Meet the ruthless king who unified the Kingdom of Hawai'i

Rugged. Fearsome. Authoritative. All three words have been used to describe Kamehameha I, the first king of the unified, if short-lived, Kingdom of Hawai‘i. Living up to his name’s promise—it can be translated as “the one set apart”—Kamehameha broke the mold of his native Hawaiian aristocracy in the late 18th century, pursuing ambitions that put him in power not of a single clan or island but an entire Pacific nation composed of once independent islands.

Devoted to his people’s war god, Kamehameha was extolled for his reverence, physical size and strength, military savvy, and bravery in battle. But it would take more than muscle—and modern Western weaponry—to bring together these separate islands into a united Kingdom of Hawai‘i. Peppered with prophecies and legends, his life story is a compelling history of how the brawny ruler, now known as much for his statesmanship as his physical prowess, managed to pull it off and unite the islands in the face of colonialism and rival claims to the throne.

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Hawaiian history

The modern U.S. state of Hawai‘i covers the eight former islands that once constituted the Kingdom of Hawai‘i—including the archipelago’s chain of main islands, Hawai‘i (the Big Island), Maui, O‘ahu, Kaua‘i, Moloka‘i, Lāna‘i, Ni‘ihau, and Kaho‘olawe, along with other minor islands and atolls in the region. But before the 19th century, each island was an entity of its own—and many were ruled by aristocratic relatives of the man who would become Kamehameha the Great.

First populated by Polynesians around A.D. 1100 to 1200, the Hawaiian archipelago’s islands were initially governed by different, self-contained chiefdoms known as mokus. Sometimes these kingdoms would encompass an entire island, while other domains covered smaller wedges of territory on an island. For example, the larger islands of Hawai‘i, Maui, and O‘ahu all contained multiple mokus that coexisted alongside each other.

Mokus were each governed by a hierarchical, deeply religious code of rules known askanawai. According to these rules, forbidden foods, behaviors, practices, and places were considered kapu. Engaging in anything kapu could bring about severe punishment, including death. The code helped ensure appropriate behavior among a chief’s subjects and helped to protect a moku’s resources, guiding when and where crops were planted and harvested as well as limiting the number and types of fish that could be caught.

These top-down societies considered their chiefs second only to the gods, but the chieftains both governed and served. Though there was some focus on family inheritance, a chief had to gain and maintain mana—a potent combination of religious and political power—to rule.

“Maintaining political stability within a feudal chiefdom was not easy,” wrote historian William H. Davenport, noting that power “did not follow automatically from inherited sacred rank.”

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Dueling prophecies

Though his exact birthdate is unknown, the child who would become Kamehameha I was likely born in the 1750s in North Kohala on the Big Island of Hawai‘i. Though most historians believe High Chief Keōua was his father, his mother, Chiefess Keku‘iapoiwa II, also claimed at one point that another chief, Kahekili II of Maui, was his father instead. Either way, Keōua recognized the child, named Pai‘ea, as his son. Regardless of the identity of his biological father, the baby’s aristocratic lineage seemed to presage a future as a high chief himself.

Prophesies that lined up with the child’s birth set him on a unique path. Ancient Hawaiian legend held that a child born beneath the glow of a bright star that looked like a bird would become a leader capable of supreme rule over Hawai‘i. The legend is thought to have aligned with the predicted reappearance of Halley’s comet, which streaked across the sky in 1758, the year in which some believe the future Kamehameha was born.

Others had a less charitable interpretation of this prophecy. The legend—and his pregnant mother’s craving to eat a shark eyeball—were seen by some enemies as proof the child was extremely dangerous. They believed he would be a warlike conqueror and killer of chiefs. This suspicion endangered the infant’s life, and his mother hid him away for safety. Young Pai‘ea would spend the first years of his childhood in hiding, protected by priests and foster parents in Waipi‘o, a secluded coastal valley on the Big Island that was considered sacred.

Family tensions

Five years later, after his father’s death, Pai‘ea returned home to his birth family, where he was doted on by his powerful chieftain uncle, Kalani‘ōpu‘u. By rights, the boy’s eldest male cousin, Kīwala‘ō, would have been first in line for that favor. But his uncle split his affection, and his tutelage in statecraft and divine rule, between his own son and his nephew. As a result, the cousins became political opponents even though they were raised together, trained in the art of war together, and groomed to a life of rule and privilege.

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Tall and strong, Kamehameha was a natural warrior, and he reportedly behaved like a prince although he was only a junior chief. According to historian Gavan Daws, the young man conducted himself with “an imperiousness that matched and even exceeded his rank.” He absorbed the political lessons of his uncle, participated in a variety of battles, and also learned the art of statecraft.

Kamehameha even trained in foreign relations by interacting with Anglo visitors, including Captain James Cook. The British explorer first set foot in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778 as part of an ongoing quest for a Northwest Passage connecting the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. His first visit to the island had been peaceful, and he’d been welcomed by the islanders. But the islanders’ initial opinions of Cook and his crew soon soured. British missteps and miscommunications resulted from language barriers and differing cultural attitudes, leading to insults to the islanders’ property and practices.

Cook and his men departed but returned to make repairs to their ship, the Resolution. By his second visit, tensions between the British and the Hawaiians festered even more.

In 1779 Hawaiians stole a longboat from the Resolution. In reprisal, Cook attempted to kidnap Kalani‘ōpu‘u. A battle ensued, and the Englishmen were surrounded by thousands of Hawaiians. Kamehameha is believed to have fought in the conflict. Though accounts of what followed vary, Cook was eventually slain by one of the warriors, Nuaa. Cook’s brutal death inspired fear and stoked long-standing, ongoing tensions between the islanders and European settlers.

Royal rivalries

A few years later, the elderly Kalani‘ōpu‘ulay on his deathbed and announced his last wishes to his retinue. Kīwala‘ō, his firstborn son, would inherit his chiefdom. But in what some scholars claim was an unusual move, Kalani‘ōpu‘u entrusted the care and devotion of the war god, Ku, to his nephew.

By making Kamehameha guardian of the war god, the old chieftain had given him great political potential. And other signs and omens seemed to point to Kamehameha’s powerful future. As a teenager, Kamehameha managed to overturn a large, sacred volcanic stone known as the Naha Stone. Legend had it that a man who could overturn the sacred stone would be able to unite all of the Hawaiian Islands under his power. By moving the stone during a powerful ritual, the strong young man gained fame, power, and credibility throughout the archipelago. This feat exacerbated already festering resentments between the cousins. The rift was worsened when the cousins came into conflict during a drinking ceremony associated with Kalani‘ōpu‘u’s funeral.

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Though the course of events initiated by his death is contested, it resulted in a conflict over how his lands would be distributed to his family. Kamehameha had allies among his other powerful uncles and elites, who encouraged him to seek more political power.

“The older, well-established leaders that were his power base saw something in him,” says Paul D’Arcy, an associate professor of Pacific affairs at Australian National University and author of Transforming Hawai‘i, which explores how Kamehameha balanced coercion and consent in his quest for power. “He had been taught not just warrior craft, but statecraft.” Those who allied themselves with the junior chief may have thought he could be controlled, says D’Arcy. But “they soon learned he was actually a very good ruler.”

Western weapons

That rule involved plenty of battles—and the adoption of some modern European weaponry as Kamehameha continued to conduct relationships with the growing number of Anglo settlers in the Hawaiian Islands. The dominant narrative emphasizes the might those muskets and ship cannons gave the ever-more-powerful Kamehameha, but D’Arcy says their role has been overstated.

Though Kamehameha’s people did gain European weapons, they were mostly low-quality castoffs from the Napoleonic Wars that were “wildly inaccurate,” says D’Arcy. These guns were mostly used in guerrilla-like combat that did not resemble the types of battles his European counterparts expected. Rather than fight single, decisive battles, Kamehameha and a small, elite group of warriors regularly faced off with similar groups of their enemies. “It was all about honor and proving yourself in battle,” he says.

Kamehameha himself would have attributed his victories to the favor of the war god, not European weapons. During the bloody civil war he had helped incite, Kamehameha finished erecting a new temple in 1791, Pu‘ukoholā Heiau (Temple on the Hill of the Whale), in response to a prophecy that if he were to build a new temple to the war god Kū, he’d eventually conquer all of the Hawaiian Islands. The gigantic rock structure, built with the help of a human rock-hoisting chain nearly 25 miles long, still stands today and is a U.S. national historic site.

Might or right?

In Polynesian cultures like Hawai‘i’s, D’Arcy says, power isn’t solely from physical might. “Their doctrines of statehood involved being a ruler for the people rather than dominating people,” he says. During the early days of his rule, Kamehameha and his allies were well matched by his cousin and other rivals. As a result of this, D’Arcy says, he “had to be a diplomat more than a military leader.”

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Nonetheless, Kamehameha did have to engage in military operations and warfare to gain territory and subjects. In 1782 he came face-to-face with his cousin at the Battle of Moku‘ōhai, during which the respective armies of men loyal to Kamehameha and Kīwala‘ō duked it out with hand-to-hand combat on a rocky beach. Eventually, one of Kamehameha’s most revered warriors killed Kīwala‘ō with a spear, leaving Kamehameha with his first major victory. The results of the battle granted him control over most of the north and west of the Big Island.

That moment was just the start of Kamehameha’s stratospheric rise. Over the years, he fought for and won the entire island of Hawai‘i. He then proceeded to take the islands of Maui and Moloka‘i in 1795.

Kamehameha didn’t stop there: Helped along by his growing army, his savvy statesmanship, and the mana generated by his spiritual sacrifices, he turned his attention to O‘ahu. He was assisted in his ambitions by two British men, Isaac Davis, the sole survivor of the Fair American, and John Young, captured ashore from another ship. Kamehameha had taken the men prisoner in the wake of a fight between British settlers and Hawaiian warriors. Soon they went from captives to valued advisers; Davis and Young taught the king the ways of European warfare and helped supply him with ships, guns, and ammunition.

This battle training, and his growing support across the archipelago, set Kamehameha up for his next conquest: O‘ahu. During the 1795 Battle of Nu‘uanu, an epic melee over the fate of the island, he deployed between 10,000 and 12,000 warriors equipped with 1,500 canoes. His forces used muskets and even canoe-based cannons to gain victory over his rivals.

Western weapons did help Kamehameha gain rulership of most of the Hawaiian Islands. But after his decisive victory in O‘ahu, the chief actually sought to demobilize instead of gathering more weapons and military might. Disease ravaged his followers, eventually leading to a diminished fighting force.

Kamehameha could have met that challenge by enlisting more warriors and preparing for other great battles. Instead, he turned to trade, making alliances with European merchants and missionaries. In 1810 he conducted a historic peace meeting with his longtime rival in Kaua‘i, Kaumuali‘i. When the leader entered Honolulu Harbor, he was greeted with cannon fire. This time, though, it was celebratory, not threatening. Despite a rumored assassination plot, the meeting was peaceful and resulted in Kaua‘i’s chief bloodlessly ceding his island to Kamehameha. With that, the unification of the Hawaiian Islands was complete.

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Unification

The Kingdom of Hawai‘i was united, and Kamehameha’s reign would last until his death in 1819. By then, says D’Arcy, Kamehameha had grown from a hotheaded young warrior into a mature true statesman whose power was derived not from physical might but from his loyal community.

“Europe had conquered the world because of its ability to concentrate power,” says D’Arcy. But Kamehameha eventually gained kingship of the entire island system because he respected the power of his own people, combining well-honed leadership skills with divine devotion. “In any land he would have been a leader,” remembered Kalākaua, Hawai‘i’s final king. “He accomplished what no one could have done in his day.” But this kingdom was short-lived: It ended in 1893, with the forced abdication of Hawai‘i’s reigning queen, Lili‘uokalani, and the United States’ eventual annexation of Hawai‘i.

Many stories of Kamehameha’s life are saturated in legend, and details about his burial are just as elusive. When the king died, his body was interred in strict secrecy in keeping with the traditions of hūnākele. The verb, which means “to hide in secret,” refers to the age-old tradition of burying a Hawaiian chieftain’s corpse in a location where it could not be seen, stolen, disinterred, or otherwise molested. A royal corpse that was found was considered stripped of its mana, the spiritual power so prized by traditional Polynesian cultures. As a result of the strict secrecy in which it was buried, the tomb of Kamehameha has never been found.

Or has it? In 1983, a National Geographic investigation revealed the final resting place of a group of the Anglo traders of the Fair American. Davis, the lone survivor, and Young, from another vessel, became close friends and advisers to Kamehameha, eventually aiding him in warfare and utilizing the cannons from the Fair American. During the photo shoot at the site, Tyrone Young, one of the Hawaiian descendants of the Fair American’s crew, discovered a complete skeleton in a canoe inside the lava tube complex where the other men were buried. “I felt in my heart ... this is him, this is My King; here are the lost bones of King Kamehameha the Great,” he later recalled. But the remains were never identified as those of the king, and his resting place still remains secret. 

The islands’ royal past—and the father of the short-lived monarchy—can still be felt today. Modern Hawai‘i commemorates Kamehameha in a variety of ways. His name can be found on countless schools and businesses. His likeness appears on statues scattered throughout the islands (and even on a statue in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall). Every year on June 11, Hawaiians celebrate Kamehameha Day, a public holiday featuring parades, cultural exhibitions, and parties throughout the state. His reign may have been short, but Kamehameha the Great casts along shadow on the islands he helped unify—through his savvy and statesmanship as much as his vaunted strength.

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