The Struggle for the Hawaiian Islands
During the late 19th century, the United States became increasingly interested in
acquiring land outside its continental states. This process became known as imperialism,
and would later label the United States as one of the imperialistic countries of the world.
This is partly due to our countries efforts to obtain and annex the sovereign state of
Hawaii. There were several reasons for the United States to be interested in this
monarchical country. One was the establishment of strategic naval bases along its coasts,
another was the importance of trade, third was of Hawaiian annexation, causing it to
become a foothold for further takings of the United States. This would later make the
U.S. one of the leading imperialistic countries rivaling even Great Britain. During the
1880's, the average American opposed expansionism, now in the late 1890's, men and
women felt it was a necessity, mostly because politicians changed their minds. This is
not to say that all Americans felt expansion was necessary, it is true that some opposed
Hawaii's annexation. But, many people felt that the Anglo-Saxons of the world should
dominate and convert these other "primitive" cultures, making them more civilized in
their eyes. This was coupled with the feeling that the entire country had been discovered,
and it was time to look elsewhere for adventure and expansion. I believe that this
attitude was mainly brought on by the governments interest in expansionism and is
shown in it's acts of imperialism that flourished in the late 1890's, when it forcefully
The treaty of 1884 between the United States and Hawaii was an extenuation of
the reciprocity treaty of 1875. Julius Pratt, author of Expansionists of 1898 had this to
That treaty, admitting free of duty to each country the principal products of the
other, ...