The Indigenous Responses to Western Imperialism

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Research Paper: Perspectives Matter Project

During the late 1800s, several powerful countries were looking into expanding their land, and imperializing. The cultures of the imperialized lands were highly impacted and caused a response. The most valid document relating to the indigenous responses to Western Imperialism in both the Hawaiian Islands and Africa is “Hawaii’s Last Queen on American Annexation” By Queen Liliuokalani. During the late 1800’s, America participated in the Spanish-American war, annexing the Philippine islands. Spain originally annexed the Philippines, but revolts and revolutions took place in the islands in order to disintegrate Spanish rule. This then gave them the motivation to conquer more “halfway stops” in order to get all the way to the war grounds in western Europe. This time period is very important to the annexation of Hawaii because large countries were looking to annex smaller, not as powerful, island countries for natural resources, geopolitics, and land.

In order to fully interpret the context of the Hawaiian annexation, one must need to understand that the document is coming from a direct source, in this case, the Queen of Hawaii. Queen Liliuokalani is stating in the document how the queen and the parliament do not want America to annex their country and have America take over completely. The document’s perspective is from the Queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani, who was in control over the situation and dealt with the frustration of this annex. The second to last paragraph in the document is necessary to share with the reader. This document represents a larger historical point of view because it was coming from the Queen of Hawaii herself, and not a secondary source. This document is more valuab...

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...ast Queen on American Annexation”. The reason being is that the other documents are from a third person point-of-view, or they were people not as important to the government. Queen Liliuokalani was the most valid source because she was the person who was in charge of the annexation that was happening to her home country. She dealt with all the stress and anxiety that was caused to her natives and her monarchy.

These four documents on the indigenous responses to western imperialism are all connected by their topics, historical context, and event happenings. Queen Liliuokalani was a strong, independent ruler of her monarchy and she continued to give an endless amount of trust and satisfaction to her island natives. Most people would consider “Hawaii’s Last Queen on American Annexation”, due to its legitimacy and context that significantly has the best perspective.

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