Kalākaua was the first monarch to circumnavigate the globe. His 281-day trip brought the small island nation to the attention of world leaders. Critics in Hawaii believed the labor negotiations were just an excuse to see the world.
About Kalākaua’s 1881 world tour in brief
Kalākaua was the first monarch to circumnavigate the globe. His 281-day trip brought the small island nation to the attention of world leaders. His efforts sparked rumors that the kingdom was for sale. Critics in Hawaii believed the labor negotiations were just an excuse to see the world. The King traveled with no security guards; only a small group of personal friends made the journey with him. In the years that followed, he began emulating the lifestyles of European royalty with expensive furnishings in Iolani Palace, a public coronation for himself, and a two-week public celebration of his birthday. The islands had generally been known as the Sandwich Islands since the 1778 visit of Captain James Cook. The estimated population of Native Hawaiians when Cook arrived was 800, with the arrival of whaling ships in the early 19th century, the Hawaiian population began dying in large numbers. The official 18 census showed only 44,088 individuals who claimed Hawaiian ethnicity. The sugar plantation work force in the islands had been dwindling and the Hawaiian race was in danger of extinction. On December 24, 1880, he signed an act of the legislative assembly acknowledging the corruption in the immigration system and authorizing the Interior Minister of Henry P. Carter to take charge of licensing immigration brokers following the signing of the immigration act. The first transplants arrived in Hawaii less than a year later, and the King signed the act on January 1, 1881. He was succeeded by his son and heir apparent, Kamehameha II, who went on to become the last king of the Hawaiian Islands and the last monarch of the Kingdom of Kaua’i.
In 1874, he was first reigning monarch to visit America during his 1874 visit to Washington, D. C. for negotiations on the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875. The state dinner in his honor hosted by President Ulysses S. Grant was thefirst White House state dinner ever given. The King had an audience in Rome with Pope Leo XIII and met with many of the crowned heads of Europe. He offered a plan to Emperor Meiji for putting Hawaii under the protection of the Empire of Japan with an arranged marriage between his niece Kaʻiulani and a Japanese prince. On his visit to Portugal, he negotiated a treaty of friendship and commerce with Hawaii that would provide a legal framework for the emigration of Portuguese laborers to Hawaii. He toured Hampton Normal and Agricultural School, and shopped for horses in Kentucky. The royal party boarded a train to California, where they were house guests of Claus Spreckels at his estate in Aptos, and spent a few days seeing the sights before sailing back toHawaiian. He visited the white elephants of Siam, the Giza pyramid complex in Egypt, tourist sites in India, and museums in Europe. Along the way, he exceeded his original budget, shopping regardless, and sent letters back home. He also met with Thomas Edison to see a demonstration of electric lights, and visited Virginia’s Fort Monroe.
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