Description
Book SynopsisThroughout the nineteenth century British and American imperialists advanced into the Pacific, with catastrophic effects for Polynesian peoples and cultures. In both Tahiti and Hawai‘i, women rulers attempted to mitigate the effects of these encounters, utilizing their power amid the destabilizing influence of the English and Americans. However, as the century progressed, foreign diseases devastated the Tahitian and Hawaiian populations, and powerful European militaries jockeyed for more formal imperial control over Polynesian waystations, causing Tahiti to cede rule to France in 1847 and Hawai‘i to relinquish power to the United States in 1893.
In
When Women Ruled the Pacific Joy Schulz highlights four Polynesian women rulers who held enormous domestic and foreign power and expertly governed their people amid shifting loyalties, outright betrayals, and the ascendancy of imperial racism. Like their European counterparts, these Polynesian rulers fought arg
Trade Review“Compelling, deeply researched, and beautifully written. When Women Ruled the Pacific addresses an area of history that has been underserved by existing literature. Joy Schulz has found a really intriguing historical situation with the case of the four queens and has written an excellent book.”—Emily Manktelow, author of
Gender, Power, and Sexual Abuse in the Pacific: Rev. Simpson’s “Improper Liberties”“A smartly written text that makes wide-ranging use of a robust set of primary archives. Joy Schulz’s impressive command of the vast and varied primary sources for the figures she examines is evident throughout the text. More, Schulz’s multidisciplinary approach informs and permeates her study.”—Jennifer Thigpen, author of
Island Queens and Mission Wives: How Gender and Empire Remade Hawai‘i’s Pacific WorldTable of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Woman in Red
1. Purea
2. ‘Aimata
3. Ka‘ahumanu
4. Lili‘uokalani
Conclusion: To All the Queens
Appendix A: Partial Letter from Pōmare to Queen Victoria (1844)
Appendix B: Queen Lili‘uokalani’s Formal Protest to the United States against the Annexation Treaty (1897)
Notes
Bibliography
Index
