How Did The Mahele Benefit The Hawaiians?

The Mahele of 1848 was a time when King Kamehameha the third divided the land into four different categories, which was land belonging to the king, land belonging to the ali’i or chiefs, land that could be purchased by the foreigners who lived in Hawaii, and land worked on by the commoners or maka'ainana. The Mahele occurred because the chiefs were concerned that they would lose everything without a plan against the foreigners because they were powerful and had a lot of money that would be more effective than the rank of the chiefs. The Mahele also occurred because the natives owned land that the foreigners were very interested in, which meant that the foreigners were going to do something to get that land (Borreca). The Mahele did not benefit the Hawaiians because the foreigners were the only people with money, so they bought the Hawaiians land (Borreca), and the Hawaiians had no firewood, timber wood, and la’i (Hio). …show more content…
According to Richard Borreca who wrote, “Great Mahele puts isle lands in foreign hands,” he stated that the foreigners were able to get their land because the Hawaiians had earned no money and only traded with one another until the foreigners arrived. Now, the Hawaiian’s land was going to be auctioned off to whoever has money, which would be the foreigners. Therefore, when the Mahele of 1848 finally started, the foreigners began buying the Hawaiian’s land, and this made the Hawaiians homeless (Puamana). To make matters worse for the Hawaiians, the Mahele caused families to have no source of food or water (Hio). This was caused by the Mahele because the Hawaiians used their land to get the resources they needed to survive, such as shelter, water, and food. But it was all taken away because the foreigners bought the Hawaiian’s