Why Was The Annexation Of Hawaii In The Late 1800s

In the mid 1800s, the world had already started imperializing, extending their nation’s power over other lands, and america was starting the race late. American expansionists became interested in acquiring Hawaii in the late 1800s. Located somewhat 2,000 miles west of California, Hawaii was an ideal spot for coaling stations and naval bases for ships traveling to and from Asia. They first started by slowly settling in to Hawaii and later they annexed it for their country. The annexation of Hawaii highly benefitted the US navy and expanded the US military worldwide. However, lots of Hawaiian lives were to disease when the Americans first arrived in Hawaii. Although there were a fair amount of positive and negative outcomes of the annexation,

These foreigners brought diseases to which the Hawaiian people were not immune. The population of Hawaii decreased by thirteen percent from about 300,000 citizens in the 1770s to a mere 40,000 by 1893. As more Americans came to the islands, businessmen in the sugar industry began mass producing sugar and gradually increasing their control over the Hawaiian people and their land. To keep the sugarcane plantations running, planters needed workers. Since they had killed of most of the Hawaiians with their diseases the Americans brought in foreign workers from China, Japan, and the Philippines. So now not only had the Americans made themselves at home in Hawaii by moving in to the islands and planting their own crops but they also killed off thirteen percent of the population, turned what started as a few acres of sugarcane plantations into almost one fourth of the land being dedicated to sugar, and they brought in foreign

This Hawaiian league forced King Kalakaua to sign a new constitution at gunpoint in July of 1887, this document was named the bayonet constitution by the angered king. It restricted his power as king and deprived the Hawaiians of their right to vote. American sugar planters now had control over the Hawaiian economy, and the king was forced to surrender Pearl Harbor to the US navy. When the King died, his sister Liliuokalani became queen. She, like her brother, was a nationalist who wanted to get rid of the bayonet constitution. In January of 1893, she revealed her plan to restore the power of the Hawaiian monarchy. John L. Stevens, the American minister in Hawaii, ordered four boatloads of US Marines to take up positions around the royal palace, who then aimed machine guns and cannons at the building. Queen Liliuokalani surrendered, ending the monarchy in Hawaii. Not too soon afterwards, in 1898, Hawaii was officially annexed as the fiftieth state of