Why Is The Hawaiian Kingdom Unjust?

The overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom was unjust, and everyone involved knew it. Even the president of the United States recognized this, and and called for his country to “restore its honor and sense of justice” by restoring the Hawaiian Monarchy. The Hawaiian Kingdom was independent for a very long time, and its people did not agree to annexation by the United States of America. Queen Liliuokalani fought annexation. According to the findings of an American commision led by James Blount, the overthrow was brought about by a group of American citizens, who posed as a legitimate political party, but secretly sought to annex Hawaii with the improper help of the American military. It was a change in leadership in the United States and other political

circumstances that prevented the restoration of the Hawaiian Monarchy, not any valid argument that the overthrow had been just. According to the Blount commission’s detailed examination of the facts, the overthrow was not justified because it was against the will of Queen Liliuokalani and the Hawaiian people, illegally carried out for the benefit of a group of outsiders, and found to be in violation of American foreign policy.
First of all, Queen Liliuokalani saw the overthrow as being unjust, and understood that the United States government recognized this.

Queen Liliuokalani opposed annexation, first by trying to restore power lost by the Hawaiian Monarchy through the Bayonet Constitution, which was forced on Hawaii by the same annexationists and took away most of the Hawaiian monarch’s power. Queen Liliuokalani also fought the annexation by not supporting renewal of the Reciprocity Treaty, which gave away too much to American interests. This put her at odds with annexationists, but she continued and made an unsuccessful attempt to make her own constitution that gave the Hawaiian monarch’s most of their power back, including the Hawaiians’ right to vote (National Archives). The Queen surrendered power to avoid bloodshed, but appealed to the American president for help. President Grover Cleveland responded by having James Blount launch an investigation, which found Americans abusing U.S. power. The investigation deemed the annexation unjust. However, the Queen was hesitant to give amnesty to the annexationists. Ultimately, the Queen’s legitimate claims as established in the Blount Report were not enough to stop Hawaii from being annexed, since a new president, William McKinley, replaced Cleveland. Unfortunately, McKinley was in support of the annexation, and cooperated with other self-interested annexationists to annex Hawaii for their own

benefit.
Second of all, the overthrow was unjustly carried out by outsiders seeking to overthrow the Hawaiian government against the will of the Hawaiian people (Pitzer).

The political group in Hawaii that lead the overthrow called themselves the Committee of Public Safety, and claimed to be interested in the well being of Hawaii. However, the committee secretly worked against the interests of the Hawaiian government and plotted its overthrow. To gain the trust of the Hawaiian government, the Committee of Public Safety lied to them and claimed to be against annexation. The committee was made up mostly of Americans who could gain financially by controlling Hawaii. They appealed to United States Government Minister, John L. Stevens, to provide military support to supposedly protect them. Stevens did this in spite of the fact that they clearly wanted to use the soldiers to help them carry out the

overthrow.
On the contrary, some believe that the annexation was justified because at the time, it was common for large countries to take over smaller territories. It is said that if Hawaii was not annexed by America, it would have been annexed by another country (Was It Right for the U.S. to Take Hawaii?). However, this is not necessarily true, as Hawaii was beginning to change with the times, and was starting to be more self-dependent with industries and tourism. Hawaii had a developed government, and was self-sufficient without the help of America at the time due to the effects of the Reciprocity Treaty. Of course, if the Hawaiian government and people did eventually see a need to join the United States, this could have then happened legally. At the time, American foreign policy did not support aggression against Hawaii or other nations, unless they were a real threat to America. Hawaii was not. Also, the annexation did not happen all that long ago, so the rules and expectations were not extremely different then what they are now. Since no country could unfairly annex a territory today without strong international criticism, it would most likely look unacceptable to the world back at the time when the overthrow happened.
In conclusion, the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom was unfair as it was done illegally by an organization working secretly against the Hawaiian government. On America’s behalf, James Blount examined the overthrow and concluded that Americans lawlessly abused their influence to get the American military to threaten the Hawaiian Kingdom. This investigation was assigned by President Grover Cleveland, which proved the unfairness of the overthrow and should have brought about a return of power to the Hawiian monarchy. Unfortunately, the investigation was ignored by the new president William McKinley. Although it had its benefits to many powerful American individuals, the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom was wrongfully done, according to the standards of both Hawaii and America.