The Annexation of Hawaii essays

The Annexation of Hawaii essays In the 19th century, Hawaii was not a part of the United States. Hawaii was a kingdom, ruled by King Kalakaua, and then surpassed by his sister, who became Queen Liliuokalani. Hawaii was an economically important location for the United States. Since the 1790s, American merchants would stop there on their way to China and India. Followed by the merchants came the Missionaries, who opened up schools and churches on the island. Sugar merchants also settled on Hawaii, and they eventually changed the Hawaiian economy. There were many sugar plantations in Hawaii, and the people who worked on these plantations were from other countries, such as Japan, Portugal, and China. Sugar was easily sold to the U.S. because there was no tariff, or shipping tax, on the sugar. The McKinley Tariff of 1890, however, placed a tax on Hawaiian sugar, and made it more expensive than Cuban sugar. Plantation owners wanted Hawaii to be annexed so their sugar would be tax-free. The population of the immigrants who worked on the sugar plantations, combined with the population of the plantation owners, was higher than the population of the Hawaiian people. White business leaders in Hawaii wanted the King, King Kalakaua, to change Hawaiis constitution to grant voting rights only to wealthy landowners, so that meant the natives couldnt vote. Queen Liliuokalani, who took over after her brother, King Kalakaua, died, wanted to remove the property qualifications for voting. She also proposed a new constitution that would restore political power to Hawaiis people, and not the white business leaders, or plantation owners, etc. The business leaders did not like this idea, and with the help of U.S. ambassador John L. Stevens, they organized a revolution against the queen. On January 16, 1893, the U.S.S. Boston appeared in Honolulu harbor, and the marines and volunteer troops imprisoned Queen Liliuokalani in her own palace. A provisional go ...