King Kamehameha Leadership Style

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Pages: 3

King Kamehameha was the first king to successfully unite all the Hawaiian Islands. However, during his childhood, he was not originally next in line to be the highest ali’i or the ruling ali’i of any island. Kekuhaupi’o trained Kamehameha to be a strong warrior and a district chief. As he grew up, Kamehameha used his own powerful skills to battle other ali’i and conquer all the islands. Kamehameha was an effective leader because he was experienced and cautious about the decisions he made.
One element that made Kamehameha an effective leader was that he was experienced in what to do about new changes. For example, when he recognized the value of sandalwood, he decided to make the sandalwood trade a royal monopoly (26). Kamehameha made this trade a royal monopoly, therefore, he would be able to control the sandalwood or the main source of the Hawaiians’ wealth. This example was something that changed after the unification of the Hawaiian Islands. Before this change, the Hawaiians did not care
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For instance, the book stated, “If he was unsure about a trade, he would not complete it without consulting one of his advisors, such as John Young” (26). This shows that Kamehameha is cautious since he would ask his advisors for help when he is not sure about something in order to prevent himself from making an unfair or awful bargain. After the unification of Hawaii, this was one of the things that had stayed the same. It had an acceptable impact on Hawaii because if Kamehameha was not considerate of the choices he made, then it might affect all the Hawaiian Islands severely. For example, if he had agreed to a trade for something that he didn’t need, then it is the same as losing resources for nothing and resources are extremely important to the Hawaiians. Kamehameha would just be trading valuable goods for useless possessions, which is not right