How was Hawaii acquired by U.S.?
In 1898 American businessmen tried to bring Hawaii under U.S control by engineering the overthrow of Hawaii’s last Queen LILI’UOKALANI. By bringing Hawaii under U.S control, it would remove the trade barriers and protectionist policies of the U.S to Hawaii, and make American businessmen very rich. However, although the newly established pro-American provisional government overthrew the Queen, they were not able to directly secure the U.S annexation until events of the U.S spanish war. The U.S annexation of Hawaii came with the U.S-Spanish War in 1898, in which the U.S aquired for the first time an overseas empire such as the Philippines, Puerto Rico. But where the U.S had aquired these through rejecting Spanish colonialism and claiming to be fighting a war against colonialism, Mckinley completely abandoned any pretension to be liberating Hawaii or for freedom and democracy. What helped the U.S annexation of Hawaii was a very popular and influential paper by Alfred Mayan came out statin
Hawaii was annexed to the U.S. by the Newlands Resolution of 1898. This was a United States Government resolution, not an act of cession by the annexed country, and its legality is still in dispute. It’s as if the United states said to Mexico,’ “O.K., dudes, our Congress has resolved to annex you.” The assumption was that the peaceful Hawaiians would not fight back.
