U.S. TAKING OF HAWAII
Hawaii has always been important to the United States. American merchants often stopped there on their way over to China and East India since the 1790’s. Yankee missionaries created Christian school and churches on the islands of Hawaii. The children and grandchildren became sugar planters that sold their crops to the United States and this accounted for ¾ of the islands’ wealth.
Laborers from Japan, Portugal, and China worked on the plantations and this caused immigrants and foreigners to outnumber the native Hawaiians. The production of sugar in Hawaii increased by nine times within 15 years because the United States agreed to import Hawaiian sugar for no charge in 1875. In 1890, the McKinley Tariff got rid of the charge-free status of sugar from Hawaii and this caused competition for American planters in Hawaii.
In 1887, the U.S. military and economic leaders pressures Hawaii to have the U.S. build a naval base at their best port, Pearl Harbor. In the same year, King Kalakaua was forced to grant voting rights to only wealthy landowners, but when he died, his sister, Queen Liliuokalani, wanted to get rid of the voting qualifications. Ambassador John L. Stevens prevented this from happening by overthrowing the queen with a revolution organized by business groups. They then set up a government led by Sanford B. Dole. President Cleveland tried to get the Queen to be in power but it didn’t work, but he still refused to annex Hawaii.
William McKinley succeeded Cleveland in 1897 and he favored annexation. When we were at war with Spain in 1898, the military significance of Hawaii ultimately made the decision about the islands.Congress claimed Hawaii as an American territory on August 12, 1898, but Hawaiians didn’t have the chance to vote. Hawaii remained a territory until 1959, when it became the 50th state.
Map of Hawaii
Sugar Plantation
Pearl Harbor
King Kalakaua
sources- History Book Chap-10 Sec-1
http://www.ushistory.org/us/44b.asp
pictures- google images
Comments
Good job but no personal thoughts!