Following destruction of sandalwood forests, the whaling industry became the biggest revenue producer in the Kingdom. Whaling was lawless and often tawdry, damaging the Kingdon's people. When Alexander Liholiho became Kamehameha IV, the islands were in the midst of significant economic trasition.
The California Gold Rush of 1849 caused prices of goods in California to skyrocket. Services and foodstuffs from Hawai'i were cheaper -
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Many merchants came during this time. Land speculation made fortunes - with large amounts of land purchased mostly by American merchants. The American land owners wanted plantations - this required laborers. Disease and culture shock had destroyed much of the native-born labor force. Imported chinese laborers started arriving during this time. |
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Kamehameha IV understood population-labor problems. He was well educated and had traveled extensively in both Europe and America. Having endured incidents of prejudice bigoted treatment by several notable people in Washington D.C., he had a well-bred dislike for aggressive 'westerners'. The King didn't find colonialist and Americans living in Hawai'i much different.
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