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ANNEXATION
OF HAWAII
The history of Hawai`i varies quite a bit depending
on whose point of view you are reading.
According
to the U. S. Department of State website:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/gp/17661.htm
America's annexation of Hawaii in 1898 extended
U.S. territory into the Pacific and highlighted resulted from
economic integration and the rise of the United States as
a Pacific power. For most of the 1800s, leaders in Washington
were concerned that Hawaii might become part of a European
nation's empire. During the 1830s, Britain and France forced
Hawaii to accept treaties giving them economic privileges.
In 1842, Secretary of State Daniel Webster sent a letter to
Hawaiian agents in Washington affirming U.S. interests in
Hawaii and opposing annexation by any other nation. He also
proposed to Great Britain and France that no nation should
seek special privileges or engage in further colonization
of the islands. In 1849, the United States and Hawaii concluded
a treaty of friendship that served as the basis of official
relations between the parties.
A key provisioning spot for American whaling
ships, fertile ground for American protestant missionaries,
and a new source of sugar cane production, Hawaii's economy
became increasingly integrated with the United States. An
1875 trade reciprocity treaty further linked the two countries
and U.S. sugar plantation owners from the United States came
to dominate the economy and politics of the islands. When
Queen Liliuokalani moved to establish a stronger monarchy,
Americans under the leadership of Samuel Dole deposed her
in 1893. The planters' belief that a coup and annexation by
the United States would remove the threat of a devastating
tariff on their sugar also spurred them to action. The administration
of President Benjamin Harrison encouraged the takeover, and
dispatched sailors from the USS Boston to the islands to surround
the royal palace.
The U.S. minister to Hawaii, John L. Stevens,
worked closely with the new government. Dole sent a delegation
to Washington in 1894 seeking annexation, but the new President,
Grover Cleveland, opposed annexation and tried to restore
the Queen. Dole declared Hawaii an independent republic. Spurred
by the nationalism aroused by the Spanish-American War, the
United States annexed Hawaii in 1898 at the urging of President
William McKinley. Hawaii was made a territory in 1900, and
Dole became its first governor. Racial attitudes and party
politics in the United States deferred statehood until a bipartisan
compromise linked Hawaii's status to Alaska, and both became
states in 1959.
According
to the Hawaiian Independence website:
http://www.hawaii-nation.org/soatext.html
Read more by following the above link.
On Jan. 17, 1893, at dusk, Queen Lili`uokalani
yielded her throne under protest, with these words:
"I, Lili`uokalani, 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 said Provisional
Government.
"Now, to avoid any collision of armed
forces and perhaps loss of life, I do, under this protest,
and impelled by said forces, yield my authority until such
time as the Government of the United States shall, upon the
facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representative
and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional
sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands."
Prior to the arrival of the first Europeans
in 1778, the Native Hawaiian people lived in a highly organized,
self-sufficient, subsistent social system based on communal
land tenure with a sophisticated language, culture, and religion.
A unified monarchical government of the Hawaiian Islands was
established in 1810 under Kamehameha I, the first unifying
King of Hawaii in several centuries. From 1826 until 1893,
the Kingdom of Hawaii was recognized as a sovereign and independent
nation among the world community of nations, with full diplomatic
protocol. [4] The Kingdom of Hawaii entered into treaties,
conventions, and agreements with the following countries:
Belgium (1862), Bremen (1854), Denmark (1846), France (1839,
1846, and 1858), German Empire (1879-80), Great Britain (1836
and 1846), Hamburg (1848), Hong Kong (1884), Italy (1863),
Japan (1871 and 1886), Netherlands (1862), New South Wales
(1874), Portugal (1882), Russia (1869), Samoa (1887), Spain
(1863), Swiss Confederation (1864), Sweden and Norway (1855),
Tahiti (1853), United States of America (1826, 1842, 1849,
1875, and 1887). Hawaii was also party to the Universal Postal
Union (1886). [Archival copies available]
In 1893 the Hawaiian government was illegally
overthrown in a conspiracy of fake revolution with participation
of citizens, agents, and the military force of the United
States. In 1898 the United States purported to annex Hawaii
without a treaty, unilaterally and unlawfully abrogating all
of Hawai`i's existing treaties through a mere domestic joint
resolution, and initiating the prolonged belligerent occupation
of the Hawaiian islands. In 1900 the Territory of Hawaii was
falsely established with the imposed Organic Act. In 1946
Hawaii was placed under the United Nations Charter, Article
73, as a non-self-governing territory under the administering
authority of the United States. In 1959 the United States
falsely reported to the United Nations that Hawaii had become
the 50th state, after an invalid special vote or so-called
plebiscite. In 1993, the United States apologized http://www.hawaii-nation.org/publawsum.html
for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893, and recognized
the unrelinquished inherent sovereignty and right of self-determination
of the Native Hawaiian people.
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