Damir White

11/30/22

Hist 201

Hawaiian Missionary Efforts

Though it is an uncomfortable truth, America is just as guilty of Imperialism as the country it

broke away from. Even though the nation preaches freedom, throughout its history as a nation it

has repeated Britain's mistakes in some cases. One such example was the treatment of the

Hawaiian people during its colonization.

The island of Hawaii was a nation of its own before the settlers came upon its shores, it had its

own gods, government, and culture befitting a nation. The nation of Hawaii was by and large

self-sufficient even if they weren’t advanced by western standards. When the American settlers

came to Hawaii they came with the same intentions that they always came with. To spread their

version of civilization, one of their main tactics was the spread of christianity through missionary

efforts. In this paper I will be examining the effect of missionary efforts and imperialism had on

Hawaii during the days of colonization.

Hawaii was once ruled by great kings and queens just as any other nation of the ancient and

undiscovered worlds beyond the known world. Kamehameha the Great and many other

Hawaiian kings had been a functioning nation long before the United States even knew of its

existence. It was during the reign of the last Monarch Liliuokalani that the missionary efforts

began. In the Queen's biography, she speaks of her brother David Kalakaua’s reign during 1874

until his death in 1891 during which he oversaw the 1875 treaty for tax free importation of

Hawaiian agricultural goods to the Americas. However the issues came when the plantation

owners forced King David to sign the Bayonet constitution of 1887 which disenfranchised
indigenious peoples and put power in the hands of the plantation owning cabinet. This was the

start of the missionaries using their commercial and industrial power to subvert the crown of

Hawaii.

Hawaiian royalty had welcomed the council of the American people to the point of giving them

full representation in the Hawaiian government since they had established industries on the

island. But as they gained more power and wealth the Americans began to enact laws that gave

them more power such as the Bayonet Constitution and the institution of the Chamber of

Commerce. King Kalakaua valued the prosperity brought by the commercial and industrial

advancements highly and tried to bring prosperity to every class of people whether they be an

immigrant or a native. King Kalakaua hoped to be the Sovereign of a Happy and prosperous

Hawaiian nation, though his intentions were met with the opposition of his own people. Those

who opposed saw a treaty with the United States as the beginning of the end for their

independence.

The missionary party had taken advantage of the fact that the King relied on America to deter the

colonial interests of other nations. King Kalakaua was blinded by the prosperity of his kingdom

and couldn’t see that most of the wealth went to a nation he never even saw to people he had

never even met. The missionary party had controlled the king’s cabinet for years and used the

ministry as a tool and soon deposed the king when they amassed enough power to do so. King

Kalakaua became a tool in the hands of the American colonizers, The missionary party now

ruled Hawaii. This was only the beginning however, this was the start of the Hawaiian people

losing everything to the greed of a foreign nation.

Religion has always been a weapon of Imperialism, to sever the indigenous people from their

traditions and supplement them with your own. In 1810 the American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions was established, its purpose was to promote the christian gospel in

“Heathen Lands”. As I mentioned in the previous paragraphs Hawaii had seen years of

prosperity but before it was more than just the commercial and industrial support of America, it

was through unification. Kamehameha I united the nation after defeating all of his rivals which

created a prosperity that caught the attention of America. From the western point of view, the

native Hawaiian people were children in need of Christianization. American Protestantism saw a

resurgence in the second great awakening, they saw Hawaii as a way to expand the Kingdom of

christ. The British were threatened by the presence of the evangelists and so beseeched

Kamehameha II also known as Liholiho to block entry but Liholiho didn’t honor this request.

British traders and merchants throughout the polynesian Islands tried to denounce the evangelists

but to no avail. Soon the British merchants and the American evangelists became opposing

camps fighting for the Hawaiian islands. Whenever the Hawaiians charged high for their

produce, the merchants believed it was because of the Evangelists educating the Natives instead

of it being the Hawaiians learning by example through multiple business transactions.

Some Hawaiians in the King's court were convinced to adopt the Calvinist religion much to the

Merchants' annoyance, primarily a faction of high chiefs, the King’s advisor, and the King's

favorite wife. Not only did they adopt the religion but also the cultural practices such as banning

prostitution. The missionaries also used the Native Hawaiians for labor, taking them away from

their own agricultural endeavors to build homes, churches, and schools for missionaries to live

and work in.Before the colonists came buildings were made of thatch but missionaries required

buildings of wood or coral.This shows the amount of influence the missionaries had with the

high chiefs able to divert commoner labor for their own ends.The missionaries also saw to

building factories and teaching Hawaiian women to process cotton into “proper clothing” instead
of the traditional garb of the island. The missionaries had turned the islanders into a workforce

both domestic and out in fields which prevented the Hawaiians from working for the merchants.

The exchange of sandalwood had begun to dwindle in the 1820s and had to boost their

provisions trade to make up for the loss by using whaling.The financial crisis that hit in the year

1838 also affected the island of Honolulu with the economy of the island fluctuating.The

fluctuating economy made the merchants lament and in their lament they blamed Hawaiian

leadership and the influence of the American missionaries. The island was pulled in a tug of war

between the merchants and the missionaries.

The missionaries' efforts in the Hawaiian islands has shown that the people of Hawaii had been

taken advantage of by the foreign missionaries who came upon their shores. They were used for

labor and had their culture slowly changed by alien priests who preach the word of a god that

they’ve only heard in passing.They were used as labor in a petty economic war that they had

stakes in but never truly saw the real fortune that the merchants and missionaries were fighting

over. Meanwhile their monarchy was slowly being taken over by the immigrant missionaries

who wormed their way into the government. Through the many means that were available to

them until they completely absorbed the royal family into their culture and nation thanks to the

Bayonet constitution of 1877.

The effects of imperialism on the nation show that the island is rarely as lush as it used to be in

the past. The nation of Hawaii was once a nation that respected nature, they used what was

necessary from the thatched houses they lived in to the palm leaves they used for cooking . When

the American settlers came to Hawaii they began to change the culture of the land. As stated

previously they changed the material of the buildings, starting off with thatched churches before
advancing. They then changed the clothing to fit what they found as appropriate by western

standards.

By the time we get to Lilioukalani, the last queen of Hawaii, we see a sovereign nation turned

into a state. American schools teach western ideals to the youth of the Hawaiian islands .

Churches spread the western philosophy and as stated earlier in the paper, wormed its way into

the government.They converted the high priests and convinced them into letting American

settlers use the common people as cheap labor to build their infrastructure on native land. Not

too dissimilar than the imperialism that took place all over the mainland Americas from north to

south. Where they use the island primarily to feed the world's addiction to silk, coffee, and sugar

on top of introducing newer profits such as Coconuts.

The Hawaiian people had longed for prosperity and they had found it under King Kamehameha

and his son. Though King David longed to improve the prosperity of his kingdom he trusted too

much in the American people. But why would he mistrust them? After all, when he came to

power the Americans were already land owning citizens. They had seats on his councils and he

welcomed their advice as well as commercial and industrial power.He trusted too much in the

Americans, thinking that they came in shared prosperity to keep away other outsiders from

attempting to colonize them.

Missionaries went so far as to train Hawaiians in plantation agriculture, with one reverend even

setting up a sugar mill. As stated before the Americans had a foothold in the government through

the favorite wife of Kamehameha I who became the principal advisor to Kamehameha II and III.

She used the missionaries to consolidate her power which led to the western foothold in the

Hawaiian government.There were those throughout the history of the Hawai missions who
opposed christianity but none had the power to over turn them since the nation grew more

dependent on their advice.

The chiefs didn;t just rely on the missionaries but actively protected them from the foreigners

that were already on the island. The ethics of the christian faith were so important to the

Hawaiian people that it was debated whether or not to make the ten commandments the law of

the land. When the American settlers came to Hawaii they came with the same intentions that

they always came with. Before the Americans came, the Hawaiian government was more

personal and less centralized.The missionaries needed a centralized government to more easily

convert the people.

The island of Hawaii was a nation of its own before the settlers came upon its shores, it had its

own gods, government, and culture befitting a nation. The nation of Hawaii was by and large

self-sufficient even if they weren’t advanced by western standards. When the American settlers

came to Hawaii they came with the same intentions that they always came with. To spread their

version of civilization, one of their main tactics was the spread of christianity through missionary

efforts. In this paper I will be examining the effect of missionary efforts and imperialism had on

Hawaii during the days of colonization.

The island of Hawaii was a nation of its own before the settlers came upon its shores, it had its

own gods, government, and culture befitting a nation. The nation of Hawaii was by and large

self-sufficient even if they weren’t advanced by western standards. When the American settlers

came to Hawaii they came with the same intentions that they always came with. To spread their

version of civilization, one of their main tactics was the spread of christianity through missionary

efforts. In this paper I will be examining the effect of missionary efforts and imperialism had on

Hawaii during the days of colonization.

The result was a centralized but somewhat oligarchal self-government which was the first non

government institution in Hawaii developed by the American Mission Board in Boston . The

organization appointed officers who oversaw a geographical area and was the person all

missionaries reported to. When the American settlers came to Hawaii they came with the same

intentions that they always came with.Some of the bigger offices had out stations with Native

assistants which later led to a few Natives being licensed to preach.The congregation however

didn’t have a choice in who led them nor over their own affairs of governance .

The missionaries had also made sure to branch out into other fields allowing those who left the

mission to take up other occupations such as statesmen or planters. The original missionary

factor was what allowed for the younger generation to cultivate the commercial interests of the

island. Thanks to intermarriage descendants of missionaries retained their status as “cousins” to

the members of the Hawaiian childrens society. They remained stalwart public figures on the

island of Hawaii and helped shape policy to benefit the island without compromising on their

calvinistic values which more than likely made shaping the policy easier to do.

In conclusion,The island of Hawaii was a nation of its own before the settlers came upon its

shores, it had its own gods, government, and culture befitting a nation. The nation of Hawaii was

by and large self-sufficient even if they weren’t advanced by western standards. When the

American settlers came to Hawaii they came with the same intentions that they always came

with. To spread their version of civilization, one of their main tactics was the spread of

christianity through missionary efforts. They succeeded in doing so and now Hawaii has gone

from sovereign nation to the 50th state of the United states of America. A holiday paradise and

naval outpost that’s still has some of its culture but can never be what it once was.
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