08-16-2015, 08:59 AM
quote:
Originally posted by MattKarma
...and it was under the Kingdom's lack of medical care/hygiene that the population dropped 10 fold or more. Machine-guns would not have deterred a mass of millions.
That is not really a fair statement. The Hawaiians were a very healthy population, until they encountered unfamiliar diseases they had never been exposed to before. With no natural immunities they died in droves, the same thing has been repeated all over the world whenever isolated populations encounter explorers and their diseases.
European sailors of this era were not exactly paragons of cleanliness and virtue, they were considered the lowest of the low by european and American society of the time. They carried all kinds of communicable diseases, including various STDs. Even the common cold is deadly to a population that has never been exposed to it, not to mention syphilis or measles. The missionaries did have somewhat better hygiene practices, but the population was already decimated by the time they got here, right after Kamehameha's reign was over.