Hawai‘i Meets Western World

During Kamehameha's lifetime, the Islands experienced enormous social and political change. Frequent and fractious wars ended and during different periods, Kamehameha held court at Lahaina. The English navigator Captain Cook put the Islands in the world's consciousness through news of his death at Kealakekua and his published journals. The Frenchman La Perouse and his crew also broadcast impressions of the Islands and their inhabitants. Soon a steady stream of foreign ships was anchoring off Hawaii's shores, trading with Hawaiians and introducing Western goods and skills.

Kamehameha's death in 1819 was followed by other changes: the throwing off of the old Hawaiian religious traditions and the arrival of Protestant missionaries. On Maui, missionaries introduced literacy and Western education through local mission schools. They established Lahainaluna as a teacher's training college in 1831, and trained the first generations of Hawaiian scholars. Through their influence on Hawaiian ali‘i, they promoted the rule of law, principles of a constitutional monarchy, and the notion of private property.

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