Cook never set foot on the island because he was unable to find a suitable landing. The first European to visit Maui was the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
admiral Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse
Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse
Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse was a French Navy officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in Oceania.-Early career:...
, who landed on the shores of what is now known as La Perouse Bay
La Perouse Bay
La Perouse Bay is located south of the town of Wailea-Makena, Hawaii at the end of Makena Alanui Road at . The bay's Hawaiian name is Keoneoio....
on May 29, 1786.
Simon and Thomas Metcalfe
In 1790 an American maritime fur tradeMaritime Fur Trade
The Maritime Fur Trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese...
r, Simon Metcalfe
Simon Metcalfe
Simon Metcalfe was a British American surveyor and one of the first American maritime fur traders to visit the Pacific Northwest coast...
, anchored his ship, the Eleanora south of Lahaina. During the night, a Hawaiian named Kaopuiki and several accomplices killed a guard and cut the ships's cutter loose and ran it ashore. The next morning when the incident was discovered, Captain Metcalfe fired his cannon into the closest village and kidnapped several Hawaiians who told him that people from the village of Olowalu
Olowalu, Hawaii
Olowalu is a community on the island of Maui in the state of Hawaii. It was the site of an incident in 1790 that had implications on the history of the Hawaiian Islands.-Pu'u Honua:...
were responsible. Metcalfe moved his ship to Olowalu only to discover the village under a kapu for three days while the local chief celebrated a family occasion. As soon as the three days were over canoes from Olowalu flocked toward Metcalfe's ship to trade. Metcalfe, feigning peaceful intentions, waved the canoes around to his ship's landward side and then ordered broadside
Broadside
A broadside is the side of a ship; the battery of cannon on one side of a warship; or their simultaneous fire in naval warfare.-Age of Sail:...
s of ball
Round shot
Round shot is a solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun it is fired from.Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, but by the 17th century, from iron...
and shot
Grapeshot
In artillery, a grapeshot is a type of shot that is not a one solid element, but a mass of small metal balls or slugs packed tightly into a canvas bag. It was used both in land and naval warfare. When assembled, the balls resembled a cluster of grapes, hence the name...
fired at point-blank range, which blasted the vessels to pieces. About one hundred Hawaiians were killed and several hundred wounded.
Metcalfe then sailed to Hawaii and, at Kealakekua Bay
Kealakekua Bay
Kealakekua Bay is located on the Kona coast of the island of Hawaii about south of Kailua-Kona.Settled over a thousand years ago, the surrounding area contains many archeological and historical sites such as religious temples, and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places listings on...
, began what seemed to be friendly intercourse with the natives. Around the same time Metcalfe's son, Thomas Humphrey Metcalfe, arrived in the Hawaiian Islands, at Kawaihae Bay, in command of the Fair American, a small schooner owned by his father. His voyage to the Hawaiian Islands had been delayed because the Fair American and its crew had been seized by the Spanish Navy
Spanish Navy
The Spanish Navy is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces, one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Armada is responsible for notable achievements in world history such as the discovery of Americas, the first world circumnavigation, and the discovery of a maritime path...
during the Nootka Crisis
Nootka Crisis
The Nootka Crisis was an international incident and political dispute between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Spain, triggered by a series of events that took place during the summer of 1789 at Nootka Sound...
. The younger Metcalfe's vessel was captured by Chief Kameʻeiamoku, who had been insulted and flogged by Simon Metcalfe earlier that year. Kameeiamoku had vowed to exact revenge on whatever ship next came his way, and by chance that ship turned out to be the Fair American. Thomas Metcalfe and the entire crew were killed except for Isaac Davis
Isaac Davis (Hawaii)
Isaac Davis was a Welsh advisor to Kamehameha I and helped form the Kingdom of Hawaii. He arrived in Hawaii in 1790 as the sole survivor of the massacre of the crew of The Fair American. He along with John Young became friends and advisors to Kamehameha...
, who Kameeiamoku sent as a captive to Kamehameha along with guns and cannons taken from the Fair American. Another American from Simon Metcalfe's ship, John Young
John Young (Hawaii)
John Young was a British subject who became an important military advisor to Kamehameha I during the formation of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was left behind by Simon Metcalfe, captain of the American ship Eleanora, and along with a Welshmen Isaac Davis became a friend and advisor to Kamehameha...
, was also captured to prevent Metcalfe from hearing about his son's murder. The two Americans, Young and Davis, commanded the cannons at the bloody battle of Kepaniwai
Battle of Kepaniwai
The Battle of Kepaniwai was fought in 1790 between Hawaii Island and Maui. The forces of Hawaii were led by Kamehameha I, while the forces of Maui were led by Kalanikūpule...
.
Sandalwood
The first trading encounters with Europeans were independent businessmen on ships trading goods with China. Hawaiians had little with which to purchase goods except for foods and livestock, until the traders found Hawaiian sandalwoodSandalwood
Sandalwood is the name of a class of fragrant woods from trees in the genus Santalum. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and unlike many other aromatic woods they retain their fragrance for decades. As well as using the harvested and cut wood in-situ, essential oils are also extracted...
trees, that were valuable in China for incense. King Kamehameha tightly controlled contact with foreigners and centralized the sandalwood trade under his personal oversight in 1805. It became the first important source of foreign goods and cash income for the alii. The resource was limited, however, and by the 1830s sandalwood became so scarce that logging stopped.
Whaling
WhalingWhaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
ships plied the Pacific along the coast of Peru and Japan as early as 1818. Hawaii sat directly between the two. Lahaina and Honolulu became the main Pacific ports for the north Pacific whaling fleet. Since Lahaina had no real harbor, ships anchored in the 'roads' off Maui's southwest coast for what would be called "rest & recreation" today. By 1824 more than 100 ships visited Lahaina a year. As Hawaii's capital, it quickly drew enterprising immigrants who opened tavern
Tavern
A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food, and in some cases, where travelers receive lodging....
s, brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
s, inns, and shops. Hawaiians paddled out to the ships to trade fresh fruit and produce for trinket trade goods such a beads, mirrors, metal implements, and cloth. At its height in the 1850s more than 400 whaling ships a year visited Lahaina.
Whaling ships tended to stay several weeks rather than days which explains complaints about the drinking and prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
in the town at that time. Whaling declined steeply at the end of the 19th century as kerosene
Kerosene
Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
and electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
replaced whale oil
Whale oil
Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of right whale and the bowhead whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...
for lighting.
Hawaiians also began to plant many types of crops which were introduced to the islands: coffee, potatoes, sugar cane from which rum could be distilled, pineapples and rice. Sailors were introduced to the art of tattoos.
Destruction of traditional life
The introduction of outsiders began the erosion of the class, kapu and religious systems. Even before Christian missionaries arrived in force, the system was weakened by decades of civil war among the island chiefs, foreign residents who did not fit into the system, and the introduction of new ideas about society, religion and government. The kapu system, human sacrifice and caste system in the islands appalled European visitors who condemned the entire culture. The rulers of Maui were influenced by visitors and the religious and social system was further weakened. Ultimately, the alii themselves ended the kapu and traditional religion. They could not foresee that by doing so they had weakened the foundations of their own power.Hawaiians were exposed to the Europeans' communicable diseases, including enteric
Enteric
Enteric can refer to:* A general term describing something related to or associated with the intestines** Microorganisms that inhabit the intestines are commonly known as enteric bacteria* Enteric nervous system...
, viral
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
, and venereal infections. A series of epidemic
Epidemic
In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...
s, killed up to 95% of the residents, destroying the social and cultural fabric of traditional Hawaiian life.
The new religion
When Kamehameha I died in 1819, Queen Kaahumanu declared herself a co-ruler with his son Kamehameha IIKamehameha II
Kamehameha II was the second king of the Kingdom of Hawaii. His birth name was Liholiho and full name was Kalaninui kua Liholiho i ke kapu Iolani...
. She challenged many of the conventions of Hawaiian society, ending the kapu system. Heiau were destroyed, images burned or broken, and priests chased away. This threw the religious life of Hawaiians into confusion. Within two years the first Christian missionaries appeared, just as Hawaiians lost confidence in their traditional religion and social system.
Early missionaries
The first Christian missionary arrived on Maui from New England in 1821 when a Dr. Holman built a house in Lahaina and taught with some success, later moving to Honolulu. The missionaries developed a written version of the Hawaiian LanguageHawaiian language
The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
. Among others, Hiram Bingham I
Hiram Bingham I
Hiram Bingham, formally Hiram Bingham I , was leader of the first group of Protestant missionaries to introduce Christianity to the Hawaiian islands.-Life:...
employed Latin letters that approximated Hawaiian sounds in English. The only exception was the okina
Okina
The okina, also called by several other names , is a unicameral consonant letter used within the Latin script to mark the phonetic glottal stop, as it is used in many Polynesian languages.- Geographic names in the United States :...
, a glottal stop, which precedes some vowels in many Hawaiian words. The result was a twelve letter alphabet
Hawaiian alphabet
The Hawaiian alphabet, ka pīʻāpā Hawaiʻi, was adapted from the English alphabet in the early 19th century by American missionaries to print a Hawaiian bible.- Origins :...
with additional vowel combinations. The first literature in Hawaiian was printed in 1822. By 1826 the final version had evolved by simplifying interchangeable letters b/p, k/t, l/r, v/w and eliminating several letter used only in writing foreign words. Hawaiians learned to read rapidly in their own language.
In late May 1823 Reverends William Richards
William Richards (Hawaii)
William Richards was a missionary and politician in the Kingdom of Hawaii.-Family life:William Richards was born in Plainfield, Massachusetts on August 22, 1793. His father was James Richards and mother was Lydia Shaw. He was schooled under Moses Hallock in Plainfield, attended Williams College...
and Charles Stewart and their wives from the Congregational and Presbyterian American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was the first American Christian foreign mission agency. It was proposed in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College and officially chartered in 1812. In 1961 it merged with other societies to form the United Church Board for World...
(ABCFM) opened a mission at Lāhainā at the invitation of Queen Kaahumanu. Richards was permitted to build a stone house on the present site of Campbell Park in downtown Lahaina. He gradually left missionary service and became a legal advisor, diplomatic envoy and Hawaiian Minister of Education. He drew up Hawaii's first constitution. Stewart remained in the islands for two and a half years, but when his wife became ill, he returned to New England. He kept a journal of his experiences which has become an important source for the time period. Betsy Stockton, an emancipated slave, came with the Stewarts and began to teach ordinary Hawaiians. Her efforts resulted in the first classes for commoners on Maui and by the time she left in 1825 with the Stewarts, she had taught 8,000 Hawaiians. The missionaries set up a printing shop and began printing bibles and educational materials which supplied schools throughout the islands. The first stone church was built in 1828 at Lahaina called Waiola Church
Waiola Church
Waiola Church is the site of a historic mission established in 1823 on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Originally called Wainee Church till 1953, the cemetery is the final resting place for early members of the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii....
. The churchyard there contains the remains of many early foreigners and Hawaiians, among them, Queen Keōpūolani
Keopuolani
Kalanikauikaalaneo Kai Keōpūolani-Ahu-i-Kekai-Makuahine-a-Kama-Kalani-Kau-i-Kealaneo was a queen consort of Hawaii and the highest ranking wife of King Kamehameha I.-Early life:...
, the first royalty converted to Christianity, and Queen Kaahumanu. In 1831 the Lahainaluna Mission School, later Lahainaluna Seminary was established, publishing Hawaiian language bibles, and educational materials.
The early missionaries came into direct conflict with whalers when they attempted to keep sailors out of the bawdy houses and to stop Hawaiian women from visiting the ships. In 1825 a crew attempted to demolish Richards' house for his efforts to keep Hawaiians and Americans apart. A small fort was built at Lahaina after a whaling ship, John Palmer fired its cannon after an altercation with missionaries about women visiting ships. Remains of the fort can still be seen. The missionaries both altered and preserved the native culture. The new religious teachings and strict Victorian ideas altered many aspects of Maui's culture while their literacy efforts preserved native history and language for posterity.
Spread of Christianity
In the early 1830s a second wave of missionaries arrived and established churches in other parts of Maui. A congregation was established at Wailuku sometime before 1831 by Pastors Jonathan Green and Reuben Tinker. The minutes of the ABCFM gives an insight into the swift conversion of Hawaiians: "Until recently the chiefs have been regarded as something more than mortal. So when the chiefs are motivated by the Holy Ghost to embrace Christianity, their advice to join it has the force of law. So if told to attend or study, they did so." Pastors reported attendance at Wailuku on Sundays of 3,000 by 1832. By 1870 Hawaiian churches had been established in 13 locations throughout Maui and all of them with Hawaiian pastors trained at the Lahainaluna Seminary. The missionaries taught Hawaiians and began writing the islands' history, which until then existed only as oral accounts.Missionaries believed they were "civilizing" Hawaiians. They tried to help Hawaiians become literate in their own language and English, and decrease drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, infanticide (exposing disabled children), gambling, theft, and murder. They attempted to replace Hawaiians' own religion with basic Protestant Christianity. They also introduced American notions about customs involving clothing, food, language, entertainment, education, hygiene and economy.
Eighteenth century
In 1750 the last eruption on Mount HaleakalaHaleakala
Haleakalā , or the East Maui Volcano, is a massive shield volcano that forms more than 75% of the Hawaiian Island of Maui. The western 25% of the island is formed by the West Maui Mountains.- History :...
occurred from two vents on the south flank at Keoneoio above La Perouse Bay
La Perouse Bay
La Perouse Bay is located south of the town of Wailea-Makena, Hawaii at the end of Makena Alanui Road at . The bay's Hawaiian name is Keoneoio....
. It caused the abandonment of several villages at Keoneoio.
After insulting Kamehameha I
Kamehameha I
Kamehameha I , also known as Kamehameha the Great, conquered the Hawaiian Islands and formally established the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1810. By developing alliances with the major Pacific colonial powers, Kamehameha preserved Hawaii's independence under his rule...
, Princess Kaukooluaole was ordered to be sacrificed at Pihana after the defeat of Kalanikupule
Kalanikupule
Kalanikūpule was the 27th Mōī of Maui and King of Oahu. He was the last king to physically fight with Kamehameha I over the Hawaiian Islands. Kalanikūpule was the last of the longest line of Alii Aimoku in the Hawaiian Islands.- Early life :...
in 1790. Poloahilani, a foster-sister of the princess, was sent to be sacrificed in the princess' place; the last time the heiau was used for that purpose. (Pihana was ordered destroyed in 1819 as part of a campaign against the old religion upon the death of Kamehameha I.) Near Pihana was a warrior training camp at Kauahea.
Also in 1790 Kamehameha I
Kamehameha I
Kamehameha I , also known as Kamehameha the Great, conquered the Hawaiian Islands and formally established the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1810. By developing alliances with the major Pacific colonial powers, Kamehameha preserved Hawaii's independence under his rule...
set about to wrest control of the islands from Kahekili. With about 1,200 warriors and cannons and guns taken from Metcalf, Kamehameha invaded. He defeated Prince Kalanikupule
Kalanikupule
Kalanikūpule was the 27th Mōī of Maui and King of Oahu. He was the last king to physically fight with Kamehameha I over the Hawaiian Islands. Kalanikūpule was the last of the longest line of Alii Aimoku in the Hawaiian Islands.- Early life :...
in the Iao Valley west of Wailuku. The name of the battle denotes the "damming of the stream" by the bodies of the warriors killed. Kalanikupule and his chiefs escaped by climbing the pali and escaping to Oahu.
Kamehameha gained ultimate control of Maui in 1794 when he defeated King Kalanikupule's army at the battle of Nu'uanu
Battle of Nu'uanu
The Battle of Nuuanu , fought in May 1795 on the southern part of the island of Oahu, was a key battle in the final days of King Kamehameha I's wars to unify the Hawaiian Islands...
on Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
. Kalanikupule was sacrificed to Kamehameha's war god at Papaenena heiau, built by Kahekili at the base of Diamond Head
Diamond Head
Diamond Head may refer to:* Diamond Head, Hawaii, a volcanic cone on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu known to Hawaiians as Leahi* Diamond Head , a song by the Beach Boys from their 1968 album Friends...
above Waikiki
Waikiki
Waikiki is a neighborhood of Honolulu, in the City and County of Honolulu, on the south shore of the island of Oahu, in Hawaii. Waikiki Beach is the shoreline fronting Waikīkī....
. With his death the Kingdom of Maui ended. In 1798 Kamehameha began a brick palace in European fashion as his capitol, but Queen Kaahumnu refused to live in it when it was completed in 1802. Successive rulers lived there until the 1840s when the king and his advisors began to spend more time in Honolulu.
Nineteenth century
When the people of Maui came into contact with diseases for which they had no immunity and no effective treatment, they began to die in vast numbers. SmallpoxSmallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
, measles
Measles
Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...
, influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
, tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
, typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
, typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
and sexually transmitted diseases decimated the population. Estimates range from 30% to 50% of the population died within a generation. The effect was catastrophic on the culture of Maui. The Hawaiian social system fell apart and outsiders filled the power vacuum.
Catholicism
Father Aubert of the Congregation of Mary and Jesus arrived in Lahaina in 1846 to establish the first Catholic parish on Maui. He and his early congregants faced opposition from the Protestant missionaries, but the welcoming attitude of Hawaiians son replaced initial hostility. Father Aubert's first meeting places were open air and under thatched roofs. An adobe church, Maria LanikulaMaria Lanakila Catholic Church
Maria Lanakila Catholic Church is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church of Hawaii in the United States. Located in Lahaina on the island of Maui, the church falls under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Honolulu and its bishop. The parish has a mission in Kapalua under the title of the Sacred...
(Victorious Saint Mary) was built in downtown Lahaina.
In 1882 Father Beissel arrived at Makawao. In 1894 he completed the Holy Ghost Mission Catholic Church at Kula, serving a growing Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
population of cane workers.
Leprosy
In 1860 and 1861 church leaders on Maui noticed a significant increase in leprosyLeprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
(Hansen's Disease) cases. Citizens became alarmed at what they thought might be an epidemic. A doctor in Hana told the Board of Health that in Canada and the patients were isolated from the general population, provided with food and clothing until they recovered or died. In 1864 Dr. William Hillebrand
William Hillebrand
William Hillebrand was a German physician. He traveled the world, including over 20 years in the Hawaiian islands. In 1850, Hillebrand lived at what is now Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu. He also became known as a botanist.-Life and career:...
suggested a place such as a box canyon be found where lepers could be quarantined. A hospital at Kalihi on Oahu was used as a gathering place where those infected presented themselves for inspection. Those with leprosy were quarantined. Kalihi was only a temporary solution.
Property was purchased on the isolated north coast of Molokai
Molokai
Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...
at Kalaupapa where lepers would have no outside contact. By December 1865 the "Leper Colony
Leper colony
A leper colony, leprosarium, or lazar house is a place to quarantine leprous people.-History:Leper colonies or houses became widespread in the Middle Ages, particularly in Europe and India, and often run by monastic orders...
" was ready. Once the colony was established, those determined to have leprosy were forced to move there. Kalihi initially sent 104 people to the island. This was complicated because ships could not get close to the beach. Patients were initially shuttled to shore by whaleboats, which was dangerous and terrifying to infectees who had already suffered separation by force from friends and families. Eventually, they were forced over the side at gunpoint to swim through the surf
Surf
Surf is the wave activity in the area between the shoreline and outer limit of breakers. It may refer to a breaking wave in shallow water, upon the shore, or in the area in which waves breakSurf also may refer to:Commercial products...
. Patients were marched across the peninsula to Kalawao where they found huts and tiny cottages purchased for them in near ruin.
Father Joseph Damien
Father Damien
Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai, SS.CC. , born Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a missionary religious order...
became the pastor of the leper colony, working from St. Philomena Catholic Church, until his death in 1893. The courage and service of his life and work among those suffering from Hansen's have inspired Hawaiians and others for generations.
Great Mahele land redistribution
By 1848 so few Hawaiians remained and land rights had become so hopelessly confused that a land redistribution scheme, known as the Great MaheleGreat Mahele
The Great Mahele or just the Mahele was the Hawaiian land redistribution act proposed by King Kamehameha III in the 1830s and enacted in 1848.-Overview:...
, was established. Most Hawaiians lost their hereditary land rights. Sugar interests bought land and changed the economy of the island completely. Many native Hawaiians went to work in the cane fields instead of their own family small holdings.
Sugar cane
By the 1840s sugar cane production had gained a foothold via what became known as the plantation system. Descendants of the old missionary families went into various businesses and used their close connections to Hawaiian royalty to arrange special concessions, including land ownership. Early planters tried to make a profit with small holdings; larger companies consolidated plantations.Alexander and Baldwin (A&B) at Pāia
Paia, Hawaii
Pāia is a census-designated place in Maui County, Hawaii, on the northern coast of the island of Maui. The population was 2,499 at the 2000 census. Pāia is home to several restaurants, art galleries, surf shops and other tourist-oriented businesses. One business, Charley's, is frequented by...
was an early success. The Alexander and Baldwin plantation at Pāia stretched as far west as the ancient landing site where Kamehameha's war fleet landed in 1790. The plantation needed a port facility so a dock was built.
Immigrant workers
Since there weren't enough native workers to cultivated the acreage, planters began importing Asian contract workers. The plan was for workers to stay for a period of time and then return home. The first workers came from China, arriving in 1852. To counter the tightly organized Chinese workers, thousands of Japanese laborers came to Maui starting in 1868. Koreans followed in 1903, and Filipinos in 1909.Conditions on the plantations were terrible and the system ensured that workers always owed more than they had earned at the end of the season. Workers were more like indentured servants than contract laborers. About half the contract laborers returned to their homelands; the rest stayed to live on the islands. These immigrants forever altered the food, language, customs, and population of Maui. The imposition of the plantation system effectively disenfranchised the remaining native population of Maui. Foreign corporations and local bosses became the power behind the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Water
In 1876 A&B Sugar Company decided to bring water from the north side of Maui to the arid south central plain. They had a lease from the government of Hawaii on the condition that the ditch be built within two years. The East Maui Irrigation System still controls water from the slopes of HaleakalaHaleakala
Haleakalā , or the East Maui Volcano, is a massive shield volcano that forms more than 75% of the Hawaiian Island of Maui. The western 25% of the island is formed by the West Maui Mountains.- History :...
. This stimulated a competitor, Claus Spreckels
Claus Spreckels
Claus Spreckels, formally Adolph Claus J. Spreckels , , was a major industrialist in Hawai'i during the kingdom, republican and territorial periods of the islands' history...
owner of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company (HC&S). Spreckels received a second lease to any water not captured by A&B. A third competitor, Maui Agricultural Company (MA) expanded alongside the others. A sugar mill at Hamakuapoko was built in 1879 to process Maui's increasing amounts of cane.
In 1878 the need for improved transportation from sugar plantations to the port at Kahului caused Thomas Hobron to build Maui's first narrow gauge railroad. Operation commenced in July 1879 between the tiny landing at Kahului and Wailuku; it was formally named the Kahului Railroad in 1881. K.R.R. added passenger service and was extended to Pāia in 1884 where a new mill was to be built. Hobron was named postmaster and obtained the government contract for carrying mail to the plantations and towns it serviced.
Pineapple
In 1889 David and Henry Perrine BaldwinHenry Perrine Baldwin
Henry Perrine Baldwin was a businessman and politician on Maui in the Hawaiian islands. He supervised the construction of the East Maui Irrigation System and co-founded Alexander & Baldwin, one of the "Big Five" corporations that dominated the economy of the Territory of Hawaii.-Life:Henry Perrine...
purchased land in west Maui at Honolua and Honokohau adding to property they already owned at Haiku in east Maui. They planted pineapple as an experimental crop in 1890. Pineapples did very well as a plantation crop and additional acreages were planted resulting in the founding of Haiku Fruit and Packing Company in 1903. Henry Baldwin did so well that he formed the Maui Pineapple Company
Maui Pineapple Company
Maui Pineapple Company, Ltd. was a subsidiary of Maui Land & Pineapple Company Inc, and was the USA’s largest grower, processor, and shipper of Hawaiian pineapples. MPC had existed for a century, based in Maui, Hawaii, United States, and at one time cultivated and processed approximately of...
. The ranch at Honolua had tried a variety of crops and added pineapple at the suggestion of ranch manager David T. Fleming. The operations were so successful that by 1933 over 22000 acres (89 km²) of pineapple were under production.
Government
In 1845 Kamehameha III moved his capital from Lahaina to Honolulu. Honolulu was increasingly the hub of business and transport in the islands and it had a fine harbor, which Lahaina lacked. Once sailors in Honolulu began to be prosecuted for drunken or disorderly behavior, the whaling fleet and moored off Lahaina at times 100 ships at a time.Queen Liliuokalani ruled Maui and the other islands until the 1893 Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. One year later, the Republic of Hawaii
Republic of Hawaii
The Republic of Hawaii was the formal name of the government that controlled Hawaii from 1894 to 1898 when it was run as a republic. The republic period occurred between the administration of the Provisional Government of Hawaii which ended on July 4, 1894 and the adoption of the Newlands...
was founded. In 1898 the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
annexed
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
the Hawaiian islands naming them the Territory of Hawaii
Territory of Hawaii
The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 7, 1898, until August 21, 1959, when its territory, with the exception of Johnston Atoll, was admitted to the Union as the fiftieth U.S. state, the State of Hawaii.The U.S...
.
Twentieth century
Bubonic plagueBubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
stopped Kahului's development as Maui's main port in 1900. The shanty-town was deliberately burned to the ground to destroy the rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s which carried the disease. The port was quickly rebuilt and a rubble stone breakwater
Breakwater
Breakwater may refer to:* Breakwater , a structure for protecting a beach or harbour* Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia* Breakwater , a funk and soul band from the 1970s...
was constructed to improve the harbor in 1884.
Agriculture
Sugar cane was grown on Maui's west coast in the area between KāanapaliKaanapali, Hawaii
Kāanapali is a census-designated place in Maui County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 1,375 at the 2000 census. The master-planned town is located in the Old Hawaii ahupuaa of Hanakao`o, as in the same name of the southern end of Kaanapali Beach's Hanakao`o Canoe...
and Lahaina. A short line narrow-gauge railroad, the Lahaina Kāanapali and Pacific Railroad (L.K.&P. R.R. brought cane to the Pioneer sugar mill at Lahaina. The railroad closed in the 1950s when trucks were introduced.
HC&S built one of the world's largest sugar mills in 1901 at Puunene
Puunene
Puunēnē is an unincorporated town in the central part of Maui, Hawaii, near Kahului. Although the land in that area is fairly level, the words Puu nēnē mean "nene goose hill" in Hawaiian...
. MA built its own sugar mill at Paia in 1906. The next decades brought explosive growth in the sugar industry. The key to cane's growth was water. Sugar companies purchased water rights. Maui Agricultural Company built the Waihee Ditch in cooperation with Wailuku Sugar. The new Wailoa Ditch brought additional east Maui water to the plantations. Companies also began to drill deep water wells. MA also began pineapple plantation farming as an experiment and it eventually became Maui Pineapple Company
Maui Pineapple Company
Maui Pineapple Company, Ltd. was a subsidiary of Maui Land & Pineapple Company Inc, and was the USA’s largest grower, processor, and shipper of Hawaiian pineapples. MPC had existed for a century, based in Maui, Hawaii, United States, and at one time cultivated and processed approximately of...
. In west Maui the Honolua Ditch was reconstructed to the Pioneer sugar mill in Lahaina, supervised by David T. Fleming. In 1913 K.R.R. built a railroad to Hana including an enormous trestle
Trestle
A trestle is a rigid frame used as a support, especially referring to a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by such frames. In the context of trestle bridges, each supporting frame is generally referred to as a bent...
across Maliko Gulch, which was the highest trestle ever constructed in the islands at 230 feet (70.1 m).
In 1948 Maui Agricultural Company and HC&S merged under the name HC&S forming the largest sugar production company in the islands. HC&S began to make significant changes to its operations including the replacing of the narrow-gauge railway it had owned since 1899 with trucks.
Government
Maui County was established by the territorial legislature in 1905, including the islands of Maui, Lanai, Molokini (uninhabited), Kahoolawe (uninhabited), and part of Molokai, with the county seat at Wailuku.In 1916 Prince Jonah Kuhio, Hawaii's territorial delegate in the U.S. Congress, achieved passage of an act establishing Hawaii National Park
Hawaii National Park
Hawaii National Park may refer to:* Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, formerly part of Hawaii National Park* Haleakala National Park, formerly part of Hawaii National Park...
, which included the summit of Haleakala. The first permanent ranger was assigned in 1935. The next year improvements were made to the road to the summit. Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
and Work Project Authority funds and workers constructed the first visitor center.
The Vibora Luviminda
Vibora Luviminda
The Vibora Luviminda, a secretive organization focused largely on Filipino labor issues, was founded in 1924 on the island of Maui by Manuel Fagel....
trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
conducted the last ethnically-based labor strike in the Hawaiian Islands against four Maui sugar plantations in 1937. The union demanded higher wages and dismissal of five foremen. Manuel Fagel and nine other strike leaders were arrested and charged with kidnapping a worker. Fagel spent four months in jail while the strike continued. After 85 days on strike, the workers won a 15% increase in wages, but no contract was signed.
In 1960 Haleakala National Park
Haleakala National Park
Haleakalā National Park is a United States national park located on the island of Maui in the state of Hawaii. The park covers an area of , of which is a wilderness area...
was separated from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, established in 1916, is a United States National Park located in the U.S. State of Hawaii on the island of Hawaii. It encompasses two active volcanoes: Kīlauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, and Mauna Loa, the world's most massive volcano...
and expanded in 1969. The entire mountain was declared a federal wilderness area thereby protecting its unique character in perpetuity.
Air transport
Maui's first airport was built at Maalea in 1927 on land the legislature purchased from HC&S. Regular air service began in November 1929 for amphibious planes. Dirt runways were completed with convict labor in 1930, but were useless in wet weather. By 1936 the location and condition of the runway at Maalea had become inadequate for the larger planes which were introduced by Inter-Island Airlines. In 1938 the Maalea airport was condemned by the Federal Bureau of Air Commerce for its close proximity to the mountains of west Maui. Maui's only airport continued operations, but only for small aircraft.WPA funds paid for a survey for a new airport in 1936 at Puunene, but lack of funds prevented its construction until 1938 when it opened with one paved runway and others unpaved. A small US Navy facility opened at the airport for military use.
After the end of World War II the military decommissioned the naval air station at Kahului, so it could support commercial aviation
Commercial aviation
Commercial aviation is the part of civil aviation that involves operating aircraft for hire to transport passengers or cargo...
. In 1952 Congress turned Puunene airport over to the Territory and transferred all civilian air functions to Kahului.
World War II
After Japan's attack on December 7, 1941, all airfields in the islands were militarized. The military determined that the airport at Puunene was unsatisfactory and condemned land to build a new Naval Air Station in 1942. Puunene was also expanded as the war continued.Maui was involved in the Pacific Theater
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
The Pacific Ocean theatre was one of four major naval theatres of war of World War II, which pitted the forces of Japan against those of the United States, the British Commonwealth, the Netherlands and France....
of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as a staging center, training base, and for rest and relaxation. At 1943-44 peak, the number of troops stationed on Maui exceeded 100,000. The main base of the 4th Marine Division was in Haiku. Beaches (e.g., in ) were used for practice landings and training in marine demolition and sabotage. MA converted its lime
Lime (mineral)
Lime is a general term for calcium-containing inorganic materials, in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides predominate. Strictly speaking, lime is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide. It is also the name for a single mineral of the CaO composition, occurring very rarely...
kiln
Kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...
facility to a cement
Cement
In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
plant for the duration of the war. Thousands of former G.I.'s settled on the islands. Those who didn't not settle returned as tourists, which became the foundation of Maui's modern economy.
Tourism
Maui's first resort hotel, Hotel Hana, opened in 1946. In 1961 Maui's first planned resort community opened at Kāanapali on what had been part of the old pineapple plantation belonging to the Maui Pineapple Company on Maui's west coast.Pop culture
In 1969 the first hippieHippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
s arrived and settled in south Maui at Oneloa Beach. They introduced marijuana culture and established Maui reputation for the best marijuana. Other 'hippie' communities were established near Pāia and on the slopes of Haleakala. They were not well-received and confrontations with authorities resulted in arrests and protests.
See also
- James "Kimo" ApanaJames ApanaJames K. Apana, popularly known as Kimo Apana, served as Mayor of the County of Maui in Hawaii from 1999 to January 2, 2003. Born in Wailuku, he graduated from Kamehameha Schools and obtained a speech degree at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa...
- Alan ArakawaAlan ArakawaAlan M. Arakawa is an American politician who is currently the Mayor of the County of Maui in Hawaii. He previously served as Maui mayor from 2002 to 2006., Arakawa graduated from Maui High School and attended the University of Hawai'i at Manoa as a business major. He then entered civil service...
- Elmer F. CravalhoElmer F. CravalhoElmer F. Cravalho, a member of the Democratic Party, is best known as Maui's Mayor from 1969 to 1979 and former Speaker of the Hawaii House of Representatives. Cravalho is the descendant of Portuguese immigrants who settled in Hawaii....
- Amy Gilliom
- Lokelani LindsayKamehameha SchoolsKamehameha Schools , formerly called Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate , is a private co-educational college-preparatory institution that specializes in Native Hawaiian language and cultural education. It is located in Hawaii and operates three campuses: Kapālama , Pukalani , and Keaau...
- Linda LingleLinda LingleLinda Lingle was the sixth Governor of Hawaii. Lingle holds a number of distinctions: first Republican elected governor of Hawaii since the departure of William F...