A 'Hawaiian' Kingdom Constitution?
The most important question to ask when examining the Royal Hawaiian Constitution of 1840 was, "Who did it serve?"
After experiencing a few unpleasant incidences with the French, Russian imperialistic forces in the early 19th century, the monarch of the Hawaiian kingdom was advised by a council of American and British advisers to draft a national constitution for the purpose of legitimatizing its sovereignty as a kingdom to the rest of the globe. The monarch, King Kamehameha III, who already was enamored with the western sensibilities, easily bent to the words of his western advisors.
The protestant missionaries who at the time were advising the monarch, were also trying to take advantage of Oahu’s large fertile tracks of land for the production of indigenous sugar cane, pineapple, and eventually coffee. Therefore, provisions in the constitution were included that officially demarkated the Kingdom of Hawaii as a Protestant State, which gave incredible rights to the protestant missionaries. This acceptance of Christianity came mostly out of the Hawaiians eagerness to gain literacy, and that the quickest route to that was through attending church.
Allowing the protestant missionaries to become naturalized citizens in 1845, and then as chiefs (will come into play eight years later at the Great Mahele of 1848) allowed them among other things to indoctrinate their children and the children of the Hawaiian ruling class into the concepts designated by western culture. As a result, a year after the consititution was ratified, the Punahou school (which is still operational) was founded by the Dole family; a developmental move that put the Dole family in an advantageous political position.
If it hadn’t been for the Hawaiian constitution, there may never have been an annexation of the Hawaiian Territory in 1900 (led by a Dole), or the founding of the Dole pineapple plantation a year later in 1901.
