Which eventually voted to annex hawaii

Stevens, landed an American warship, the U. Boston , along the shore at the time of the coup. Fearing an invasion, the Queen abdicated her throne, and Sanford B. Dole, the son of Protestant missionaries in Hawaii, set up a provisional government.

Dole assumed the presidency of the new republic of Hawaii and made an immediate appeal to U. President Benjamin Harrison for annexation. Believing that Queen Liliuokalani had been unjustly deposed, President Cleveland withdrew the treaty from Senate consideration. So far, political conditions were not yet favorable for Hawaiian annexation to pass.

This was not the first time the United States had tried to annex Hawaii and failed. Seward serving under President Andrew Johnson had tried to secure annexation in and , respectively. In both cases, there was not enough support for the measure to pass. Between and , the nation fiercely debated Hawaiian annexation. Those in favor argued that Hawaii was ideally located as a gateway to Eastern markets and could provide rich commercial advantages.

They also recognized the strategic importance of Pearl Harbor, which could serve as a military outpost and coaling station for merchant ships in the Pacific. Critics of annexation, including President Cleveland who thought it unwise and immoral, denounced the sugar interests for their plot to depose the Queen and reproached Minister Stevens for making the U.

Because Hawaii was not part of the continental United States, some anti-annexationists saw the taking of this overseas territory as a departure from the progress of westward expansion and a violation of American principles. They raised concerns about the constitutionality of annexation and argued that the United States could have a thriving trade with Hawaii and secure access to Pearl Harbor without the burdens of official annexation.

Racist perceptions of the Hawaiian people further motivated the opposing side. Over the course of the nineteenth century, the native Hawaiian population had been decimated by disease, dropping from more than , in to fewer than 35, by The resulting labor shortage created incentives for workers from Japan and China, derogatively called coolie laborers, to immigrate to Hawaii, soon becoming the second-and third-largest ethnic groups, respectively, in the islands.

Antipathy toward Chinese and Japanese immigrants in the United States had led to the passage of stringent exclusionary policies to prevent their arrival in the mainland. Hawaiian annexation, however, raised the prospect of undermining those restrictions. As a result, language was written into the annexation treaties that came before the Senate prohibiting future immigration from East Asia into Hawaii, to ease concerns about an increasing Asian presence in the United States.

When President William McKinley took office in , he officially endorsed Hawaiian annexation in his presidential platform. He also pressed for a revision of the tariff policy and favored the idea of resuming the earlier reciprocity arrangement. Despite their opposition, however, McKinley resubmitted the annexation treaty to the Senate on January 16, Unable to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority to pass it, pro-annexationist Senators tried to bypass the constitutional requirement by getting the treaty passed through joint resolution, which required only a simple majority from both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Even with this tactical move, the joint resolution did not have enough support. The annexation of Hawaii had failed yet again. What ultimately tipped the balance in favor of annexation was the Spanish-American War of Read more Links go to DocsTeach , the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives. House of Representatives Protesting U. The Petition Against Annexation of Hawaii on DocsTeach asks students to explore the petition signed by over 21, native Hawaiians against a treaty that would have annexed Hawaii to the United States.

Students need to figure out what potentially annexed territory the petition is about. For centuries the islands of Hawaii were ruled by warring factions.

In , King Kamehameha unified all of the Hawaiian Islands into one royal kingdom. Later, the traditional Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown in favor of a constitutional monarchy. Eventually, the monarchy itself was abandoned in favor of a government elected by a small group of enfranchised voters, although the Hawaiian monarch was retained as the ceremonial head of the government. During the 19th Century, Western influence grew.

In , following a tradition of treaties favoring the United States, he signed a trade reciprocity treaty with the United States. This free-trade agreement made it possible for sugar to be sold to the U. By , when the Reciprocity Treaty was renewed, the Kingdom of Hawaii was overrun by white landowners, missionaries, and businessmen.

The king promoted Hawaiian culture and traditions, but Hawaiian sovereignty suffered. Their presence impacted social and economic life as well — the landholding system changed, and many aspects of traditional culture were prohibited, including teaching the Hawaiian language and performing the native Hula dance.

On July 6, , a militia affiliated with the Hawaiian League, a non-native mostly U. He was forced to sign a new constitution stripping him of his power and many native Hawaiians of their rights. It also replaced the cabinet with non-native politicians and businessmen. Though she introduced a new constitution that would restore her power and Hawaiian rights, she would be Hawaii's last monarch. Her move was countered by the "Committee of Safety," a group of non-native U.

Led by Sanford Dole, they had monetary reasons for doing so — they feared that the United States would establish a tariff on sugar imports, endangering their profits, and wanted to protect Hawaii's free-trade status. The United States was the major importer of Hawaiian agricultural products. Supported by John Stevens, the U. Minister to Hawaii, and a contingent of Marines from the warship, U. Boston, the Committee overthrew Queen Lili'uokalani in a bloodless coup on January 17, The Committee of Safety proclaimed itself to be the Provisional Government.

Without permission from the U. President Benjamin Harrison signed a treaty of annexation with the new government. Before the Senate could ratify it, however, Grover Cleveland replaced Harrison as president and subsequently withdrew the treaty.

Dole sent a delegation to Washington in seeking annexation. Native resistance, led by Robert Wilcox, attempted to set up a native republic in the stead of the imposed Bayonet Constitution. These efforts resulting in the creation of a U. Following negotiations, the U. Ultimately, annexation was achieved due to the perceived threat of the Japanese invasion.

Waves of Japanese came to the islands in increasing numbers to work in the sugar trade. This provided enough fuel in Congress to pass annexation legislation, in order to save themselves from the perceived "threat of the Asiatics. Hawaiian protests immediately followed the annexation of the islands and U.