Explaining divergence in property rights: Fiji and Hawai'i in the nineteenth century

This chapter compares the history of land rights in two Pacific island groups, Hawai’i and Fiji, which shared relatively similar cultures and common historical experiences during the nineteenth century: both had Polynesian cultures;1 relatively late contact with Europeans; development of a written language in the early nineteenth century; settlement by Christian missionaries; resource booms in the early nineteenth century followed by a sugar boom in the late nineteenth century; and eventual annexation by a major world power. Given these parallels, it is not surprising that private property rights in land emerged in both societies during the nineteenth century.