Zeal for progress

Aloha for constructive new ideas typifies Hawai‛i. There has always been a practical response to the many challenges confronting Hawai‛i over the years. The present chapter demonstrates the extraordinary progress of the Islands from the first arrival of the Polynesians to the end of the nineteenth century, when social progress came to a halt with the imposition of alien rule over the Islands. In a word, there has been a fervent quest for progress, well captured by the word zeal.