The Overthrow of Hawaii – THE BAYONET CONSTITUTION
Read Time:2 Minute, 32 Second
Hawaii has a troubled colonial history it’s a miracle the people survived at all
Above – The current flag of Hawaii
The 1778 arrival of British explorer James Cook was Hawaii’s first documented contact with European explorers. Cook named the islands the “Sandwich Islands” in honor of his sponsor John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. He published the islands’ location and reported the native name as Owyhee. This spelling lives on in Owyhee County, Idaho, after three Hawaiian members of a trapping party were killed in that area.
After Cook’s visit and the publication of several books relating his voyages, the Hawaiian islands received many European visitors: explorers, traders, and eventually whalers who found the islands a convenient harbor and source of supplies. Early British influence can be seen in the design of the Flag of Hawaii which has the British Union Flag in the corner.
These visitors introduced diseases to the once-isolated islands and the Hawaiian population plunged precipitously because native Hawaiians had no resistance to influenza, smallpox, and measles, among others. During the 1850s, measles killed a fifth of Hawaii’s people.
King David of Hawaii
King David Kalākaua was the last King of Hawaii. He ascended to the throne in 1874. The Main political party, the Missionary party and as time passed, had grown very frustrated with King David Kalākaua. They blamed him for the Kingdom’s growing debt and accused him of being a spendthrift. Some foreigners wanted to force King Kalākaua to abdicate and put his sister Liliʻuokalani onto the throne, while others wanted to end the monarchy altogether and annex the islands to the United States. The people who favored annexation formed a group called the Hawaiian League. In 1887, members of the League armed with guns assembled together. The King was frightened by this show of force and offered to transfer his powers to the foreign ministers representing the United States, the United Kingdom, or Portugal. The members of the league instead asked him to sign a new constitution.
The Bayonet Constitution
This new constitution, nicknamed the Bayonet Constitution of 1887, removed much of the King’s executive power and deprived most native Hawaiians of their voting rights. The legislature was now able to override a veto by the King, and the King was no longer allowed to take action without approval of the cabinet. The House of Nobles, the house of legislature appointed by the King, was to be elected. It also inserted a provision that allowed non-Hawaiian citizens to vote. A counter-revolution, led by Robert Wilcox, aimed at restoring the King’s power, failed.
The Constitution was written by Lorrin A. Thurston, it took away King David’s authority, and gave it to the native Hawaiian, American and European elite. 75% of the population lost their voting rights. The now powerless King David, kept his title until his death in 1891.
The turmoil and the meddling was not over, it never is. The Overthrow of Hawaii was to come. In 1993 President Clinton apologized to the people of Hawaii
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I am a little late in reading this first installment Holte but I am looking forward to the next installment. Very good piece.
LAZER – I almost feel Hawaiian after all the reading. Aloha.
James Cook must have explored Alaska too; Anchorage has an inlet named after him.
And speaking of Christian missionaries in Hawaii, I heard this story a long time ago: Before the White Man arrived, Hawaiians used to make their clothes out of some local reed, some sort of plant that grew everywhere. This material was short-lived, perishable, so they just wore them for a few days and then threw them away and made new clothes. When it rained, this material basically melted, disintegrated, so they’d just walk around nearly naked when it rained.
Needless to say, the missionaries weren’t having any of this indecency. They taught the savages how to make clothes the White Man’s way, as God intended, and they taught them how to wash their clothes when they got dirty and then they could wear them again.
Unfortunately the concept of washing, drying and reusing clothes never took hold. So they just wore the same clothes, and wore them and wore them until they were hazardously filthy. This is what spread a lot of the diseases the Hawaiians died from.
Hey Tom – James Cook took several major voyages, one of them he was trying to find the fabled Northwest Passage, so I am not surprised he has an Inlet named after him, there is a chain of islands, towns and cities all over the world that carry his name.
The missionaries encouraging the Hawaiians to wear washable clothes, which they didn’t wash and got all diseased is very probable, but didn’t the Amerindians suffer from the same imported diseases?
“to convert the local population into Christians and everything else into money.”
Tell it like it is.
Wasn’t Hawaii’s coerced American statehood just a cover for the Dole Pineapple company not wanting to pay for pineapples anymore or something like that?
Looking forward to Part 2.
-SJ
Sanford B. Dole Was the President of Hawaii and his cousin was involved with, not just pineapples, but bananas too.
So Hawaii could be called a Pineapple Republic to be followed by the Banana Republics.
Good lesson, Holte – keep us learning! 🙂
Thanks Holte.Your post is excellent.Like Mike I’m looking forward to Part 2.
I read James Michener’s wonderful [but very big] book on Hawaii. It was one of my favorite reads. Good post Holte. Looking forward to the rest of the story…