Although many people on the mainland know of Liliuokalani, the last Queen of Hawaii, few realize that Hawaii was not always united under one ruler. In fact, for much of the islands’ history opposing chiefs warred over the islands. This system has been called both tribal and feudal, and compared to similar systems in India and in Europe. It is believed that this system originated in Hawaii about the thirteenth century, though little is known of Hawaii’s earliest history.

In the ancient Hawaiian systems of classes, Ali’i, the highest class, included both higher and lesser chiefs ruling the lands. Several lower classes supported the Ali’i, including Kauwa, the lowest class, including slaves and war prisoners. This caste system has been compared to the system used by the Hindu society in India. There was very little social mobility; for the most part, people remained in the social class in which they were born.

Ali’i presided over a feudal system of government, very similar to systems found in Europe in the Middle Ages, around 1000 A.D. Historians have drawn direct connections between the ali’i (kings and Dukes), kahuna (priests), knights (kao warriors), peasants (maka’ainana) and slaves (kauwa) to show how similar Hawaiian feudalism was to ancient systems of Europe.

In Hawaiian feudalism, as in European feudalism, the higher chiefs gave parcels of land to lower chiefs. They, in turn, allocated lands to lower castes to be farmed. The produce, then, would be turned over to the lesser chiefs. They would each take a cut of the harvest before sending the remainder to the higher ali’i. Every ahupua’a, or community, owed taxes in the form of produce or labor to the chiefs. Gradually, each ahupua’a came to specialize in a particular product, such as canoes.

In ancient Hawaii, land was redistributed often. It would be re-apportioned following the death of an ali’i, or when one chief defeated another, in which case the warriors (or kao) typically received the conquered land. Chiefs were constantly warring to gain more land holdings, which increased their wealth.

For much of the history of Hawaii, the four largest islands (Hawaii, Maui, Kauai, and Oahu) were generally presided over by their own chiefs. This period of Hawaiian history is typically known as Ancient Hawaii. In the late eighteenth century, this longstanding system fragmented as several independent chiefs gained control of land. At this time, warfare between opposing chiefs became common. The feuding concluded in 1810, when the islands were united under Kamehameha, the first Hawaiian King. Kamehameha I conquered the Hawaiian Islands to formally establish the Kingdom of Hawaii, the first time the islands had been under just one ruler.

The Monarchy of the Kingdom of Hawaii would be short-lived, however; European contact with native Hawaiians began in 1778, and would forever change the islands’ social and political structure. The last Queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani, was deposed in 1893, as Hawaii became a protectorate of the United States. Hawaii was annexed by the United States as a territory in 1898, and became a state in 1959.

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