James L. Haley’s Captive
Paradise: A History of Hawaii gives a hint of its overall emphasis in the
title. Hawaii was captured, primarily by
American interests long before it became an American territory or state.
But Haley does not see all American influence as
negative. His Hawaii of the seventeenth
and eighteenth century was a society under the rule of powerful, violent
chiefs. They battled each other for supremacy;
there was a yawning gulf between have and have-nots. This social structure was violently enforced
by a system of religious taboos. Human
sacrifice was rampant.
According to Haley, American Christian missionaries came
along just when this system was on the verge of collapse. One chief consolidated power, and with the
help of the missionaries, established the Hawaiian Kingdom.
For Haley, this was the golden age of
Hawaii. Christianity as a state religion
acted as a glue for Hawaiian culture.
Much like Constantine’s adoption of the same religion centuries before,
it provided the islands a neutral structure for consolidation of government and rule by law.
Haley is highly critical of the sons and
grandsons of those missionaries, who increasingly weakened the monarchy and native
rule to the point of American annexation for imperial gain.
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