Māhele

The Māhele was a significant land redistribution in Hawaii during the 19th century, primarily in 1848. It was a legal process that transformed land ownership from traditional Hawaiian communal and chiefly control to private individual ownership, often documented through Western-style titles. This shift aimed to modernize land management and encourage economic development but also led to substantial loss of land rights for native Hawaiians. The Māhele marked a turning point in Hawaiian history, influencing social, economic, and cultural changes, and laid the groundwork for the development of the modern land system in Hawaii.