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Overthrow of the

Hawaiian Kingdom

Background Information & Causes

THE GREAT MĀĀĀĀHELE

THE RECIPROCITY TREATY

THE BAYONET CONSTITUTION

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Vocabulary� Ahupua'a – word for the Ancient Hawaiian community.

They stretched from the mountains to the sea. Land and resources were shared.

� Ali'i – Chiefs

� Maka'ainana – Commoners

� Haole – foreigner (white person)

� Tariff – import tax

� Reciprocity treaty – an agreement between two countries, usually related to trade, where each country gets something out of the agreement.

� Sovereignty – power, control

� Militia – private army

� Pu'uloa – Pearl Harbor

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The Great Māhele

� In 1848 King Kamehameha III, with the help of his Land Commission, moved Hawai'i towards a system of private land ownership.

� Up until this point Hawaiians had lived in communities called ahupua'a where land was shared.

� This event was called The Great Māhele because Māhele means

‘to divide’. The land needed to be divided among all Hawaiians.

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Reasons for The Great Māhele

� Kamehameha III had many missionary advisors who told him that unless Hawaiians changed from living in ahupua'a to owning private land that the Hawaiian economy wouldn’t grow

� Kamehameha III believed that in order to move Hawai'i forward he needed to do what the missionaries said.

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Results of the Great Māhele

�The division process was

confusing, chaotic and unfair

�As a result the Maka'ainana

(commoners) were left with less than 1% of the total land.

�The King received 23%

�The Government received 37%

�The Alii (chiefs) received 39%.

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Aftermath of the Great Māhele�The Ali'i were now expected to pay property

taxes on their land. Many did not understandhow to raise the money necessary to do this.�Some Ali'i took out loans from banks to pay taxes

and couldn’t pay them back so the banks took their land away.

�Some sold some land to foreigners to help pay the taxes on the rest.

�More and More land ended up in foreign hands.

�By 1890, 3 out of every 4 privately owned acres were in foreign (haole) hands.

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Aftermath of the Great Māhele

� The foreigners used the land for commercial agriculture, mostly for growing sugar.

� As a result of the Great Māhele and its

aftermath, the sugar industry became a powerful force in Hawai'i’s economy and politics.

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Quick Quiz

1. What was the Great Māhele?

2. Who began it? In what year?

3. Why did he agree to it?4. What were the results

of the Great Māhele?

5. What was the aftermath?

6. What is the connection between the Māheleand sugar cane?

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The Reciprocity Treaty

� Sugar had become a very important part of Hawai'i’seconomy.

� The U.S. had tariffs (import taxes) on sugar from foreign countries (including Hawai'i).

� Because of this, buying Hawaiian Sugar in the United States was more expensive than buying sugar grown in the United States.

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Reciprocity Treaty Signed!

� Initially the United States demanded the right to build a naval station at Pearl Harbor in return for a reciprocity treaty (trade agreement between two countries). This idea was rejected by King David Kalākaua.

� After years of failed negotiations and disagreements on both sides, Hawai'i and the United States agreed to a reciprocity treaty, allowing Hawaiian sugar imports to be sold in the U.S. free from tariffs.

� It was signed in 1875 by King David Kalākaua and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.

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Can you guess who is who?

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�Benefits to Hawai'i

�Hawaiian sugar could now be sold in the U.S. without tariffs (extra import taxes)

�Benefits to the United States

�Hawai'i couldn’t sell sugar to any other country besides the United States

�Hawai'i couldn’t sign a reciprocity treaty with a country besides the United States

Terms of the Reciprocity Treaty

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Results of the Reciprocity Treaty

� After the treaty was signed sugar production boomed

� The Hawaiian economy expanded and grew.

� Downtown Honolulu started to look more like San Francisco than the slow-moving

Hawaiian town it once was.

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Reciprocity Treaty Renewal

� In 1883 The reciprocity treaty expired and the U.S. and Hawai'i tried to negotiate and new agreement.

� The U.S. again tried to negotitatethe rights to build a naval station at Pearl Harbor (Pu'uloa) and again King Kalākaua refused. He believed that giving a foreign country a foothold in his Kingdom was a recipe for disaster.

� He began trying to find another country to sign a reciprocity treaty with

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Problems for King Kalākaua� King Kalākaua’s decision

not to extend the reciprocity treaty angered the business community of Honolulu� Businessmen

� Bankers

� Sugar Planters

� They believed that the Hawaiian economy would suffer greatly if the treaty wasn’t extended

� They were not really concerned about Hawaiian sovereignty

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Business Community Anger� The leader of the Business

Community of Honolulu at this times was LorrinThurston (the grandson of missionaries).

� He helped form a militia (private army) called the Honolulu Rifles.

� He also led the Hawaiian League - an organization of businessmen, merchants and sugar planters.

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Quick Quiz1. What is a reciprocity treaty?2. What were the benefits to Hawai'i

for signing one with the U.S?3. What were the benefits to the U.S.

for signing one with Hawai'i?4. What happened to Hawai'i’s

economy as a result of the reciprocity treaty?

5. Why didn’t King Kalākaua want to sign the reciprocity treaty extension?

6. Who was the leader of the Business community in Honolulu at the time?

7. What organizations did he lead?

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Business Community Anger

� In 1887, after 3 years with no renewal of the Reciprocity Treaty, the Honolulu Rifles and the Hawaiian League demanded changes to the constitution to strip King Kalākaua of his power.

� They forced him at gunpoint to sign a new constitution that Lorrin Thurston had written himself.

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The Bayonet Constitution (1887)

� The Constitution of 1887 has come to be known as the Bayonet Constitution because of how King Kalākaua was forced to sign it.

� It took away his power of veto

� It also disenfranchised (didn’t allow to vote) poorer Hawaiians – those without land – and Asian immigrants.

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Later that Year…�As A result of the fact that poorer Hawaiians and

Asian immigrants could no longer vote, the Hawaiian Legislature became dominated by the foreign business/missionary community.

�After the new constitution was signed and elections were held, the Hawaiian League was able to get the legislature to pass the Reciprocity treaty extension that Kalākaua had objected to.

� This time, King Kalākaua was powerless to stop it.

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Reciprocity Treaty Extended

� With the King Powerless to stop it, the foreign dominated Hawaiian legislature passed the extension to the Reciprocity Treaty which…

�Continued the tariff-free relationship between Hawai'i and the U.S.

�Gave Pearl Harbor (Pu'uloa) to the United States for the construction of a Naval Station

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Quick Quiz

1. What is the Bayonet Constitution?

2. Why is it called that?

3. Who wrote it?

4. What were the two main things that it took away?

5. What happened as a result of it being signed?

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Explain each of the following and how one led to the other

�The Great Māhele.

�The Reciprocity Treaty.

�The Bayonet Constitution.

�What role did the U.S. (either government or citizens) play in these?