The Haole–Hawaiian Alliance was a mutual racial alliance between Whites and Hawaiians.
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In 1893 the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrow by members of the Haole nationalist Reform Party. In 1898 Hawaii was annexed to the United States and in 1900 the Reform Party of Hawaii was renamed the Hawaii Republican Party.
In 1900 Hawaii was to hold its first Territorial elections, following annexation the severe restrictions on voting rights under the Republic were lifted. Without the property or rent voting requirements, the Reformer-Republicans could gain little support by a vindictive populous who had their monarchy overturned and had little desire to become Americans except through coercion of remaining good citizens on the favorable side of the law. It became apparent that the leading party was the Hawaiian nationalist Home Rule Party. For the Republicans to secure their influence they initially attempted to create a coalition between the Democratic Party of Hawaii and the Republicans. The Democrats were the intermediate party between the White, Republicans and the Hawaiian, Home Rulers. The Republicans offered the alliance to the Democrats to unite the two parties against the Home Rulers. The Democrats showed no interest in the coalition and never responded to the offer. During the Elections of 1900 the Republicans lost both houses of the legislature and the single congressional seat to the Home Rulers.
It became apparent the Hawaiians were a broken people; once united by a monarchy, after the overthrow, the Hawaiians were divided and leaderless. The Hawaiian Home Rule Party proved dysfunctional and ineffective. Republicans regarded the failures of the Home Rule Party as an opportunity to regain power in the next elections by recruiting Hawaiian candidates, since Hawaiians were the absolute voter majority.
On July 10, 1902 approximately half of the Home Rule Party departed in an act of protest and escape the infighting and decline of their own party, led by Prince Kuhio. His brother, Prince David was a Democrat but his Hawaiian-Haole party too became equally dysfunctional as the Home Rulers but he stayed with his party. Kūhiō conclude that the White Republicans would regain power in the 1902 elections. Kūhiō accepted the offer by Republicans to join their party and forged the Alliance.
The Alliance was an agreement that theses Hawaiian members supported the Whites and encouraged Hawaiian voters to vote Republican in return for concessions. For Kūhiō and Hawaiian members knew it was an unequal union with the Whites being the benefactors, the concessions itself promoted a Hawaiian dependence on Whites. But for Kūhiō, unfair representation for Hawaiians was better than if the Republicans regained power without the alliance, then the Hawaiians would have no representation altogether.
In 1902 the Republican regained the Legislature and Kūhiō became Hawaii’s second congressman. From the analyses by the Haole the Hawaiians were simply were not intelligent enough to be learn the complexities of civilized society. the Hawaiians were an also pathetically predictably and easily convinced into restoring to power the same people that had overthrown their beloved queen nearly a decade earlier and accept their White saviors. But for Kūhiō and the Kānaka, it was a trade; the Hawaiians yearned for a monarchy and the Haoles wanted to reign, each got their respected desires.
With the growth of immigration from Asia to fill the low-income labor force needed by the sugar plantations, the need arose to keep the “Yellow” races in the labor force. Hawaii had developed much like a European colony into producing a commodity: sugar, like a colony Hawaii had forfeited its independence to a world power, and it would be of little strain to the imagination to have a government to match. White Republican leaders formed a colonial style government, one that was run by Hawaiians or “Browns” and controlled by the “Whites”.
Whites and Yellows were considered “aggressive” races, the purpose of the colonial style government was to form a barrier between the Whites and Yellows. Hawaiians were able to fill employment in entry level jobs which were too dangerous or undesirable for or in a shortage of Whites, thereby keeping Orientals from progressing through job opportunities especially through the government. In addition to filling jobs, Hawaiians, being such doltish people, were considered uncompetitive and laced the ambition to advance to better jobs and rival Whites.
With employment secured for the Hawaiian community and being the middle class between the Caucasians and Orientals, many Hawaiians had little objection to supporting the Republicans who had deposed their monarchy.
A power struggle developed in the 1910s amongst the Haoles and the Hawaiians disputing the power each possessed, it became known as, the feud between Prince Kūhiō and Governor Frear. Ever since the overthrow and annexation the Haoles had the advantage. Kūhiō became a compliant messenger between Congress and Hawaii. Republicans developed a system of overseeing and rewarding him.
Under the alliance, Kūhiō and the Hawaiian Royal family was comparable to Indian princes under the British Raj. After the row Kūhiō brought in the votes and advocated on behalf of the sugar planters. Kūhiō refrain from objecting to opinions that Hawaiians were amongst the weaker and inferior races. Kūhiō also supported immigrant labor to the detriment of the Hawaiians community. The importation of immigrants had shifting the demographics of Hawaiians from more than 50% upon annexation to 15% in the 1920s and less than 10% in the 1930s. Amongst optimists Kūhiō had no political leverage to fight the policies that did not favor the Hawaiians. Instead he spent this time of obedience building up his political capital by supporting the Haole’s policies, this was necessary for passing one of Kūhiō’s lasting legacies, the Hawaiian Homes Commission.
Despite the “Brown” class, most colored races including Hawaiians were impoverished and may lived in Hawaii’s slums. In 1920 Kūhiō put forth the Hawaiian Homelands Act, to designates land for Hawaiians. Like all concessions it had to be approved by the White elite, the land was rocky, arid, and rejected by the White owned plantations, but highly appreciated for being exclusively for Hawaiians.
Kūhiō had provided employment and housing to his people but died believing the Hawaiian way would “be a matter of history.”
Leading up to the Massie Affair the Hawaiians had been emboldened and had to be put in their place. The Hawaiians had begun to misinterpret the alliance as a union of two people, but for the Haoles it was a contract between the servant and the master and there was an increasing need to clarify the relation between the Haoles and the Hawaiians.
In 1931 a call was made from Aggie Ahakuelo to Princess Abigail Kawananakoa, the de facto matriarch of the Hawaiian people, asking her for help. Ahakuelo confided her son was accused of a crime and asked for help. It turned out a Ahakuelo’s son was one of five men accused of raping Thalia Massie. The White community demanded a kangaroo trial which had been common under the Republicans on trials involving a White victim and Colored assailant. But this time Kawananakoa demanded a fair trial. The outcome was a mistrial.
On January 8, 1932 one of the suspects, Joseph Kahahawai, was kidnapped by Massie’s mother, husband, and two other sailors, he was shot, and the four were caught in the process of dumping Kahahawai’s body. They were charged with first degree murder by the end of the trial they were convicted with manslaughter, which was after demands for justice Governor Judd gave clemency of one hour in the governor’s office. Justice was done and the relation between the Haoles and the Hawaiians was clarified.
The underlying rebellion between the marionette monarchy against their puppet masters revealed how controlled the monarchs were by the White oligopoly. The trials showed what little power the Hawaiians had if not aided by their puppeteers. Few people doubt Kūhiō was well intended for creating the Alliance, but after the trials many began to question the sincerity of his successors. Accusations were made the Hawaiian Republicans were Haole sellouts, given status and wealth. Proof of these allegations was Kawananakoa’s obesity, while she dined in luxury, her people went hungry in poverty. Such allegations apparently pained Kawananakoa since she moved out of two of her estates to live a less extravagant lifestyle. The Hawaiian community had wanted the monarchy back, but many felt betrayed. The Hawaiian royal family never recovered the trust of the Hawaiian community.
In 1951 Samuel Wilder King became the first Hawaiian governor of Hawaii since annexation he had epitomized the Republican Hawaiian; Hawaiians being the simpleminded people supported him, regardless of where his loyalties lie. He was a loyal supporter of the plantation and White oligarchy.[1] Up to 1954 the Democratic Revolution had been composed of General strikes, but in the elections that year the Democratic Party elected a majority of seats in both houses. Initially Republicans considered the 1954 elections an anomaly and would retake to legislature in the following elections in 1956.[2] After the elections of 1956 the Democrats remained the majority party in both legislative houses.[3] The Republican leadership accused King of being an ineffective governor and pressured him into resigning. The first Hawaiian governor of Hawaii left office in 1957 an incompetent failure. King’s administration proved his critics correct that the governor’s office was no place for a Hawaiian. A number of Hawaiian Republicans and the public believed King and is Hawaiian ancestry were unfairly made a scapegoat for the losses in 1954 and 1956 creating tensions between Whites and Hawaiians within the party.[4]
Following King’s resignation William Quinn was appointed Governor to retake the government from the democrats amongst the strategies was to pass more concession and regain the favor of the populous. An ill-devised product was a land reform bill known as the “Second Mahele”. This enraged the Hawaiians as a recurrence of history, the Great Mahele was passed in 1848 creating a western, privatization of land, at the time the Hawaiians were ignorant of western law and the Haoles outwitted most of them of their land. Many Hawaiians conclude from the name that it was a land law intended to outsmart the Hawaiians of what little land was missed by the first Mahele and what land was recovered.
Furthermore was an attempt to reform the Hawaiian Homelands with the law. The Hawaiian Homelands was considered, partially, to recover the Hawaiians from the disenfranchisement by the Great Mahele. The Homelands Commission was far from efficient but effective. Hawaiians were wary of any alterations in fear it would upset the reliability that homes were being distributed. With the initial stigma of the Second Mahele this further infuriated the Hawaiians as an attempt to undermine the Homelands Act atop of swindle the Hawaiians out of non-Homeland. Furthermore the rising Democrats capitalized on the incident by pledging to keep the effective but dysfunctional system. Second Mahele and the resignation of King had further strained if not broke the Haole-Hawaiian alliance.
The collapse of the can following the gubernatorial election of 1962.
Amongst the outcomes was a mutual destruction between both the Haoles and Hawaiians although the latter and dependent suffered the most.
The Haoles tended to be better off but suffered under the new administration through higher regulations on land, pollution, working conditions, wages, and benefits. In addition to a union sympathetic government most plantations closed being unable to change or profit under the new standards.
Among the consequences of the Haole–Hawaiian Alliance was an underlying distrust toward the Hawaiians by the Orientals, (Japanese and Filipinos) who rose to power through the Democrats. The source of distrust came from the Republican Race-classification system that put the Hawaiians in the middle, “Browns”, and the Orientals, “Yellows”, at the bottom. Compounded by Republicans pushing Hawaiian candidates, the Orientals suspected the Hawaiians to be willing to defect to the Republicans and restore the Race-hierarchy putting the Orientals on the lowest rung once again. This suspicion lasted proximity a decade starting in the early 1950s, hampered Hawaiian involvement in the new administration and delayed benefits from the new government.
The Haole–Hawaiian Alliance had been damaging to the reputation of the Republican Alii (Hawaiian nobles) that proceeded Kūhiō. The Republican Royalty never regained the trust of the Hawaiian community over suspicions they profited by advancing Haole and their own interests at the expense of the Hawaiian community.