History of Hawaii

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History of Hawaii
Ancient times
Monarchy
Provisional Government
Republic
Territory
State

The history of Hawaiʻi includes phases of early Polynesian settlement, British discovery, Euro-American and Asian immigration, the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, and admission to the United States as a territory and then a state. This subject is also presented in capsule form.

[edit] Discovery and settlement

Main article: Ancient Hawaiʻi

The islands were first settled by Polynesians who traveled to Hawaii using large double-hulled canoes, and bringing 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 1st 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} However, Spain never claimed the islands and on January 18, 1778 Captain James Cook and his crew, enroute to try 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.

[edit] Kingdom of Hawaiʻi

Main article: Kingdom of Hawaiʻi

Hawaiʻi was united under a single ruler, Kamehameha I, for the first time in 1810. Until 1816, the chiefs considered themselves under British protection and flew the Union Flag. The monarchy then adopted a flag similar to the state's present flag, with the Union Flag 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 Hawaiʻi.

In 1819, Kamehameha II ascended the throne. Under intense pressure from his co-regent and stepmother, Kaʻahumanu, he allowed the kapu system that had ruled life in the islands to be abolished - see ʻAi Noa. In 1820, missionaries from a New England Congregationalist missionary group, the ABCFM, arrived. They were received coldly at first, but after a year of limited permission to proselytize, some of the highest-ranking chiefs converted, including Kaʻahumanu. They were then given permission to stay permanently. The commoners swiftly followed the example of their leaders and converted to Protestant Christianity. The Christian chiefs attempted to rule the islands as a Christian nation, which 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 Hawaiʻi signed a treaty with the United States granting Americans exclusive trading rights.

The 1876 Reciprocity Treaty between the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the United States allowed for duty-free importation of Hawaiian sugar (from cane) into the United States. 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 Hawaiʻi. Thus the Treaty had several far reaching impacts on Hawaiʻi:

• 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.

[edit] Overthrow and annexation

Main articles: Overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy and Republic of Hawaii

Until the 1890s the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was an independent sovereign state, recognized by the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany with exchange of ambassadors. However, there were threats to the Kingdom's sovereignty during that period.

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 Hawaiʻi.

King David Kalākaua

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 constitution was in response to Kalākaua's capricious use of power; the new constitution stripped the monarchy of much of its authority, over 75% of the native Hawaiian population lost their right to vote through significant income and property requirements, and Asians were completely disenfranchised 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^{[citation needed]}, and in defiance of the 1887 constitution, the queen 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.

In response to Liliʻuokalani's attempt to promulgate a new constitution, a group of European and American Hawaiian citizens and residents in Hawaiʻi formed a "Committee of Safety" on January 14, 1893 to prevent the queen from abrogating the 1887 constitution. United States Government Minister John L. Stevens, 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. Besides the threatened loss of suffrage for European and Amerian 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 Hawaiʻi 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^[1] 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. 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 Hawaiʻi. 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 Hawaiʻi was established July 4, 1894 under the presidency of Sanford Dole.

Several pro-royalist groups submitted petitions against annexation in 1898. In 1900 those groups disbanded and formed the Hawaiian Independent Party, under the leadership of Robert Wilcox, the first Congressional Representative from the Territory of Hawaii

In 1896, William McKinley succeeded Cleveland as president. Two years later, he signed the Newlands Resolution which provided for the official annexation of Hawaiʻi on July 7, 1898 and the islands officially became Hawaiʻi Territory, a United States territory, on February 22, 1900.

The overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the subsequent annexation of Hawaiʻi has recently been cited as the first major instance of American imperialism.^[2]

[edit] American Territory

Main article: Territory of Hawaiʻi

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.

[edit] Statehood

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill on March 18, 1959 which allowed for Hawaiian statehood. Hawaiʻi 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.

All islands voted at least 93% in favor of Admission acts. Ballot (inset) and referendum results for the Admission Act of 1959.

[edit] Modern sovereignty movements

Main article: Hawaiian sovereignty movement

For some, the manner in which Hawaiʻi 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 Hawaiʻi 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. Seen as a powerful swing-vote, Hawaii state politicians have generally fallen in line with much of their historical vision. With the support of U.S. Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka of Hawaiʻi, and limited debate in the Senate and no debate in the House, 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 for alleged American participation in the Hawaiian Revolution of 1893.

Sen. Akaka is also author of a bill that would extend federal recognition to Native Hawaiians as an ancestral group, creating a new government for them to engage in nation-to-nation negotiations with the U.S. government in the same manner as Native American tribes, 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.

[edit] References

1. ^ Grover Cleveland, State of the Union Address, 1893
2. ^ Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq by Stephen Kinzer, 2006

• Daws, Gavan, Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands, Macmillan, New York, 1968. Paperback edition, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1974
• Kuykendall, R., Hawaiian Kingdom, 3 vols, 1938-1967

[edit] External links

• Audio of Dwight D. Eisenhower Hawaii Statehood Proclamation Speech
• morganreport.org Online images and transcriptions of the entire Morgan Report
• Hawaiian Sovereignty: Do the facts matter?
• History of Hawaiʻi

History of Hawaii
Ancient Hawaii | Kingdom of Hawaii | Provisional Government of Hawaii Republic of Hawaii | Territory of Hawaii | State of Hawaii