The last ruling king of Hawaii, King David Kalakaua, led the very first Hawaiian renaissance in the 1800s. He was regarded as “The Merrie Monarch” for his passion for music and also the arts, and was a multi-talented intellectual pioneer who created numerous compositions, notably the Hawaiian anthem, Hawaii Pono. 

King David Kalakaua opened Hawaii to the rest of the globe and introduced international innovations to the Hawaiian Empire. He was the first king of any country to travel the world and be recognized at a formal dinner in the United States. He encouraged Native Hawaiian scholars to train in Asia and Europe, and he established electricity in Iolani Castle before it was established in the White House & Buckingham Palace.

Kalakaua was the king of Hawaii between 1874 to 1891. He was born on November 16, 1836, in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands and perished on January 30, 1891, in San Francisco, California, U.S.A. King Kalakaua, the son of a great chief, ran for the crown in 1873 but was defeated by Lunalilo. Because Kamehameha V had not selected a successor when he perished in December 1872, an election took place to pick his replacement. Prince William Charles Lunalilo defeated David Kalakaua by a significant margin. But when Lunalilo passed without designating a replacement on February 3, 1874, another election took place, and King Kalakaua defeated Queen Emma, the widow of Kamehameha V. King Kalakaua came to the United States and negotiated the Reciprocity of Treaty of 1875, which lifted the tax on sugar and other Hawaiian exports, resulting in a surge in Hawaii’s sugar market and economic success for the kingdom.

King David Kalakaua received a solid education both in English and Hawaiian, as befitted a son of a high-ranking Hawaiian household in one of the world’s finest educated countries at the time. He and others of his age profited from the efforts of King Kamehameha II and those who followed his goal of an educated Hawaii. People were well schooled at the time, there were literature and periodicals in Hawaiian.

Hawaiians’ understanding of themselves as a culture was wholly dependent on the history of individuals who could recite old verses. By the time Kalakaua arrived, Hawaiian remembrance of their customs and methods of working was in threat. The native Hawaiian populace had plummeted as a result of foreign disease contact, to which Hawaiians seemed to have no antibodies. Contact with Americans and Europeans was generating alterations in Hawaiian culture that jeopardized Hawaiian dialect, tradition, and heritage even further.

One strategy to help maintain the Hawaiian language and culture was to maintain the hula, the ancient sacred dancing that referenced Hawai’i’s mythology and tales. It was dubbed “the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people” by Kalakaua. The hula mantras should be executed correctly, thus the vocalists have to be fluent in both the language and the dancing. 

In 1886, King David Kalakaua and his Council granted permission to the traditional Hale Naua secret club for Hawaiian ancestors. The ancient Hale Naua had been inactive since Kamehameha I when that served as a genealogical research institution for royal lineage allegations. When Kalakaua revitalized it, he broadened its mission to embrace Hawaiian heritage as well as contemporary arts and sciences, and also women as equals.

In 1879, he ordered the construction of today’s Iolani Palace, the only royal palace on American territory. The majority of the koa timber used for the palace’s building came from an upcountry Maui factory.

In 1881, King David Kalakaua, his childhood friends William Nevins Armstrong & Charles Hastings Judd, plus private cook Robert von Oelhoffen navigated the world. The 281-day trip’s goal was to promote the introduction of contract workers for farms. As the first king to journey across the world, king Kalakaua set a global milestone. During his departure, he selected his sister & heir-apparent Liliuokalani to serve as governor. They set out on January 20 and stopped in California before traveling to Asia. They spent 4 months away, starting bonded labor discussions in China and Japan while traveling and promoting kindness in countries that could perhaps provide employees.

They traveled across Southeast Asia before arriving in Europe in June, where they remained until mid-September. Their greatest fruitful immigration discussions took place in Portugal, wherein Armstrong remained behind to arrange an extension of Hawaii’s existing pact with the authorities. In their departure, President James A. Garfield was killed in Washington, D.C. King Kalakaua made a personal call upon Garfield’s replacement President Chester A. Arthur on their returning trip to the United States. Kalakaua met Thomas Edison for a display of lighting systems before heading on a train voyage throughout the United States, exploring its prospective usage in Honolulu. They left San Francisco on October 22 for Hawaii, landing in Honolulu on October 31. His return ceremony lasted many days.

He had drawn the attention of international officials to the little island country, but the tour had spawned suspicions that the monarchy was for sale. Others in Hawaii thought the labor discussions were merely a pretext for him to tour the globe. His initiatives ultimately resulted in increasing contract workers for Hawaii. According to Thomas Thrum’s Hawaiian Almanac & Annual for 1883, King Kalakaua’s tour expenditure was $22,500, yet his private communications show he surpassed that immediately. 

Kalakaua’s rule was also distinguished by the monarch’s focus on military grandeur and expensive entertainment. He was known to like betting and was claimed to have risked Molokini in a card game while on vacation in Maui.

Under coercion, he was compelled to sign the new Hawaii Constitution (known as the Bayonet Constitution) in 1887, which dissolved the kingdom. He did, however, continue to preserve Hawaiian culture alongside his sister Liliuokalani.

In 1985, the City and County of Honolulu received a bronze sculpture of Kalakaua to celebrate the 100th birthday of the entrance of the first Japanese workers following the king’s trip to Japan. The Oahu Kanyaku Imin Centennial Committee acquired it in honor of Hawaii’s Japanese society. Palani Vaughan, architect Leland Onekea, and Native Hawaiian artist Sean Kekamakupaa Kaonohiokalani Lee Loy Browne planned and built the sculpture. It is situated in Waikiki at the intersection of Kalakaua and Kuhio streets.

While sugar revenues increased and Hawaii’s economy thrived, commercial deals and corruption infiltrated the government. In order to gain more influence, business groups pushed Kalakaua to accept the “Bayonet Constitution” in 1887, diminishing his position to that of a symbol.

After a tumultuous parliamentary session in 1890, Kalakaua went to San Francisco in the hopes of resting and restoring his illness. In January 1891, he died in the San Francisco Palace Hotel.

Kalakaua’s reign is often considered the first Hawaiian Renaissance, owing to his effect on Hawaiian art as well as other efforts he made to revitalize Hawaiian culture. This movement sparked a revival of Hawaiian patriotism and sovereignty in the monarchy.