Modern Hawaiian History

At about the same time as the Chinese Immigration, other nationalities from other countries, especially Europe, were making their way to Hawaii as well. Because of this, the board members started to change their ways of thinking about immigration. What I mean is that they were starting to want more Europeans and try to reduce the amount of Asian immigration, which included Japan as well. Regardless, sugar planters seemed to want more Asian workers than European because they were considered poor and accustomed to cheap living. They figured, they've been doing this their whole life, so they must be really good at it.  Though the Asians and Europeans were very different people, the board members didn't really seem to care about them at all. They were basically just using them for work. And that was the main purpose for why they were in Hawaii anyway. There were a good amount of Chinese workers in Hawaii already. But then, the Japanese started to immigrate as well, and some of the board members didn't like that. They claimed that with just the Chinese population, the proportions were equal. But with both the Japanese and Chinese, it made the Asian work group unproportionate to the entire population of workers and thought that they would be "uncontrollable". However, the board memebers were not racists. They most certainly wanted workers of different ethnicities and nationalities. Doing so would probably make Hawaii look like a diverse state, which it still is today. But even through all this, the board members still wanted more European workers than Asian because they noticed that the Europeans are more duarble, stronger, and in some ways, smarter. 

When Captain Cook first arrived in the Hawaiian Islands, the first thing they did was trade. The Hawaiians would give him and his crew hogs, sugarcane, coconuts, and much more items. In return, Cook gave bits of iron. This was revolutionary beacuse the Hawaiians knew about iron itself, being in many items of their own, but never knew how to obtain it. Hawaiians valued iron so much because they realized that iron could make their lives so much easier in life with builiding things or things similar to that. At first, the trading between Cook and the Hawaiians had different effects on them. Cook definitely had a kick out of trading with the Hawaiians becasue they were getting so much stuff from them that it was almost unnecessary. Unlike the Hawaiians, when they first got the bits of iron, they probably thought, "What the heck is this? And what are we going to use this for?" But there was something more influential than iron that Cook and his crew had brought to the Islands; Change. 

Hawaii back in the 19th century was definitely a hub for the Pacific Trade because people always wanted to go from America to different parts of Asia, and vice versa. With Hawaii being smack-dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and a layover to either Asia or the United States, people always knew that Hawaii had items that couldn't be found anywhere else. As a result, every time someone were to pass by, they would always trade something just for a piece of whatever Hawaii had to offer. Hawaii became involved in sandalwood trading due to China. Because Hawaii had certain trees that produced it, China deeply wanted a chunk of it. The Chinese would use it to build boxes and sacred items, and also for incence, oil, medicine, cosmetics, and much more. Hawaii became very involved with whaling because of the warmer waters. Peru and Chile were the first whaling sites, but later got exhausted, then moved West toards New Zealand and New South wales, Australia. Then, they found that Japan had a great whaling area. Unfortunately, Japan had restricted any foreigners from coming to whale off the Japanese shores. Which is why they moved on to Hawaii. It was in the spring time when the waters were warmer, and most whalers either went off the coast of O'ahu or to Lahaina, Maui. Over the years, both O'ahu and Lahaina have become very popular whaling spots. But Lahaina always seemed to get more whalers than O'ahu did, almost every single year. 

Hawaii started to become really popular. More job oppertunities, more everything. People from all over the world were starting to come to Hawaii just to find a job. Especially the Chinese. They were so desparate that they left everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING just to come here. They would be on a boat with nothing in their hands, and probably little or nothing in their pockets. And these people weren't young. There were some elderly men looking for jobs as well. Makes you think, "just how bad was it where you came from for you to move all this way?". Because of all these people looking for jobs, labor laws were soon implemented. It stated rules about what a "master" and a "servant" could and could not due, and listed all the punishments for both servant and master. There were many laws like this in one document called "An Act for the Government of Masters and Servants". This ensured that people who worked knew the rules and regulations of going into a job in the Hawaiian Islands.