Saturday, February 23, 2013

HAWAIIANS STRUGGLE TO OVERCOME LONG SAD HISTORY

With the arrival of James Cook more than 200 years ago, the genocide of a race began. 


From a population of nearly one million in 1778, by the 1850s, in less than 75 years, the population of Hawaiians was reduced to approximately 50,000 people. Thus the genocide of Hawaiians began.

By 1822, in less than 45 years, upon the arrival of the missionaries, the near extinction of religion, language, culture, system of governance, and land tenure began. 


And by 1848, in less than 26 years, with the so-called "Great Mahele of 1848," began the alienation of ownership of lands of the Hawaiian Kingdom to non-Hawaiians.

Then in 1854, in less than six years, upon the adoption of the "Bayonet Constitution" by the new republic, Hawaiians were effectively denied the vote in this new "democracy." 


Through the subsequent passage of various pieces of legislation by this new government, lands belonging to the Hawaiian Kingdom were gradually being stripped away.

By 1893, in less than 30 years, the hunger for land and money by the colonists, the Hawaiian Kingdom and independent nation of people with treaties with the great countries of the world, including the United States, was overthrown by the new republic and thus accelerated the genocide.

The annexation of Hawai`i by the United States in 1898 merely the "icing on the cake."




Enhanced by Zemanta