Alfred Thayer Mahan (1890)Naval strategist and

historianWrote The Influence of Sea

Power upon History, 1660-1783

Emphasized importance of sea power

Influenced growth of the U.S. Navy

Mahan’s Ideas1. Build a strong navy

(cause that’s what strong empires in the past had and it’s a good way for us to protect our trade)

2. Take over territory, especially ones that can be used as “fueling” stations for our ships.

3. Build a canal that would allow U.S. ships to avoid going around South America to get to Asia

Mahan on HawaiiA powerful Navy is

essential to protect trade routes…Hawaii would be an important naval base in the Pacific.

Admiral Alfred T. Mahan, U.S. Navy

Missionary = a person sent by a church into an area to carry on spread the word of God or for other activities, as educational or hospital work.

Vocabulary

1820s American whalers, traders and Christian missionaries began to visit and settle there

Americans (a small minority) began to own much of the land, which they turned into sugar-cane plantation

Hawaii

Native population dropped sharply because of smallpox that came with American “immigrants”

Sugar planters imported Chinese and Japanese contract laborers

Contract Laborers

1840, American advisors helped King Kamehameha III write Hawaii’s first constitution

U.S. and Hawaii signed trade agreements which allow exporting sugar to the U.S.

Hawaii agreed to permit the U.S. to lease a naval station at Pearl Harbor

King Kamehemeha III

Americans (both U.S. citizens and those born in Hawaii of American parents) resented living under the Hawaiian monarchy

Since they then owned 2/3 of the land and paid the majority of taxes, they wanted a greater say in the government

Dissatisfaction

1887, a group of armed Americans forced King Kalakaua to agree to a new constitution that weakened his power.

The new constitution had property requirements for voting that disenfranchised about 75% of the natives

King Kalakaua

1891, King Kalakaua’s sister, began Queen Liliuokalani

1893, Queen announced her intention to proclaim a new constitution on her own authority

Queen Liliuokalani

A group of about a dozen Americans plotted to overthrow the monarchy

January 16, 1893, U.S. diplomatic representative in Honolulu, John Stevens, asked the U.S. Navy “to protect the life and property of American citizens.”

The Plot

John Stevens: a “diplomat”?

“The Hawaiian pear is fully ripe and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it.”

The Plot

John Stevens: a “diplomat”?

Four boatloads of marines from an American warship in the harbor came ashore and surrounded the royal palace.

The Marines

Stevens recognized the new government that the revolutionaries had formed

The “revolutionaries”

The revolutionaries appointed Sanford Dole, the son of American missionary parents and a Hawaiian Supreme Court justice, to head the new government

Sanford Dole

Dole and a few hundred supporters went to the palace to demand the queen’s surrender.

With nearly 200 American troops nearby, Queen Liliuokalani surrendered under protest

“I yield to the superior force of the United States of America.”

Showdown with the Queen

I, Liliuokalani,… do hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the constitutional government of the Hawaiian Kingdom…Now , to avoid any collision of armed forces and perhaps the loss of life, I do under this protest…yield my authority…

The Queen Speaks

annexation = attaching or adding a territory to a larger existing territory

Vocabulary

The new government asked the U.S. Congress to “annex” Hawaii as a U.S. territory

President Cleveland appointed investigator to look into it. The investigator blamed Stevens for the revolution, so Cleveland ordered the queen to be restored to her throne.

Dole refused to surrender powerIn 1897, McKinley became president. He favored

annexation. August 12, 1898 Congress proclaimed Hawaii an

American territory. (Native Hawaiian did not vote.)

Annexation

Hawaii is the central point of the North Pacific. It is in, or near to, the direct track of commerce from all Atlantic ports, whether American or European….It is the key to the whole system….In the possession of the United States it will give us the command of the Pacific.

—The San Francisco Evening Bulletin, January 30, 1893

Primary Source