ipl-logo

Why Was The Annexation Of Hawaii In The Late 1800s

804 Words4 Pages

In the mid 1800s, the world had already started imperializing, extending their nation’s power over other lands, and america was starting the race late. American expansionists became interested in acquiring Hawaii in the late 1800s. Located somewhat 2,000 miles west of California, Hawaii was an ideal spot for coaling stations and naval bases for ships traveling to and from Asia. They first started by slowly settling in to Hawaii and later they annexed it for their country. The annexation of Hawaii highly benefitted the US navy and expanded the US military worldwide. However, lots of Hawaiian lives were to disease when the Americans first arrived in Hawaii. Although there were a fair amount of positive and negative outcomes of the annexation, …show more content…

These foreigners brought diseases to which the Hawaiian people were not immune. The population of Hawaii decreased by thirteen percent from about 300,000 citizens in the 1770s to a mere 40,000 by 1893. As more Americans came to the islands, businessmen in the sugar industry began mass producing sugar and gradually increasing their control over the Hawaiian people and their land. To keep the sugarcane plantations running, planters needed workers. Since they had killed of most of the Hawaiians with their diseases the Americans brought in foreign workers from China, Japan, and the Philippines. So now not only had the Americans made themselves at home in Hawaii by moving in to the islands and planting their own crops but they also killed off thirteen percent of the population, turned what started as a few acres of sugarcane plantations into almost one fourth of the land being dedicated to sugar, and they brought in foreign …show more content…

This Hawaiian league forced King Kalakaua to sign a new constitution at gunpoint in July of 1887, this document was named the bayonet constitution by the angered king. It restricted his power as king and deprived the Hawaiians of their right to vote. American sugar planters now had control over the Hawaiian economy, and the king was forced to surrender Pearl Harbor to the US navy. When the King died, his sister Liliuokalani became queen. She, like her brother, was a nationalist who wanted to get rid of the bayonet constitution. In January of 1893, she revealed her plan to restore the power of the Hawaiian monarchy. John L. Stevens, the American minister in Hawaii, ordered four boatloads of US Marines to take up positions around the royal palace, who then aimed machine guns and cannons at the building. Queen Liliuokalani surrendered, ending the monarchy in Hawaii. Not too soon afterwards, in 1898, Hawaii was officially annexed as the fiftieth state of

Show More
Related

  • Hawaii Imperialism Benefits

    667 Words  | 3 Pages

    The United States has inflicted imperialism on the island Hawaii on January 17, 1893. They did this by overthrowing the government which was a monarchy and its ruler was Queen Liliuokalani. Then by overthrowing the sugar planters who overthrew the Queen, President William Mckinley was able to obtaining the territory for the U.S after the Spanish-American war. The U.S wanted to obtain Hawaii because of its monopoly on Sugar and its Sugar exports to The United States. The United States wanted to obtain the territory also to get rid of taxes on them and the business, and wealthy people were losing their ability to manipulate the government and wanted it as a naval base like pearl harbor.

    Read More

  • Reasons For Us Expansion After 1890

    159 Words  | 1 Pages

    The United States was not interested in having people with different cultures, languages, and religions where an older generation of moralists thought it violate a core principle of republicanism, while a younger generation believed that the United States had a role to uplift backward societies. When the foreign policy changed after 1890, the US became an imperialist nation. After the United States bought Alaska from Russia the US quickly decided to look into overseas. Their plan was to take over other foreign lands and slowly gain an empire, and soon become a world power. The two major causes for US expansion after 1890 were for economic benefits and military control overseas.

    Read More

  • Queen Liliuokalani Overcame The Power Of Hawaii

    663 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Lili‘uokalani became queen in 1891 and worked to restore power to the Hawaiian monarchy and her people. In 1892, along with the Legislature of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i she passed an act to protect public lands from privatization” (NPS). Liliuokalani needed to make sure that the US could not just sell off the islands, and that they would not become private islands for people to vacation on. “Her attempts to affect change caused great opposition from the Committee of Safety, who later orchestrated the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and the establishment of a provisional government with support of the American Minister to Hawaii” (Nakaya).This influenced not just her, but also her citizens because the committee of safety felt as if she was not doing her job to take care of them as queen which led to her getting overthrown with no valid

    Read More

  • Living Conditions In Hawaii In The 1800's

    576 Words  | 3 Pages

    Have you ever considered what life for the sugar plantation laborers in Hawaii were like? Many different races came to Hawaii in the 1800s. They came to work on the sugar plantations so that they could take back their earnings to their home country. The races that came were the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Portuguese, Norwegians, Puerto Ricans, Spaniards, germans, and Russians. Many left their families and came to Hawaii, but some brought their families with them.

    Read More

  • Work Conditions In Hawaii In The 1800's

    744 Words  | 3 Pages

    A choice to either give up their family and country to work in labor or to stay home and live their normal lives. Some people from different countries would accept the first choice. They left their home, only bringing a few valuables to Hawaii and to work in a sugar plantation to fill the need of workers and to get a job in the booming business. But only in the future, people would know that plantation life in Hawaii in the 1800’s was very difficult for the immigrant workers. The living conditions in Hawaii were crowded and unsanitary, the working conditions were difficult, and race differences didn’t make a fair share of the jobs.

    Read More

  • Was The Annexation Of Hawaii Justified

    849 Words  | 4 Pages

    The overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom was in the year of 1893 and transpired during the reign of David Kalakaua and Queen Lili’uokalani. During this significant event, many monarchs, royalists, republicans, and revolutionaries were involved, with the exception of the many Hawaiians who had been against the annexation (Pitzer). While talking about annexation, the overthrow had been a key event that led to the annexation of Hawaii to the United States. When Hawaii was still under the reign of King David Kalakaua, he was forced to sign the Bayonet Constitution under duress. Queen Lili’uokalani had yielded her throne in order to avoid bloodshed and trusted that the United States government would right the wrong that had been done to her and the Hawaiian people (Pitzer).

    Read More

  • Annexation Of Hawaii Essay

    1292 Words  | 6 Pages

    In 1874, the U.S. Secretary of State, John C. Calhoun, allowed for the recognition of Hawaii’s independence, letting Hawaii enter treaties with major world powers. Soon after, American influence appeared due to Americans seeking land for plantations. This put pressure onto the King and chiefs with demands to give Americans land to grow crops. Once the Pacific Hawaiian climate was found to be very suitable for growing sugar cane, newly

    Read More

  • Hawaiian Identity

    930 Words  | 4 Pages

    This strict colonial imposition onto the Native peoples of Hawaii has aided in the slow erasure of the Native Hawaiian peoples

    Read More

  • Was The American Expansion Justified

    325 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the late 1800’s America started to expand across the world. America went to areas like Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines. The U.S. wanted to expand and tried to annex many countries. Many people wonder if the American expansion was justifiable or not. Alaska, a piece of land bought by the U.S. was called “Seward’s Folly” because when William Seward bought it America thought that there was nothing there.

    Read More

  • Cause And Effect Of Manifest Destiny

    930 Words  | 4 Pages

    Manifest Destiny was the term used by John O’Sullivan to describe America’s desire to expand West due to reasons including both the vast amount of unclaimed land and the opportunities Americans wanted to explore. During this time, Americans believed that it was their God-given right to expand West, and therefore they were entitled to push away any groups that were in their way. Due to the mindset that the Americans could do as they pleased with the groups of people who got in their way, Manifest Destiny affected many groups of people, including the American Indians and Slaves, and continued to build up the preexisting tension between the North and South. One of the groups of people affected greatly by Manifest Destiny were the Native Americans. Manifest Destiny affected the American Indians by spreading foreign diseases to them as they moved Westward, through the Native American territory.

    Read More

  • Essay On Hawaii Imperialism

    738 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imperialism was a controversial idea that a nation can extend its power outward through means of diplomatic or military force. This often results in a shift of power from one major force currently in control to another. The people of that nation under control conflict may also experience wars, rebellions, or cultural destruction. Looking at some of these events, we see some positives and negatives of imperialistic action taken by the United States, and how it affected the nations imperialized by the United States. For starters, let’s look at Hawaii’s annexation.

    Read More

  • The Hawaiian Monarchy

    1657 Words  | 7 Pages

    The Hawaiian Kingdom emerged from the arrival of Polynesians from other Pacific islands and later the unification of the islands by Kamehameha the Great. The Kingdom of Hawaii had a monarchy government system, where the rulers were of the same family and royal blood. King Kalakaua was the last king of Hawaii and Queen Lili’uokalani was the last ruler of Hawaii. While Queen Lili’uokalani was locked away from her throne, she sat under house-arrest in the hopes the next heir to the throne, Princess Ka’iulani would make a change for the better of Hawaii’s sovereignty. Into the present, the Hawaiian Monarchy has been overthrown, annexed and in control by the United States of America.

    Read More

  • Why Were The Europeans Able To Conquer The Americas

    654 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is estimated that approximately 95% of pre-Columbus Native Americans were killed by European diseases. Since the outbreak of the diseases spread because of the European colonization, it made conquering the Americas much easier. Health was definitely the most detrimental obstacle that the Native Americans had to face as a result of the European

    Read More

  • Causes Of American Expansion

    801 Words  | 4 Pages

    How did the United States expand over the years and why? The expansion of the United States was a vital part of America’s history and greatly affects how we live today. America's early days only started in 13 states and then progressively grew to 50 states in total. The time throughout the 1800’s and what happened throughout that time greatly impacted how America expanded land, resources, opportunity, trade, and money. Two of many main causes that evoked American expansion was the amount of opportunity that America could take, the idea of Manifest destiny, and the amount of power that the US had on other countries.

    Read More

  • Hawaii Invasive Species Essay

    3398 Words  | 14 Pages

    Some of the familiar plants and animals you see every day could be replaced by species from dozens of different countries. This paper will be informing the reader of the effects, solutions, and the history of the many types of species that have invaded Hawaii. So, what is an invasive species? An invasive species is a plant, animal, or fungus that is foreign to a location.

    Read More

More about Why Was The Annexation Of Hawaii In The Late 1800s

Open Document