Aloha! Greetings from Hawaii, where our family is enjoying a Polynesian vacation amid pineapples and palms, leis and luaus, daring surfers and graceful hula dancers. It is our first visit to the 50th state, and the "land of paradise" has lived up to its fabled reputation. Hawaii is indeed an exotic place of spectacular beauty and extraordinary hospitalitypunctuated by high prices. Bathed in sunshine and cooled by gentle trade winds, the islands feature rich red soil, lush green plants, and gaily-colored flowers; cloud-crowned volcanic peaks and secluded waterfalls; and, of course, coral beaches shaded by towering palms and laved by white surf and turquoise water.
Hawaiis unique ecosystem includes no snakes. The primary pests are the 6 million tourists who invade the archipelago each year. Like locusts, we converge from all corners of the globe, swarm into the airports, clog the highways, and invade the beach resorts, flip-flopping our way along the shore at Waikiki and Maui, oblivious to the impact we are having on the states fragile environment. The Polynesian paradise is quickly turning into the worlds playground.
Hawaii has always had an ambivalent relationship with the outside world. When Captain James Cook, the English naval adventurer, accidentally discovered the islands in 1778 while searching for Asia, a perpetual transaction began between the Polynesian natives and Western entrepreneurs. The Hawaiians killed Cook when he returned a year later, but by then the Englishman had set in motion a cultural exchange that would change the islands forever. Not only did the English introduce goats, pigs, pumpkins, melons, and onions; they also left behind smallpox and venereal diseases that ravaged the Polynesians. By 1890 the native population had plummeted from over 500,000 to 40,000.
During the early 19th century, the Sandwich Islands, as Captain Cook had labeled them in honor of his patron, the Earl of Sandwich, became a popular waystation for whalers and traders of all nations. The American invasion of Hawaii was led by Christian missionaries, who began converting the "heathen" natives and sinning sailors in 1820. By the mid-19th century, Americans in Hawaii had shifted their interest from piety to profits. The ferocious demand for cane sugar in California enticed investors to develop large plantations in the islands. In 1875, the American planters convinced Congress to allow Hawaiian sugar to enter the country duty free. Twelve years later, this trade agreement was amended to grant the United States exclusive right to a naval base at Pearl Harbor, outside of Honolulu. These agreements sparked a boom in sugar growing, and Americans came to dominate the economy. In 1887 the Americans forced Hawaiis king to create a constitutional government. This "Bayonet Constitution" weakened the monarchy and strengthened the political clout of the American landowners.
Hawaiis political climate changed dramatically when the kings courageous sister, Queen Liliuokalani, ascended the throne in 1891and tried to restore Hawaiian sovereignty. The sugar planters responded by organizing a revolt in 1893. The American ambassador in Honolulu used marines to support the rebels and afterwards declared that the islands were to be a U. S. protectorate. As he reported to Washington, "The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe, and this is the golden hour of the United States to pluck it." Within a month, a delegation representing the new American-controlled Hawaiian government visited Washington and signed an annexation treaty.
But the new American president, Grover Cleveland, refused to recognize the treaty and sent a special commissioner to investigate the political situation in Hawaii. The commissioner declared that the American businessmen who had staged the coup had acted improperly. President Cleveland then sought to restore the queen to her throne, but the American rebels resisted. On July 4, 1894, they proclaimed the Republic of Hawaii and called for annexation to America as soon as possible.
There matters remained until William McKinley became president in 1897. Unlike Cleveland, he encouraged the Congress to annex Hawaii. A joint resolution by the House and the Senate passed by simple majorities in both houses, and Hawaii was annexed to the United States in the summer of 1898. A little over sixty years later, in 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state.
In 1993 President Clinton signed a Congressional resolution formally apologizing to the Hawaiian people for the way in which the American government had interfered in its political life. This month marks the 102nd anniversary of Hawaiis annexation. It is a day marked here more by ambivalence than celebration, as native Hawaiians, now representing only 21 percent of the states population, grow increasingly concerned about the erosion of their traditional culture and the degradation of their environment. As a local journalist observes, "Pick up any local newspaper in Hawaii and you will read about some beloved beach, some ancestral landmark, some pristine wilderness threatened by development, industry and sheer overpeopling."
What transformations will the next hundred years bring to this island paradise? No one knows for sure, but the traditional Hawaiian welcome of leis and alohas may turn into "no trespassing" signs. Who could blame them? Aloha.