May 11, 2019 • 18 mins
We're traveling back to 2010 to revisit this one from the archive! Born shortly after the appearance of Halley's comet over Hawai'i in 1758, Kamehameha was hailed as the king who would unite the Hawai'ian islands. But how did he turn this prophecy into reality, and what happened to him in the end?
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Happy Saturday everybody. This week and next week on Saturday,
we are going to be looking at some Hawaiian history.
Today it is Kama the Great who united the Hawaiian
Islands into one kingdom. This episode originally came out in July.
It features previous hosts Katie and Sarah. Welcome to Stuff
(00:23):
You Missed in History Class, a production of I Heart
Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy and Sarah was
in the mood for a little hot weather history this week,
so he decided to take on Hawaii. And today's subject
(00:46):
is Kameamea the Great, And have to start with a
little disclaimer. We had asked for some help with Hawaiian pronunciations,
so listener Jody was kind enough to call me and
give me her expertise. But any mistakes in podcast are
mine and not hers or mine. So Kamma was born
sometime around seventeen fifty eight, but he actually had a
(01:08):
different name, and it was Pie, which meant hard shelled
crab as a cancer I can sympathize, but his birth
carried an omen with it, and that's because there was
this bright star shining in the sky right before he
was born, and it may have actually been Haley's comment,
and that's how we put his birth year sometime around
seventeen fifty eight, because that's when the comment was around um.
(01:30):
But some seers said that it pretended a conqueror and
the baby was almost killed because as we know, most
rulers don't like to hear that there's a little baby
being born. He might be the new king, asked Karen,
So it seems like a good idea to get rid
of him before anything happened. But he was snuck away
and raised by another family and grows up and he
(01:53):
got his new name, Kamamea, which means the lonely one.
But eventually he was able to come out of fighting.
He'd made it very clear that he wanted to be
of service to the people who are in power, and
the higher ups to recognize that. And there were other
omens of his greatness, according to stories and not necessarily
to history, reminiscent of the sword and the stone, there
(02:15):
is something called the Naja stone, which weighs two and
a half tons, and the story went that if you
could move it, you would be the person to unite
the islands, and supposedly command they had did, but in
the meantime we have a lot of other events going on.
And Europe had finally discovered Hawaii in seventeen seventy eight
when Captain James Cook arrived and he brought glass and
(02:39):
metal and nails and buttons and muskets and cannons, which
are two very importantly important things, and in return, Hawaii
had food like sweet potatoes and coconut and pork. And
Kamama was actually one of the first people to board
Cook's ship, and Cook mentions him in a journal He's
really impressed with this intelligent observe of an inquisitive young man.
(03:02):
And this is a fairly peaceful introduction of Europeans two Hawaiians.
But theft became a problem fairly early on, and after
an incident of a stolen boat, Cook and some of
his men tried to kidnap a chief for its ransom
on February seventy nine, and they were killed with daggers
that they had given to the people, and the Hawaiians
(03:24):
took their weapons for their own, and these muskets changed
warfare for the Hawaiians and merchants aided and abetted the
arms race because they could sell to one group and
then they could sell to their enemies, and though those
groups might kill each other, the merchants would be making
a profit. Yeah, and Comma is really want to realize
(03:44):
the game changing importance of these weapons, and his enemies
realize it too, But it's it's his key to ultimately
unifying the islands, and he will ambush and steal and
kidnap to get these weapons. Kamomea wasn't destined to be
king of anything, or at least that's not how people
(04:05):
thought of him. When King Klannio Poo died in seventy two, Kamehameha,
his nephew, wasn't the first in line to succeed his
cousin kila Oh was with his cousin Koa also taking
some lands and some power, and instead Kamama was the
guardian of the family war god, which says something for
(04:25):
how he was viewed. Of course, the war god is
not just any god, but this is where the trouble
really starts. There's a rebel chief who dies, and it
was kayula Ow's responsibility to offer his body to the gods.
But during the middle of the ceremony, Kamameha stepped in
and did it himself, and that was very shocking, and
(04:47):
it either was a really bold move like a bold
power grab, or it was a major sign of disrespect.
But we don't know his motives. We do know the
result because from then on it's him versus his two cousin.
Sense Koa makes the first move against him, cutting down
the coconut trees of Kamamea, which was a big sign
(05:08):
of disrespect, and Kamameha has to fight back. So all
other factions on the island pick sides, and there was
a battle in seventeen eighty two. Kila Oh was killed
at this battle and kamame A one over Koha. But
it wasn't over there. These fights would continue for nine
years with Hawaii locked in civil war, and we have
(05:38):
an interesting story that emerges that is a major part
of the Kamameha legend. In a strike against a rival,
he kills women and children and innocent followers, and Kamama
himself falls during this fight and a fisherman hits him
over the head with a paddle and he doesn't die,
but he takes away a less sin from it and
(06:00):
that's that you shouldn't attack peaceful people, and it ultimately
leads to a law in seventeen seven, the Law of
the Splintered Paddle, appropriately enough, which gave a certain amount
of protection to innocent civilians from their brutal overlords. But
seventeen ninety seven is skipping ahead a bit, so we're
going to go back. Near the beginning of our civil war.
(06:23):
In seventeen ninety, a ship called the Fair American arise
in Hawaii, and unbeknownst to the people on it, one
of the Hawaiian chiefs had had an altercation with the
occupants of a different European ship and vowed revenge on
the next one that came in, and Fair American, you
are that unlucky one. Everyone on the ship was beaten
to death after being thrown overboard, except a man named
(06:46):
Isaac Davis. But Davis wasn't alone on this rescue boat.
There had been another white man, captured, John Young earlier
from another ship. So there are two of them, and
Coma Maya claims the rescue boat, and the two men
and David some Young try to escape, but eventually they
become his advisers and his interpreters. And they teach him
(07:07):
about uh muskets and cannons and foreign military strategy and
pass on these lessons to his men too, And this
gives Kamameha a huge leg up on the competition, because
if you're going to be fighting with European weapons, you
need to understand not only how to use them, but
understand European strategy. Kamyam Is next military engagement came courtesy
(07:30):
of Kahi kil a arrival who may have been his father,
and he ruled Oahu, Maui and Molochai and he wasn't
someone to mess with. He got oah who in the
first place by killing his foster son, torturing the chiefs,
and then making a house frame of their bones. In
her outline, Katie actually wrote a skeleton of a house
(07:52):
which in parentheses ha ha an idea of our process. There. So,
this guy supports Koa, who is command as enemy on
the island of Hawaii, and Kammanmea reaches a decision he
can beat Koa if he can just get rid of
this possible father figure and the support that he's giving
(08:13):
to his number one enemy. On his side, Kamamea has
cannons and muskets, well trained men, and his own military genius,
so his prospects are good. And in Seventekile leaves Maui
to visit Oahu. Perfect perfect opportunity, Kamomea invades Maui, and
(08:35):
according to an article in military history, and I'm going
to quote, his strategy better known in Hawaiian chronicles than
in Western history books, predates the island hopping campaigns employed
by General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea and by Admiral
Chester W. Nimitz and the Central Pacific by more than
one hundred and fifty years. So he's using very modern
(08:56):
techniques and ultimately he conquers. But there's problem. While he
was gone, Kayoa started causing trouble back home on Hawaii.
That's why you don't leave your island to go attack
someone else's, and the lesson we learned. So they fight
and Kayoa ends up giving up this round. But while
he's headed home, a volcano erupts and kills a third
(09:21):
of his men, which could not have been a good omen,
but he remains obstinate in his quest for Hawaii. So
it keeps going on and on for years, and you
have to wonder how it's going to resolve itself. Kamehameha
invites him to a meeting. You know, let's let's get
the two rival factions together. So Kayoa gets stressed up
(09:42):
and brings his canoe and his men to meet him.
But right after he arrives, he's blocked in the bay
and kamme As men are on the beach with muskets
and cannons. So Kamehameha asked Kayoa to step forward to
be greeted, and when he does, he's killed with a
spear by an ally of kama AMA's and then his
(10:04):
men are killed. So we don't know whether it was
kama AMA's idea or an independent action by his ally,
but civil war has now been quelled on the island
of Hawaii and Kama has it all. So with the
two original heirs to the two cousins, Kamamea is finally
in possession of Hawaii, but he has some unfinished business
(10:27):
and that's what we're going to get to next. So
if you remember Kamama's defeat of Maui, which you should
because it was about thirty seconds ago, Kaye Kile is
not pleased and he hatches a plan with the men
of the island of Kawaii to team up and strike
against him, and Kahekile has canons now too, and his
own white European military adviser, so perhaps he has a
(10:52):
chance and they engage in battle on the water. There
are many deaths, but neither side one, which you know,
that's war for you. But European influence is growing on
these battlefields, and the big example of this happens in
about seventeen ninety two when the Englishman William Brown offers
to trade military help military assistance to Kahi Kile for
(11:15):
the island of Oahu. So now come as enemy has
his own frigate, so he's starting the skills are starting
to tip a little here. If Kamehameha looked like he
was on the top at first, it's not looking so
great anymore. So he needs something similar to face his rival,
(11:41):
and he allies himself with Captain George Vancouver, getting a
ship in exchange for Hawaiian harbors. But Vancouver won't give
him any guns and tries to get chiefs to reconcile,
which is not the William Brown approach. As we will see.
Then we have a twist. Kah kil dies in seventeen
nine four, and now his sons take his place. Klonni
(12:03):
Copula has Oahu and kaya Kulani has Kawaii, Molokai and Lanai.
But the two brothers fight as people tend to do
over their inheritances, and kaya Kulani decides to go to
war and attack his brother's island Oahu, but Kaloni Capula
gets wind of this plan and waits for his brother,
(12:25):
and he has the advantage of Brown ship backing him
up with all that European weaponry, so he stays pretty nearby,
and so KaiA Okolani loses and he's actually killed in
part because of Brown's cannons. And we learn another big
lesson in this podcast, which is not to wear bright
colors in battle because when you do, it makes it
(12:48):
a lot easier to hit you with a cannon ball. Yeah, exactly.
So Klonipa is not very grateful though about Brown, called
all his great weaponry his bow, and he kills Brown
and puts his body on a pole, which is interesting
because this is kind of contemporary to a friend Revolution style.
(13:09):
But um next he takes all of Brown's men and
enlist them in his next cause, which is to attack Kamameha.
He's probably thinking he's on top of the world right now.
He's just killed his brother. He's about to take over. No, no,
he's not. It doesn't last long. The Englishman take over
(13:30):
the ship and throw him overboard, and still ticked off,
they make their way to Hawaii and hand over all
of the weapons and ammunition to Kamameha. So everyone's angry
at Kolonikop who isn't dead from getting cost overboard? Asked
repeatedly during this is he dead? Is he dead? No?
He never is this. This guy is like a zombie
(13:51):
or something in this podcast. He has no European support,
he has no weapons, and Kamyama, on the other hand,
has all of these things all along with two ships.
So Kamehameha attacks in short order Maui, Molokai, and Lenai,
but there is treachery afoot. His high chief Kayana is
on the outs with the big guy, so he isn't
(14:13):
invited to key meetings, which displeases him greatly. That's partly
because he slept with kamame as wife, so don't do
that either, And he takes fifteen hundred of his men
and meets up with Kalani Kopul and this engagement is
known as the Battle of New Uanu and it happens
in April. And Kayana, who is you know, he's been
(14:37):
the high chief, he has number two. Yeah, he has
all this military knowledge. He knows what he's doing. He's
familiar with weaponry. He's familiar with how Kamehameha thinks and
how he fights, the places he might attack, how he
might do it. So he picks very strong positions and
for a while it seems like his defense is unbreakable.
But he too makes the at a mistake of wearing
(15:01):
bright colors in war, and a cannon ball hits him too,
and when he dies, everything completely falls apart. Klannils men
get their women and children to a safe place before
they face off with kamame As warriors, and they have
no chance. They lose badly, and while some escape, most
(15:22):
were driven off a seven hundred foot cliff. But Klonip
does escape. Like I said, this guy does not die supposedly, Yeah,
he goes off to live as a disgraced person in
the mountains. So all that we have now for Kamama
to win is kawaii and that takes a little while,
(15:43):
there's a storm, there's a revolt, an epidemic, and so
it takes until about eighteen ten before the chief of
Kawaii actually gives it over to him. But that set them.
The Hawaiian Islands are unified and he's king of them all.
Some call him Hawaii's strong longest ruler because he unified
the islands. He managed to keep Hawaii's independence for quite
(16:05):
a long time, and he made his rule an era
of peace. And he was really a strong ruler, especially
compared to some of the rulers who followed him. And
we're going to talk a little bit about that in
another podcast. But he stood up to European influence actually
used it to his advantage. I mean, that's what made
(16:25):
him the strong ruler he was. But he didn't give
way at all. Now, he kept his islands wealthy, with
a monopoly on sandalwood and on poor duties. And as
far as his own rule, there were some harsh laws,
but he also outlawed human sacrifice and let the islands
have their own governors. And we can't forget the rest
(16:46):
of his military legacy. According to one article we read,
he assembled the largest mobile force of warriors ever organized,
which is saying something. And he also developed some pretty
cool military technologies like our hillery on double canoes, which
sounds awesome. And while we missed it this year, we're
(17:06):
hoping to catch this next year. Came maya day. June
eleven is a state holiday in Hawaii, so that is
your chance to celebrate him. And as for the future
of Hawaii's monarchy, you'll have to wait for our next installment.
(17:26):
Thank you so much for joining us on this Saturday.
If you have heard an email address or a Facebook
you are l or something similar over the course of
today's episode, since it is from the archive that might
be out of date now, you can email us at
History podcast at how stuff Works dot com, and you
can find us all over social media at missed in History,
and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts,
(17:49):
Google podcast, the i Heart Radio app, and wherever else
you listen to podcasts. Stuff You Missed Industry Classes a
production of I've Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more
podcasts for my heart Radio, visit my heart radio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(18:11):
H
Happy Saturday everybody. This week and next week on Saturday,
we are going to be looking at some Hawaiian history.
Today it is Kama the Great who united the Hawaiian
Islands into one kingdom. This episode originally came out in July.
It features previous hosts Katie and Sarah. Welcome to Stuff
(00:23):
You Missed in History Class, a production of I Heart
Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy and Sarah was
in the mood for a little hot weather history this week,
so he decided to take on Hawaii. And today's subject
(00:46):
is Kameamea the Great, And have to start with a
little disclaimer. We had asked for some help with Hawaiian pronunciations,
so listener Jody was kind enough to call me and
give me her expertise. But any mistakes in podcast are
mine and not hers or mine. So Kamma was born
sometime around seventeen fifty eight, but he actually had a
(01:08):
different name, and it was Pie, which meant hard shelled
crab as a cancer I can sympathize, but his birth
carried an omen with it, and that's because there was
this bright star shining in the sky right before he
was born, and it may have actually been Haley's comment,
and that's how we put his birth year sometime around
seventeen fifty eight, because that's when the comment was around um.
(01:30):
But some seers said that it pretended a conqueror and
the baby was almost killed because as we know, most
rulers don't like to hear that there's a little baby
being born. He might be the new king, asked Karen,
So it seems like a good idea to get rid
of him before anything happened. But he was snuck away
and raised by another family and grows up and he
(01:53):
got his new name, Kamamea, which means the lonely one.
But eventually he was able to come out of fighting.
He'd made it very clear that he wanted to be
of service to the people who are in power, and
the higher ups to recognize that. And there were other
omens of his greatness, according to stories and not necessarily
to history, reminiscent of the sword and the stone, there
(02:15):
is something called the Naja stone, which weighs two and
a half tons, and the story went that if you
could move it, you would be the person to unite
the islands, and supposedly command they had did, but in
the meantime we have a lot of other events going on.
And Europe had finally discovered Hawaii in seventeen seventy eight
when Captain James Cook arrived and he brought glass and
(02:39):
metal and nails and buttons and muskets and cannons, which
are two very importantly important things, and in return, Hawaii
had food like sweet potatoes and coconut and pork. And
Kamama was actually one of the first people to board
Cook's ship, and Cook mentions him in a journal He's
really impressed with this intelligent observe of an inquisitive young man.
(03:02):
And this is a fairly peaceful introduction of Europeans two Hawaiians.
But theft became a problem fairly early on, and after
an incident of a stolen boat, Cook and some of
his men tried to kidnap a chief for its ransom
on February seventy nine, and they were killed with daggers
that they had given to the people, and the Hawaiians
(03:24):
took their weapons for their own, and these muskets changed
warfare for the Hawaiians and merchants aided and abetted the
arms race because they could sell to one group and
then they could sell to their enemies, and though those
groups might kill each other, the merchants would be making
a profit. Yeah, and Comma is really want to realize
(03:44):
the game changing importance of these weapons, and his enemies
realize it too, But it's it's his key to ultimately
unifying the islands, and he will ambush and steal and
kidnap to get these weapons. Kamomea wasn't destined to be
king of anything, or at least that's not how people
(04:05):
thought of him. When King Klannio Poo died in seventy two, Kamehameha,
his nephew, wasn't the first in line to succeed his
cousin kila Oh was with his cousin Koa also taking
some lands and some power, and instead Kamama was the
guardian of the family war god, which says something for
(04:25):
how he was viewed. Of course, the war god is
not just any god, but this is where the trouble
really starts. There's a rebel chief who dies, and it
was kayula Ow's responsibility to offer his body to the gods.
But during the middle of the ceremony, Kamameha stepped in
and did it himself, and that was very shocking, and
(04:47):
it either was a really bold move like a bold
power grab, or it was a major sign of disrespect.
But we don't know his motives. We do know the
result because from then on it's him versus his two cousin.
Sense Koa makes the first move against him, cutting down
the coconut trees of Kamamea, which was a big sign
(05:08):
of disrespect, and Kamameha has to fight back. So all
other factions on the island pick sides, and there was
a battle in seventeen eighty two. Kila Oh was killed
at this battle and kamame A one over Koha. But
it wasn't over there. These fights would continue for nine
years with Hawaii locked in civil war, and we have
(05:38):
an interesting story that emerges that is a major part
of the Kamameha legend. In a strike against a rival,
he kills women and children and innocent followers, and Kamama
himself falls during this fight and a fisherman hits him
over the head with a paddle and he doesn't die,
but he takes away a less sin from it and
(06:00):
that's that you shouldn't attack peaceful people, and it ultimately
leads to a law in seventeen seven, the Law of
the Splintered Paddle, appropriately enough, which gave a certain amount
of protection to innocent civilians from their brutal overlords. But
seventeen ninety seven is skipping ahead a bit, so we're
going to go back. Near the beginning of our civil war.
(06:23):
In seventeen ninety, a ship called the Fair American arise
in Hawaii, and unbeknownst to the people on it, one
of the Hawaiian chiefs had had an altercation with the
occupants of a different European ship and vowed revenge on
the next one that came in, and Fair American, you
are that unlucky one. Everyone on the ship was beaten
to death after being thrown overboard, except a man named
(06:46):
Isaac Davis. But Davis wasn't alone on this rescue boat.
There had been another white man, captured, John Young earlier
from another ship. So there are two of them, and
Coma Maya claims the rescue boat, and the two men
and David some Young try to escape, but eventually they
become his advisers and his interpreters. And they teach him
(07:07):
about uh muskets and cannons and foreign military strategy and
pass on these lessons to his men too, And this
gives Kamameha a huge leg up on the competition, because
if you're going to be fighting with European weapons, you
need to understand not only how to use them, but
understand European strategy. Kamyam Is next military engagement came courtesy
(07:30):
of Kahi kil a arrival who may have been his father,
and he ruled Oahu, Maui and Molochai and he wasn't
someone to mess with. He got oah who in the
first place by killing his foster son, torturing the chiefs,
and then making a house frame of their bones. In
her outline, Katie actually wrote a skeleton of a house
(07:52):
which in parentheses ha ha an idea of our process. There. So,
this guy supports Koa, who is command as enemy on
the island of Hawaii, and Kammanmea reaches a decision he
can beat Koa if he can just get rid of
this possible father figure and the support that he's giving
(08:13):
to his number one enemy. On his side, Kamamea has
cannons and muskets, well trained men, and his own military genius,
so his prospects are good. And in Seventekile leaves Maui
to visit Oahu. Perfect perfect opportunity, Kamomea invades Maui, and
(08:35):
according to an article in military history, and I'm going
to quote, his strategy better known in Hawaiian chronicles than
in Western history books, predates the island hopping campaigns employed
by General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea and by Admiral
Chester W. Nimitz and the Central Pacific by more than
one hundred and fifty years. So he's using very modern
(08:56):
techniques and ultimately he conquers. But there's problem. While he
was gone, Kayoa started causing trouble back home on Hawaii.
That's why you don't leave your island to go attack
someone else's, and the lesson we learned. So they fight
and Kayoa ends up giving up this round. But while
he's headed home, a volcano erupts and kills a third
(09:21):
of his men, which could not have been a good omen,
but he remains obstinate in his quest for Hawaii. So
it keeps going on and on for years, and you
have to wonder how it's going to resolve itself. Kamehameha
invites him to a meeting. You know, let's let's get
the two rival factions together. So Kayoa gets stressed up
(09:42):
and brings his canoe and his men to meet him.
But right after he arrives, he's blocked in the bay
and kamme As men are on the beach with muskets
and cannons. So Kamehameha asked Kayoa to step forward to
be greeted, and when he does, he's killed with a
spear by an ally of kama AMA's and then his
(10:04):
men are killed. So we don't know whether it was
kama AMA's idea or an independent action by his ally,
but civil war has now been quelled on the island
of Hawaii and Kama has it all. So with the
two original heirs to the two cousins, Kamamea is finally
in possession of Hawaii, but he has some unfinished business
(10:27):
and that's what we're going to get to next. So
if you remember Kamama's defeat of Maui, which you should
because it was about thirty seconds ago, Kaye Kile is
not pleased and he hatches a plan with the men
of the island of Kawaii to team up and strike
against him, and Kahekile has canons now too, and his
own white European military adviser, so perhaps he has a
(10:52):
chance and they engage in battle on the water. There
are many deaths, but neither side one, which you know,
that's war for you. But European influence is growing on
these battlefields, and the big example of this happens in
about seventeen ninety two when the Englishman William Brown offers
to trade military help military assistance to Kahi Kile for
(11:15):
the island of Oahu. So now come as enemy has
his own frigate, so he's starting the skills are starting
to tip a little here. If Kamehameha looked like he
was on the top at first, it's not looking so
great anymore. So he needs something similar to face his rival,
(11:41):
and he allies himself with Captain George Vancouver, getting a
ship in exchange for Hawaiian harbors. But Vancouver won't give
him any guns and tries to get chiefs to reconcile,
which is not the William Brown approach. As we will see.
Then we have a twist. Kah kil dies in seventeen
nine four, and now his sons take his place. Klonni
(12:03):
Copula has Oahu and kaya Kulani has Kawaii, Molokai and Lanai.
But the two brothers fight as people tend to do
over their inheritances, and kaya Kulani decides to go to
war and attack his brother's island Oahu, but Kaloni Capula
gets wind of this plan and waits for his brother,
(12:25):
and he has the advantage of Brown ship backing him
up with all that European weaponry, so he stays pretty nearby,
and so KaiA Okolani loses and he's actually killed in
part because of Brown's cannons. And we learn another big
lesson in this podcast, which is not to wear bright
colors in battle because when you do, it makes it
(12:48):
a lot easier to hit you with a cannon ball. Yeah, exactly.
So Klonipa is not very grateful though about Brown, called
all his great weaponry his bow, and he kills Brown
and puts his body on a pole, which is interesting
because this is kind of contemporary to a friend Revolution style.
(13:09):
But um next he takes all of Brown's men and
enlist them in his next cause, which is to attack Kamameha.
He's probably thinking he's on top of the world right now.
He's just killed his brother. He's about to take over. No, no,
he's not. It doesn't last long. The Englishman take over
(13:30):
the ship and throw him overboard, and still ticked off,
they make their way to Hawaii and hand over all
of the weapons and ammunition to Kamameha. So everyone's angry
at Kolonikop who isn't dead from getting cost overboard? Asked
repeatedly during this is he dead? Is he dead? No?
He never is this. This guy is like a zombie
(13:51):
or something in this podcast. He has no European support,
he has no weapons, and Kamyama, on the other hand,
has all of these things all along with two ships.
So Kamehameha attacks in short order Maui, Molokai, and Lenai,
but there is treachery afoot. His high chief Kayana is
on the outs with the big guy, so he isn't
(14:13):
invited to key meetings, which displeases him greatly. That's partly
because he slept with kamame as wife, so don't do
that either, And he takes fifteen hundred of his men
and meets up with Kalani Kopul and this engagement is
known as the Battle of New Uanu and it happens
in April. And Kayana, who is you know, he's been
(14:37):
the high chief, he has number two. Yeah, he has
all this military knowledge. He knows what he's doing. He's
familiar with weaponry. He's familiar with how Kamehameha thinks and
how he fights, the places he might attack, how he
might do it. So he picks very strong positions and
for a while it seems like his defense is unbreakable.
But he too makes the at a mistake of wearing
(15:01):
bright colors in war, and a cannon ball hits him too,
and when he dies, everything completely falls apart. Klannils men
get their women and children to a safe place before
they face off with kamame As warriors, and they have
no chance. They lose badly, and while some escape, most
(15:22):
were driven off a seven hundred foot cliff. But Klonip
does escape. Like I said, this guy does not die supposedly, Yeah,
he goes off to live as a disgraced person in
the mountains. So all that we have now for Kamama
to win is kawaii and that takes a little while,
(15:43):
there's a storm, there's a revolt, an epidemic, and so
it takes until about eighteen ten before the chief of
Kawaii actually gives it over to him. But that set them.
The Hawaiian Islands are unified and he's king of them all.
Some call him Hawaii's strong longest ruler because he unified
the islands. He managed to keep Hawaii's independence for quite
(16:05):
a long time, and he made his rule an era
of peace. And he was really a strong ruler, especially
compared to some of the rulers who followed him. And
we're going to talk a little bit about that in
another podcast. But he stood up to European influence actually
used it to his advantage. I mean, that's what made
(16:25):
him the strong ruler he was. But he didn't give
way at all. Now, he kept his islands wealthy, with
a monopoly on sandalwood and on poor duties. And as
far as his own rule, there were some harsh laws,
but he also outlawed human sacrifice and let the islands
have their own governors. And we can't forget the rest
(16:46):
of his military legacy. According to one article we read,
he assembled the largest mobile force of warriors ever organized,
which is saying something. And he also developed some pretty
cool military technologies like our hillery on double canoes, which
sounds awesome. And while we missed it this year, we're
(17:06):
hoping to catch this next year. Came maya day. June
eleven is a state holiday in Hawaii, so that is
your chance to celebrate him. And as for the future
of Hawaii's monarchy, you'll have to wait for our next installment.
(17:26):
Thank you so much for joining us on this Saturday.
If you have heard an email address or a Facebook
you are l or something similar over the course of
today's episode, since it is from the archive that might
be out of date now, you can email us at
History podcast at how stuff Works dot com, and you
can find us all over social media at missed in History,
and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts,
(17:49):
Google podcast, the i Heart Radio app, and wherever else
you listen to podcasts. Stuff You Missed Industry Classes a
production of I've Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more
podcasts for my heart Radio, visit my heart radio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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