What year did Hawaii become a US territory?

Answer 1

1. As a result of the Spanish-American War, the United States opted to unilaterally annex the Hawaiian Islands by enacting a congressional joint resolution on July 7, 1898, in order to utilize the Hawaiian Islands as a military base to fight the Spanish in Guam and the Philippines. The United States has remained in the Hawaiian Islands and the Hawaiian Kingdom has since been under prolonged occupation to the present, but its continuity as an independent State remains intact under international law.

   In the nineteenth century the Kingdom of Hawaii was recognized internationally as a sovereign and independent country, with treaties with every major nation at that time, including several with the United States. In 1893, a group of mostly white American businessmen, backed by U.S. Marines, illegally overthrew the constitutional monarchy of Hawaii and instituted their own oligarchy. Although President Cleveland condemned the act and called for the restoration of the Hawaiian monarchy, in 1898 President McKinley pushed through a joint resolution of annexation, rather than the required treaty, in violation of international law and the United States Constitution. After 1900 Hawaii was a territory of the U.S., until the statehood vote in 1959, but today many challenge the legitimacy of this vote and statehood itself. In 1993, the U.S. Congress and President Clinton officially apologized for the overthrow, acknowledging the illegality of it and the annexation, and recognizing the inherent sovereignty and right to self-determination of Native Hawaiians. Today the Hawaiian sovereignty movement is highly active, and even mainstream political leaders recognize that it is not a matter of if, but when and in what form sovereignty will come to the islands. Some advocate a nation-within-a-nation concept similar to American Indians or other integrated models, but a growing number favor the restoration of total independence for Hawaii. This political movement parallels the cultural renaissance, and the struggle for other Hawaiian rights, much of which centers on land and water, which are sacred to the Hawaiian people as the caretakers of these islands. It is important for visitors to have some awareness of the history and the current struggles, and to respect the fact that Hawaii is not like other American states.

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Just to add to the above response; if a treaty of annexation was never passed, that would mean there was never any cession (transfer of sovereignty and real estate) from Hawai'i to the United States. If cession never occurred, then any other acts/laws passed by the U.S. would be void as well in Hawai'i, like the statehood act, regardless of any statehood vote. The Apology Resolution was NOT the official apology. The "real" apology came from an American representative of behalf of President Cleveland back in 1893. The 1993 Apology Resolution has many incorrect terms in it. What the person above mentioned was "inherit sovereignty" and "self-determination for Native Hawaiians"; both of these are irrelevant to Hawai'i's issue because 1.) inherit sovereignty refers to American Indian law where people have sovereignty over their tribal members, and 2.) "self-determination" is the process to "become independent". Native Hawaiians did NOT have inherit sovereignty (which again is an American term referring to Native Americans and authority over ethnic tribal memebers). Hawai'i itself was recognized as "sovereign" and had nothing to do with race/ethnicity. And, Hawai'i cannot go through the process of "becoming" independent when it already achieved that. The Apology Resolution signed by Bill Clinton really isn't an apology after all. Lastly, Hawai'i was always a multi-racial country starting from its official and LEGAL beginning in 1843...The Apology Resolution left out all the Caucasian and Asian subjects to the Hawaiian Kingdom, and only "apologized" to ethnic Hawaiians, when in reality all and every person (regardless of race) had their country swept from them.

Answer 2

The process began in 1893 when US business interests helped to overthrow Hawaii's reigning monarch, Queen Liliuokalani and install leaders friendly to the US. Then in 1898, the Spanish-American War broke out. America needed Hawaii because the US had a naval base at Pearl Harbor. Congress was persuaded that a permanent American presence on the island would be useful, and by 1900, the US government approved formal annexation of Hawaii. It remained a US territory until 1959, when it became the 50th state of the United States.

Answer 3

It became a US Territory in 1898 and a US State in 1959.

Answer 4

In 1898.
In 1898.

Answer 5

It became a US Territory in 1898.

Answer 6

1959