The Hidden History Behind Hawaii’s U.S. Annexation

The Polynesian Settlers

You know what’s fascinating? Hawaiian natives look kind of Asian, kind of like Pacific Islanders, and they’re actually similar to New Zealand’s Maori people. They’re all Polynesian, you see.

These Polynesians live all over the Pacific – from the Philippines and Papua New Guinea all the way to New Zealand and Hawaii. Now, how did these folks end up scattered across such huge distances? Well, scholars have different theories, but the general idea is that over thousands of years, they island-hopped by boat, gradually making their way across the Pacific Ocean.

So that’s how some ended up in Hawaii, and Hawaii used to be organized by tribes. These tribes would compete with each other for control – sometimes things got pretty heated between them.

Enter the British Explorer

Then in 1778, this British explorer James Cook (1728-1779) became the first European to discover Hawaii. And get this – when Cook arrived, there was this massive power struggle going on between the tribes. Everyone wanted to be the top dog, you know?

But one tribal chief managed to come out on top, and that guy was the famous King Kamehameha the Great (1758-1819). This man started his conquest in 1782 and by 1810, he had established the Kingdom of Hawaii. Pretty impressive, right?

At this point, Hawaii was still just a small island kingdom – no modern civilization or anything like that. Just traditional island life.

America’s Industrial Revolution Changes Everything

But then America went through its Industrial Revolution, and things got interesting. They started building these massive trade ships and whaling vessels with iron plating and everything. Now, when America wanted to trade with China, where do you think they had to go? Across the Pacific Ocean, right? And they needed somewhere to stop and rest on the way – like a rest stop on a highway. That place was Hawaii.

From Hawaii’s perspective, having all these trade ships stopping by wasn’t bad for business either. It brought money to the islands.

But here’s where it gets really strategic – the missionaries. Why do you think they sent missionaries? Because religion has incredible power. When Hawaiians saw American traders, they might be suspicious. But when missionaries came? The power of religion alone made the local Hawaiian people much more favorable toward the country those missionaries came from.

This made it much easier for imperial powers to do business in these places and basically extract resources. That’s why they often sent missionaries first – it was a smart move.

The Plantation Economy Begins

So missionaries started coming to Hawaii, and more and more Hawaiians began converting to Protestant and Catholic faiths. Then in the 1830s, this guy William Hooper bought land from Hawaiian residents and started sugar plantations.

Naturally, tons of American businessmen followed suit and came to Hawaii. As these foreign-run plantations became successful, Hawaiians started earning dollars for the first time. Before foreigners arrived, they were just wearing traditional clothes, spearing fish, and doing basic farming – nothing too advanced, you know?

But now with sugar plantations bringing in dollars, Hawaiians could buy American consumer goods. Then came the 1875 US-Hawaii Reciprocity Treaty, which eliminated tariffs between the countries. Hawaii could sell lots of sugar – great for them. America could buy it cheap – great for them too.

But here’s the thing – Hawaii’s economy had absolutely nothing besides sugar and plantations. They had no other income source except what they could import from America. And in exchange for giving Hawaii this trade benefit, America got something pretty valuable: Pearl Harbor.

Now, America didn’t completely take over Pearl Harbor at this point. They just got the right to use it for military purposes. For America, Pearl Harbor’s value was huge – it could serve as a military base in the Pacific. They could buy time, intercept enemies trying to cross the Pacific to attack America, supply food and resources from there. Having a strategic military base in the middle of the Pacific was incredibly important.

The Disease Tragedy

But here’s where things get really tragic. You know how when Spanish conquistadors went to South America, tons of native people died? It was because of diseases. These diseases didn’t really affect Europeans much – they had built up some immunity over generations.

The problem was that diseases Americans and Europeans carried had never hit Hawaiian people before. They had zero immunity. As massive numbers of Americans poured into Hawaii, native Hawaiians got infected with smallpox and other diseases, and they started dying in huge numbers.

They had been using Hawaiian people as plantation workers, but as they died off from disease, they had to bring in people from China, Japan, the Philippines, and other places. Quite a lot of Asian people came to Hawaii between the late 1800s and early 1900s to make money working these plantations.

Economic Problems and Social Tension

So you had native Hawaiian numbers dropping due to disease, immigrant workers increasing for plantation operations, and the plantation economy growing bigger and bigger. All this led to inflation and rising prices!

Hawaiian people’s wages weren’t going up, but prices inside Hawaii kept climbing. Naturally, they started protesting, demanding higher wages to match the rising cost of living.

But Hawaiian people were pretty powerless compared to the mainland Americans. Their protests didn’t accomplish much because they didn’t have the political strength to back up their demands.

The Constitutional Crisis

Starting in the mid-to-late 1800s, America and Western powers began pressuring the Hawaiian Kingdom to establish a parliament. This created a king-and-parliament structure, you see.

Initially, when they set up this parliament, it seemed harmless – even beneficial. But later on, they used that very parliament to neutralize the king’s power. It wasn’t really about spreading democracy or anything noble like that.

Using this parliament, they completely gutted the Hawaiian king’s authority through a constitutional revision in 1887. The Hawaiian king wasn’t going to just sit there and take it, though. In 1893, the Hawaiian king tried to reverse these changes, but the businesspeople who had been operating in Hawaii got worried about losing their privileges and decided to remove the Hawaiian king through a political takeover.

They even convinced many Hawaiian natives that life would improve if these businessmen succeeded in their takeover. A lot of Hawaiian people actually participated in this political change, and it succeeded. In 1894, Sanford Dole, who was American, became the first president of something called the Republic of Hawaii.

From Republic to US Territory

But here’s the thing – calling a bunch of small islands a “republic” was pretty precarious. Any other country could have easily invaded and taken over.

So this American president of the Hawaiian Republic spent four years lobbying the US government, and finally in 1898, America agreed to annex Hawaii into the United States.

America has acquired territory in different ways throughout its history – sometimes they bought land like Alaska and Florida, sometimes they just waited around and territories got annexed without them having to pay for it. Hawaii falls into that second category.

And that’s basically how Hawaii went from an independent Polynesian kingdom to becoming part of the United States. Pretty wild journey when you think about it!