Jack of Harts

The Kingdom of Hawaii’s Crown Lands were confiscated during the overthrow of the last Queen, but the native Hawaiians never forgot. The various royal families and native rights groups fought in the courts and congress to return the lands, and found many allies. But while the American federal government eventually would pass a resolution specifically naming the overthrow illegal, the movement to actually return the lands never fully materialized until the Second Great Depression. Governor Mahana faced a sudden drop in tourism dollars that threatened to destabilize their entire economy, and the old Crown Lands had always been some of the richest and productive lands on the islands. They made a lot of money, and Governor Mahana wanted that money to go to the people of Hawaii. So she used her emergency powers to nationalize every acre of confirmed Crown Land, and required the new tenants to pay rent for the land that went into the new Crown Fund, which would be set aside to help the Hawaiians survive the economic chaos to come.