History of Hawaii

History of Hawaii

The history of Hawaii involves phases of early Polynesian settlement, Euro-American and Asian immigration, takeover of control by immigrants whose economic interests seemed likely to advance under US control, and formal integration by stages into the United States. This subject is also discussed in capsule form.

Table of contents

1 Discovery and Settlement
2 Overthrow and Annexation
3 American Hawaii
4 State of Hawaii

Discovery and Settlement

The islands were first settled by Polynesians, probably from the Marquesas, sometime between 200 and 600 AD. It is possible that Spanish explorers arrived shortly after 1527: Juan Gaetano, a Spanish navigator, may have visited in 1555. However, on January 18, 1778 Captain James Cook and his crew were surprised to find high islands as far north in the Pacific as these islands, and named them then the Sandwich Islands for the fourth Earl of Sandwich, John Montague.

Hawai'i was united under a single ruler, Kamehameha I, for the first time in 1795. Until 1816 it was under British protection, flying the Union Jack. It then adopted a flag similar to its 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 islands of Hawai'i, which it has since retained.

The Great Mahele (land division) was signed in Hawai'i on March 7, 1848 and on March 18, 1874 Hawaii signed a treaty with the United States granting Americans exclusive trading rights.

The 1876 Reciprocity Treaty between the Kingdom of Hawai'i and the United States allowed for duty free importation of Hawaiian grown 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 lo'i 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 Hawai'i. Thus the Treaty had several far reaching impacts on Hawai'i: 1) sugar cane and plantation agriculture expanded greatly; 2) 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; 3) an influx of Asian immigrants was encouraged to work the plantations; and 4) the traditional Hawaiian staple (taro) was replaced by rice growing to satisfy an expanding local market for the latter.

Overthrow and Annexation

Up to the 1890s, the Kingdom of Hawai'i was independent and had been recognized by the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany with exchange of ambassadors. The Hawaiian monarchy lasted until 1893.

On January 14, 1893, a group of non-Hawaiian residents, including the United States Minister assigned to the Kingdom of Hawaii, John L. Stevens, conspired to overthrow the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Minister Stevens, without the authority of the U.S. government or Congress, summoned a company of uniformed U.S. Marines and two companies of U.S. sailors to land on the Kingdom and take up positions near the Iolani Palace to intimidate the monarch, Queen Liliuokalani and her government.

A provisional government was set up without substantial support among indigneous Hawaiians or the government. Under this pressure, Liliuokalani gave up her throne to a Committee of Safety, made up of Americans and Europeans who owned many of the sugar plantations and controlled much of the economy. The Queen's statement yielding authority, on January 17, 1893, also pleaded for justice:

I Liliuokalani, 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.

An investigation established by President Cleveland was conducted by former Congressman James Blount, and concluded, "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." However, the provisional government in Hawaii successfully defended its position, and persisted for several years as the Republic of Hawai'i under the presidency of Sanford Dole.

In 1896, William McKinley replaced Cleveland as president. Two years later, he signed the Newlands Joint 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.

American Hawaii

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.

State of Hawaii

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

The manner in which Hawai'i became a U.S. possession has been a bitter part of its history, for which official verbal redress was long sought. With US Senators Inouye and Akaka of Hawaii championing it, President Clinton signed Public Law 103-150, a joint resolution the United States Congress on November 23, 1993; it explicitly apologized for the American participation in what it acknowledged as an illegal overthrow.