Hawaii Annexed to the United States
Hawaii was formally annexed to the United States on August 12, 1898, following a complex history of American interest in the islands that began in the early 19th century. Initially, merchants, missionaries, and whalers found Hawaii strategically important, leading to significant American presence in the region. Over the years, various treaties and agreements fostered close commercial ties, particularly beneficial for the sugar planters on the islands. However, political changes, including a coup against Queen Liliuokalani in 1893 by American interests, created a push for annexation. Although President Grover Cleveland initially withdrew an annexation treaty due to concerns about the legitimacy of the new government, the desire for annexation grew stronger amid U.S. expansionist sentiment in the late 1890s, particularly during the Spanish-American War. Ultimately, Congress passed the Newlands resolution, leading to Hawaii's official annexation. Hawaii remained a U.S. territory until it achieved statehood in 1959, becoming the 50th state. The events surrounding Hawaii's annexation are viewed through various lenses, reflecting differing perspectives on imperialism, sovereignty, and cultural identity.
Hawaii Annexed to the United States
Hawaii Annexed to the United States
Hawaii, which was formally annexed to the United States on August 12, 1898, attracted American attention as early as the first quarter of the 19th century. Merchants, missionaries, and whalers all found the islands important and made Honolulu a major port before California entered the Union. The American government recognized the usefulness of the islands, and on December 20, 1842, President John Tyler informed Congress that foreign interference in the area would “create dissatisfaction on the part of the United States.”
Thoughts of the United States annexing Hawaii existed before the Civil War. In 1854 David L. Gregg, a commissioner sent to the isles by President Franklin Pierce, drew up a draft treaty making Hawaii a state. However, the administration was reluctant to send it to the Congress. William H. Seward, who served as secretary of state to Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson and who was responsible for the purchase of Alaska, entertained a similar vision but also abandoned it for fear of domestic opposition.
The United States and Hawaii developed close commercial ties. By a reciprocity agreement of January 30, 1875, the two nations agreed to admit without duties a variety of items, including unrefined sugar. This agreement was a boon to the sugar planters of the islands, who gained an advantage over the planters of other nations in dealing with the United States. In 1887 the governments of Hawaii and the United States agreed to renew this commercial arrangement.
Within a short time, however, unrelated events in the United States and in Hawaii darkened the prospects of the islands' sugar planters, many of whom were of American descent. The McKinley tariff of 1890 deprived them of their trade advantage by authorizing duty-free importation of sugar to the United States from all the nations of the world. In Hawaii, the strong-willed Queen Liliuokalani succeeded her brother King Kalakaua in 1891.
In January 1893 American-led opponents of Liliuokalani staged a relatively bloodless coup aimed at establishing a republican government that would seek annexation to the United States. The American minister in Hawaii, John L. Stevens, actively assisted the uprising by calling for sailors and marines from the cruiser USS Boston to land in Honolulu. Stevens also raised the American flag in the capital and declared the islands to be a protectorate of the United States. Secretary of State John W. Foster acted with equal haste to recognize the new republic and signed an annexation treaty on February 14, 1893.
Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, replaced the Republican Benjamin Harrison as president in March 1893 before the Senate concluded debate on the annexation treaty. Doubtful that the revolutionary government represented the will of the native Hawaiian majority, Cleveland withdrew the treaty from the Senate on March 9, 1893. Two days later he appointed Representative James H. Blount, one-time chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, as his emissary to investigate the whole matter. Upon arriving in Hawaii, Blount declared the protectorate ended, and he reported to the president that the Hawaiians did not wish annexation.
Cleveland considered restoring Liliuokalani to her throne, but the queen's express intention to behead her opponents and the stability of the republican government in Hawaii combined to thwart his ambitions. He passed the problem to the Congress, which coupled a statement renouncing intervention in the islands' affairs with a warning to other powers to follow an equally benign course. In the summer of 1894 Cleveland extended official recognition to an undemocratic government established by the island's white minority, and the Wilson-Gorman Tariff of that year restored the islands' sugar planters to their former position.
Expansionist sentiment grew stronger in the United States during the late 1890s. In 1898 the nation went to war with Spain over the fate of Cuba, where a popular revolutionary movement was being suppressed by the ruling Spanish imperial authorities. Expansionist Americans, including those who wished to annex Hawaii, found the wartime period an auspicious one to promote their cause.
William McKinley, a Republican who became president in March 1897, favored the annexation of Hawaii. He had promised to raise tariffs, but did not want to undo the reciprocity agreement with the islands. Annexation would eliminate any question of conflict. Moreover Japan, angered by immigration limits leveled against its citizens by the Hawaiians, had threateningly dispatched a cruiser to Honolulu. This show of force from the increasingly powerful Japanese disturbed many Americans.
In May 1897 President McKinley decided to proceed with the annexation of Hawaii, and on June 16, 1897, Secretary of State John Sherman signed an annexation treaty with the Hawaiian government. Japan immediately protested the act, but withdrew its complaint in December 1897 when the United States promised to protect the rights of Japanese nationals in Hawaii.
Domestic sugar growers and anti-imperialists opposed the incorporation of Hawaii into the United States, and enough United States Senators agreed with them to make it impossible for the annexationists to gain the two-thirds vote necessary for approval of the treaty. Undaunted, the expansionists turned to another tactic: annexation by a joint resolution of Congress, which required only the support of a simple majority of the legislators. On July 7, 1898, Congress passed, and President McKinley signed, the Newlands resolution, and on August 12, 1898, Hawaii officially became part of the United States. Congress on April 30, 1900, granted the islands territorial status, which they maintained until 1959 when they gained admission to the Union as the 50th state.