The Great Mahele was created to change the land distribution in order to provide foreigners such as missionaries and American businessmen a chance to buy land. Before the Great Mahele, the king owned all the land, the chiefs controlled parts of an island, and the commoners worked for the chiefs/king and got to live on the land. The Great Mahele paved the way for the sugar industry since now Americans could come to Hawaii and buy big plots of land and start their own sugar plantations, which became one of the biggest industries in Hawaiian History. Very simple the social impact was more businesses and foreigners were coming to Hawaii, but the native Hawaiians were losing land since they were not used to this capital based system, and could not afford to buy land. Politically, the king was losing power while the foreigners were gaining power do to the sugar industry becoming the main force for Hawaii to make a name for its self. American businessmen and missionaries were gaining power and influence and many of them became part of the Committee of Safety that overthrew the queen and the whole Hawaiian monarchy system. At this point the United States annexed Hawaii, and everything changed from there. I would have to say that the Great Mahele was one of the main reasons for the Overthrow to happen, there are just way too many connections.
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