Act of War - Notes from video titled \"Act of War.\" Is about the status of Hawaiʻi post overthrow PDF

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Notes from video titled "Act of War." Is about the status of Hawaiʻi post overthrow and how according to the Geneva Convention the U.S. is committing war crimes against the peaceful Hawaiian nation....

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POLS 302 21 ʻAukake 2018

Act of War: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation Video Notes 

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Video Introduction o Keep Hawaiian lands in Hawaiian hands o I kū mau mau o We are not American, we will die as Hawaiians o Hawaiʻi sovereign before there was an England and long before there was a US  recognized as an independent nation by dominant powers of the world  1893 act of war, armed invasion, in violation of international law Pre-Contact o “Sharing became a mark of civilized behavior . . . you have no alternative . . . in order to feed a large population, you must economize” HKT  Types of economies included: agriculture, fishing, sailing, harvesting o Only 4 hours went into food production = plenty leisure time to develop other crafts and works of art  “I wouldn’t say to you that it was a erfect life, but it was one that we understood and that we enjoyed” LK Hawaiians first encounter with British o Manaʻo nā kānaka: white men with loose skin, angular heads o The British sailors thought: Hawaiians were the most industrious people they had ever seen, high level of cleanliness, fair and honest, Cook’s arrival in 1778 o Resolution and Discovery were the names of his ships o Cook’s thoughts: strong and well-proportioned bodies, good looking o He knew that his men carried diseases and left Hawaiians with TB, syphilis, gonorrhea, and a collapsing population  “The dead fell like dried kukui twigs tossed down by the wind. 100 were stricken in a day. Scarcely 1 in 10 lived” Kamakau  “Collapse makes it impossibe to reconcile your spiritual world or your political world or your economic world, everything is chaotic” HKT Calvanist Missionaries in the 1820s o Their goal was to make us like them: monotheistic, dress like them, eat like them, farm like them, etc.  To them, paganism = uncivilized o They came at right in the middle of the population collaps so they believed that the reason Hawaiians were dying was because they didn’t believe in Jehovah  Ola hou – a form of salvation that would being everlasting life, but of course it didn’t work  Hawaiians converted but they kept dying o Notable Calvanist missionaries included: Hiram Bingham, Charles Stewart 1840s o “It [Hawaiʻi] is the key to the dominion of the American Pacific” James Blaine o Wanted to show Britain and France that the Pacific belonged to the US and not them o Native Americans face same problems as Hawaiians o Foreigners move to Hawaiʻi and pressure kingdom for private land ownership  leads to “Great Mahele” in 1848

POLS 302 21 ʻAukake 2018

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 For the first time land could be bought and sold in Hawaiʻi o Missionaries thought it was gods will for them to buy up lots of land and become merchants  If Hawaiians wouldn’t give up their land, foreigners would buy up surrounding land for their plantation in order to push the natives out o Land commision was run by the missionaries so only 10% of the land was give to common people  Averaged 3 acres o Measles was brought to Hilo in the same year as the “Great Mahele”  Killed 1/3 of the population 1870s o Farming sugar lead the haoles to want a reciprocity treaty with the US o Southern US sugar farmers didn’t want Hawaiian sugar competing with their sugar o They wanted something in return (ie. Pearl River Lagoon / Pearl Harbor)  “It could be completely deendedby inexpensive batteries, its waters deep enough for the largest vessels of war” Gen. John Schofield  Lead US Congress to begin thinking of annexing Hawaiʻi o Hawaiians were opposed to all of this change  “There is a feeling of bitternss against these rude people who dwell upon out land and have high-handed ideas of giving away somebody else’s property as if it was their. My blood boils with resentment against this insult” Queen Emma o Kalākaua went to DC to speak to Congress in 1874 to oppose giving away Pearl Harbor to the US to use as a naval station o Kalākaua decides that the motto for his reign will be “Hoʻoulu Lāhui” o His goal was to project a strong image abroad to tell other people that Hawaiʻi was a force to be reckoned with  A member of the Universal Postal Union  A representative in Geneva  Highest rate of literacy in the world The Forming of the Hawaiian Leage in 1880s o Hawaiian League = a group of white Americans who want annexation  Sub group called the Honolulu Riffles  400 men strong and the most disciplined and powerful armed force in Honolulu  Annexation Club = group of people involved in sugar and related industries o With Lorrin Thurston they wrote the Bayonet Constitution and forced it upon Kalākaua  Goal was to disenfranchise Hawaiians of political power  Allowed foreigners the right to vote if they had $$$  Land qualification to vote meant that most Hawaiians wouldn’t be voting Kalākaua gets sick, leaves for San Fran and dies there in 1891, Liliʻu becomes his successor o Liliʻu’s accompishments: composed over 300 songs, is a feminist, trained in politics

POLS 302 21 ʻAukake 2018

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o As soon as she became queen she toured the Hawaiian Islands and the biggest message she got was that her people needed a new constitution  “To have ignored such a general request, I must be deaf to the voice of the people, which tradition tells us it the voice of God” Liliʻu o US minister to the Kingdom at the time was John L. Stevens  Believed that US needed Hawaiʻi in order to expand  There was always a US warship in Hawaiian waters  “John Stevens was intimately associated with the conspiracy to overthrow the queen” Kumu Jon o Thhurstin goes to DC in 1892 to lobby for annexation 3 Days Before the Overthrow – January 14, 1893 o Liliʻu was about to promulgate a new constitution o Cabinet Ministers afraid to sign new constitution because of a potential uprising o “We’ll have patience, we’ll have peace, and we will wait for another time” Liliʻu o Thurston has small dick energy and wants to appoint a committee of safety to deal with the “situation”  Comprised of 9 foreigners (American/German) and 4 haoles (white kingdom citizens) o Charles Wilson didn’t get why Thurston mā were all up in arms 2 Days Before the Overthrow – January 15, 1893 o Sunday morning Committee of Safety at a sugar plantation owners house while Liliʻu and most Hawaiians were at church o Charles Wilson saw signs that Committee of Saftey posted about a meeting being held on Monday afternoon  Wants the ringleaders of this group to be charged with treason and the island put under marshal law until they could arrest the Committee  But ministers don’t give him permission to act 1 Days Before the Overthrow – January 16, 1893 o Stevens requests that marines and sailors be landed in Honolulu to protect the lives and property of Americans o Cabinet members (Sam Parker mā) were surprised at seeing the US military because they didn’t ask for troops to be landed o “Why have they landed when everything was at peace? I was told that it was for the safety of American citizens and the protection of their interests. Then why had they not gone to the residences instead of drawing in line in front of the palace gates with guns pointed at us?” Liliʻu The Day of the Overthrow – January 17, 1893 o Dole makes himself President of the PG o A pro-annexationist shot a big Hawaiian policeman (Leialoha) o At the government yard Henry Cooper made a proclamation establishing the PG  But no one was aware of what was happening o Wilson wanted to shoot the PG down literally but Liliʻu told him not to  “I, Liliʻuokalani, yield to the superior force of the USA until such time as the government of the US shall undo the action of its representatives” Liliʻu

POLS 302 21 ʻAukake 2018

“this would only cause the sacrifice of hundreds of valuable human lives which this country cannot affor to lose” Charles Wilson Overthrow Liliʻu couldn’t believe how unchristian these descendents of Christian missionaries were Hawaiians were told they couldn’t support Liliʻu or they might be imprisioned Newspapers were examined before being allowed to be printed Government workers were told to sign oaths of allegiance to the PG or they might lose their jobs “PG troops and admin suffered dissention after only 8 days, forcing the declaration of an American protectorare to save the new order” Hui Aloha ʻĀina A handful of PG members left for DC to negotiate an annexation treaty but before they got there Harrison left the office of the president and Cleveland took office  Cleveland was friends with Liliʻu so he sent congressman James Blount to Hawaiʻi to figure out what was really going on Blount landed in Honolulu on March 29, 1893 and ordered that all American flags be taken down  Hawaiians thought that the kingdom would be restored soon  “We resent the presumption of being transferred like a flock of sheep . . . and we cannot believe that our firends of the great and just American nation could tolerate annexation by force” Hui Aloha ʻĀina “The provisional government owes its existence to an armed invasion by the United States. By an act of war, the government of a friendly and confiding people has been overthrown. A substantial wrong has thus been done, which we should endeavor to repair.” Cleveland 

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o Population estimates over time o 1778 – 1 million people o 1832 – 130,000 people missionary census o 1850 – 82,000 government census o 1884 – 44,000 o 1892 – 40,000 o First ConCon in 1894  3,000 votes casted for delegates  14,000 refuse to vote o Republic of Hawaiʻi declared July 4, 1894 o January 1895  Wilcox rebellion  Wilcox and 200 others arrested for treason  Liliʻu is arrested and is imprisioned in the palace for 8 months o October 1896 Liliʻu is pardoned and travels to DC  Hawaiʻi was likened to Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines in terms of being little children needing to be lectured bythe Great White Father, Uncle Sam  In the Senate they know that annexation is lagging so they revert to a joint-resolution

POLS 302 21 ʻAukake 2018

LEONELLE ANDERSON AKANA And what has been the result of becoming a part of America? Our children were punished for speaking our native language, taught to be ashamed of our culture, our names, our skin. Our home became America's playground, their battleground, their 50th state, their real estate. And in our own homeland, we are the homeless, we are the poor, we have the shortest life expectancy, we are the uneducated, we fill the prisons. But after more than a century of dispossession, we are still here. Today we are discovering our history, learning our language, and asserting our right to the land and to self determination. The time has come for us, the kanaka maoli, to once again take our place among the family of nations. 55:30[sil.] In November of 1993, President Clinton signed a congressional joint resolution that acknowledges the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i and apologizes to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the people of the United States....