08-16-2015, 10:33 AM
quote:
Originally posted by shockwave rider
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.
You might want to read this paper regarding Hawaii population trends pre contact, really interesting read.
https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/b...sequence=1
TLDR; Hawaii population most likely stopped growing pre-contact ~1502 and the estimate of Hawaii population when Cook arrived was most likely around 200-250k.
The reason why i find it interesting was the population points at around
(wikipedia, i know)
1800 was about 250k
1832 was about 130k
1890 was about 89k.
What i find interesting is pre-contact to 1800 the population is relatively stables and took a hit between 1800-1832. This is the time when Kamehameha's wars on the other islands was in full swing.
I am not saying disease wasn't a huge factor, but armies were famous back then for transmitting disease and unhealthy conditions. I seem to recall reading somewhere that a lot of Kamehameha's warriors died to disease.
If you add in war and most likely famine that might cause things to really hit the fan.