Contents - Empires At War

Hawaii, Cuba and the Philippines: Empire Beyond the American Continent

With the completion of the conquest of the American continent by the middle of the nineteenth century (with only the acquisition of Alaska remaining), after a breathless expansion which had lasted barely more than 60 years since the 13 colonies had declared independence, the new nation could now turn its attention to international conquest. The independent monarchic nation of Hawaii, a third of the way across the Pacific, had only been discovered by Captain Cook’s first expedition in 1776, when he happened upon Sandwich Island. The exotic islands became a convenient staging post for China traders and whaling ships; by the 1850s some 500 whaling ships a year were stopping for provisions in Hawaii.

Merchants were followed by American missionaries. In the early nineteenth century a largely congregational group of religious leaders set up a Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In October 1819 a mission led by Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurton plus two teachers, a doctor, a printer and a mechanic set out from Boston for Hawaii aboard the Thaddeus. Some four years later the spread of Christianity made a momentous breakthrough among the chiefs and general population when Kaahumanu, the queen regent, was cured by Dr Holman.

Thereafter, American influence spread rapidly, and by 1848 some 184 missionaries had arrived in the islands. In a pattern that was to be repeated throughout Asia, American missionaries sought to instill Western mores even if this meant the destruction of traditional cultures and religions. In Hawaii the notoriously licentious behaviour of its people, integral to what was a communal tribal culture, was a particular object of attack. One American missionary complained that

In spite of the difficulties, austere congregationalism prevailed. Writing of a visit in 1849, Henry Martin, a captain in the Royal Navy, no doubt brought up on the ‘Paradise Island’ legends of Captain Cook, complained that ‘Sunday is kept strictly here as in Glasgow.’³⁹

In the American tradition, missionaries were also alive to the possibilities of acquiring land. At first this was achieved through leasehold grants, but after sweeping American-inspired legal reforms in 1844, private ownership became the norm and many of the early missionary families became sugar plantation owners. In his history of the Pacific Paradises (1999), Trevor Lumis recalls the saying that ‘the Hawaiians were taught to close their eyes in prayer, and when they opened them the land was gone’.⁴⁰ By the end of the century, Hawaiian ownership of their land was about 1 per cent of total acreage. Perhaps more remarkably, within 100 years of its discovery by Captain Cook, the good intentions of the missionaries managed to reduce the native population of the country from over 200,000 to less than 50,000.

......[This is a partial extract from the chapter. To purchase the book from an online bookseller, click here].