Hawaii and the
Pacific Islands
Early influence
• Provisioning port on journey
to China
• Christian missionaries among
first to settle
- decimation of kapu &
language
- public schools
- political influence
• 1826: first Hawaiian-U.S. Treaty
opens trade
- whaling
- sugarcane
• 1842: U.S. formally recognizes
Hawaiian government
1840’s
• Autocracy  constitutional
monarchy with bicameral
legislature, Constitution,
Bill of Rights
• Prime Minister C.P. Judd
• Great Mahele: right of
commoners to purchase land
• Treaty of 1849: privileges for American citizens,
economically important
Reciprocity (1875)
• Article I: lists goods to be
imported to the United States
duty-free
sugar, bananas, hides,
castor oil, plants
• Article II: lists goods
preferentially imported to
Hawaii from the U.S.
meats, metals, cotton…
• Article IV gives Hawaii exclusivity on special trade status
Bayonet Constitution
• Renewal of Reciprocity Treaty in
1887  U.S. demands access to
Pearl Harbor
• King Kalakaua opposed; led to
Bayonet Constitution
• Revision to the Constitution
transferring power to his cabinet
• Granted American residents in
Hawaii right to vote in elections
•
Forced Kalakaua to sign under
threat of arms
McKinley Tariff 1890
• Eliminated import taxes
• Placed two cent bounty on domestic sugar
• Ruined Hawaii’s advantage
Queen Liliuokalani
• Nationalist Leader
• “Hawaii for Hawaiians”
• Attempted New Constitution
Overthrow of the
Kingdom of Hawai’i
• Coup led by Lorrin A. Thurston
• Wilson attempted to protect the Queen
• Policeman shot on January 17th 1893
Thurston
Wilson
Overthrow Cont.
• Concern for American Residents in Honolulu
• Companies of uniformed and well armed
Marines to take up positions throughout
Hawaii
• Intimidated monarch not to resist
• Public Law 103-105
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
Change in
Hawaii
• 1893 annexation treaty negotiated and sent to Senate by
President Benjamin Harrison
• Withdrawn by Grover Cleveland in March
--Sent James H. Blount to Hawaii to investigate
• Provisional Government of Hawaii
under Sanford Dole
– Sought annexation
– Proclaimed Hawaii a republic in 1894
Provisional Government
Treaty Attempt
• March 1897 new annexation treaty
negotiated when Republicans
under McKinley returned to
power
– Rejected by sugar producers
and couldn’t get Senate
majority
William McKinley
• Signed and submitted to U.S.
Senate for ratification June 16, 1897
by McKinley
Hawaiian
Opposition
• 1897 treaty effort blocked by
newly-formed Hawaiian
Patriotic League
– petitioned the U.S. Congress in
opposition of the treaty
• "Petition Against Annexation"
signed by 21,269 native
Hawaiian people
• left 46 Senators in favor, less
than the 2/3 majority needed
Annexation
1898
• Spanish America War
1898 shows strategic
necessity of Hawaiian
Islands
• July 12, 1898 McKinley
signed Newlands
Resolution
• Passed in Congress,
annexing the islands
1898: A formal ceremony took place on the steps of
'Iolani Palace, where the Hawaiian flag was lowered and
an American flag was raised.
Guam
• 1565- Brutal Spanish control
• 1898- The Treaty of Paris ceded Guam to
the United States
• Naval control benefitted the island
territory as the standard of
life improved under the
control of Captain Leary
American Samoa
• 1850s- The United States, Germany, and
Great Britain showed interest in the
settling the islands
• 1878- The US got control of Pago Pago
• 1889- 6 ships sunk in Apia Harbor and the
Berlin Act was put into effect
• 1899- The eastern half of the islands was
ceded to the United States
Midway
• 18560 The Guano Islands Act granted
American citizens the right to cease
Midway Atoll
• 1867- William H. Seward
acquired the Midway Islands
in the hope to expand the
naval influence of the US