Alaska and Hawaii

Factual Questions
1

Stupid question, but I must ask… How did we come to acquire the “territories” of Alaska and Hawaii without some big war? You’d think that Russia and/or the Eskimoes would have had a claim on Alaska…and what about King Kamehameha? Didn’t he attempt to resist the US invasion? If not a war, who did we pay off to acquire the land? And/or…why don’t Eskimoes live on reservations???

I must have been absent from school that day when we covered the background to these territories in US History class… :smiley:

  • Jinx
2

Russia thought Alaska was worthless so they sold it. Back then it was just more snow covered land which they already had plenty of. The guy in the US who had the idea to buy it was Seward so people called Alaska “Seward’s Folly”. I suppose that changed when gold was found there. I think the purchase price was around $7 million.

3

We bought Alaska from Russia in 1867. In 1887, King Kalakaua of Hawaii was forced to issue the “Bayonet Constitution”, limiting the power of the throne, and increasing the power of the legislature and cabinet, as well as extending the franchise to Americans and Europeans on the island. In 1893, Queen Lili`uokalani issued a new constitution, restoring a lot of the monarchy’s powers. This upset the American sugar planters because the 1887 constitution had increased their power a great deal. The planters had also been pushing for the US to annex the island. So, a group of planters, led by Sanford Dole, and aided by a group of marines under the control of the U.S. minister to Hawaii, staged a coup and established a republic. Eventually, the US annexed the islands.

4

Hawai’i was ruled by Queen Liliu’okalani right before the time of annexation. What happened, in a very brief nutshell, was that quite a few of the sons & daughters of the early missionaries had set up plantations and were becoming quite wealthy. She was forcibly dethroned in 1893 and Hawai’i was set up as an indepent country by these businessmen. In 1898 it was annexed by the US.

Liliu’okalani did try to resist a couple of times, but was eventually put under house arrest at Iolani Palace. It also helps to know that for the most part the native Hawaiians by 1890 were decimated by disease and poverty. She didn’t have very many supporters to draw on.

President Clinton at some point issued a formal apology to Hawai’i for the annexation, and there is a pretty vocal Native Hawai’ian Movement (Ke Kulana I believe is the biggest) that would like to see Hawai’i de-annexed.

There’s a pretty good web biography of Queen Liliu’okalani here:

http://www.uic.edu/depts/owa/history/liliuokalani.html

5

The Russians actually knew there was gold in Alaska, and were smart enough to see that they could never control events once a gold rush began. Everybody had seen what happened to Mexico after gold was discovered in its province of Upper California

Also, Russian-English realtions were bad through most of the 19th century. The Crimean War had already been fought, but the conflict over England’s interest in India vs Russia’s in Central Asia continued. (The Russian fleet once spent an extended stay in New York harbor the Americans, in the middle of the Civil War, saw it as the Czar’s endorsement of the Union; the Russians saw it as a chance to do some PR and had its sailors, including the future composer Rimsky-Korsokov, help treat a local flue epidemic. All along, the real reason they were in New York was to avoid the Royal Navy). The Czar knew that his Alaskan posessions were vulnerable to invasion from British Canada.

So, seeing Alaska as trouble waiting to happen in any number or ways, the Russians cashed in when they had the chance.

As for how the Americans obtained Hawaii, just ask any Hawaiian. But not if you’re a white American, and it’s after dark, and you’re alone on the beach on Waianae.

6

Wasn’t California already a part of the U.S. when gold was discovered?

7

Yes, California was part of the US in 1849. It became a state pretty soon after that.

8

Purchasing Alaska had something to do with Peter the Great. He was the one that financed the expeditions to Alaska. Then went on hard times and sold. This was after they almost made the sea otter extinct.

To try and answer your question about why The Eskimo doesn’t live on reservations is 1971 Native Claims Settlement Act. Its a tough read even if you are a lawyer, but basically it gave all sovereign Alaska natives right to their land, minerals and species. Lawyers are having a hayday with it.

Hawaii is learning about it and using it as an outline.

Funny, to this day, Alaska and Hawaii history is left out of the curriculum of the US History class. You were at school, just not taught.

9

Peter the Great died in 1725. Russia didn’t sell Alaska to the United States until 142 years later, in 1867. Peter commissioned the Bering expedition, which resulted in the Russian American Company establishing a colony in Alaska in 1784, but Peter played no role in Russia selling Alaska to the United States.

10

[qoute]You’d think that Russia and/or the Eskimoes would have had a claim on Alaska
[/quote]

OK, well, I gotta cime in here now. Why would you say “Russia and/or the Eskimoes”? Why wouldn’t you say “Canadians”? Americans really don’t know we’re here do you?

11

Eskimos, Aleuts and Indians in Alaska don’t live on reservations because, well, no reservation system was ever set up there. In the 70s Alaska native lands were divided up between 13 native corporations. The corporations hold the land in trust for the native population. Some corporations have done pretty well and issue dividends to their constituents, others are essentially bankrupt.

Many Eskimos would be insulted if you refered to them as Indians and vice versa. And I lived in Alaska for 20 years and all the Eskimos I ever met called themselves Eskimos, no one ever said they were Inuit or Inupiaq or Yupiq. Eskimos lived on the coastal areas, but Athabaskan indians lived in the interior, Aleuts lived in the Aleutians, and Tlinkit, Haida, and Tsimshian indians lived in SE Alaska.

Others have explained that the US bought Alaska from Russia for the paltry sum of $7 million, extinguishing Russia’s claim.

12

We know you’re there. We also know that you would have been irrelevant to the discussion.

Look at the purchase date, again. In 1867, whle Seward was negotiating the purchase, the pro-nationalist groups in Canada could only persuade Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and The Canadas–Upper (Ontario) and Lower (Quebec)–to sign the British North America Act to become the Dominion of Canada. Vancouver Island (organized as a British colony in 1849) and the B.C. mainland (organized as a British colony in 1858) had only been united into a single British colony the year prior to the U.S. purchase of Alaska–and B.C. did not join Canada until 1871. (Seward signed the deal with the Russian minister the day after the British Parliament passed the BNA, but the BNA did not go into effect for another three months–still missing anything west of Upper Canada.)

On the other hand, the Russians were clearly the European-recognized “owners” of the land.

13

Is there really that much animosity towards the mainland among Hawaiians?

14

I lived there from 1980 to 1990. And Slithy Tove is correct regarding that location.

15

FWIW, I’m Japanese, and I was born in Hawaii and lived there until last year.

I’m going to say that it depends on who you’re talking about. Hawaii has a decent part of its population made up of mainland transplants, and many, many families have relatives that live on the mainland. So you can’t say that Hawaii is hostile towards mainlanders or that Hawaii folk are against living on the mainland.

Still, there are segments of the population that are less than friendly towards mainlanders and Caucasians in general. You can, with reasonable accuracy, identify these segments by location, hence the remark about Waianae (which has a large Native Hawaiian population, many of whom are homeless). It’s mainly a matter of cultural identity and independance, rather than outright racism. Generally, among those with Native Hawaiian blood, the feelings of animosity stems mostly from what they know of the overthrow of the Hawaiian government. There is the feeling that Native Hawaiians are as they are today (generally less educated, poorer, and less healthy) because of the way white American culture changed Hawaii. There aren’t burnings of effigies of white people, and there aren’t any hate crimes against Caucasians. But you will hear some strong remarks about the white settlers who came to Hawaii in the 1800s from the more vocal Hawaiian independence proponents.

Then again, Native Hawaiians don’t make up much of the present population of Hawaii, so their feelings aren’t really representative of Hawaii as a whole. The last time I checked (and I admit this might have been as long as 5-10 years ago), Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans made up about 60% of the population. Native Hawaiians were around 15%, and as Hawaiian blood has become so diluted, a good number of those could have called themselves Chinese or Samoan and it wouldn’t have been any less accurate.

I never detected an outright hostile sentiment towards mainlanders. Instead, the feeling is that in Hawaii, things are just different. Hawaii is smaller, therefore more closely knit. Hawaii is friendlier and more laid back. Hawaii doesn’t have all of the problems that the mainland does. And so on. And the perceptions of the differences between Hawaii and the mainland aren’t always negative. For example, there is the perception that mainland people speak well, speak out more, and are better educated. I also think people in Hawaii tend to perceive mainlanders as being financially well off, or at least better off than they are.

As for Waianae, well, it’s worse than other parts of the island, but it’s not as though there are roving gangs of 500lb Hawaiians looking for white tourists to beat up. Heck, my ex-boyfriend, who works as a male nurse and is a total sweetheart, lives there. But then again, I always thought it would be funny if a tourist mistook Waianae for Waialae. :smiley: Two very different neighborhoods, they are.

Seriously, though, you shouldn’t be on any beach alone at night.

16

Thanks, AudreyK… very informative.