The American Flag Flies over Hawaii

On July 7, 1898, the United States annexed the Republic of Hawaii, five years after the U.S. Marine Corps deposed the last indigenous queen. In 1959, after holding a referendum on the island, Hawaii became the 50th and last territory of the Union to attain the status of an American state.

In 1898, Hawaii embodied the definition of a banana republic — namely, a state that was “apparently democratic, but governed by the private interests of prevarication” (Le Robert).* In fact, fruit growers and traders of the Dole Food Company made the law, under the close protection of Washington.

If the U.S. never officially had any colonies, early on it sought—by any and all means—to expand its sphere of influence, starting with the North American continent. In 1803, the U.S. purchased Louisiana from France; in 1819 they obtained Florida, previously owned by Spain.

After these ends to European presence in the American territories, President James Monroe set out the doctrine that bears his name in 1823. This doctrine froze the balance of power between the Old and New World. To put it succinctly: No European interference in American affairs, and vice versa.

From the American perspective, this profession of faith meant little, except with regards to Europe. For example, in 1846, faced with Mexico’s repeated refusals to sell Texas to the U.S., President James Polk declared war against his counterpart, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. By the summer of 1847, the Stars and Stripes were flying over the Montezuma Palace in Mexico City, and the following year Mexico ceded not only Texas to its conqueror, but also New Mexico and California—an area equivalent to France, Germany and Spain combined.

At the dawn of the 20th century, the 26th U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt, hero of the 1898 war with Cuba—another island that knew all about Washington—professed that people who were unable to use their wealth for the good of humanity should be dominated by the strong. With the blessing of the European powers—who thought no less of it—the Monroe Doctrine became an openly “imperialist instrument.” (1)

This was illustrated, for example, not only by Hawaii and Cuba, but also by Colombia. In November 1903, after Bogota’s reluctance to ratify the treaty that would grant the strip of land needed to build a canal across the isthmus in order to facilitate maritime trade, America fomented a revolution under the protection of its Navy—giving birth to the obliging Republic of Panama.

*Le Robert is a French dictionary.

(1) Maurice Baumont, “Industrial Development and Colonial Imperialism” (1878-1904), Paris: Alcan, 1937.