#220 Why did Hawai'i become a US state?

I learned this today. Hawai’i became a state in 1959, when 93% of Hawaiians voted in favor of it.

People have only lived on the islands of Hawai’i since about 400 AD. Polynesians sailed there from the Marquesas Islands, which are about 3200 km away. They settled the islands and fished and farmed the land, living in small communities.

In 1778, the Hawai’ian islands had their first contact with Europeans when Captain James Cook arrived. He named the islands The Sandwich Islands because he was being sponsored by John Montagu, the 4^th Earl of Sandwich. There is some talk that the Spanish actually arrived in Hawai’i two hundred years before Cook, but not enough evidence for every historian to agree. Spanish maps have islands that are the same latitude as Hawai’i but too far east. The Spanish used a route just south of Hawai’i when they sailed to their colonies in South America, so it is likely that they knew of the islands, but there is no definite proof.

By 1810, the whole archipelago has been united by King Kamehameha, Hawai’i’s first king. He died in 1819 and about this time, more Europeans started to travel to the islands bringing money, trade, Christianity, and, of course, diseases. The local Hawai’ian population dropped significantly, falling by almost half over the next 20 years.

In 1825, John Wilkinson, a British West Indies planter, travelled to Hawai’i and started the first sugar plantation. He also imported coffee trees from Rio de Janeiro and started what would become Kona coffee. He died, but the idea of growing sugar in Hawai’i had stuck. Three American businessmen living in Hawai’i decided to give it a go and formed Ladd & Company. They leased 980 acres from the governor, cousin to the king, and started a sugar plantation.

Ladd & Co. used native Hawai’ians on their plantations to start with, but when they went on strike demanding higher pay, they started to import foreign labor. This is one of the reasons why modern-day Hawai’i is such a multiracial society. Laborers from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and other countries were brought in.

During this time, the Kingdom of Hawai’i was an independent kingdom ruled by a succession of kings that had no children. This allowed the rich westerners living on the island to select the king. They also formed a consortium to buy up all of the free land in Hawai’i to be used for growing sugar.

In 1875, sugar was Hawai’i’s main export and they signed a reciprocity treaty with the united states that allowed Hawai’ian sugar to be sold in the United States without a tariff. Sugar from other countries had a high import tax, so this gave the rich sugar plantation owning Americans in Hawai’i a great advantage. In return for this treaty, America was given the land they would use to make Pearl Harbor naval base. In the next five years, Hawai’i went from having 20 sugar plantations to 63.

In 1887, the United States began to use Pearl Harbor. The rich plantation owners sought to take power away from the Hawai’ian monarchy and they forced the king to sign a new constitution that removed most of his powers. This is known as the “Bayonet Constitution” because it was pushed through with threats of violence. The new constitution gave the vote mostly to rich white men and disenfranchised almost everyone else. It meant that Americans could stand for office and vote while keeping their American citizenship.

The king died and he was succeeded by his sister, Lili’uokalani. She would be the last monarch of Hawai’i. She wanted to restore power to the monarchy and the plantation owners felt threatened. At the same time, America removed the import taxes on sugar from other countries, removing Hawai’ian sugar’s advantage and causing a financial crisis in the country.

In 1893, the plantation owners and other American business owners overthrew the queen. They started an organized rebellion and then expressed concern for the safety of the American citizens in Hawai’i. The American government knew that Hawai’i couldn’t survive without its support and it also knew that the Hawai’ian islands were a very strategic point in the Pacific Ocean, so they decided to annex Hawai’i. The annexation didn’t happen until February 22^nd 1900. Until then, Hawai’i was proclaimed a republic.

From 1900, the territory of Hawai’i was self-governing. People petitioned the American government for statehood, but the plantation owners and other large businesses in Hawai’i fought it. Companies like Dole wanted Hawai’i to remain a territory because it meant they could still import cheap foreign labor. If it became a state, they would have to abide by the US’s rules.

Things might not have changed if the Japanese hadn’t attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7^th 1941. After the war, Hawai’ian society had changed a lot. Nearly all of the immigrants were now American citizens and they had fought for the United States. They decided to stand up to the big businesses. They voted against the Hawai’ian Republican party in huge numbers. The Republican party was the party of the rich plantation owners and businesses. When the Democratic party took over, they started to enact change, and they started to petition more strongly for statehood. A referendum was held on June 27^th 1959 and 94.3% of people voted in favor of becoming a state. On August 12^th of the same year, Hawai’i became the 50^th state of the United States.

So, Hawaii was taken over by American businessmen because they could grow sugar there. They took control of the whole country to stop the monarchy from taking power. They fought for American protection, but they didn’t want to be a state because it would cut into the profits. Finally, the people had had enough and stood up to the big businesses. And that is how Hawai’i became a state. And this is what I learned today.

Photo by Jess Loiterton: https://www.pexels.com/photo/high-rise-buildings-near-beach-4319881/

Sources:

https://www.skylinehawaii.com/blog/how-hawaii-became-a-state

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii

https://explorethearchive.com/how-did-hawaii-become-a-state

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/hawaii-history-and-heritage-4164590/

https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25769

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocity_Treaty_of_1875

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow_of_the_Hawaiian_Kingdom

http://www.alohaislandcoffee.com/The-Story-of-Kona-Coffee-14.html

https://www.nvlchawaii.org/sugar-cane-production

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladd_%26_Co.