Katie Purvis
Historiography
Proctor
October 28,2014
The Annexation of Hawai’i to the United States:
Forming a False National Narrative
The Annexation of Hawai’i to the United States occurred in 1898 and even at the time there was no agreement on causation, effect, or even on the useful nature of the legislation. Since the Annexation, Historians have attempted to recreate the situation into understandable terms for readers while also outlining their arguments for cause, effect, or use. As each generation enters with new sources and new perspectives, the understanding of the Annexation becomes less straight forward but also more informed.
Immediately following the Annexation, several publications were created to document the tumultuous event.
…show more content…
While Kuykendall did not provide history of what occurred between 1893 and 1898, when formal Annexation occurred. He did provide an in-depth look at what would eventually lead up to Annexation. Moving the event to become a bookend again opposed Pratt’s decision to have events appear after the fact due to its occurrence. Kuykendall began with the aim in 1938 to, “ Discover the source material not already available in Honolulu and to obtain copies of as much of it as possible, particularly document that shed new light on the history of the islands…” Kuykendall started a new aim of historical thought. He was using sources from the archives of places such as England, France, Japan and even Mexico with a focus to, “ [make] a conscientious effort to present the facts objectively and to treat impartially the numerous controversial questions that have to be dealt with.” Kuykendall, however, altered his aims slightly as he published his second volume of The Hawaiian Kingdom stating, “An Attempt has been to get a truer perception and to give a more adequate account of the development of the [middle] Period.” The idea of a general history of Hawai’i was slowly being guided by a division in politics. The “middle period” dealing with Kamehameha III and the accession of Kalakaua began a much broader study of influences of the ongoing struggles between Hawai’i and the United States. No longer did the History contain the smooth transition of the early studies which had been guided by a solid argument for or against Annexation. Kuykendall studied new sources and a much broader historical time period. This decision took all of the previous studies: political, economic, cultural, and military, and applied them to both the U.S. and Hawaiian
The Land Reform Act of 1967 permitted the state of Hawaii to redistribute land by condemning and acquiring private property from landlords (the lessors) in order to sell it to another private owner, in this case, their tenants (the lessees). The Hawaii State Legislature passed the Land Reform Act after discovering that nearly forty-seven percent (47%) of the state was owned by only seventy-two (72) private land owners. That meant that only forty-nine percent of Hawaii was owned by the State and Federal Govermnet.The contested statute gave lessees of single family homes the right to invoke the government's power of eminent domain to purchase the property that they leased, even if the landowner objected. The challengers of the statue (the land owners) claimed that such a condemnation was not a taking for public use because the property, once condemned by the state, was promptly turned over to the lessee (a private ...
After temporarily resolving the problems of Reconstruction and Industrialization, Americans began to resume the course of expansion. The horrors of the Civil War had interrupted the original Manifest Destiny that began in the 1840s. Now, as pioneers settled the last western frontiers, expansionists looked yet farther to the west -- toward Asia and the Pacific. American ships had long been active in the Pacific. The New England whaling fleets scoured the ocean in search of their prey. As ships crossed the vast ocean to trade in Asia, islands in the Pacific became important stops for coal, provisions, and repairs. In the South Pacific, the American navy negotiated with awestruck natives for the rights to build bases on the islands of Midway and Samoa. This practice had been going on for a while. The Hawaiian Islands, which lie closest to the American mainland, had long been an important stop for the Pacific fleet.
The Hawaiian culture is known throughout the western world for their extravagant luaus, beautiful islands, and a language that comes nowhere near being pronounceable to anyone but a Hawaiian. Whenever someone wants to “get away” their first thought is to sit on the beach in Hawai’i with a Mai tai in their hand and watch the sun go down. Haunani-Kay Trask is a native Hawaiian educated on the mainland because it was believed to provide a better education. She questioned the stories of her heritage she heard as a child when she began learning of her ancestors in books at school. Confused by which story was correct, she returned to Hawai’i and discovered that the books of the mainland schools had been all wrong and her heritage was correctly told through the language and teachings of her own people. With her use of pathos and connotative language, Trask does a fine job of defending her argument that the western world destroyed her vibrant Hawaiian culture.
United States of America. U.S. Department of State. Office of the Historian. Annexation of Hawaii, 1898. N.p, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.
In 1893, Queen Lili’uokalani of Hawaii gave up her throne to the United States of America. About five years after in 1898, Hawaii was officially annexed and became a part of the U.S.A. During this time, the Hawaiian people were bitter and mournful as they watched the foreigners slowly take over their kingdom. Many foreigners came to Hawaii to achieve one goal, to increase the power of foreigners and decrease the power of Native Hawaiians. The kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown with the use of force and was unethically taken. Although Hawaii received benefits that were mainly in their economy, it still does not make up for the wrongful taking of the Hawaiian kingdom.
Sonia P. Juvik, James O. Juvik. Atlas of Hawaii. 3rd Edition. Hilo: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998.
The late 1800’s was a watershed moment for the United States, during which time the Industrial Revolution and the desire for expansion brought about through Manifest Destiny, began to run parallel. Following the end of the Spanish-American war, the United States found itself with a wealth of new territory ceded to it from the dying Spanish empire. The issue of what to do with these new lands became a source of debate all the way up to the U.S. Congress. Men like Albert J. Beveridge, a Senator from Indiana, advocated the annexation, but not necessarily the incorporation of these new l...
In 1893, wealthy foreign businessmen, mostly American planters who were growing sugarcane and pineapple in Hawaii, tried and succeeded in taking over the government and overthrowing their queen. These American planters wanted the United States to annex the islands for economic reasons. The Senate had put a treaty under consideration for the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the territory of the United States. Under the U.S. Constitution and laws the enlargement of the U.S. limits is a manifestation of the highest attribute of sovereignty. If the annexation was ever entered upon as an Executive act, everything relating to the transaction had to be clear and free from suspicion. Grover Cleveland was president at the time and he opposed of the treaty and annexation , altogether, and would not allow it to continue. Cleveland even had a message accompanying the treaty, which declared that, "...the
1.) How did the arrival of American missionaries in Hawaii affect the lives of Native Hawaiians?
The Hawaiian Seizure The annexation of Hawaii was an important event in the history of the world. It is still not easy for the Hawaiians to accept the fact that America has taken over a land 2500 miles away from the West Coast. In 1917, Hawaii was considered the 50th state supported by the islanders after a plebiscite. Queen Lydia Kamakaeha Liliuokalani was overthrown because of the support of the United States army as well as naval forces to a group of businessmen belonging to the sugar and pineapple industry. The Armed forces of the United States were ordered to provide this support on the directives of the minister of the United States to Hawaii.
In the colonization of Turtle Island (North America), the United States government policy set out to eliminate the Indigenous populations; in essence to “destroy all things Indian”.2 Indigenous Nations were to relocate to unknown lands and forced into an assimilation of the white man 's view of the world. The early American settlers were detrimental, and their process became exterminatory.3 Colonization exemplified by violent confrontations, deliberate massacres, and in some cases, total annihilations of a People.4 The culture of conquest was developed and practiced by Europeans well before they landed on Turtle Island and was perfected well before the fifteenth century.5 Taking land and imposing values and ways of life on the social landscape
Kuykendall, Ralph S. The Hawaiian Kingdom, 1854-1874: Twenty Critical Years. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1953. Print.
The movement westward during the late 1800’s created new tensions among already strained relations with current Native American inhabitants. Their lands, which were guaranteed to them via treaty with the United States, were now beginning to be intruded upon by the massive influx of people migrating from the east. This intrusion was not taken too kindly, as Native American lands had already been significantly reduced due to previous westward conquest. Growing resentment for the federal government’s Reservation movement could be felt among the native population. One Kiowa chief’s thoughts on this matter summarize the general feeling of the native populace. “All the land south of the Arkansas belongs to the Kiowas and Comanches, and I don’t want to give away any of it” (Edwards, 203). His words, “I don’t want to give away any of it”, seemed to a mantra among the Native Americans, and this thought would resound among them as the mounting tensions reached breaking point.
In the article review “ How the West was Lost” the author, William T. Hagan explains that in a brief thirty-eight year period between 1848 and 1886, the Indians of the Western United States lost their fight with the United States to keep their lands. While nothing in the article tells us who Hagan is, or when the article was written, his central theme of the article is to inform us of how the Indians lost their lands to the white settlers. I found three main ideas in the article that I feel that Hagan was trying to get across to us. Hagan put these events geographically and chronologically in order first by Plains Indians, then by the Western Indians.