King Kamehameha Was a Murderer, not a Uniter

Kamehameha I, name Paiea at birth, meaning “Hard-Shelled Crab,” also known as Kamehameha the Great, was the founder and first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Full name is Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kauʻi Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea.

King Kamehameha I Day on June 11 is a public holiday in Hawai’i to honor the man who established the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi — comprising the Hawaiian Islands of Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and Hawaiʻi (Big Island).

The holiday was set through royal decree on December 22, 1871, by King Kamehameha V, to celebrate the king’s great-grandfather. By most accounts, Kamehameha was born in Ainakea, Kohala, Hawaiʻi.

Today, kānaka ʻōiwi or Native Hawaiians (also called kānaka maoli) claim Kamehameha united the islands. They say native Polynesians at the time of Kamehameha’s birth were constantly fighting and Kamehameha ended this bickering and violence.

The early Polynesians who came to the islands of Hawai‘i eventually created full, and often distinct, communities on each island. While there was contact, interaction and exchange between the islands, as a general rule, political control was at the moku (large land division within an island), or sometimes island, level.

During the eighteenth century however, one of the most renowned kāula (prophet, seer) from Māui predicted the coming of one who would bring all of the islands under his rule; who would bring peace through unification.

During this era, in the court of Kalani‘ōpu‘u was a young boy named Kamehameha. He was a strong and brave youth and was soon assigned to the renowned warrior Kekūhaupi‘o to train in the arts of battle. He was also assigned kāhuna to teach him the ways of the gods.

https://hawaiialive.org/kukailimoku/

While the Great One may have “unified” the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, he did not “unite” the Kānaka. He conquered the islands, and one does not unify people by killing them or their relatives.

From about 1780 until 1810, Kamehameha led a cruel campaign that murdered thousands of Polynesians. There has never been unity between the various groups of people living in the eight major islands who came to the Sandwich Islands from many different island chains.

To put Kānaka claims about Kamehameha in modern perspective, Vladimir Putin stated in April 2022 that he was preparing to attack Ukraine to unite greater Russia and bring peace to cities, towns and people:

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Wednesday that he would bring peace to the Donbas — the embattled region in eastern Ukraine composed of Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts home to eight years of simmering war by Kremlin-backed separatists and now the focus of Moscow’s latest destructive invasion. [source]

Americans were both relieved and frustrated when the Biden administration implemented a messy withdrawal from Afghanistan summer 2021. Our nation had been at war for 20 years. Americans were war-weary and exhausted.

Kamehameha’s military aggression lasted 30 years. Generations of young, talented Kānaka men and future leaders were slaughtered between 1780-1810.

War campaigns cost islanders incalculable measures of precious resources that could have been channeled to their needs in a rapidly changing world. Kamehameha died in 1819. His life was characterized by death and bloodshed. He personified the war god Kuka’ilimoku.

Rather than uniting and inspiring Polynesian inhabitants to build schools and hospitals, further education and medical sciences, and protect Kānaka culture and land from outsiders, Kamehameha’s legacy is violence and aggression. This robbed the kingdom of many of the Best & Brightest in their ‘ohana.

For those who have visited the islands, ask yourself what motivated these Polynesian MEN to engage in war in the first place? As our country now suffers the tears of too many tragic school and community shootings, we should question what is wrong with human beings.

Each of the eight major islands in Hawai’i are Paradise. Perfect weather, plenty fresh water, bountiful land blessed to nurture and grow any crop, fruit or vegetable, and unlimited fish and creatures available in the surrounding ocean.

Only madmen shoot children in schools; and only madmen paddle 90+ miles through treacherous Pacific waters to wage war on other villages for no reason but greed, ego and personal ambition.

Had Kamehameha prosecuted war to prevent outsiders from landing or residing in the islands, I could sympathize with his actions. As documented, Kamehameha traded with foreigners and encouraged deeper integration into local culture. Kānaka kings and queens invited haoles (strangers) to live and partner with them. The monarchy had land; outsiders had money.

Kamehameha and rival chiefs made separate deals with foreign powers to acquire weapons of mass destruction to kill brothers and sisters. They summoned the Devil to conquer this ocean paradise; while descendants today claim the Devil cheated them in return.

Most hurtful to the spirit of aloha is that contemporary Kānaka harbor resentment and teach their keiki to be angry and have hatred toward White people and the United States of America.

A small group of about 500 Hawaiian, European and American business elites and plantations owners intimidated King Kalākaua into signing a new constitution in 1887 — not the U.S.A. or White people.

The Bayonet Constitution neutered the monarchy, just as the wars of Kamehameha had neutered the male warrior class. Kamehameha splintered the paddle — pledging not to kill elderly, women or children — but left few capable or willing to fight for the monarchy.

There was only minimal protest when the Royalists were challenged. Kalākaua didn’t resist, which frustrated sister Lili’uokalani into conspiring to remove her brother from power; nor did Kalākaua demand change during the years until his death in 1891. Even the Wilcox rebellion in 1895 could only field an insurgent force of around 70 Kānaka. [source]

The misrepresentation and admiration of Kamehameha’s legacy therefore triggers more anger and animosity in the islands. It was Kamehameha who conquered and killed; Kamehameha who colonized islands against the will of inhabitants and their leaders; and Kamehameha who planted the seeds for the eventual usurpation of this island chain. [source]

Blaming people today who had nothing to do with these events does not alter the facts of history. Americans in Hawai’i for example do not blame young Japanese children for the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

In 1700, there were an estimated 600,000 Kānaka; less than 40,000 remained by 1900. Kānaka chiefs and their war games, along with the failure of Kānaka kings and queens to protect their subjects from disease, decimated the island population.

As we suffer too often in America today, the monarchy put profits before the people in their kingdom. Waging military campaigns for 30 years, building royal palaces and offices, sending emissaries around the globe and their keiki to the most prestigious foreign schools cost money.

Supplies of sandalwood lasted only a few years. Land rights and later the vote became the currency for international recognition and support for royal rule. Infighting destroyed the aloha kingdom.

King Kamehameha Was a Murderer, not a Uniter

From the Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site, we learn [source]:

By the time of Cook’s arrival [1778], Kamehameha had become a superb warrior who already carried the scars of a number of political and physical encounters. The young warrior Kamehameha was described as a tall, strong, and physically fearless man who “moved in an aura of violence.”

Wars not make one great.

Yoda

Kamehameha accompanied his uncle (King Kalani’opu’u) aboard the Discovery, and history records that he conducted himself with valor during the battle in which Cook was killed. For his part in the battle at Kealakekua he achieved a certain level of notoriety, which he paraded “with an imperiousness that matched and even exceeded his rank as a high chief.”

Kamehameha might never have become king except for a twist of fate. Within a year after Cook’s death, the elderly ali’i Kalani’opu’u, crippled by age and disease, called together his retainers and divided his Hawaiian domain.

His son Kiwala’o became his political heir. To his nephew Kamehameha, the elderly ali’i entrusted the war god Kuka’ilimoku. Although this pattern of dividing the succession of the chiefdom and the protectorate of the god Ku was legendary, some authors suggest it was also uncommon.

As the eldest son, a chief of high rank, and the designated heir, the claim of Kiawala’o to the island of Hawai’i was “clear and irrefutible.”

However, although Kamehameha was of lower rank, and only a nephew of the late king, his possession of the war god was a powerful incentive to political ambition.

Thus the old chief’s legacy had effectively “split the political decision-making power between individuals of unequal rank” and set the stage for civil war among the chiefs of the island of Hawai’i.

Although Kiwala’o was senior to Kamehameha, the latter soon began to challenge his authority. During the funeral for one of Kalani’opu’u’s chiefs, Kamehameha stepped in and performed one of the rituals specifically reserved for Kiwala’o, an act that constituted a great insult.

After Kalani’opu’u died, in 1782, Kiwala’o took his bones to the royal burial house, Hale o Keawe, at Honaunau on the west coast of Hawai’i Island. Kamehameha and other western coast chiefs gathered nearby to drink and mourn his death.

There are different versions of the events that followed. Some say that the old king had already divided the lands of the island of Hawai’i, giving his son Kiwala’o the districts of Ka’u, Puna, and Hilo. Kamehameha was to inherit the districts of Kona, Kohala, and Hamakua.

It is not clear whether the landing of Kiwala’o’s at Honaunau was to deify the bones of Kalani’opu’u or to attempt seizure of the district of Kona. Some suggest that Kamehameha and the other chiefs had gathered at Honaunau to await the redistribution of land, which usually occurred on the death of a chief, and to make hasty alliances.

When it appeared that Kamehameha and his allies were not to receive what they considered their fair share, the battle for power and property began.

Over the next four years, numerous battles took place as well as a great deal of jockeying for position and privilege. Alliances were made and broken, but no one was able to gain a decisive advantage.

The rulers of Hawai’i had reached a stalemate. Kamehameha’s superior forces had several times won out over those of other warriors. He took the daughter of Kiwala’o, Keopuolani, captive and made her one of his wives; he also took the child Ka’ahumanu (once mentioned as a wife for Kiwala’o) and “betrothed her to himself.”

Kamehameha had many wives. The exact number is debated because documents that recorded the names of his wives were destroyed. Bingham lists 21, but earlier research from Mary Kawena Pukui counted 26. In Kamehameha’s Children Today authors Ahlo, Johnson and Walker list 30 wives: 18 who bore children, and 12 who did not. They state the total number of children to be 35: 17 sons and 18 daughters. While he had many wives and children, his children through his highest-ranking wife, Keōpūolani, succeeded him to the throne.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_I

In Ho`omana: Understanding the Sacred and Spiritual, Chun stated that Keōpūolani supported Kaʻahumanu’s ending of the Kapu system as the best way to ensure that Kamehameha’s children and grandchildren would rule the kingdom.

He thus firmly established himself as an equal contender for control over the Hawaiian lands formerly ruled by Kalani’opu’u. Eventually Kiwala’o was killed in battle, but control of the Island of Hawai’i remained divided.

By 1786 the old chief Kahekili, king of Maui, had become the most powerful ali’i in the islands, ruling O’ahu, Maui, Moloka’i, and Lana’i, and controlling Kaua’i and Ni’ihau through an agreement with his half-brother Ka’eokulani.

In 1790 Kamehameha and his army, aided by Isaac Davis and John Young, invaded Maui. The great chief Kahekili was on O’ahu, attempting to stem a revolt there.

Using cannon salvaged from the ship, The Fair American, Kamehameha’s warriors forced the Maui army into retreat, killing such a large number that the bodies dammed up a stream.

However, Kamehameha’s victory was short-lived, for one of his enemies, his cousin Keoua, chief of Puna and Ka’u, took advantage of Kamehameha’s absence from Hawai’i to pillage and destroy villages on Hawai’i Island’s west coast.

Returning to Hawai’i, Kamehameha fought Keoua in two fierce battles. Kamehameha then retired to the west coast of the island, while Keoua and his army moved southward, losing some of their group in a volcanic steam blast.

This civil war, which ended in 1790, was the last Hawaiian military campaign to be fought with traditional weapons. In future battles Kamehameha adopted Western technology, a factor that probably accounted for much of his success.

Because of Kamehameha’s presence at Kealakekua Bay during the 1790s, many of the foreign trading ships stopped there. Thus he was able to amass large quantities of firearms to use in battle against other leaders.

However, the new weapons were expensive and contributed to large increases in the cost of warfare.

After almost a decade of fighting, Kamehameha had still not conquered all his enemies. So he heeded the advice of a seer on Kaua’i and erected a great new heiau at Pu’ukohola in Kawaihae for worship and for sacrifices to Kamehameha’s war god Ku.

Kamehameha hoped to thereby gain the spiritual power that would enable him to conquer the island. Some say that the rival chief Keoua was invited to Pu’ukohola to negotiate peace, but instead was killed and sacrificed on the heiau’s altar. Others suggest that he was dispirited by the battles and was “induced to surrender himself at Kawaihae” before being killed.

His death made Kamehameha ruler of the entire island of Hawai’i. Meanwhile, Kahekili decided to take the advantage while Kamehameha was preoccupied with Keoua and assembled an army — including a foreign gunner, trained dogs, and a special group of ferociously tattooed men known as pahupu’u.

They raided villages and defiled graves along the coasts of Hawai’i until challenged by Kamehameha. The ensuing sea battle (Battle of the Red-Mouthed Gun) was indecisive, and Kahekili withdrew safely to O’ahu.

Shortly thereafter, the English merchant William Brown, captain of the thirty-gun frigate Butterworth, discovered the harbor at Honolulu. Brown quickly made an agreement with Kahekili. The chief “ceded” the island of O’ahu (and perhaps Kaua’i) to Brown in return for military aid.

Kamehameha also recognized the efficacy of foreign aid and sought assistance from Captain George Vancouver. Vancouver, a dedicated “man of empire,” convinced Kamehameha to cede the Island of Hawai’i to the British who would then help protect it.

Kamehameha spent the next three years rebuilding the island’s economy and learning warfare from visiting foreigners.

Upon Kahekili’s death in 1794, the island of O’ahu went to his son Kalanikupule. His half-brother Ka’eokulani ruled over Kaua’i, Maui, Lana’i, and Moloka’i. The two went to war, each seeking to control all the islands.

After a series of battles on O’ahu and heavy bombardment from Brown’s ships, Ka’eokulani and most of his men were killed. Encouraged by the victory over his enemies, Kalanikupule decided to acquire English ships and military hardware to aid in his attack on Kamehameha.

Kalanikupule killed Brown and abducted the remainder of his crew, but the British seamen were able to regain control and unceremoniously shipped Kalanikupule and his followers ashore in canoes.

Recognizing his enemy’s vulnerability, Kamehameha used his strong army and his fleet of canoes and small ships to liberate Maui and Molaka’i from Kalanikupule’s control.

Kamehameha’s next target was O’ahu. As he prepared for war, one of his former allies, a chief named Kaiana, turned on him and joined forces with Kalanikupule.

Nevertheless, Kamehameha’s warriors overran O’ahu, killing both rival chiefs. Kamehameha could now lay claim to the rich farmland and fishponds of O’ahu, which would help support his final assault on Kaua’i.

By mid-1796, Kamehameha’s English carpenters had built a forty-ton ship for him at Honolulu, and once again he equipped his warriors for battle and advanced on Kaua’i. However bad weather forced him to give up his plans for invasion.

Meanwhile yet another challenger — Namakeha, Kaiana’s brother — led a bloody revolt on Hawai’i, depopulating the area and forcing Kamehameha to return to Hawai’i to crush the uprising.

Kamehameha used the next few years of peace to build a great armada of new war canoes and schooners armed with cannons; he also equipped his well-trained soldiers with muskets. He sailed this armada to Maui where he spent the next year in psychological warfare, sending threats to Ka’umu’ali’i, Kaua’i’s ruler.

This proved unsuccessful, so early in 1804 Kamehameha moved his fleet to O’ahu and prepared for combat. There his preparations for war were swiftly undone by an epidemic, perhaps cholera or typhoid fever, that killed many of his men.

For several more years he remained at O’ahu, recovering from this defeat and, perhaps, pondering conquest of Kaua’i.

Expecting an attack from Kamehameha, Ka’umu’ali’i sought the help of a Russian agent, Dr. Georg Schaffer, in building a fort at the mouth of the Waimea River and exchanged Kaua’i’s sandalwood for guns.

However, the anticipated battle never came because an American trader convinced Kamehameha to reach a compromise with Ka’umu’ali’i. Kamehameha was acknowledged as sovereign while Ka’umu’ali’i continued to rule Kaua’i, with his son as hostage in Honolulu.

Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site concludes:

After nine years at O’ahu, Kamehameha made a lengthy tour of his kingdom and finally settled at Kailua-Kona, where he lived for the next seven years. His rise to power had been based on invasion, on the use of superior force, and upon political machinations. His successful conquests, fueled by “compelling forces operating within Hawaiian society,” were also influenced by foreign interests represented by men like Captain Vancouver.

King Kalani’opu’u entrusted his nephew Kamehameha with the war god Kuka’ilimoku. “Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” [Matthew 26, 26:52]

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