Hawaii: Today in History 3/7
3-7-1848 In Hawaii, Great Mahele (division of lands) signed
The Great Māhele (“to divide or portion”) or just the Māhele was the Hawaiian land redistribution proposed by King Kamehameha III. The Great Māhele was one of the most important episodes of Hawaiian history, second only to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. While intended to provide secure title to Hawaiians, it would eventually end up separating many of them from their land.
The 1840 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii established a constitutional monarchy. It stated that the land belonged to its people and was to be managed by the king.[4] It established executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. The document established allodial title property rights which maintained the lands in the hands of Hawaiian subjects to mālama (nurture and sustain).[5]
In order to protect Hawaiian lands from foreigners, Kamehameha III divided the lands among all the people of Hawaiʻi. aliʻi, konohiki and makaʻainana alike.[3] The Mahele changed the previous land system under which the kuleana (responsibility and obligation) ahupuaʻa to mālama ʻāina was given by the mōʻī (king) to an aliʻi nui (high chief), his subordinate aliʻi and konohiki who received taxes and tribute from the people who worked the land collectively. Private land ownership did not exist since the concept of “owning nature” was a western construct based on the concept of the commodification of nature as “private property” to create a potential source of wealth and profit.
The Great Māhele of March 7, 1848, reallocated of one-third of the land to the mōʻī (monarch) Hawaiian crown lands. Another third was allocated among the aliʻi and konohiki (chiefs and managers of ahupuaʻa) . The remaining one-third was given to the makaʻāinana (the people). The law required land claims to be filed within two years under the Kuleana Act of 1850 and many Hawaiians made no claim.
Eventually most of the land was sold by the government of the Republic and US mainlanders or auctioned to The Big Five Hawaii corporations.[7] This resulted in Hawaiʻi having about 32% of the land owned by the state, while another 4.8% is Hawaiian Homelands
