Everything about The Great Mahele totally explained
The
Great Mahele (lit., "division") was the
Hawaiian land redistribution act proposed by King
Kamehameha III in the 1830s and enacted in 1848. This was part of a sweeping set of modernizing social changes following the death of
Kamehameha the Great, including the drafting of a
constitution and a
bill of rights. Although not directly redistributing land, it allowed chiefs and commoners to claim private title to land and called for the establishment of an arbitration committee to iron out disputes.
The Mahele abolished the previous semi-feudal system. Under this, rule over an
ahupuaa was given by the king to a chief, who received taxes and tribute from the people who worked the land collectively. Private land ownership didn't exist, as a commoner could be expelled from his land by the chief, or the chief removed by the king.
Nearly all of the land went to chiefs, the government, or the crown as the
Hawaiian crown lands. Eventually most of this land was sold or leased to foreigners. The large amount of land that went to the government resulted in Hawaii having a very high proportion of state-owned land: about 32% is owned by the state, while another 4.8% is
Hawaiian Homelands.
One of the notable provisions of the Great Mahele was the
Kuleana Act (1850). Under this provision, commoners were allowed to petition for title to land that they cultivated and lived on (
kuleana), equivalent to a
homestead. However, it also abolished the right of cultivation and pasturage on the larger, common lands of the ahupuaa, title of which went to the chief, the crown, or the government. In addition, lack of knowledge about the provisions led to relatively few kuleana being claimed. As a result, common native Hawaiians were often restricted to small pieces of land, while members of higher classes and
alii obtained most of the land.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Great Mahele'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://great_mahele.totallyexplained.com">Great Mahele Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
