Who Is The Merrie Monarch?
David Laamea Kamanakapuu Mahinulani Naloiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalakaua, was born in Honolulu of chiefly rank.
He attended the Royal School and had many careers, among others, in the militia, as a lawyer and as Hawai`i's Postmaster General.
In 1874, at age 37, the Hawaiian Legislature elected him king. During his reign, he worked tirelessly to restore elements of Hawai`i's culture banned by the missionaries, such as the hula.
His fondest hope for Hawaiians was to "be restored to our former position of pride and power in our own land."
As a skilled diplomat, sportsman, author, historian, inventor and world traveler, Kalakaua's life was a mixture of Hawaiian and Western cultures.
Although Kalakaua often was attacked by other Hawaiians for cooperating with the powerful Americans, the Americans saw him as too nationalistic, anti-American, and unpredictable.
In 1887 a group of American and other white business leaders, backed by an armed militia they had founded, imposed on the king a new constitution that sharply limited his powers.
The so-called Bayonet Constitution also placed new conditions on the right to vote, consolidating the influence of wealthy whites. It required that voters have a yearly income of $600 or own $3,000 in property, a rule that disenfranchised about three-fourths of the native Hawaiian voters. European and American males could vote, even if they were not Hawaiian citizens, but Asian immigrants were excluded.
Kalakaua ruled from 1874 to his death in 1891, and his sister, Queen Liliuokalani succeeded him.
His nickname of "Merrie Monarch" evolved from the many gala events he hosted at `Iolani Palace.
Some of the facts from this report were taken from the Bishop Museum.
