The History of Hawai'i

Recently, I am reading several books concerning to Hawai'i history, which I found they are so much fun.

I've been there about two weeks ago and enjoy so much wonderful experiences along the way. I saw ten rainbows a day and ate a lot of Japanese food there.

After the return,I found that I must read some books to feed my curiosity of Hawai'i.

Therefore, Mark Twain's ‘Letters from Hawaii' is my definite choice to make. That is the early work of his in his 20's. He was still a carefree, young boy who was not afraid any blunt perspective on this trip. Meanwhile, I also read a little companion book that goes with it , the little history of Hawai'i.

Hawai'i seems to be the most lonely island on the earth that was discovered until like one million years ago. The source or the origin seems to be still unknown. However, the people, why were they leaving their original tribes, took risks entering into such unknown island remains mystery. Some experts argued that they came from some weak/ inferior tribes who did not have enough strength to fight but had to flee from the original one. I was so amazed by the ancient people of the techniques that they were using in navigating the shoreless sea. According to the book, the ancestors of Hawai'i gained some special skills in celestial navigating from clouds formation, wind direction etc. Anyway, this was a pure survival game.

It seems to from an historian perspective is that Hawai'i people actually were the subbranches of the Polynesian culture that it had Tonga, New Zealand, Tahiti. They shared the same origins of the culture like Hula dance, clothes and houses. The gods or goddess from Hawai'i begin with four, Kane (The god of creator), Ku (the god of war), Lono( The goddess of earth) and Kanaloa (The godess of sea). They also had other gods but they all are named Tiki gods ( i bought one statue from the local craftsman) . They all had very interesting stories in the creation of the whole universe. Unlike the western Christianity system, they are in multi-gods system. However, it strikes some similarities with Japan too which honor nature as their gods, they could pick up anything from nature and name them as goddess and gods, which I really like to learn about.

Separated from the outside world, Hawai'i established its unique culture of social life. Lest they had several troops on Oahu Island, they seldom had wars with each other. Therefore, the sports and dance would mainly comprise the major activities in social life. Man and woman dressed up and danced Hula dance which I thought it was so beautiful, the hands waving like oceans, soft and tender. Besides, unlike the civilized society, although they had rankings and status, called Ali'li and chief (as the head of the tribe), they seemed to have very open relationship between women and men which I thought it confined to the nature.Man could have many wives and woman could have husbands too.

Around 1800, there were several western voyage troops had landed Hawai'i, one was Captain Cook from Britain who was very famous in discovering this lonely island in the world. Captain Cook was received the most warm welcome by the Hawaiian since at that time, they put on some kind of god ceremony and a lot of local people thought Captain Cook was the Kane God. Unfortunately, in the end, he was killed by the local people since he was dickering some trades with the tribe while he accused some of the people stole the skiff from the Captain Cook side. Still today, Hawaii still had a monument in memory of this explorer.

Like the history of China, the first real united moment in Qin dynasty was a very important one in the history. Around 1800, the Kamehameha the Great was the first King who united Hawaii with great effort. Keen at strategy art of war and shrewd in negotiation tactics, he lent the experience and technology from the western countries and took great advantage of them to conquer other tribes in Hawaii. During his power, he learned English to make smooth communication and slaved some of the westerners to build modern houses and hospitals. He even invaded Maui, another island to take control over 85% of the tribes in Hawaii. He died when he was 74 years' old. The Hawaii's fate was waiting for the age of missionary and sailors from all around the world since then, which means, the old, ancient way of living was overturned by the invaders.