King Kamehameha II (Liholiho)
The next Hawaiian king was 21-year-old Liholio, who took the title of King Kamehameha II. He was the son of Kamehameha and Keipuolani but raised by Kaahumanu in the royal household, and it was Queen Kaahumanu who was the power behind the throne.
Up until that time ancient Hawaiian laws, rituals and rules (kapus) were handed down by the chiefs (ali'i) and priests (kuhuna). For example, women ate separtely from men and a different diet. Men did not eat bananas, and commoners had to lay down on the ground when an ali'i approached. The penalties were severe, often death, and quickly meted out by the mu.
Kaahumanu ended kapu. In November 1819, after mourning for his father, Kamehameha II sat in full view of the chiefs, priests and commoners in Kailua and ate women's food with women. Old Hawaii's belief system came down, and the power of the ali'i and kahunas began to evaporate just at the time that the missionaries were arriving from the United States.
The first dourly Calvanistic evangelists from New England set up shop in the islands in 1820 and though generally tolerated, were kept at a distance. Most chiefs simply wanted to learn to read and write and learn about the outside world from them, though the missionaries had other ideas.
King Kamehameha III (Kauikeaouli)
In 1823 Kamehameha II went to England with his wife and there they died of measles, one of the many European diseases that Pacific islanders had no natural resistance to. Liholio's little brother Kauikeaouli became King Kamehameha III with Queen Kaahumanu ruling as regent until she died in 1832.
Because of her Kauikeaouli was baptized Christian and banned ancient Hawaiian beliefs and practices. By now Hawaii was an important whaling center, and Hawaiian sugar cane was king. It was Kamehameha III who instituted land reform in Hawaii, and by the mid-'40's Hawaii was recognized by England, France and the US as an independent nation.
King Kamehameha IV (Alexander)
In 1854 Alexander Liholiho became Kamehameha IV and tried to curtail the influence of the missionaries. Though he stopped a US plan for annexation, he was powerles against the epidemics that were wiping out native Hawaiian islanders. It was because so many islanders were dying of measles, the common cold, the flu and other such common European ailments, that planters, many of them former missionaries, began importing workers from China, Japan and other Asian lands.
In 1862 Alexander's only child Albert died and in the next year so did Alexander. Queen Emma, who was half-Hawaiian and half-English, then was given the name "Kaleleonalani," meaning the "flight of the heavenly chiefs."
Alexander's reign as Kamehameha IV is often referred to as the "golden age," and though he was fun-loving and a lenient ruler, there are persistent rumors that both Kahehameha IV and his son Albert were poisoned.