In the early 1800s thousands of American and European traders arrived in Hawai‘i to lay in supplies for the long trip east or to take on Hawaiian sandalwood, which commanded a high price in China. In response to this developing global economy in the Pacific, Russia expanded its trading outposts as far as western Kaua‘i and together with Kaua‘i chiefs began planning the construction of Fort Elisabeth in Waimea in 1816. A year later, the structure was abandoned by the Russians, but, as Peter Mills argues convincingly, a long and significant history of the fort remains to be told, even after its Russian one had ended. Seeking to redress the imbalance that exists between the colonized and the colonizers in Pacific historiography, Mills examines the fort and its place in the history of Kaua‘i under paramount chief Kaumuali‘i and in relation to the expanding kingdom of Kamehameha and his successors. His work exposes how Hawaiians have been ignored in their own history and challenges commonly held assumptions such as Kamehameha’s unification of the Islands in 1810 and the victimization of Kaumuali‘i by representatives of the Russian-American Company. Using hundreds of firsthand accounts in combination with field archaeology, Mills shows that the fort was originally built and used by Hawaiians as a heiau (ritual temple). After the Russians’ departure, Hawaiians continued to use the fort but in ways that reflected an ongoing transformation of cultural values provoked by contact with outsiders and the development of multiethnic communities in Waimea and other port settlements throughout the Hawaiian chain. Hawai‘i’s Russian Adventure is an original look at a significant chapter in the history of Hawai‘i. It overturns many popular myths and perceptions about the fort at Waimea and about European and Hawaiian interaction in the first half of the nineteenth century while delving into some of the central issues in historical anthropology, colonialism, and the development of global networks.

In the early 1800s thousands of American and European traders arrived in Hawai‘i to lay in supplies for the long trip east or to take on Hawaiian sandalwood, which commanded a high price in China. In response to this developing global economy in the Pacific, Russia expanded its trading outposts as far as western Kaua‘i and together with Kaua‘i chiefs began planning the construction of Fort Elisabeth in Waimea in 1816. A year later, the structure was abandoned by the Russians, but, as Peter Mills argues convincingly, a long and significant history of the fort remains to be told, even after its Russian one had ended. Seeking to redress the imbalance that exists between the colonized and the colonizers in Pacific historiography, Mills examines the fort and its place in the history of Kaua‘i under paramount chief Kaumuali‘i and in relation to the expanding kingdom of Kamehameha and his successors. His work exposes how Hawaiians have been ignored in their own history and challenges commonly held assumptions such as Kamehameha’s unification of the Islands in 1810 and the victimization of Kaumuali‘i by representatives of the Russian-American Company. Using hundreds of firsthand accounts in combination with field archaeology, Mills shows that the fort was originally built and used by Hawaiians as a heiau (ritual temple). After the Russians’ departure, Hawaiians continued to use the fort but in ways that reflected an ongoing transformation of cultural values provoked by contact with outsiders and the development of multiethnic communities in Waimea and other port settlements throughout the Hawaiian chain. Hawai‘i’s Russian Adventure is an original look at a significant chapter in the history of Hawai‘i. It overturns many popular myths and perceptions about the fort at Waimea and about European and Hawaiian interaction in the first half of the nineteenth century while delving into some of the central issues in historical anthropology, colonialism, and the development of global networks.

Bailey describes how the Sea of Okhotsk area became integrated into a world system of economic and cultural ties between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. This happened primarily because of maritime explorations, travel, and trade, which led to increased connections with both Russia and Japan. Individual chapters of the book provide analyses of historical sources which describe cross-cultural encounters and changes in the Sea of Okhotsk area. This includes analyses of explorers and travelers who traversed the region for commerce, exploration, diplomacy, and possible colonization. Historical sources are explored from the different perspectives of Russians, Japanese, Indigenous peoples, and international observers from Western countries. Cross-cultural encounters in the region among these groups led to collaboration, syncretism, and resistance, sometimes violent and sometimes peaceful. The last chapter discusses how some international travelers and foreign residents of Hokkaidō described the area at the end of the nineteenth century. Their perspectives confirm that Hokkaidō had become a fully colonized space. An essential resource for students and scholars of cross-cultural studies, Russian history, Japanese history, and Ainu and Indigenous history.

In the history of geographical discovery and exploration, a well-known cast of European characters and events takes center stage. While the importance of achievements by Columbus, Cortes, Magellan, Cook, Lewis and Clark, and Neil Armstrong remains unassailable, the participation of Russia in the European era of exploration, conquest, expansion, and colonization deserves equal attention. This study provides a narrative survey and critical analysis of a rich but overlooked tradition of geographical exploration by Russians and others in Russian service since 1580. Following Russian pioneers across Siberia, Alaska, Brazil, Hawaii and the Pacific, Central Asia, Australasia, the Arctic and Antarctic, and into space, this work establishes Russia in the history of world exploration and connects the Russian experience of exploration to Russian national identity past and present.

King Kamehameha the Great had 30 wives. Ka'ahumanu (c.1768-1832) was his favorite. Descended from Oceanian voyagers, she grew up in a society completely isolated from the rest of the world, her life enmeshed in dynastic wars and constrained by an elaborate system of taboos. In 1778, she was shocked by the arrival of alien ships, followed by an influx of foreigners. In their wake came devastating epidemics. Seizing power after the King's death, Ka'ahumanu overturned those taboos and guided her nation through revolutionary change, crucial to the Hawaiian Islands' unification. Through sicknesses, romances, infidelities, murders, rebellions, pardons, travels, missionary work, and more, her story challenges many beliefs about American history, Christianity, and gender. Further, it has implications for current debates about immigration, sexuality, and religious diversity. Drawing on seldom-analyzed French and Russian sources, this biography covers neglected aspects of Ka'ahumanu's life. The many spouses and lovers she and Kamehameha had, the roles played by Central Europeans, African-Americans, Catholics and Unitarians in her realm, and struggles with religious pluralism are all included.

This work presents a trans-Siberian expedition to rediscover the peoples, cultures and riches of Russia's eastern frontiers. It addresses such questions as: who are the people of the region?; have they a distinct culture?; and does the area have a future as part of the Pacific Rim?

Given its relatively late encounter with the West, Hawaii offers an exciting opportunity to study a society whose traditional lifeways and technologies were recorded in native oral traditions and written documents before they were changed by contact with non-Polynesian cultures. This book in the SAA Press Current Perspectives Series chronicles the role of archaeology in constructing a narrative of Hawaii’s cultural past, focusing on material evidence dating from the Polynesians’ first arrival on Hawaii’s shores about a millennium ago to the early decades of settlement by Americans and Europeans in the nineteenth century. A final chapter discusses new directions taken by native Hawaiians toward changing the practice of archaeology in the islands today.