Kalākaua (David Laʻamea Kamanakapuʻu Māhinulani Nālaʻiaʻehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua; November 16, 1836 – January 20, 1891) was the last king and penultimate monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, reigning from February 12, 1874, until his death in 1891. Succeeding Lunalilo, he was elected to the vacant throne of Hawaiʻi against Queen Emma. Kalākaua was known as the Merrie Monarch for his convivial personality—he enjoyed entertaining guests with his singing and ukulele playing. At his coronation and his birthday jubilee, the hula, which had hitherto been banned in public in the kingdom, became a celebration of Hawaiian culture.
During Kalākaua's reign, the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 brought great prosperity to the kingdom. Its renewal continued the prosperity but allowed the United States exclusive use of Pearl Harbor. In 1881, Kalākaua took a trip around the world to encourage the immigration of contract sugar plantation workers. He wanted Hawaiians to broaden their education beyond their nation. He instituted a government-financed program to sponsor qualified students to be sent abroad to further their education. Two of his projects, the statue of Kamehameha I and the rebuilding of ʻIolani Palace, were expensive but are popular tourist attractions today.
Extravagant expenditures and Kalākaua's plans for a Polynesian confederation played into the hands of annexationists who were already working toward a United States takeover of Hawaiʻi. In 1887, Kalākaua was pressured to sign a new constitution that made the monarchy little more than a figurehead position. After his brother William Pitt Leleiohoku II died in 1877, the king named their sister Liliʻuokalani as heir-apparent. She acted as regent during his absences from the country. After Kalākaua's death, she became the last monarch of Hawaiʻi.
Kalākaua was born at 2 a.m. on November 16, 1836, to Caesar Kaluaiku Kapaʻakea and Analea Keohokālole in his maternal grandfather ʻAikanaka's grass hut compound at the base of Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu. Of the aliʻi class of Hawaiian nobility, his family was considered collateral relations of the reigning House of Kamehameha, sharing common descent from the 18th-century aliʻi nui Keaweʻīkekahialiʻiokamoku. From his biological parents, he descended from Keawe-a-Heulu and Kameʻeiamoku, two of Kamehameha I's five royal counselors during his conquest of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Kameʻeiamoku, the grandfather of both his mother and father, was one of the royal twins, alongside Kamanawa, depicted on the Hawaiian coat of arms. But Kalākaua and his siblings traced their high rank from their mother's line of descent, calling themselves members of the "Keawe-a-Heulu line", though later historians called the family the House of Kalākaua. The second surviving child of a large family, his biological siblings included his elder brother James Kaliokalani and younger siblings Lydia Kamakaʻeha (later renamed Liliʻuokalani), Anna Kaʻiulani, Kaʻiminaʻauao, Miriam Likelike, and William Pitt Leleiohoku II.
Kalākaua, whose name means "The Day [of] Battle", was born on the day the unequal treaty imposed by British Captain Lord Edward Russell of the Actaeon on Kamehameha III was signed. He and his siblings were hānai (informally adopted) to other family members in the Native Hawaiian tradition. Before his birth, his parents had promised to give their child in hānai to Kuini Liliha, a high-ranking chiefess and the widow of High Chief Boki. But after he was born, High Chiefess Haʻaheo Kaniu took the baby to her home at Honuakaha, one of the king's residences. Kuhina Nui (regent) Elizabeth Kīnaʻu, who disliked Liliha, deliberated and decreed that his parents give him to Haʻaheo and her husband Keaweamahi Kinimaka. When Haʻaheo died in 1843 she bequeathed all her properties to him. After Haʻaheo's death, his guardianship was entrusted to his hānai father, a chief of lesser rank; he took Kalākaua to live in Lāhainā on the island of Maui. Kinimaka later married Pai, a subordinate Tahitian chiefess, who treated Kalākaua as her own until the birth of her own son.
At the age of four, Kalākaua returned to Oʻahu to begin his education at the Chiefs' Children's School (later renamed the Royal School). He and his classmates had been formally proclaimed by Kamehameha III as eligible for the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. His classmates included his siblings James Kaliokalani and Lydia Kamakaʻeha and their 13 royal cousins, including the future kings Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V, and Lunalilo. They were taught by American missionary Amos Starr Cooke and his wife, Juliette Montague Cooke. At the school, Kalākaua became fluent in English and the Hawaiian language and was noted for his fun and humor rather than his academic prowess. The strong-willed boy defended his less robust elder brother Kaliokalani from the older boys.
In October 1840, their paternal grandfather Kamanawa II requested that his grandsons visit him on the night before his execution for the murder of his wife Kamokuiki. The next morning the Cookes allowed the royal children's guardian, John Papa ʻĪʻī, to bring Kaliokalani and Kalākaua to see Kamanawa for the last time. It is not known whether their sister was also taken to see him. Later sources, especially biographies of Kalākaua, say the boys witnessed their grandfather's public hanging at the gallows. Historian Helena G. Allen noted the Cookes' indifference to the request and the traumatic effect it must have had on the boys.
After the Cookes retired and closed the school in 1850, Kalākaua briefly studied at Joseph Watt's English school for native children at Kawaiahaʻo and later joined the relocated day school (also called Royal School) run by Reverend Edward G. Beckwith. Illness prevented him from finishing his schooling and he was sent back to Lāhainā to live with his mother.
After his formal schooling, he studied law under Charles Coffin Harris in 1853. Kalākaua appointed Harris as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii in 1877.
Political and military careers
Kalākaua's various military, government and court positions prevented him from fully completing his legal training. He received his earliest military training under the Prussian officer, Major Francis Funk, who instilled an admiration of the Prussian military system. In 1852, Prince Liholiho, who would later reign as Kamehameha IV, appointed Kalakaua as one of his aide-de-camp on his military staff. The following year, he commissioned Kalākaua as brevet captain in the infantry. In the army, Kalākaua served as first lieutenant in his father Kapaʻakea's militia of 240 men and later worked as military secretary to Major John William Elliott Maikai, the adjutant general of the army. He was promoted to major and assigned to the personal staff of Kamehameha IV when the king ascended to the throne in 1855. He was promoted to the rank of colonel in 1858.
He became a personal associate and friend of Prince Lot, the future Kamehameha V, who instilled his mission of "Hawaiʻi for Hawaiians" in the young Kalākaua. In the fall of 1860, when he was Chief Clerk of the kingdom's Department of the Interior, Kalākaua accompanied Prince Lot, high chief Levi Haʻalelea and Hawaii's Consul for Peru, Josiah C. Spalding, on a two-month tour of British Columbia and California. They sailed from Honolulu aboard the yacht Emma Rooke, on August 29, arriving on September 18 in Victoria, British Columbia, where they were received by the local dignitaries of the city. In California, the party visited San Francisco, Sacramento, Folsom and other local areas where they were honorably received.
In 1856, Kalākaua was appointed a member of the Privy Council of State by Kamehameha IV. He was also appointed to the House of Nobles, the upper body of the Legislature of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in 1858, serving there until 1873. He served as 3rd Chief Clerk of the Department of the Interior in 1859 under Prince Lot who was Minister of the Interior before becoming king in 1863. He held this position until 1863. On June 30, 1863, Kalākaua was appointed Postmaster General and served until his resignation on March 18, 1865. In 1865, he was appointed the King's Chamberlain and served until 1869 when he resigned to finish his law studies. In 1870, he was admitted to the Hawaiian bar and was hired as a clerk in the Land Office, a post he held until he came to the throne. He was decorated a Knight Companion of the Royal Order of Kamehameha I in 1867.