it is cute story, very unusual, so another article about Serbo-Hawaii ties
did proper research and while Royal order of Kamehameha I was often awarded to many European royals, unusual part is that Order of Kalakaua was rarely awarded to monarchs, as well as royal order of Kapiolani given to our queen making them both rare in that sense. Some other in our state also recieved Hawaii orders during the visit by royal envoy Curtis P. Iaukea in 1883... however strange part is that Order of Kalakaua was given to Milan in 1882, before any visit and wasn't ususal gift to monarchs, so there is theory that, as non king, Milan maybe met king Kalakaua during his tour year before, but this is sourceless...
other theories are that Hawaii king Kalakaua heard of Serbia via some "Italian" (of Croat paternal origin likely) origin captain who married into their royal family and influenced politics partly. This one is very unlikely because said person was born in America and probably never heard of Serbia. Another one is that interest in Hawaii was due to Milan's American lovers (met in Paris before), some American mercenaries in previous wars in Serbia or just via queen Natalia ties with other monarchs and families in Germany etc. In any way, was unusual decision and interest in that faraway and exotic kingdom with rare diplomatic honours. Our orders and medals are kept in Hawaii palace museum, great addition and piece of history.
checked also "The Pacific commercial advertiser", papers in Hawaii already highly US-influenced by then and on way to annexation, in one of mentioned 1883 editions and found indeed short mentions in few places. Give a pic from article I find interesting, underlined by me... Belgrade was mentioned as "city of palaces"
and visits as one to "great states"... laugh is due to Belgrade being considered as one of the ugliest capitals in Europe by Europeans and many Serbs, though Milan was building some courts around. All in all, unusual, enigmatic to why Belgrade was chosen as place to spend few days by Hawaii envoys and why so many medals here, but as whole nice story I like very much.... i often say one can find some of the most romantic or heroic/respectful lines regarding our history in the east - from Ottomans via Timur to, as seen, Persia or kingdom of Hawaii
.... king Milan is often seen as extravagant, unfavorable, but like his realtive Miloš, "master of intrigues" and skillful player in many fields. Besides all generals who showed their skills during king Peter rule, were Milan's "creations"... as for Hawaii - while that would be 0,01 % of population - visitor from here should mention that we had great ties once and play on card of our orders/medals and letters being in their museums, best story ever in landlocked country
