American History Hit The Annexation of Hawaiʻi
Jan 29, 2026
Noah Dolim, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, specializes in 19th-century Hawaiʻi. He traces the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom, the role of U.S. military and businessmen, and the delayed path to annexation. Short segments cover land privatization, sugar and strategic interests, cultural suppression, and ongoing sovereignty and community priorities.
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Demographic Collapse After Contact
- Contact with Europeans rapidly collapsed the native Hawaiian population through introduced disease.
- Estimates fall from hundreds of thousands in 1778 to roughly 40,000 by the late 19th century.
Westernized Governance
- The Hawaiian kingdom institutionalized a constitutional monarchy with Western-style branches.
- Leaders adopted British and American legal forms to make Hawaiian law legible to foreigners.
Land Privatization Backfires
- The Great Mahele privatized land previously held communally by the sovereign.
- The Kuleana Act required commoners to file claims, but many lacked money or understanding and lost land to plantations.