(water bubbling and gushing) - [Johnny] 40 million years ago, the ocean floor cracked open and molten lava started flowing out. It cooled as it hit the cold
ocean water and turned solid, eventually making mountains in the ocean. Those mountains got taller and taller, and soon a chain of islands was born. And then, around 2000 years ago, a group of people arrived
to these islands in canoes. Those communities eventually
unified into one kingdom, the kingdom of Hawaii. A sovereign nation in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii became a language, a
culture, a national identity. But that sovereignty, that culture, that identity was soon stolen, captured by a new, bigger
country, an ocean away. (rapid ticking)
(sinister music) - [Man] This is the
story of these islands. (sinister music) - [Man] For millions of
years, there was no land here. Only the sea. - [Man] Hawaii's half century
old request for statehood is granted. - [Johnny] The Kingdom of Hawaii remained a fairly remote
disconnected country for many years, until these guys arrived. During the 1700 and 1800's, many people from Europe
and the United States came to visit Hawaii, mainly on expeditions
of exploring the ocean. But the ones that stayed
were mainly Americans who arrived to these islands wanting to talk about Jesus. For the most part, the Kingdom of Hawaii
welcomed these visitors. One British Explorer even gifted the Hawaiian
King a British flag and Hawaii eventually
adopted the British flag into their own flag. There was general friendship
and good relations here. The American missionaries
who had settled on the island eventually had kids and grandkids. And soon these missionaries
and their descendants weren't just interested
in talking about Jesus. They were also interested
in building businesses, mainly focused on sugar. - [Man] By far the most
valuable single product Hawaii can offer in that trade is sugar. - [Johnny] With this
increased economic interest, these Americans who had
originally come to be missionaries were now much more into sugar, and they did what people
of European descent have been doing for many centuries, looking at a culture and government that is different than theirs and saying, we think we could do this better, let us take it from here. And so during the 1800's, these Americans slowly chipped away at the Hawaiian government structure. They were still newcomers in
this ancient Island nation. They didn't have much power. But that changed quickly. - [Man] The Pacific
always comes rolling in. Mile upon mile dazzling white beachs. - [Johnny] By the end of the 1800's, these Jesus sugar Americans had amassed a huge
amount of Hawaii's wealth and those original missionaries who had come to the Island to convert people to their
religion years earlier now had grandkids that looked like this, a full on armed militia of
white Hawaiian citizens, descendants of the missionaries, who were eager to get the
government out of the way so that they could run
the country themselves and help make it more favorable
for their sugar businesses. Now, remember, these
guys were born in Hawaii. They considered themselves the Hawaiians. But even still, their loyalty still lie with
the country of their ancestors. They were effectively Americans still. By 1893, this local white militia
and their political allies were ready for a full on
takeover of the government, which at the time was
headed by this woman, Queen Lili'uokalani. The sugar missionaries
were still a minority and a full on overthrow of the government would have been hard by themselves. But luckily for them, they had help. The American ambassador
of Hawaii at the time helped coordinate the arrival of an American military ship and troops to show up on the shores
of the Island of a Oahu into the capital city of Honolulu. Up until this point, the conflict in Hawaii
was technically internal, meaning it was between the
locals and the white missionaries who were technically locals because they were born there. But the moment the US arrived to Honolulu to provide military backup
for a government overthrow, it became a full line military coup sponsored by a foreign power, a Cardinal sin in international relations. But even still the government
backed the overthrow. The queen was forced to give up her power and they put this guy as the leader of the
new Republic of Hawaii. His name was Sanford Dole. His family was huge in the sugar business. - [Man] There's a new taste
in pineapple from Dole. - [Johnny] And now he was the leader of the country of Hawaii. The locals fought this but peacefully. They protested. Nearly every adult on the islands signed a petition condemning the takeover. Back in Washington DC, a debate began as to
what to do with Hawaii now that a bunch of
pro-American missionaries turned sugar warriors had grabbed power. Dole himself traveled to DC to lobby for the US to take over
Hawaii for themselves. But so did a group of local Hawaiians to oppose the American encroachment. The queen who was overthrown wrote a letter demanding to be reinstated as the legitimate leader
of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The United States was split
on what to do until 1898 when the new president
surrounded himself with leaders who kind of loved war
and American expansion. And this is what sealed
the fate of Hawaii. All of these displays of
vehement peaceful protests by the Hawaiian people were trampled on by a
superpower who had bigger guns and an insatiable desire for control. So one summer day in
1898, the US showed up and the flag of the Kingdom
Hawaii was taken down and the US flag was raised. Hawaii was now officially a possession of the United States of America. With the help of these
sugar loving missionaries, these islands had been
plucked from their people and put in the hands of
a growing superpower. But stealing land is one thing. The real theft is what happened next. (ominous music) At this point, Hawaii was just
a US territory, not a state, but even still the US began a
deep, widespread destruction of Hawaiian way of life. The Hawaiian language
was banned in schools and government and businesses were by law required to be conducted in English. The US began developing
land, often on sacred sites. And the history itself was censored to make it seem as if the Hawaiian people welcomed the US without a fight. Much of the real history
became inaccessible because it was only documented
in the Hawaiian language, which was beginning to die. And then in 1959, Hawaii became
the 50th state of the union and quickly became the
place we know today. (island music) Meanwhile, Dole food company, the company who was
perhaps helped the most by this land grab, has become a massive global corporation. By 1993, Hawaii was a full
on part of the United States. That year, President Bill
Clinton came out with an apology. - A Presidential apology. At the White House yesterday, President Clinton signed
a formal letter of apology to the people of Hawaii. He was apologizing on
behalf of the US government for the government's
involvement 100 years ago in removing the independent
Hawaiian monarchy by force. - But despite this horrendous land grab and the pillaging and
theft of these islands, there is a little bit of hope here. That spirit of peaceful resistance that led to petitions and
protests back in 1893, persisted, even after the takeover. The Hawaiian language
was delicately preserved through painstaking effort. And today there are full immersion Hawaiian language public schools. Hawaiian traditions have stayed alive. And last year Hawaiians showed that they were not willing to
give up their sacred sites. They staged a dramatic protest
to protect a Holy mountain that was slated to be developed on. Hawaii may have been stolen and attempts made to erase its culture, but while the negative effects
of this Imperial land grab are wide reaching, many pillars of this beautiful
culture have survived. So I haven't really been
traveling much for obvious reasons and because of that I've been watching a lot more shows in the evening, which has been really fun
to sort of watch new stuff, learn new things. One of the shows I
wanted to watch for ages was the Michael Jordan documentary, which off limits to me 'cause
I don't like have cable or ESPN or any of that. Last month I discovered
a way I could watch it using Express VPN, which happens to be the
sponsor of today's video, but also something that I
genuinely want to tell you about because it's pretty exciting. A VPN allows you to route your connection through a different country, which there's some security benefits in keeping your data safe
and private and all that, but in this case, it allowed me to watch the
Michael Jordan documentary in its entirety on Netflix on demand, which was just like, I feel
like I had won the lottery. I even was talking about it
and I just wasn't watching it and suddenly I was, and
Iz and I just binged it. There are a lot of offerings on Netflix that are available in other
countries and not your country. Suddenly I can watch
"Spirited Away" on Netflix or "Lord of the Rings". I mean, I'd been using
Express VPN for years, mainly for the sort of privacy element, but in this case, I'm realizing that it's way more than
just a privacy tool. It's allowing me to have way
more content at my fingertips. There's a link in my description, expressvpn.com/johnnyharris. You can click that link and find out how to get three
months free of Express VPN. Go click that link in the description. It helps support this
channel when you do that but it also gives you access to a lot more content that
you didn't have before for free for three months. Go binge "Lord of the Rings" and thank you, Express VPN
for sponsoring this video. Thank you all for watching. I will see you in the next one. (gentle music)
Two things that are glossed over:
1) The kingdom was a dictatorship. People used to be executed over trivial matters, like eating the King’s favorite type of fish. It was a rather murderous dictatorship, founded in conquest by war between the islands. The war to conquer the Kingdom of Maui, for example, was legendary for its brutality. But now Hawaii is a democracy.
2) The vote for statehood was overwhelmingly in favor. Hawaiians voted for statehood. Hawaiians were among the most literate people in the world (as the video points out), and as such they knew fully what statehood meant, and that it is permanent.
https://reddit.com/r/Hawaii/comments/hqs112/how_the_us_stole_hawaii/
An interesting thread on the topic
Interesting video . Johnny is great content creator