Great Britain and the Hawaiian Revolution and Republic, 1893-1898
CAPTAIN JAMES COOK'S contact with the Hawaiian Islands gave Great Britain a certain pre-eminence in Hawaiian history and attitudes which remained for some time, and was commemorated in the placing of the British Union Jack in Hawai'i's national flag, now the Hawai'i State flag. The British government's disavowal in 1843 of the takeover of Honolulu by a British naval officer and its formal restoration of Hawaiian independence ushered in a period of Hawaiian attachment to Great Britain which made it appear as if Hawai'i would eventually gravitate into Britain's orbit. Actually, however, Hawai'i's ultimate place in the scheme of things was already decided in favor of the United States. American economic and missionary activity in the Islands during the first half of the 19th century had already made Hawai'i's absorption by the United States a matter of time. That the Islands were not absorbed earlier was more the result of a disinclination of the United States to do so than anything else. The American declaration of 1854 guaranteeing Hawaiian independence made the Islands in effect an American protectorate and the United States henceforth the determiner of Hawai'i's destiny
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CAPTAIN JAMES COOK'S contact with the Hawaiian Islands gave Great Britain a certain pre-eminence in Hawaiian history and attitudes which remained for some time, and was commemorated in the placing of the British Union Jack in Hawai'i's national flag, now the Hawai'i State flag. The British government's disavowal in 1843 of the takeover of Honolulu by a British naval officer and its formal restoration of Hawaiian independence ushered in a period of Hawaiian attachment to Great Britain which made it appear as if Hawai'i would eventually gravitate into Britain's orbit. Actually, however, Hawai'i's ultimate place in the scheme of things was already decided in favor of the United States. American economic and missionary activity in the Islands during the first half of the 19th century had already made Hawai'i's absorption by the United States a matter of time. That the Islands were not absorbed earlier was more the result of a disinclination of the United States to do so than anything else. The American declaration of 1854 guaranteeing Hawaiian independence made the Islands in effect an American protectorate and the United States henceforth the determiner of Hawai'i's destiny
Click to read full resource