The Great Mahele of 1848 had political, economic, and social impacts on the Hawaiians and others. The reason for the Great Mahele or land division was foreigners wanted to own land and pass it down to their children. The foreigners pushed King Kamehameha III to allow them to be land owners as they needed large areas of land for their sugar plantations and they did not like the idea of the long term leases of land provided by the King. The foreigners did not understand the way the Hawaiians split the land and that money was not important to the Hawaiians(Potter, Kasdon, Rayson 97). The Great Mahele was unjustified because Hawaiians did not understand the new process needed in order to keep their land, did not have enough money to pay for taxes and surveys, and Hawaiian culture changed with the new system of private land ownership.
The land division that was supposed to protect Hawaiian land ownership was actually responsible for them ending up with almost nothing. According to Kuloku, “because he will not listen, and he will not confer with the natives, he only talks in the foreign language, and the foreigners are the only ones he …show more content…
According to Hio, there was a new law informing that “those who are living on the land can secure the things above stated, this is all for those present who are living on the land which has forest, but, we who living on land which have no forest, we are in trouble. The children are eating raw potato because of no firewood.” Before the Mahele, Hawaiians were able to use the resources on the land to feed and shelter their families. After the Mahele, the Hawaiian culture and lifestyle changed because the konohiki no longer provided firewood which caused the children to eat raw potatoes and taro. Hawaiians had lost the tradition of sharing resources and living off the