A Paradise Lost - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

1834: The first newspaper in the Hawaiian language, Ka Lama Hawaii, is run off the
Lahainaluna Seminary press (missionary school).
1836: Hawaii’s first English-language newspaper, the Sandwich Island Gazette, is
published in Honolulu. A treaty is negotiated between Great Britain and the Sandwich
Islands.
1837: The first public streets are laid out in Honolulu.
1839: Printing of the first edition of the Hawaiian Bible. Kamehameha III proclaims a
Declaration of Religious Rights.
1840: U.S. Exploring Expedition, with Commodore Charles Wilkes arrives in Hawai’i.
Kamehameha III proclaims the first constitution of Hawai’i.
1842: The United States recognizes the Kingdom of Hawai’i, proclaiming that no power
should seek exclusive privilege in, or take possession of Hawai’i.
1843: Lord George Paulet demands provisional cession of Hawai’i to Great Britain.
Admiral Richard Thomas rescinds the cession under Paulet and restores sovereignty to
the Islands. Kamehameha III, in his restoration day speech, recites a phrase that is to
become Hawai’i's national motto: Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono (“The Life of the
Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness”). England and France recognize the independence
of the Sandwich Islands.
1846: Whaleship visits to Hawai’i peak with 596 arrivals. Over two thirds anchor off
Lahaina, Maui.
1848: The ‘Great Mahele’ (land division) is conducted. A communal and collective usage
of the land, stewarded by the ruling ali’i class, is replaced by fee simple land tenure. An
epidemic of measles, whooping cough, and influenza takes the lives of about 10,000
people. Most of the victims are native Hawaiians. The twelfth (and last) company of
American Congregationalist missionaries arrives.
1850: The legislature authorizes contract labor system to recruit foreign workers for
Hawaii’s plantations. The first permanent Mormon missionaries to Hawai’i arrive.
1852: Chinese contract laborers arrive.
1853: A smallpox epidemic lasts eight months and takes 5,000–6,000 lives. Hawaiian
population is reduced to 72,000.
1854: Kamehameha III dies and is succeeded by Alexander Liholiho, Kamehameha IV.
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