Essay On Hawaii Imperialism

Imperialism has affected many people and places in the past. There are many motives of imperialism like political, economic, ideological, and religion. The main ones shared in the book are political and religion. The ones shared with my topic are political and economic. In 1893, the United States colonized Hawaii for political and exploratory reasons which lead to Hawaii becoming the 50th state in the US and took over the Hawaiian government. The missionaries caused many negative effects like trying to change their religion and coming in with their own government. The United States wanted to colonize Hawaii because they wanted to take over the government and their land. The Learning Network tells us that “On Jan. 17, 1893, Hawaii’s monarchy was overthrown when a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate.” (Par. 1). This quote is giving us example of an exploratory motive of why the US colonized Hawaii. The US overthrowing the queen led to many negative effects but also some

Achebe in Things Fall Apart says, “But stories were already gaining ground that the white man had not only brought a religion but also a government.” (155). This is a similarity between my topic and Things Fall Apart because the US came into Hawaii and overthrew the queen. They tried to come in a completely change the Hawaiian government by reducing the power of the queen and restricting the voting rights of the native Hawaiians. We are told by Achebe that “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion.” Along with many similarities this is a main difference between my topic and when the white men came and invaded the Ibo people. The white men came respectfully and the US came very harshly and with no respect as they came in and immediately overthrew the Hawaiian