Americans expressed interest in Hawaii as early as 1820 primarily because of the travels to the islands by New England missionaries attempting to convert the natives to their faith, but the real drive to annex the territory started in the 1880s-90s when the United States wanted to obtain imperial power. With few territories left to take over, as the United States was late to the imperialist game, Hawaii became of interest, so a prime goal of of the United States was to keep the Europeans out of the islands. The United States had also established a foothold in the islands through the sugar trade and the profits of the sugar growers increased rapidly after the Civil War from the large amount of buyers in the States.Americans wanted to annex Hawaii, but there was no real desperation for the islands to become a territory until 1890 when the McKinley tariff was passed, increasing import rates on foreign products, including Hawaiian sugar. White sugar growers in Hawaii were losing money quickly and an economic depression overtook the islands. Now Americans in Hawaii pushed for annexation because then the tariff would no longer apply to them.
At this time, princess Liliuokalani had just been crowned the first female monarch of Hawaii and she was firmly against foreign interference in her country and believed that the United States was the root of all of Hawaii's problems. An experienced ruler, Liliuokalani had served many times as regent for her brother, King Kalakaua, while he was traveling the world, and she proved herself as a ruler for the people as she created schools for the children of Hawaii. A few years before her brother's death, Liliuokalani discovered that he was forced by an armed militia to sign the "Bayonet Constitution" which robbed the Hawaiian monarchy of all of their power and transferred it to the hands of white Americans. When she was crowned queen, Liliuokalani attempted to pass a new constitution that would reestablish the monarchy's power, but the "Committee of Safety" staged a coup and Liliuokalani was forced to step down in order to protect her people from bloodshed.Liliuokalani reached out to President Cleveland for him to restore her power, but his attempts were ineffective, and the annexationists established the Republic of Hawaii in 1894. Liliuokalani was placed under house arrest and the Republic sent many unsuccessful appeals to the United States for annexation. President Cleveland was a firm anti-imperialist so the annexationists had to wait until he was out of office for their appeals to be passed. With the start of the Spanish-American war in 1898, the military significance of Hawaii as a base between the United States and the Spanish Philippines was the final consideration for annexing the territory. President McKinley signed a resolution annexing Hawaii, similarly to how Texas was annexed in 1845. Hawaii remained a territory until it was made a state in 1959.
Sources:
1. "Hawaiian Annexation." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
2. "Liliuokalani." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
I liked learning about princess Liliuokalani and understanding to what extent she took to restore her power. Although I also want to point out that Samuel Dole played a key role in princess Liliuokalani's restoration of power. Dole and his followers has a belief that a coup and annexation by the United States would remove the threat of a devastating tariff on their sugar. Additionally, at this time the President (Benjamin Harrison) encouraged the takeover as well. Overall, after the United States annexed Hawaii, Dole became its first governor.
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