The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territoryhttps://www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/phc-3-13.pdf (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003, page III-1) () was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 30, 1900, until August 21, 1959, when most of its territory was admitted to the United States as the 50th US state, the State of Hawaii. The Hawaii Admission Act specified that the State of Hawaii would not include Palmyra Island, the Midway Islands, Kingman Reef, Johnston Atoll and Sand Island.
On July 4, 1898, the United States Congress passed the Newlands Resolution authorizing the US annexation of the Republic of Hawaii, and five weeks later, on August 12, Hawaii became a US territory. In April 1900, Congress approved the Hawaiian Organic Act which organized the territory. United States Public Law 103-150, adopted in 1993 (informally known as the Apology Resolution), acknowledged that "the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States" and also "that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum".
Hawaii's territorial history includes a period from 1941 to 1944, during World War II, when the islands were placed under martial law. Civilian government was dissolved and a military governor was appointed.
Background
After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in January 1893, the Provisional Government of Hawaii set out to effect Hawaii's speedy annexation by the United States. A commission, led by Lorrin A. Thurston, was sent to Washington, D.C. to negotiate an annexation treaty with US President Benjamin Harrison. A delegation led by Princess Victoria Kaiulani also went to Washington to protest the overthrow and to lobby against annexation.
Harrison and the commission signed a treaty of annexation, which was sent to the US Senate for ratification. However, the Senate did not act before March 4, 1893, when Harrison's term ended and Grover Cleveland took office. The new president was an anti-imperialist and strongly opposed to annexation. He withdrew the treaty from consideration, and ordered a congressional investigation into the events surrounding the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. After receiving the committee's first report, Cleveland recommended the restoration of Queen Liliuokalani. This did not go over well even with his own party. Eventually a bipartisan congressional vote called for a "hands off" policy in regards to internal events in Hawaii. Further investigation by Congress led to the Morgan Report, which established that US troops in Hawaii had been completely neutral during the overthrow, and exonerated the US military from any accusations of complicity.Niklaus R. Schweizer, His Hawaiian Excellency: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy and the Annexation of Hawaii (1994).
The Provisional Government convened a constitutional convention to establish the Republic of Hawaii. Thurston was urged to become the nation's first president but he was worried his brazen personality would damage the cause of annexation. The more conservative Sanford B. Dole, former Supreme Court Justice and friend of Queen Liliuokalani, was elected as the first and only president of the new government.Helena G. Allen, Sanford Ballard Dole: Hawaii's Only President, 1844–1926 (1988)
During the Spanish–American War, Hawaii's strategic location relative to the Philippines made it especially important to American interests, as argued by naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan. This and fears that the Empire of Japan would seize control of the islands provided momentum for the proponents of annexation. On July 4, 1898, the US Congress passed a joint resolution to provide for annexing of Hawaii to the United States. The resolution, commonly known as the Newlands Resolution (named after US Representative Francis G. Newlands), was signed into law three days later by President McKinley. The Newlands Resolution states:
The resolution took effect on August 12, 1898, and a formal ceremony marking the transfer of Hawaiian state sovereignty to the United States was held that day on the steps of the ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu. The Hawaiian flag was lowered and the American flag was raised in its place.
The Resolution also provided for the establishment of a five-member commission to study what new laws were needed regarding the management and disposition of public lands in Hawaii, and to develop a frame of government for the islands. Its members were Sanford Dole (who, under the terms of the Resolution, retained the powers he previously exercised as President of Hawaii), Walter F. Frear (who likewise remained Judge of the Supreme Court of Hawaii), US Senators Shelby M. Cullom (R-Illinois) and John T. Morgan (D-Alabama), and US Representative Robert R. Hitt (R-Illinois). The commission's final report was submitted to Congress for a debate which lasted over a year. Many Southern Representatives and Senators raised objections to establishing an elected territorial government in Hawaii, as doing so would open a pathway for the admission of a state with a "non-white" majority population at a time when strict "Jim Crow laws" enforced white political control throughout the American South.
Organic Act
In early 1900, Congress passed an Act To provide a government for the Territory of Hawaii, which was signed into law by President William McKinley on April 30, 1900. This organic act established the office of governor of Hawaii. Territorial governors were appointed by the president of the United States with the advice and consent of the US Senate. They served for four years, unless removed sooner by the president.
Territorial governors
Sanford B. Dole, Republican (1900–1903) George R. Carter, Republican (1903–1907) Walter F. Frear, Republican (1907–1913) Lucius E. Pinkham, Democrat (1913–1918) Charles J. McCarthy, Democrat (1918–1921) Wallace R. Farrington, Republican (1921–1929) Lawrence M. Judd, Republican (1929–1934) Joseph B. Poindexter, Democrat (1934–1942) Ingram M. Stainback, Democrat (1942–1951) Oren E. Long, Democrat (1951–1953) Samuel Wilder King, Republican (1953–1957) William F. Quinn, Republican (1957–1959)
Legislature The Organic Act also created a bicameral Hawaii Territorial Legislature. It consisted of a lower chamber, the House of Representatives, and an upper chamber, the Senate. Its members were elected by popular vote.
Judiciary The Act created the Territorial Supreme Court and additional appellate courts. All judges of these courts were appointed by the President with advice and consent of the Senate.
Congressional delegate
The Act also provided that Hawaii, like other US territories, would have a non-voting delegate to the US Congress.
Robert William Wilcox (1900–1903) Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaole (1903–1922) Henry Alexander Baldwin (1922) William Paul Jarrett (1923–1927) Victor Stewart Kaleoaloha Houston (1927–1933) Lincoln Loy McCandless (1933–1935) Samuel Wilder King (1935–1943) Joseph Rider Farrington (1943–1954) Mary Elizabeth Pruett Farrington (1954–1957) John Anthony Burns (1957–1959)
Tourism
Hawaii's tourism industry began in the 1880s, when sailing vessels between San Francisco and Hawaii carrying freight began to also take passengers. Oceanic Steamship Company was the first transpacific shipping company to begin promoting tourism to Hawaii. Matson Navigation Company followed soon after, eventually buying out Oceanic in 1926.Bonura, Sandra E. (2024). The Sugar King of California: The Life of Claus Spreckels. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 107-108. . . Matson's fleet included the SS Wilhelmina, rivaling the best passenger ships serving traditional Atlantic routes. With the boom in interest of Hawaiian vacations by America's wealthiest families in the late 1920s, Matson added the SS Mariposa, SS Monterey and SS Lurline (one of many Lurlines) to the fleet.
Matson operated two resort hotels in Honolulu near royal grounds. The first (and for a time the only) hotel on Waikīkī was the Moana Hotel which opened in 1901. As the first hotel in Waikīkī, the Moana Hotel was nicknamed the "First Lady of Waikīkī." The hotel gained international attention in 1920 when Edward, Prince of Wales and future King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, stayed as a guest. In 1927, the luxurious Royal Hawaiian Hotel, informally called the "Pink Palace of the Pacific", opened for business. It was the preferred Hawaii residence of President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he visited Hawaii during World War II.
Military bases With annexation, the United States saw Hawaii as its most strategic military asset. McKinley and his successor US President Theodore Roosevelt expanded the military presence in Hawaii and established several key bases, some still in use today. By 1906, the entire island of Oahu was being fortified at the coastlines with the construction of a "Ring of Steel," a series of gun batteries mounted on steel coastal walls. One of the few surviving batteries completed in 1911, Battery Randolph, is today the site of the U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii.Dan Cragg, Guide to military installations (U of Illinois Press, 2000).Bertrand M. Roehner, "Relations Between US Military Forces and the Population of Hawaii" Laboratoire de physique théorique et hautes énergies (2014). online
List of territorial installations:
Camp McKinley (est. 1898) Fort Kamehameha (est. 1907) Pearl Harbor Naval Station (est. 1908) Fort Shafter (est. 1907) Fort Ruger (est. 1909) Schofield Barracks (est. 1909) Battery Closson (est. 1911) Battery Dudley (est. 1911) Battery Randolph (est. 1911) Fort DeRussy (est. 1915) Wheeler Army Airfield (est. 1922)
Industrial boom and the "Big Five"
As a territory of the United States, sugarcane plantations gained a new infusion of investment. By getting rid of tariffs imposed on sugarcane sent to the continental United States, planters had more money to spend on equipment, land and labor. Increased capital resulted in increased production. Five kingdom-era corporations benefited from annexation, becoming multimillion-dollar conglomerations: Castle & Cooke, Alexander & Baldwin, C. Brewer & Co., Theo H. Davies & Co., and American Factors (later Amfac). Together, the five companies dominated the Hawaiian economy as the "Big Five."
Pineapples and Hawaii James Dole, also known as the Pineapple King, arrived in Hawaii in 1899. He purchased land in Wahiawa and established the first pineapple plantation in Hawaii. Confident that canned pineapples could become a popular food export, Dole built a cannery near his first plantation in 1901. Hawaiian Pineapple Company, later renamed Dole Food Company, was born. With his profits soaring, Dole expanded and built a larger cannery in Iwilei near Honolulu Harbor in 1907. The Iwilei location made his main operations more accessible to labor. The cannery at Iwilei was in operation until 1991. Dole found himself in the midst of an economic boom industry. In response to growing pineapple demand in 1922, Dole purchased the entire island of Lanai and transformed the Hawaiian tropical low shrublands into the largest pineapple plantation in the world. For a long stretch of time, Lanai would produce 75% of the world's pineapple and become immortalized as the "Pineapple Island."Helena G. Allen, Sanford Ballard Dole: Hawaii's Only President, 1844–1926 (1988).