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The
history
of
Hawai
includes phases of early
Polynesian settlement, British discovery,
Euro-American and Asian immigration, the overthrow
of the Hawaiian monarchy, a brief period of existing
as a Republic, and admission to the
United States as a
territory and then a state. This subject is also
presented in capsule form.
Discovery and settlement
The islands
were first settled by Polynesians
who traveled to Hawaii using large
double-hulled canoes. They brought with them pigs, dogs,
chickens, taro,
sweet potatoes, coconut, banana, sugarcane, and much
more. The precise timing and mode of colonization is
somewhat unclear. One theory is that they traveled either in
a continuous process from the Marquesas/Tahiti
area during the second half of the first millennium AD.
Another theory posits that migration to Hawaii came in two
or more waves, first by voyagers from the
Marquesas sometime before 500 AD,
followed by a second wave of immigrants from
Tahiti around 1300 AD. These are known
as the "one-migration" and "two-migration" theories,
respectively. Currently, the one-migration theory is
preferred among some archaeologists as it appears to fit the
archaeological record better. Note, however, that
"one-migration" does not imply a single settlement
voyage, but merely a single, continuous settlement period).
It is
possible that Spanish explorers arrived shortly after 1527:
there is sketchy evidence that Juan
Gaetano, a Spanish navigator, may have visited in 1555.
However, Spain never claimed the islands and on
January 18, 1778
Captain James Cook and his crew,
while attempting to discover the fabled
Northwest Passage between
Alaska and Asia,
were surprised to find high islands so far north in the
Pacific. He named them the
Sandwich Islands, after the First Lord of the Admiralty,
the 4th Earl of Sandwich,
John Montagu.
Hawaii
was united under a single ruler,
Kamehameha I, for the
first time in 1810. Until 1816, the chiefs of the various
islands considered themselves under British protection and
flew the Union Jack. The monarchy
then adopted a flag similar to the one used today by the
State of Hawaii
present flag, with the Union
Jack in the canton (top quarter next to the flagpole) and
eight horizontal stripes (alternating white, red and blue
from the top), representing the eight major islands of Hawaii.
In May of
1819, Kamehameha II (Liholiho)
ascended the throne. Under intense pressure from his
co-regent and stepmother,
Kaʻahumanu,
he abolished the kapu system that had
ruled life in the islands. He signaled this revolutionary
change by sitting down to eat with
Kaʻahumanu
and other women of chiefly rank, thus violating kapu by
eating with a woman, an act forbidden under the old
religious system—see
ʻAi
Noa.
Kekuaokalani, a cousin who was originally designated to
share power with Liholiho by Kamehameha, organized
dissidents in favor of preserving the kapu system, but his
forces were defeated by Ka'ahumanu and LihoLiho in December
of 1819.
In 1820,
missionaries from a New England Congregationalist missionary
group, the ABCFM, arrived. They were formally received by
Kamehameha II, and given a year of limited permission to
proselytize. Within a few years, some of the highest-ranking
chiefs converted, including Kaʻahumanu,
Keʻopuolani,
Hewahewa. The mission was then given permission to stay
permanently. The commoners swiftly followed the example of
their leaders and converted to Protestant Christianity and
Hawaii became a decidedly Christian nation.
In 1839,
Kamehameha III issued the Hawaiian Declaration of Rights,
and in 1840 he promulgated the Constitution for the
Hawaiian Islands, thus changing the governance of Hawaii
from that of an absolute monarchy into a
constitutional monarchy. The Constitution divided the
powers of government among; an elected legislative branch, a
judicial branch and the executive branch. The monarch
(whether king or queen) became the chief executive and head
of state. The laws of Hawaii reflected that of a Christian
nation which often led to intense conflicts with other
resident Westerners and visiting ships, all of whom
preferred the old regime of abundant alcohol and promiscuous
sexual relations.
Non-Hawaiian residents also pushed for a change in the land
tenure practices of the kingdom. Land was held at the will
of the chiefs, and could be taken at any time. The
non-residents wished to hold land in
fee simple, according to their own customs. The ruling
chiefs were eventually persuaded to allow the land to be
surveyed and divided between the king, the chiefs, and the
commoners. Westerners would then be able to purchase land or
register land claims. The Great
Mahele (land division) was signed into law on
March 7, 1848 by
King Kamehameha III, or
Kauikeaouli, son of Kamehameha I.
On
March 18, 1874
Hawaii signed a treaty
with the United States granting Americans exclusive
trading rights.
The
Reciprocity Treaty of
1875 between the Kingdom of Hawaii
and the United States allowed for duty-free importation of
Hawaiian sugar (from cane) into
the United States beginning in 1876. This act greatly
altered the Hawaiian landscape by promoting sugar plantation
agriculture. Although the treaty also included duty-free
importation of rice, which was by this
time becoming a major crop in the abandoned
taro loʻi
of the wetter parts of the islands, it was the influx of
immigrants from Asia (first Chinese, and
later Japanese) needed to support the escalating sugar
industry that provided the impetus for expansion of rice
growing in Hawaii.
Thus the Treaty had several far reaching impacts on Hawaii:
-
Sugar
cane and plantation agriculture expanded greatly.
-
High
water requirements for growing sugar cane resulted in
extensive water works projects on all of the major
islands to divert streams from the wet windward slopes
to the dry lowlands.
-
An
influx of Asian immigrants was encouraged to work the
plantations.
-
Taro,
the traditional Hawaiian staple, was replaced by rice,
to satisfy an expanding local market for the latter.
Overthrow and annexation
Until
annexation in 1898, Hawaii was an independent sovereign
state, recognized by the United States, Great Britain,
France and Germany with exchange of ambassadors. However,
there were several challenges to the reigning governments of
Hawaii during the Kingdom and Republic periods.
The most
serious incident occurred on February
10, 1843. Lord
George Paulet of
the Royal Navy warship
HMS Carysfort
entered Honolulu Harbor and captured the Honolulu fort,
effectively gaining control of the town. Paulet demanded
that King Kamehameha III
abdicate and that the Hawaiian Islands be ceded to the
British Crown. Under the guns of the frigate, Kamehameha
stepped down, but lodged a formal protest with both the
British government and Paulet's superior, Admiral Richard
Thomas. Thomas repudiated Paulet's actions, and on
July 31, 1843,
restored the Hawaiian government. In his restoration speech,
Kamehameha declared that
"Ua mau ke ea o ka
ʻāina
i ka pono" (The life of the
land is perpetuated in righteousness), the motto of the
future State of Hawaii.
In 1887, a
group of cabinet officials and advisors to
King David Kalākaua and an
armed militia forced the king to promulgate what was known
by its critics as the "Bayonet
Constitution". The impetus behind the imposition of the
1887 constitution was the frustration amongst members of the
Reform Party (also known as the Missionary Party) with the
growing debt of the Kingdom, the spending habits of the
King, and general governance of the Kingdom. The 1887
constitution stripped the monarchy of much of its authority,
imposed significant income and property requirements for
voting, and completely disenfranchised all Asians from
voting. Only well-to-do Europeans, Americans and native
Hawaiians were given full voting rights. When Kalākaua died
in 1891, his sister
Liliʻuokalani
assumed the throne. With lukewarm support from native
Hawaiians and other Hawaiian citizens, Liliʻuokalani
drafted a new constitution that would restore the monarchy's
authority and strip American and European residents of the
suffrage they had obtained in 1887
from Kalakaua.
In response
to Liliʻuokalani's
attempt to promulgate a new constitution, a group of
European and American Hawaiian citizens and residents in
Hawaii
formed a "Committee of Safety" on
January 14, 1893. United States
Government Minister John L.
Stevens, claiming to be worried about possible threats
to non-combatant American lives and property, summoned a
company of uniformed U.S. Marines from the
U.S.S. Boston and two
companies of U.S. sailors to land on the Kingdom and take up
positions at the U.S. Legation, Consulate, and Arion Hall on
the afternoon of January 16,
1893. Historian William Russ states,
"the injunction to prevent fighting of any kind made it
impossible for the monarchy to protect itself."[2]
Russ also states that Lieutenant Commander W.T. Swinburne,
executive officer of the Boston and the senior officer on
shore, "maintained stoutly that Wiltse had landed the forces
to protect American property; and that if the Queen had
asked for assistance, she would have received it." Besides
the threatened loss of suffrage for European and American
citizens of Hawaii, business interests within the Kingdom
were concerned about the removal of foreign tariffs in the
American sugar trade due to the McKinley Act (which
effectively eliminated the favored status of Hawaiian sugar
due to the Reciprocity Treaty), and considered the
possibility of annexation to the United States (and enjoying
the same sugar bounties as domestic producers) as a welcome
side effect of ending the monarchy.
During the
overthrow, the Japanese Imperial Navy
gunboat Naniwa was docked at Pearl Harbor. The
gunboat's commander, Heihachiro
Togo, who later commanded the Japanese battleship fleet
at Tsushima, refused to accede to
the Provisional Government's demands that he strike the
colors of the Kingdom, but later lowered the colors on order
of the Japanese Government. Along with every other
international legation in Honolulu, the Japanese
Consulate-General, Suburo Fujii, quickly recognized the
Provisional Government as the legitimate successor to the
monarchy.
A
provisional government was set up with the strong support of
the Honolulu Rifles, a militia group which had defended the
Kingdom against rebellion in 1889. Under this pressure, Liliʻuokalani
gave up her throne to the
Committee of Safety.
The Queen's statement yielding authority, on
January 17, 1893,
also pleaded for justice:
-
I Liliʻuokalani,
by the Grace of God and under the Constitution of the
Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen, do hereby solemnly protest
against any and all acts done against myself and the
Constitutional Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom by
certain persons claiming to have established a
Provisional Government of and for this Kingdom.
-
That I
yield to the superior force of the United States of
America whose Minister Plenipotentiary, His Excellency
John L. Stevens, has caused United States troops to be
landed at Honolulu and declared that he would support
the Provisional Government.
-
Now to
avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the
loss of life, I do this under protest and impelled by
said force yield my authority until such time as the
Government of the United States shall, upon facts being
presented to it, undo the action of its representatives
and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the
Constitutional Sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.
A hasty
investigation established by President
Cleveland was conducted by
former Congressman James
Henderson Blount, and concluded on
July 17, 1893, "United States
diplomatic and military representatives had abused their
authority and were responsible for the change in
government."
Minister
Stevens was recalled, and the military commander of forces
in Hawaii
was forced to resign his commission. President Cleveland
stated "Substantial wrong has thus been done which a due
regard for our national character as well as the rights of
the injured people requires we should endeavor to repair the
monarchy." Cleveland further stated in his 1893
State of the Union
Address that, "Upon the facts developed it seemed to me
the only honorable course for our Government to pursue was
to undo the wrong that had been done by those representing
us and to restore as far as practicable the status existing
at the time of our forcible intervention." Submitting the
matter to Congress on December 18, 1893, after President
Sanford Dole refused to
reinstate the Queen on Cleveland's command, the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee under Chairman Morgan, continued
investigation into the matter.
On
February 26, 1894,
the Morgan Report was
submitted, exonerating Stevens and the U.S. troops from any
involvement in the overthrow. The report stated that, "The
complaint by Liliuokalani in the protest that she sent to
the President of the United States and dated the 18th day of
January, is not, in the opinion of the committee, well
founded in fact or in justice." In response to this
report, Cleveland backed off from his previous statements
concerning the overthrow, and conducted normal diplomatic
relations with the Provisional Government, and the Republic
of Hawaii.
He rebuffed entreaties from the Queen to interfere further
in the matter, and reversed his prior position by accepting
the legitimacy of the overthrow he had previously
repudiated.
The
Republic of Hawaii
was established July 4,
1894 under the presidency of
Sanford Dole.
In 1895, a
failed rebellion led by
Robert Wilcox attempted to overthrow the Republic of
Hawaii, and led to the conviction and imprisonment of the
former Queen Liliuokalani.
In 1896,
William McKinley succeeded
Cleveland as president. Two years later, he signed the
Newlands Resolution which
provided for the official annexation of Hawaii
on July 7, 1898
and the islands officially became
Hawaii
Territory, a
United
States territory, on February 22,
1900.
The
overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii
and the subsequent annexation of Hawaii
has recently been cited as the first major instance of
American
imperialism
American Territory
The
territorial legislature convened for the first time on
February 20, 1901.
An attack
on Pearl Harbor on
7 December 1941
by the Empire of Japan was a trigger for the United States'
entry into World War II. Up
until that time, most Americans had never heard of Pearl
Harbor, even though it had great importance to the
US Navy.
Statehood
President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
signed a bill on March 18,
1959 which allowed for Hawaiian
statehood. Hawaii
formally became the 50th state of the Union on
August 21, 1959
after a vote of over 94% in favor of statehood.
The
Democratic Party
became a dominant force in state politics shortly after
World War II. Democrats have held a majority in both houses
of the state legislature since statehood, and held the
governorship for 40 years, from 1962 to 2002.
Modern sovereignty movements
For some,
the manner in which Hawaii
became a U.S. possession has been a bitter part of its
history in recent years. Although native Hawaiians disbanded
their anti-annexation political parties and created the
Home Rule Party of Hawaii
to dominate the Territorial government after annexation, and
fought for statehood for decades, in recent decades there
have been various small scale ethnic "sovereignty"
movements. There is a wide continuum of political positions
within the sovereignty movement, ranging from supporters of
the Akaka Bill (which has the
support of many both Democratic and Republican Party
politicians in Hawaii) to advocates of secession from the
United States.
With the
support of U.S. Senators Daniel
Inouye and Daniel Akaka of
Hawaii,
Congress passed the "Apology
Resolution" (US
Public Law 103-150), a joint resolution of the United
States Congress. It was signed by President
Bill Clinton on
November 23, 1993.
This resolution explicitly apologized "to Native Hawaiians
on behalf of the people of the United States for the
overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on January 17, 1893...
and the deprivation of the rights of Native Hawaiians to
self-determination." The historical and factual basis of the
apology has been criticized by constitutional lawyer and
scholar Bruce Fein[8],
Hawaii-based researcher and civil rights activist Kenneth
Conklin and native Hawaiian scholar Rubellite K.
Johnson (descendant of Kamehameha the Great and one of the
founders of the Hawaiian Studies programs at the University
of Hawaii).
She
says much of the history taught at her old university
and now used to justify the Akaka bill is "a distortion
of the truth." For example, her studies convince her
that the U.S. was "not directly involved" in the forced
abdication of Queen Liliuokalani in 1893 and that indeed
much of the Hawaiian monarchy supported the annexation
of the islands.
Sen. Akaka
is also author of a bill that would extend federal
recognition to Native Hawaiians as an ancestral group,
allowing them to create a new and unprecedented governing
entity for them to engage in nation-to-nation negotiations
with the U.S. government similar to
Native
American tribes. Critics suggest that the provisions of
the Akaka Bill would grant recognition to Native Hawaiians
without any of the same qualifications necessary for tribal
recognition. The "Akaka Bill" was
recently brought up in the Senate, however, a movement to
vote on the measure failed by 56 to 41 votes - four votes
short of the necessary 60 votes to invoke
cloture.
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