The geologically recent Hawaiian Island chain is the most remote archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. Native Hawaiians are descendants of long-distance Polynesian ocean voyagers. Population estimates for the late eighteenth century range from 110,000 to 1 million. Although Spanish explorers visited earlier, a British naval expedition led by Captain James Cook (1728-1779) initiated the first sustained European contact in 1778. In 1810 the smaller Hawaiian monarchies were unified by King Kamehameha I (1758-1819), who ruled from 1795 to 1819. The British provided protection until 1816. The United States extended diplomatic recognition to the Kingdom of Hawai’i in 1826. The two countries signed five treaties during the next sixty-one years.
In the Kingdom’s evolution as a parliamentary monarchy, successive constitutions limited the power of the monarch. In a harbinger of future dependency, sovereignty was interrupted by five months of British rule in 1843. By 1850, foreigners could purchase land legally. And migrations of Protestant missionaries, capitalists from the United States, and farm workers from Asia and elsewhere began transforming Hawai’i into an export-oriented agricultural colonial settler-state. Sugar plantations became central to the economy.
Signed under duress, the Bayonet Constitution of 1887 severely reduced the monarch’s dwindling powers. Non-Hawaiians were members of the cabinet. By 1890, the Native Hawaiian population fell to 40,622, or 45 percent of the total population. Fearing the independent spirit of Lili’uokalani (1838-1917), queen of the Hawaiian Islands from 1891 to 1893, sugar plantation owners formed the Annexation Club and a committee of safety. Backed by a contingent of U.S. Marines, they arrested the Queen on January 17, 1893. Having overthrown a weakened constitutional monarchy, they established the rebel Republic of Hawai’i (1893-1898). At the outset of his second nonconsecutive term, U.S. President Grover Cleveland (1893-1897) refused to recognize the Republic. Although Cleveland did not support annexation, he and like-minded political leaders could not convince Congress to endorse restoration of the monarchy.
Native Hawaiians did not acquiesce. Thousands of Hawaiian women were among those resisting nonvio-lently. In 1897, as the Caucasian oligarchy renewed plans to facilitate annexation, Native Hawaiians signed the Ku ‘e (Resist) petition, organizing a massive campaign to secure signatures. According to Hawaiian-language documents from the National Archives of the United States, a majority of Native Hawaiian adults signed the petition. The extraordinary outpouring of opposition caused the annexation treaty to fail. Colonization stalled, but only for a few years.
Ceremony Marking the Annexation of Hawaii, August 13, 1898. American sailors from the USS Boston form an honor guard in front of Iolani Palace in Honolulu during ceremonies marking the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands as a U.S. territory.
Despite misgivings expressed by individual members of Congress, the United States ultimately ignored Hawaiians’ protests. During the Spanish-American War (1898), the Congressional Newlands Resolution of July 7, 1898, asserted U.S. administrative control over the islands. Also, Congress promised to enact special laws for the management and disposition of 1.8 million acres of ceded Crown lands. Under the U.S. Constitution, a two-thirds vote by the Senate is required to ratify treaties. Because the Newlands Resolution ostensibly was not an agreement between two sovereign states, it needed a simple majority in both houses of Congress. More curiously, the Newlands Resolution acknowledged ”treaties of the Hawaiian Islands with foreign nations.” Although the Newlands Resolution was formally not a treaty, unsurprisingly the rebel Republic ratified it.
The Territory of Hawai’i established in 1900. Ceded lands (Crown lands) were transferred to the Territory and, later, to the state of Hawaii. In the 1930s and especially with the United States entrance into World War II (1941-1945), Hawai’i became increasingly militarized. Fifty years of U.S. bombing of Kaho’olawe Island by the U.S. Navy began under President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), who held office between 1933 and 1945. After World War II (1939-1945), Hawai’i was listed as a non-self-governing territory under Article 73 of the United Nations (UN) Charter. During and after the Cold War (1946-1991), Hawai’i served as a venue for the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps basing areas, live-fire training areas, and storage areas for nuclear and other weapons.
On June 27, 1959, voters in Hawai’i participated in a referendum to determine their future political status. However, the referendum ballot denied voters two options: free association (a form of self-governing autonomy) and independence. With choices limited to continued territorial status, statehood, and abstaining altogether, a majority opted for statehood. Effective August 20, 1959, the U.S. Congress admitted Hawai’i as the fiftieth state. In response, the UN General Assembly removed Hawai’i from the list of ”Non Self Governing Trust Territories.” In 1960 UN General Assembly Resolution 1541 recommended that plebiscites in ”Non Self Governing Trust Territories” let voters choose from all three alternatives to colonialism. However, that decision did not overturn statehood for Hawai’i.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement reopened the decolonization debate. Political protests against the continued bombing of Kaho’olawe included a series of illegal occupations in the late 1970s. The Constitutional Convention of 1978 established an Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA). In 1991 naval bombardment of Kaho’olawe ended during President George H. W. Bush’s 1989 to 1993 term. Between January 17 and January 21, 1993, a four-day centennial memorial of the overthrow stimulated a large pro-Hawaiian sovereignty protest demonstration in Honolulu. Ten months later, the 103rd Congress passed Joint Resolution 19 (Public Law 103-150). Signed by William J. Clinton (b. 1946), U.S. president from 1993 to 2001, this resolution apologized for the American role in overthrowing the Hawaiian monarchy. Challenged by efforts to classify Hawaiians as a race, the apology’s full legal impact remained contentious for more than a decade.
In its Rice v. Cayetano decision (2000), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Hawaiian-only voter eligibility requirements for OHA elections as unconstitutional. That decision catalyzed reflection on goals and tactics by the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement. In reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision, a succession of bills were introduced in Congress by Senator Daniel J. Akaka (b. 1924) and colleagues. Although Hawaiians are neither a tribe nor Native Americans, the purpose of the proposed legislation was to invest them with political status similar to Native American tribes.
Reflecting continued militarization in 2000, armed forces personnel and families accounted for 16 percent of Hawai’i residents. Continuing another trend, 17.9 percent of Hawai’i residents were born outside the United States. Local births and immigration from Asia, the Pacific, and the continental United States led population increases to 1.2 million. Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians were less than 25 percent of the population. In early 2005 control of Ceded Lands remained in dispute.
