[if you want to see where the Hawaiian islands are in relation to the continental U.S., simply click on the "Feedjit" map on the right]
And I ask my students WHY Hawaii is the 50th state?
Answer: sugar cane
Well, maybe that's too simplistic an answer. But sugar cane was certainly the main industry that brought immigrant labor, particularly from China, Japan, the Philippines, and Korea, into the Hawaiian Islands.
[photo of Asian immigrant laborers on a sugar cane plantation]
And U.S. sugar interests led to U.S. imperialism in the form of the overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani, the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian islands.
[Queen Lili'uokalani]
And because the U.S. saw the Hawaiian islands as a useful outpost for their military interests in the Pacific, they built a base in Honolulu, and ... well ... you all basically know the rest. By 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state in the union.
But that's not the end of the story. Because the indigenous population of Hawaii, the Hawaiian people, have been agitating for independence.
[For more on the Hawaiian independence movement, click on this link]
Hawaii is not simply a vacation paradise. Nor is it a crucial outpost for U.S. military intervention in the Pacific. It does happen to be the only state that has a non-white majority (over 64% of the population, predominantly Asian Americans, or as they are referred to in Hawaii, the Asian-settler community). And it is also the home to indigenous Hawaiians who are actively preserving their culture and agitating for independence.
