How the USA stole Hawaii ...!


The Hawaiian Islands have been a monarchy since ancient times, formed by a long line of kings and - rarely at the time! - queens were ruled.



Since 1891 the monarch has been called Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha and ruled under the name Liliʻuokalani ...:



Because of its strategically important location, an independent Hawaii has long been a thorn in the side of imperialist politicians in the USA and their Hawaiian accomplices!



They are striving to bring the islands into the possession of the USA, as they offer themselves as a port for their fleet and as a "Pacific springboard" ...



When all diplomatic attempts - including bribery - fail, the "Land of The Free" resort to a more effective means:

Ordinary land grab!

Of course, the "hoard of freedom", as the USA likes to call itself, cannot simply come by with a fleet and put soldiers on land - that would be detrimental to its own reputation.

But what do you have your local accomplices for?

On January 17, 1893, a so-called "Committee of Safety" simply put the uncomfortable ruler away and a local politician and lawyer named Sanford Dole ...



... takes power.

Dole is from the United States; his family immigrated to Hawaii from New England a generation earlier. He had had a brilliant career himself, serving as a Hawaiian Supreme Court judge and a personal friend of Queen Liliʻuokalani.

However, Dole and his helpers on the one hand, and Queen Liliʻuokalani and her advisers on the other, had an irreconcilable difference of opinion:

Dole wanted to "westernize" (vulgo: Americanize) the Hawaiian society, the queen insisted on the continuation of the traditional social structure, which was essentially based on the village communities, their respective bosses and handed down rites, traditions and laws.

So now Queen Liliʻuokalani is under house arrest in her palace ...



... and Judge Dole calls himself "President of the Provisional Government of Hawaii". In the next picture we see him sitting proudly in the middle ...:



Immediately Dole set about bringing about a quick connection between Hawaii and the United States.

But the resistance against it comes from a completely unexpected corner: From Washington!

The incumbent US President Grover Cleveland ...



... the matter seems all too disreputable - maybe he wasn't privy to it - so he demands the reinstatement of Queen Liliʻuokalani in exchange for an amnesty for all those involved in the coup.

There the queen - she must have been a proud woman! - refuses to grant the amnesty, the Provisional Government under Sanford Dole also rejects its reinstatement.

A stalemate.

But America was already the land of lawyers back then - and now they have their say:

In 1894 - one year after Dole's coup - the so-called "Morgan Report" appears in Washington. And its author, the Honorable Senator John Tyler Morgan ...



... declares Dole's coup d'état legal and completely legitimate!

After all - according to Morgan - the US Constitution expressly grants its citizens the right to "strive for happiness" and "happiness" in this sense means striving for an American lifestyle.

Sigh of relief at President Cleveland - and "President" Dole should have been relieved too!

Immediately he calls a constituent assembly in Hawaii, explains Hawaii, hardly is the constitution ready, to the republic and himself to its first president!



Everything could be so beautiful!

But Dole didn't take one thing into account:

At the beginning of 1895, a group of supporters of the queen tried to save Hawaii's independence with a counter-coup and to bring the queen back to power. They fail - also because of the better armed (US trained) "Honululu Rifles", whose officers - clearly visible in the following photo - are US Americans ...:



After this rebellion collapsed, Liliʻuokalani was arrested, convicted of treason and imprisoned in the ʻIolani Palace.

As a prize for the release of her supporters (not for herself!) From prisons, Queen Liliʻuokalani formally abdicated in 1895 and went into exile in Washington.

The next picture shows her departure ...:



And now everything goes very quickly:

On July 7th, 1898 the USA ratified the so-called "Newlands Resolution" ...



... and on the following August 18th, the Hawaiian Islands are officially annexed and thus national territory of the USA!



From June 14, 1900, Hawaii became a US territory after the passage of the "Organic Act", and its first governor is called: Sanford Dole.

Here are the celebrations ...:



The British-looking flag in the pictures is not that of the United Kingdom, but the new flag that Hawaii is getting now (until 1945) ...:





This is how you do it when you are the "haven of freedom" - land grabbing like out of a textbook!

Oh yes, Queen Liliʻuokalani is still alive:

She is receiving a pension from the US and has to spend the rest of her life under house arrest at her father-in-law's house in Honolulu ...:



She died of a stroke in 1917.

A - small - monument in Honolulu still commemorates the last Queen of Hawaii today ...



... and a US silver dollar that bears no resemblance to her portrait (they probably took "Lady Di" as a model) ...:



And the Hawaiians, whose independence was stolen, got a beautiful star on the US flag for it ...

Well done..was a total theft...and the afterward continues w hate towards non island whites

Tank you, mates!

Jep, history is sometimes not nice - but always extremely interesting ...!

Here are two more pictures of the "Honululu Rifles" - I don't think there is a figure yet ...:






Cheers

Excellent! Coincidentally I am reading "At Dawn We Slept" at the moment. The "definitive" story of the Pearl Harbor debacle. The US military made a big issue of possible sabotage by the local population in case of war with Japan. It didn't materialise.

Phil

Strange, but as I read this I got irritated at the American " colonisation" of Hawaii. Then I thought it was nothing compared to European activities between the 16th and 19th centuries. Britain was probably the worst.

Bill

It’s not a spectrum affair- was almost competive nastiness. We have a debate in Canada over our first prime minister, who if not racist was assuredly guided by racists..that said, bringing it out isn’t an anti fascist thing, it’s learning where we came from, trying to understand not just our history but where other people come from...