Who was the real Kaʻiana in Chief of War? Meet the warrior noble who defied a king

The show offers a Polynesian perspective on the struggle to maintain their indigenous identity against a backdrop of growing American and European influence, and Ka’iana (played by Jason Momoa, Chief of War’s other co-creator) was at the heart of that journey.

Was there a real Chief of War?

Yes, there was a real ‘Chief of War’ – a Hawai‘ian warrior and aliʻi (noble) named Ka’iana. He is believed to be the first Hawai‘ian to visit China and North America, and is central to the history of Hawai‘ian unification.

Who was Ka’iana?

The Hawai‘ian warrior Ka’iana was born around 1755 into a noble family. He would have had a privileged upbringing, being taught the art of war from a young age. By the time he reached adulthood, wrote the English captain John Meares, he was “six feet five inches in stature, and the muscular form of his limbs was of an Herculean appearance”.

His physical prowess would soon serve him well, as in the late 18th-century Hawai‘i slid into a series of brutal conflicts. For his part, Ka’aina fought alongside Kahekili II, the aliʻi nui (supreme leader) of Maui during the latter’s invasion of O’ahu in 1783.

Warfare on the islands at this time was up close and personal. Many Hawai‘ian warriors at the time would have carried the leiomano – a fearsome club encrusted with sharpened shark teeth that could do horrific damage to bare flesh. In no small part due to his strength and athleticism, Ka’iana excelled in combat and soon became a warrior of great renown.

But Ka’iana would have a change of heart about the Maui occupation of O’ahu. Two years after the invasion, he leant his support to the O’ahu resistance, only for his defection to be discovered. Ka’iana was forced to flee. He made his way to Kaua’i – where, in 1786, he was among the among those to greet the first Europeans to reach the Hawai‘ian islands since Captain Cook was killed trying to kidnap the ruler of Hawai‘i seven years earlier.

Ka’iana in China and beyond

On 27 August 1787, Ka’iana managed to gain passage with English Captain John Meares on board his ship, the Nootka. His motives for taking to sea were unclear, but Meares believed Ka’iana had a desire to travel as far as England itself.

Meares was a fur trader, and his first stop beyond the Hawai‘ian islands was China – first Macao, and from there it was onto the bustling port of Canton – where he spent three months. There he met fellow English captains John Cox and Nathaniel Portlock.

Striding through the packed streets in the dress of his homeland – a loincloth, feathered cape and helmet – Ka’iana cut a gigantic figure. Meares outfitted him with a satin waistcoat and a pair of trousers (which he soon wore with “habitual ease”, wrote Meares), but he still carried his spear.

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It was in Macao that he would attend Catholic Mass with great interest, carefully copying the movements of the worshipers. When he saw half-naked beggars on the street, one of the captains noted that he expressed “great concern” and got his English companions to give generously to them.

By the time Ka’iana left China, wrote Portlock, “his very name [was] revered by all ranks and conditions of the people of Canton”.

From Canton, Ka’iana went first to the Philippines, and saw firsthand the effects of European colonisation on the disaffected local people, then to Alaska. By the time Ka’iana returned to Hawai‘i at the end of 1788, Meares commented there was not a single man aboard who did not love the six-foot-five Hawai‘ian warrior.

How did Ka’iana become a chief of war?

Ka’iana then took service with Kamehameha I – a powerful chief, then ruler of the island of Hawaii. Kamehameha sought to unify all the Hawai‘ian islands into a single nation, with himself as its sole king.

The late 1780s also saw increasing numbers of Europeans arrive on Hawai‘ian shores, changing the traditional way of life. Possibly at Ka’iana’s urging, these Europeans supplied Kamehameha with swivel guns (small cannon), as well as arms and ammunition.

In 1792, Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver (for whom the city of Vancouver in British Columbia is named) visited Hawaii, reported with concern that Kamehameha’s forces were well armed with European weapons. One of his crew noted that Ka’iana personally had an arsenal of four swivel guns, six muskets, and three large barrels of powder – enough to fight a small war.

More worryingly for Vancouver, Ka’iana had mounted the cannon on canoes, making them into gunboats nimble enough to pose a threat to European ships. As for the native Hawai‘ians’ abilities with these western firearms, Vancouver wrote that they “use these weapons with an adroitness that would not disgrace ... European soldiers”.

By 1795, Kamehameha was ready to launch his well-equipped army at his greatest enemies – the chiefs of O‘ahu and Maui. This was a mission of conquest rather than a raid, aimed at bringing the islands under his personal rule.

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It was at this juncture that a momentous decision was made – Kamehameha excluded Ka’iana from his war council. The reasons for this are unclear, but it is likely Kamehameha saw Ka’iana as a growing threat to his own power.

Ka’iana began to fear for his life, believing the other nobles had plans to murder him. With few options left, he defected to one of Kamehameha’s rivals, Kalanikupule, the King of O‘ahu and Maui – not to mention the son and successor of Kahekili II.

How did Ka’iana die?

Ka'iana died at the subsequent battle of Nu’uanu, fought sometime in May 1795, was one of the largest and bloodiest in Hawai‘i’s history. Kamehameha’s army numbered up to 16,000 warriors; Kalanikupule’s slightly fewer.

During the final stages, hundreds of Kalanikupule’s warriors were pushed to their deaths off a 1,000-foot cliff by Kamehameha’s forces. It is for this reason that Nu’uanu is known locally as the battle of the ‘leaping mullet’. More than a century later in 1898, construction teams working on a road below the cliff discovered 800 skulls, believed to be those of warriors killed in the fighting.

Eventually, Kamehameha prevailed over Kalanikupule and Ka’iana, possibly owing to being able to call upon a larger amount of European weaponry.

It is unclear how Ka’iana met his death. One account says he was felled by a cannon ball. Another attests that he was struck by a spear, before being rounded on by a pack of his enemies and clubbed to death.

In any case it is certain he was killed at the battle of Nu’uanu, along with about 300 of his personal retainers.

Chief of War is available to stream on Apple TV+ from 1 August. For more content like this, check out the best historical movies of all time as chosen by historians and ranked by you, history TV shows and films to stream tonight, and our picks of the new history TV and radio released in the UK this week

Matthew Doherty is a military historian, writer and teacher