Kamehameha III

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Kamehameha III
Kauikeaouli took the title of Kamehameha III upon becoming king of Hawaiʻi.
Birth name	Kauikeaouli
Reign	1824 - 1854
Successor	Kamehameha IV
Predecessor	Kamehameha II
Consort	Kalama
Born	(1814 -
Died	December 15, 1854)

Kamehameha III, King of Hawaii (born Kauikeaouli) (August 11, 1813?–December 15, 1854) was the king of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1824 to 1854. He was Hawaii's longest reigning monarch.

Born on August 11, 1813 on the Big Island of Hawaii, Kauikeaouli was the second son of Kamehameha the Great and Queen Keopuolani. Kauikeaouli was 11 years younger than his brother Liholiho, who ruled as Kamehameha II.

It’s said that Kauikeaouli had a troubled childhood. He was torn between the Christian guidelines imposed on the kingdom by the kuhina nui (prime minister) Kaahumanu and the desires to return to the ways of old Hawaii. Under the influence of Oahu governor Boki, Kauikeaouli turned to alcohol in a clear rejection of the Christian standards of morality.

Kauikeaouli was only 11 when he ascended to the throne in June 1825, 11 months after the death of Liholiho. For the next seven years, he was guided by Kaahumanu and the high chief Kalanimoku. From 1824 to 1832, real political power was in the hands of his stern mother and regent, Ka'ahumanu. When Kaahumanu died in 1832, she was replaced by Kauikeaouli’s half-sister, Kinau. Elisabeta Kinau died when Kauikeaouli was only 25, and the young king found himself consumed by the burdens of kingship.

When Kauikeaouli came to the throne, the native population numbered about 150,000, which was already less than half of the Hawaiian population at the time of Captain Cook’s arrival to Hawaii in 1778. During his reign, that number would be halved again, thanks in part to a smallpox epidemic.

In 1839, under a French threat of war, Roman Catholicism was legalized and the first statutory law code was established. He also enacted the Constitution of 1840, Hawaii's first. Two years later, he moved the capital from Lahaina to Honolulu.

In 1843, a British commander named George Paulet pressured Kauikeaouli into surrendering the Hawaiian kingdom to the British crown, but Kamehameha III alerted London of the captain's rogue actions which eventually restored the kingdom's independence. It was during this brief period of uncertainty that the king uttered the phrase that eventually became Hawaii’s motto: "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono"—"The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness." Less than five months later, Britain rejected the commander’s actions and the kingdom was restored to Kauikeaouli.

One of his most important acts was the Great Mahele of 1848 which redistributed land between the government, king, nobles, and commoners. Most commoners were ignorant or unaware of the program and lost out on the distribution. Foreigners were also allowed to own land in Hawaii for the first time. In 1849, French admiral Legoarant de Tromelin sacked and looted Honolulu after the king refused his demands. Kamehameha III's last major act was the Constitution of 1852 which greatly liberalized politics.

As the years passed, Kauikeaouli found himself resigned to the changing landscape of Hawaii. His rebellious nature softened as his authority was compromised by outside influences. In 1854, he had his foreign minister, Robert Wyllie, "ascertain the views of the United States in relation to the annexation thereto of these Islands."

Kauikeaouli died on December 15 of that same year. He was 41. He was succeeded by his nephew and adopted son, Alexander Liholiho as Kamehameha IV.