The Statehood of Hawaii

According to the information present in the speech given by a man named, Sanford J Dole, the Americans imperializing Hawai’i was a constructive motion. This is due to the fact that throughout the speech, Dole informs his audience on the benefits both the Hawaiians and Hawai’i would gain through Hawai’i being a territory of the United States(US). The speech was given on June 10th, 1900, at Iolani Palace, after Dole was elected to be the governor of the Territory of Hawai’i. As the speech is an original document, it is a primary source. Based on the information provided in the speech, the message Dole is trying to convey is that the day Hawai’i became a territory of the US, is one of the most important days in Hawaiian history. This is because

It stated that by “allowing ownership it opened the door for the foreigners to purchase nearly all of it.” By doing that the Hawaiians were making money by having the foreigners buy it since they were the only ones with enough money. They are trying to make as much profit as they possibly can from the foreigners and forgetting about the people. For the “chiefs or commoners to receive a portion of the land, however, they needed to prove that they actually cultivated farmed those for a living.” In addition to what i said before, not all were glad about this news, “It is not right, that when we wish to buy our own lands that he should sell them to foreigners”. The people even said that they were also “running up the price of the land away up to $250.00 an acre for taro land”. They sold their lands for extremely high prices and are only negotiating with the foreigners so they are becoming more

Before, the land belonged to the gods and not to the Hawaiians. After the Mahele, working class people like the maka’ainana could own land. The laws were changing because when the Mahele came about, new rules were made. Laws were changing to help Hawaii be more wealthy. Another example of a political impact is how lands were being distributed (Hio). Lands are being distributed unfairly because when Kamehameha III distributed the land, the Hawaiians have to work for the people who own the land. The Kuleana Act of 1850 allowed the Hawaiians to own land, but there were certain requirements to own land. Those requirements were that they would have to survey the land, present the claim with the Land Commission and file claim by 1854. People could claim someone’s land if they didn’t live on it for 10 years. This was called the Alien Act of 1850. The Hawaiians that owned land, lost it because they couldn’t pay the taxes, they did not occupy, or care for their land. Hawaiians didn’t have enough money, they lacked knowledge/experience with the law, and missed the 1854

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 had 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 reality they were missionaries who had been welcomed for several years by the

Accordingly as planned, the Mahele began with the king, chiefs, and maka’ainana owning one third of all lands, but as time went on the maka’ainana land began to reduce rapidly (Cachola). Unfortunately, not knowing how to buy land or earn money, the land set aside for buying soon became foreign owned land. Seeming like enough land owned by the foreigners, apparently it wasn’t, more and more Hawaiians could not pay taxes, leaving foreigners with an abundance of land to purchase with little competition. Nonetheless, while land was being taken from the Hawaiians, foreigners prospered, almost taking over all of the land in Hawaii. There was an abundance of land owned by the foreigners and Hawaiians owned almost nothing after removed from their beloved homes.

When the United States desired a piece of land, they took the land through means of diplomacy, or force. Most of the time through force. One such

Hawaii’s annexation, was it legal and fair to the natives of the island? The proposal that Hawaii reached Statehood by a ‘just’ manner has been inaccurate and presents a false interpretation of the facts. Though seized through the era of imperialism, Hawaii remained as one of the few territories unclaimed and consequently was seized swiftly. The eventual statehood of Hawaii was produced with wrongful acts because of imperial greed. The annexation of Hawaii is an unjust act because of the circumstances surrounding the illegal annexation, clear wishes of the natives, and unlawful gain of territory.

The Spanish-American war gave the push that the American government needed to make a final decision over Hawaii. The Hawaiin Islands were known as the

better. In 1959, Hawaii became part of the United States of America. This did wonders

Some other feared the annexations because that meant losing their land, the Indians opposed to the movement that the nation was having and tried to stop it, cases like Cherokee Nation v. Georgia in which John Marshall stated that the Indians had an unquestionable right to their lands or a year later in Worcester v. Georgia

try to keep European powers out of Hawaii. The Americans on the other hand got a

During this time if the makaainana wanted to legally own the land they had been occupying for generations, they had to register claims. Only a few of the makaainana submitted their claims and fewer were even awarded lands. Less than one percent of the land were awarded to the people whom had actually worked the land. The total of the lands which were awarded to them was 28,658 acres (Andrade 84).

John L. Stevens came to the island of Oahu in September 1889, acting as the U.S. Minister to Hawaii. While his mission in Hawaii was not clearly stated, his political actions on the islands clearly showed that Stevens thought that the annexation of Hawaii was proper and inevitable.

The Hawaiians were further depicted as "thieves" like the rest of the "people in Polynesia," and plagued with the barbaric accusation of committing infanticide. These so called "facts" were enough for the Euro-American forces to send out missionaries to regulate the Hawaiian people and take over their land and all their practices. (Stannard, 381- 417)

The process of annexing Hawai`i to the US will increase the trade frequency and starts tourism in Hawai`i(The Overthrow of the Monarchy). Hawai`i doesn’t do tourism back then, the income was mainly from sugar. When annexing to the US, tourism was introduced to Hawai`i. This reason can’t be a great way to help support the overthrow because tourism is popular to due the fact that sugar was still popular back then and tourism will eventually reach Hawai`i. The Hawaiians encounter difficulties due to the overthrow, because of their loss of power. The impact of the Hawaiians isn’t good and shouldn’t justify the overthrow, the Hawaiians lost the right to vote to foreigners in the film “Hawaii’s Last