Reform Party of Hawaii
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Reform Party
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|---|---|
| Leaders |
Hiram Bingham I Hiram Bingham II Lorrin A. Thurston Sanford B. Dole |
| Founded | 1840 |
| Dissolved | 1902 |
| Merged into | Hawaii Republican Party |
| Headquarters | Honolulu |
| Ideology |
Modernization Americanization Anti-monarchism |
| Religion | Protestantism |
The Reform Party was a political party in the Kingdom of Hawaii, founded as Missionary Party by descendants of Protestant missionaries that came to Hawaii from New England. The Reform/Missionary Party merged with native Hawaiian members of the Home Rule Party led by Prince Kuhio in 1902 to form the Hawaii Republican Party. The fused Republican Party would lead the so-called Haole-Hawaiian Alliance with uninterrupted Legislative majorities until Democrats took control of the Legislature in 1954.
In 1820 the first Protestant missionaries arrived in Hawaii, sent a year earlier by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Under King Kamehameha II missionaries became integrated into the government becoming the predecessor to the Missionary Party. The missionaries urged Hawaiian rulers to adopt Christianity. The monarchs were suspicious but agreed to some of their advice.
After the death of Kamehameha, Queen Ka'ahumanu came to power under Liholiho, a fundamentalist Christian she banned the old Hawaiian religions in the islands. A later ban on Catholicism would lead to repercussions with France when French, Roman Catholic Missionaries were deported.
In the 1840s the missionaries believed that their mission was accomplished in building a Christian nation. In light of this, missionaries stayed in Hawaii, left to establish missions elsewhere, or returned home. The families of several missionaries became wealthy and their descendants were able to launch businesses and establish plantations in the islands. Several of these descendants formed a political party which became known as the Missionary Party. The Missionary Party had similar goals to the missionaries that came before them. They advocated Globalism, Modernism, and Americanism. Under Kamehameha III the Missionary Party prompted him to modernize Hawaii. A constitution was written, making Hawaii a constitutional monarchy in 1840, and he also approved with suspicion the Great Mahele of 1848 that ended the Hawaiian feudal system by the privatization of land, but allowed plantation oligopolies to form. He also formed relationships with foreign powers like Great Britain, France, the United States and other nations to become recognized as a sovereign nation.
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