Information
Aboutu.s. Foreign
Policyon Hawaii
During the eighteenthcentury, the United
Statesbecameinterestedin the Hawaiian
Islandsas a way station and provisioning
point for shippers,sailors, and whalers
trading withAsian nations. New England
missionariespreaching Protestant
Christianity also settled in the islands in
1,820.Many of the descendantsof these
missionariesbecameprosperoussugar
groworswho dominated the econorny and
governmentof Hawaii. TheseAmericans,
as well as those on the West Coast,
This picture shows Queen Liliuokalani,the last monarch of Hawaii
(center), seated with Sanford B. Dole (eft), the first head of the
gradually came to regard the Hawaiian
provisional government after Hawaii became a U.S. territory.
Islands as an extensionof the United States
and sought to gain more direct influence over the islands.During the 1-840sthe United States
warned other powers to stay out of Hawaii. In the late 1800sthe United Statesmade a
commercial trade agreementwith the Hawaiian govemment,followed by a treaty
guaranteeingthe United Statesa naval base at pearl Harbor.
In 189L Queen Liliuokalani came to power. She insistedthat native Hawaiians control
Hawaii. She attemptedto restore the power of the Hawaiian monarchy and reduce the
power of foreign merchants.This alarmed the white planters,who were mostly Americans.
Although the whites were a minority, they organizeda successfulrevolt in 1893. The revolt
was openly assistedby U.S. troops, who landed under the unauthorwed.orders of the
expansionist U.S. minister to Hawaii, John L. Stevens.The whites seizedpower and set up
a provisional government.
Following the revolt, the American whites applied to the U.S. Congressfor U.S. annexation
of Hawaii. However, before the Senatecould act on the annexationtreaty, President Grover
Cleveland withdrew it from consideration. The presidentbelieved that the United Stateswas
guihy of improper actions in Hawaii. He ted an investigation into the overthrow, during
which he discovered that the majorify of native Hawaiians did not favor annexationto the
United States.President Cleveland made a formal apology to eueen Liliuokalani and soughtr
unsuccessfully to have her restored to power. However, Cleveland's actions only slowed the
imperialists and white revolutionaries who held economiccontrol in Hawaii. Five years larer,
following the Spanish-American War, manyAmericans recognizedthe strategicand
commslgial value of Hawaii. In 1898 the islands were annexedand officially becamea
possessionof the United States.U.S. intervention resultedin long-lasting resentmentarnong
many native Hawaiians.
@ Teachers' Curriqrlum Institute
USH-12-1,Activity 3.3, Page16
The Hawaiian pear is fully ripe and this is the golden hour
for the United States to
pluck it.
-John L. Stevens,U.S..ministerto Hawaii
[The U.S. SovernmentmustJchannel the energiesof Americans toward the expansion of
trade abroad. Increasedforetgn trade will create
iobs that might give ambitiius people the
sameopportunity thefrontier had onceprovided.
-Frederick JacksonTurner, University of Wisconsin professor of history
Apowerfut Navy is essentialto prottecttrade routes.... Hawaii would.be an important
naval
base in the Pacific
-AdmiralAlfred
T. Mahan, U.S. Navy
[It was necessary to confiscate all plantations andJ drive foreigners from the island.s.
-Queen Liliuokalani
@Teachers'Curriculun Institute
USH-12-1,Actiyity 3.3,Page77