The Great Māhele: The 1848 Land Division of Hawaii

The Great Māhele was the division of Hawaiian land that took effect on March 7, 1848, under King Kamehameha III. It replaced the traditional shared land system with private ownership, splitting land among the crown, the chiefs, and the government. Its effects on land ownership are still felt today, which makes it one of the turning points of Hawaiian history.

What the Great Māhele was

Facing pressure from foreign powers and advisors, the kingdom moved to a Western system of private property. The Māhele (the word means "division") formally separated interests in land that had previously been held and used in common under the chiefs. A later law, the Kuleana Act, allowed commoners to claim small parcels they lived on and worked.

Land before the Māhele

In old Hawaii, no one "owned" land the way we think of it now. Land was managed through the chiefly system in units called ahupuaʻa, which usually ran from the mountains to the sea so a community could reach forest, farmland, and fishing grounds. This reflected the value of mālama ʻāina, caring for the land as family.

How the land was divided

The Māhele allocated land among the monarch (the crown lands), the aliʻi and konohiki (chiefs and land managers), and the government. Commoners could then apply for kuleana parcels. In practice, the claiming process was unfamiliar and difficult, and many Hawaiians received little or no land.

Lasting consequences

Over the following decades, a great deal of land passed out of Native Hawaiian hands, and foreigners were increasingly able to acquire it. That shift helped enable the plantation era and reshaped the islands' economy and society. Questions about land and its history remain central to the Hawaiian sovereignty movement and to how many Hawaiians view the past.