ضم جزر (هاواي)‎ إلى الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية عام 1898م بين التأييد و المعارضة : في ضوء مناقشات الكونغرس الأمريكي

Abstract EN

This research deals with the resolution to annex the Hawaiian Islands to the United States, explaining the relations between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawaii, the coup against the island government, the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and the formation of a provisional government controlled by the Whites in 1893.

This government thereby started to seek for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States, especially with the election of Republican President William McKinley.

Additionally, the Spanish-American war in 1898 was a main factor in pushing American congressional hesitators to adopt the Republican-backed annexation resolution.

Discussions were held in the US Congress on the resolution between the supporting and the opposing groups.

The supporting group presented its arguments for the adoption of the resolution, which revolved around the strategic importance of the islands, which, in their views, emerged during the war with Spain, as a center for Western defense of the United States, particularly the fortified Pearl Harbor.

Furthermore, the economic importance of the islands, including the sugar they produce, and the islands being a coal station on the way to the Far East, which makes it important.

In addition, the islands are unable to maintain their independence for a long time, and the danger of Japanese control over them.

The opposing team refuted these arguments, clarifying their weaknesses.

The opposition group presented its grounds for rejection, which centered on the unconstitutionality of the annexation resolution, because land annexation, in their view, is accomplished through a treaty requiring the approval of two-thirds of the Senate, rather than a resolution passed by a majority of the votes in both chambers of Congress.

They also state that this is contrary to the traditional Policy of the United States, and it is an indication of the beginning of a new colonial policy, where the extent to which it cannot be predicted.

Among the justifications that they stated is the heterogeneity of the islander populations, who were made up of a mixture of different races, and the danger of annexing this mixture in the United States.

It is also to argue that the current government of the islands is unconstitutional and does not represent the people of the islands.

In addition to the spread of leprosy in the islands and the risk of its transmission to the United States after annexation.

The supporting group of the resolution has addressed these arguments, refuting them and clarifying their weaknesses.

The debate in Congress ended with the adoption of the supporting-annexation resolution, thereby attaching the Hawaiian Islands to the United States and becoming part of it.