U.S. Imperialism in the Pacific Islands; Hawaii Becomes a Republic
In about 1890, Hawaii got a new ruler, Queen Liliuokalani. While ruling, she wanted to make a new constitution that allowed her to have more power. Which eventually lead to Hawaii becoming apart of the United States. But before this happened, America established the Sugar-cane Plantation because Hawaii's sugar trade changed the Economy of Hawaii. The Sphere of Influence was the type of imperialism because the United States used Hawaii for their sugar trade.
The U.S. had an interest in Hawaii because it was a port on the way to India and China. When Hawaii's sugar trade started to change the Hawaiian economy is when America made the American Sugar Plantation. 75 percent of Hawaii's wealth was because of the sugar plantations by the mid 1800's. In 1890, a crisis was set off in the Pacific Islands because the McKinley Tariff Act was passed in the U.S. This Act eliminated the tax on all sugar being imported into the U.S. Some American business leaders wanted to push to take over Hawaii and add the territory to the United States. With doing this, the U.S. can sell the Hawaiian sugar for a greater profit. Around the same time, Queen Liliuokalani was the new Hawaiian ruler. She wanted a new constitution to give her more power and would restore the political power of the Hawaiians. The Americans didn't want this to happen so they made a plan to over throw the Hawaiian Monarchy. That same year Queen Liliuokalani was removed from power.
In 1894, Sanford B. Dole became the president of the new republic. He asked the United States to annex, or add the Hawaiian Republic to the U.S. territory. At first, President Cleveland didn't want to add Hawaii to the United States. But, in 1898 the president annexed Hawaii into the United States.
Source: Beck, Roger B., Linda Black, and Larry S. Krieger. McDougal Littell World History: Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, Il: McDougal Littell, 2007. Print