Meantime through the introduction of French Catholic priests in 1826, and their rein troduction in 1839, after banishment in 1831, French influence had increased. In 1842, in duced by the arrival of a French vessel with new demands, the king invited the United States, England and France to negotiate new treaties for the .guarantee of the independence and neutrality of the island. The American government, seeking no exclusive control or advantage, and desiring only that American rights, should be respected and guarded, and also opposing interference by foreign powers, ad vised the Hawaiian commissioners to begin the diplomatic negotiations in England. In 1843, coincident with American renewal of negotia for acquisition of Mexican territory reaching to the Pacific, occupation of the islands by a British naval commander (promptly disavowed by the English govern ment) induced the American government to contemplate interference to prevent the con quest of Hawaii by a great European power, and to submit a calm expression of disapproval which doubtless influenced England and France to recognise Hawaiian independence and later to enter into a joint declaration (1845) agreeing never to take possession even under a pro tectorate.
Feeling the need of closer relations, the American government also began the appoint ment of diplomatic officials; and in December 1849, doubtless influenced by the acquisition of California, concluded a treaty of friendship, commerce, navigation and extradition.
Meantime French and English as well as American diplomatic relations had been un satisfactory. After a French naval vessel re sorted to force in 1849 to support the demands of the French consul for reparation (an action later disavowed by the French government), Secretary Clayton notified France that the United States, because of its relations with the islands, could never with indifference allow them to pass under the dominion or exclusive control of any other power.
In 1851, when the Hawaiian government, apprehensive of French designs, adopted a pro visional cession of the islands to the United States, the American government through Secretary Webster declined to accept annexa tion, still advocating independence — at least until some pressing necessity might give the subject a new aspect or increased importance. However, it instructed the Department to keep the Pacific armament in a position requisite for the safety of the Hawaiian govern ment. Suggestions of annexation met with more favor two years later. In September 1853, Secretary Marcy issued official instruc tions that the United States would not allow other powers to exact special privileges or to establish a protectorate over the island. Later in the same year, while hoping to obtain Lower California by negotiations and stating that con ditions in the islands and their connection with American industries in which American interests were paramount made American control ap pear inevitable, he sounded the French govern ment on its policy or views in regard to the matter. In 1854, he authorized, in case of emergency, negotiations for a complete trans fer of the islands to the United States as a territorial possession; and the Hawaiian king, in the face of warnings from the British and French consuls, agreed to a draft treaty pro viding for admission of the islands as a State of the American Union, but died while negotia tions for the final execution of the treaty were still pending.
American influence, kept alive through the channels of industry, was especially increased by interest in the rise of the sugar industry which at the close of the Civil War became the basis of agitation for a treaty of reciprocity. In 1867,
such a treaty, more liberal than that of 1855, and regarded as a means of making American influence dominant, and also in line with the policy of future annexation, was negotiated by written invitation of the Hawaiian government but after delayed action was rejected by the American Senate in June 1870.
Meantime, in July 1867, Secretary Seward, indicating that lawful peaceful annexation was more desirable than had authorized the American Minister to sound the Hawaiian government on the snbject and confidentially to receive overtures; but in 1868, seeing the Amer ican mind absorbed with domestic questions, he prudently avoided giving further encourage ment to Hawaiian-American annexation. In 1871, and in 1873, the American government was again asked to accept the opportunity to annex the islands, and in 1873 Secretary Fish authorized inquiries as to the views of the Hawaiian government concerning the policy and conditions of annexation.
In 1875, to meet the wishes of the California sugar interests, the American government negotiated a favorable reciprocity treaty which granted to the United States certain ex clusive privileges. The principle of this treaty, representing a policy of commercial assimilation and virtually establishing an American pro tectorate, was renewed in 1884 by a treaty (ratified in 1887) giving the United States ex clusive right to enter Pearl Harbor and to es tablish a coaling station there. Secretary Bay ard declined the British proposal for a tri partite Anglo-American-German guarantee of the neutrality of the islands.
After various disturbances and apprehended crises, resulting in an increasing annexation sentiment, in 1893 following the deposition of Queen Liliuokalani, a newly-established pro visional government, aided by the American minister, applied for annexation, and its com missioners negotiated at Washington a treaty of annexation which was submitted to the Senate by President Harrison but later with drawn by President Cleveland pending an in vestigation of the Hawaiian situation.
The refusal of the Cleveland administra tion to accept the results of the revolution of 1893 only delayed the inevitable incorporation of Hawan, which had been rendered more neces sary by the recent occupation of other islands of the Pacific by Germany and other European powers. The new mid-ocean republic of 1894 favored annexation, and in 1897 negotiated a treaty of annexation which was pending in the Senate at the beginninrt of the Spanish-Ameri can War. Soon thereafter, friends of annexa tion introduced a joint resolution of annexa tion, which passed both houses by large majori ties and was signed 7 July 1898, vesting the government in the President until Congress should pass suitable legislation. Formal ces sion was made on 12 Aug. 1898. An act of 30 April 1900 fully organized the Territory and ex tended provisions of the Constitution and laws of the United States and conferred American citizenship upon all citizens, including Chinese born or naturalized in the island.
Ethnography.— Allen, A. H. 'Relations between the United States and the Hawaiian Islands, 1820-93' (Sen. Exec. Doc. 1893) ; Callahan, J. M., 'America in the Pacific and the Far East) (1901) ; Foster, J. W.,