Hawaii: Today in History 1/20

1-20-1891 David Kalakaua, emperor of Hawaii, dies

Kalākaua (November 16, 1836 – January 20, 1891), born David Laʻamea Kamananakapu Mahinulani Naloiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua[2] and sometimes called The Merrie Monarch, was the last king and penultimate monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Succeeding Lunalilo, he was elected to the vacant throne of Hawaiʻi against Queen Emma. He reigned from February 12, 1874, until his death in San Francisco, California, on January 20, 1891. Kalākaua had a convivial personality and enjoyed entertaining guests with his singing and ukulele playing. At his coronation and his birthday jubilee, the hula that had been banned from public in the kingdom became a celebration of Hawaiian culture.

During his reign, the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 brought great prosperity to the kingdom. Its renewal continued the prosperity but allowed the United States to have exclusive use of Pearl Harbor. In 1881, he took a trip around the world to encourage the immigration of contract sugar plantation workers. Kalākaua wanted Hawaiians to broaden their education beyond their nation. He instituted a government-financed program to sponsor qualified students to be sent abroad to further their education. Two of Kalākaua’s projects, the statue of Kamehameha I and the rebuilding of ʻIolani Palace, were expensive endeavors but are popular tourist attractions today.

Extravagant expenditures and his plans for a Polynesian confederation played into the hands of annexationists who were already working towards a United States takeover of Hawaiʻi. In 1887, he was pressured to sign a new constitution that made the monarchy little more than a figurehead position. He had faith in his sister Liliʻuokalani’s abilities to rule as regent when he named her as his heir-apparent following the death of their brother, William Pitt Leleiohoku, in 1877. After his death, she became the last monarch of Hawaiʻi.

Kalākaua was born at 2:00 a.m. on November 16, 1836, to Caesar Kaluaiku Kapaʻakea and Analea Keohokālole in the grass hut compound belonging to his maternal grandfather ʻAikanaka, at the base of Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu.^[3][4] Of the aliʻi class of Hawaiian nobility, his family were considered collateral relations of the reigning House of Kamehameha, sharing common descent from the 18th-century aliʻi nui Keaweʻīkekahialiʻiokamoku. From his biological parents, he descended from Keaweaheulu and Kameʻeiamoku, two of the five royal counselors of Kamehameha I during his conquest of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Kameʻeiamoku, the grandfather of both his mother and father, was one of the royal twins alongside Kamanawa depicted on the Hawaiian coat of arms.^[5]However, Kalākaua and his siblings traced their high rank from their mother’s line of descent, referring to themselves as members the “Keawe-a-Heulu line”, although later historians would refer to the family as the House of Kalākaua.^[6] The second surviving child of a large family, his biological siblings included his elder brother James Kaliokalani, and younger siblings Lydia Kamakaʻeha (later renamed Liliʻuokalani), Anna Kaʻiulani, Kaʻiminaʻauao, Miriam Likelike and William Pitt Leleiohoku II.^[7]

Kalākaua at the age of fourteen, c. 1850

Given the name Kalākaua, which translates into “The Day [of] Battle”, the date of his birth coincided with the signing of the unequal treaty imposed by British Captain Lord Edward Russell of the Actaeon on Kamehameha III. He and his siblings were hānai (informally adopted) to other family members in the Native Hawaiian tradition. Prior to birth, his parents had promised to give their child in hānai to Kuini Liliha, a high-ranking chiefess and the widow of High Chief Boki. However, after he was born, High Chiefess Haʻaheo Kaniu took the baby to Honuakaha, the residence of the king. Kuhina Nui (regent) Elizabeth Kīnaʻu, who disliked Liliha, deliberated and decreed his parents to give him to Haʻaheo and her husband Keaweamahi Kinimaka.^[3][4] When Haʻaheo died in 1843 she bequeathed all her properties to him.^[8] After Haʻaheo’s death, his guardianship was entrusted in his hānai father, who was a chief of lesser rank; he took Kalākaua to live in Lāhainā. Kinimaka would later marry Pai, a subordinate Tahitian chiefess, who treated Kalākaua as her own until the birth of her own son