WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.400 You know, usually when you're... Well, they're 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:12.759 the rules of the game. You play out the clock, 00:00:12.900 --> 00:00:14.919 and if you're losing at the final buzzer, you 00:00:14.919 --> 00:00:16.699 don't get to just turn to the referee and say, 00:00:17.179 --> 00:00:19.300 actually, let's make this a sudden death overtime 00:00:19.300 --> 00:00:21.379 where my team only needs half a point to win. 00:00:21.620 --> 00:00:23.920 I mean, that would cause an absolute... riot 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:26.480 in the stands. Right. You can't just rewrite 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:29.820 the fundamental mechanics of how a winner is 00:00:29.820 --> 00:00:31.780 decided purely because, you know, you didn't 00:00:31.780 --> 00:00:34.439 get the score you needed. But then you look at 00:00:34.439 --> 00:00:37.060 the mechanics of late 19th century geopolitics 00:00:37.060 --> 00:00:39.359 and suddenly that is exactly what happens. It 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:42.020 really is. We are looking at a historical landscape 00:00:42.020 --> 00:00:45.060 where the rules of how a nation expands its borders 00:00:45.060 --> 00:00:48.920 were just entirely rewritten mid game. So welcome 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:51.539 to today's deep dive. Our mission for this one 00:00:51.539 --> 00:00:54.619 is to pull apart this incredibly obscure procedural 00:00:54.619 --> 00:00:57.340 maneuver that resulted in the U .S. annexation 00:00:57.340 --> 00:01:00.420 of Hawaii in 1898. Which is a lot more dramatic 00:01:00.420 --> 00:01:02.619 than it sounds. Oh, totally. We're going to dig 00:01:02.619 --> 00:01:05.319 into the political workarounds, the strategic 00:01:05.319 --> 00:01:08.019 wartime math that basically changed everything, 00:01:08.379 --> 00:01:11.760 and the fierce organized resistance that surrounded 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:14.640 it all. OK, let's unpack this because Newland's 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:17.719 resolution sounds like a boring, dusty, bureaucratic 00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:20.819 document, but it's actually the center of a massive 00:01:20.819 --> 00:01:23.120 geopolitical drama. Yeah, it really is. I mean, 00:01:23.239 --> 00:01:27.239 this document represents a very specific friction 00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:30.659 point in history. It's the exact moment where 00:01:30.659 --> 00:01:33.319 global military strategy and this burgeoning 00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:36.599 desire for an American empire just collided head 00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:38.859 on with indigenous sovereignty. And in doing 00:01:38.859 --> 00:01:41.560 so, it totally upended the established legal 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:43.939 frameworks of the United States. So to understand 00:01:43.939 --> 00:01:45.939 the sheer audacity of the Newland's resolution 00:01:45.939 --> 00:01:48.319 we actually have to start like a year earlier 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:51.579 in 1897 with this spectacular political failure. 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:53.700 Huge failure. Right because President William 00:01:53.700 --> 00:01:55.560 McKinley desperately wanted to annex the Republic 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:57.799 of Hawaii and he tried to do this the traditional 00:01:57.799 --> 00:02:00.140 way by passing a formal treaty of annexation. 00:02:00.620 --> 00:02:03.540 But to ratify a treaty the US Constitution requires 00:02:03.540 --> 00:02:06.519 a two -thirds supermajority in the Senate. Exactly. 00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:09.340 And the framers of the Constitution intentionally 00:02:09.340 --> 00:02:12.259 set that bar extremely high. Right. So a president 00:02:12.259 --> 00:02:14.580 couldn't just absorb foreign territories on a 00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:16.919 whim. Exactly. And McKinley simply didn't have 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:19.490 the votes. The treaty failed. It never went into 00:02:19.490 --> 00:02:21.409 effect. So that should have been it, right? Under 00:02:21.409 --> 00:02:24.590 normal constitutional circumstances, yes, the 00:02:24.590 --> 00:02:26.069 failure of that treaty should have been the end 00:02:26.069 --> 00:02:28.289 of the conversation. I mean, the established 00:02:28.289 --> 00:02:31.550 legally sound mechanism for acquiring foreign 00:02:31.550 --> 00:02:34.430 territory was the treaty process. The Senate 00:02:34.430 --> 00:02:37.409 said no, which meant the acquisition was dead 00:02:37.409 --> 00:02:40.520 in the water. But the expansionist. simply refused 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:43.139 to take no for an answer. So instead of accepting 00:02:43.139 --> 00:02:46.860 defeat, in 1898, Representative Francis G. Newlands, 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:48.979 who was a member of the Silver Party from Nevada, 00:02:49.099 --> 00:02:51.300 by the way, he drafts what becomes known as the 00:02:51.300 --> 00:02:53.620 Newlands Resolution. Right. Now, this wasn't 00:02:53.620 --> 00:02:55.939 a treaty. It was a joint resolution of Congress. 00:02:56.360 --> 00:02:58.699 And the magic of a joint resolution is that it 00:02:58.699 --> 00:03:01.460 only requires a simple majority in both the House 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:03.560 and the Senate, plus the president's signature. 00:03:03.879 --> 00:03:06.759 What's fascinating here is how bypassing that 00:03:06.759 --> 00:03:10.020 traditional treaty process fundamentally altered 00:03:10.020 --> 00:03:12.710 the rules of territorial acquisition. Yeah, because 00:03:12.710 --> 00:03:15.150 it's completely different. Exactly. A joint resolution 00:03:15.150 --> 00:03:18.110 is typically a tool used for domestic legislation. 00:03:18.550 --> 00:03:21.490 You use it to pass a temporary budget extension 00:03:21.490 --> 00:03:23.949 or to commission a new post office or something. 00:03:23.990 --> 00:03:26.469 A law to absorb a country. Right. It is not designed 00:03:26.469 --> 00:03:29.330 for absorbing an independent sovereign nation. 00:03:29.689 --> 00:03:32.810 By using a domestic legislative tool to execute 00:03:32.810 --> 00:03:36.150 a massive foreign policy acquisition, Congress 00:03:36.150 --> 00:03:39.550 essentially engineered this breathtaking legal 00:03:39.550 --> 00:03:42.159 workaround. They bypassed the two requirement 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:44.379 entirely. I mean, the resolution cruised through 00:03:44.379 --> 00:03:48.580 the House by a vote of 209 to 91, with the vast 00:03:48.580 --> 00:03:51.620 majority of that support like 182 votes coming 00:03:51.620 --> 00:03:53.879 from Republicans. Yeah. And then it moved to 00:03:53.879 --> 00:03:57.300 the Senate, where it passed 42 to 21, which is 00:03:57.300 --> 00:03:59.159 incredibly ironic because that Senate vote of 00:03:59.159 --> 00:04:02.520 42 to 21 actually happens to be exactly a two 00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:04.740 -thirds majority. which is just wild to think 00:04:04.740 --> 00:04:07.099 about. It is. They finally got the supermajority 00:04:07.099 --> 00:04:09.340 they failed to get a year earlier. But because 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:11.460 they had literally changed the rules of the game, 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:13.460 they didn't even need it to be a supermajority 00:04:13.460 --> 00:04:16.560 anymore. So McKinley signed into law on July 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:20.720 7th, 1898. It feels exactly like failing a strict 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:23.759 pass fail exam and then just convincing the school 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:26.100 administration to change the grading rubric. 00:04:26.180 --> 00:04:29.180 So you can take a wildly easier test, but still 00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:32.120 demand the exact same diploma at the end. I mean, 00:04:32.399 --> 00:04:34.139 did anyone actually believe this was legally 00:04:34.139 --> 00:04:37.279 sound? Well, no. I mean, that specific maneuver 00:04:37.279 --> 00:04:40.339 remains a major foundational point of contention 00:04:40.339 --> 00:04:42.819 in Hawaiian sovereignty movements today. Legal 00:04:42.819 --> 00:04:45.060 scholars and sovereignty advocates argue the 00:04:45.060 --> 00:04:47.759 mechanism itself was fundamentally invalid. Because 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:50.480 it was a domestic law. Exactly. You cannot use 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:53.500 a domestic law to annex a foreign country. The 00:04:53.500 --> 00:04:55.899 legal foundation of the entire acquisition was 00:04:55.899 --> 00:04:59.019 built on a deliberate procedural evasion. which 00:04:59.019 --> 00:05:00.860 makes perfect sense when you look at the mechanics 00:05:00.860 --> 00:05:03.339 of it. But legal loopholes only work if you have 00:05:03.339 --> 00:05:05.060 the political capital to force them through. 00:05:05.459 --> 00:05:08.519 So why did Congress suddenly agree to use this 00:05:08.519 --> 00:05:11.480 controversial loophole just a year after flat 00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:13.920 out rejecting the actual treaty? Because the 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:16.540 math in Congress doesn't just change that drastically 00:05:16.540 --> 00:05:18.879 without a massive external shock. Right, and 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:21.079 the math changed because the entire globe caught 00:05:21.079 --> 00:05:24.300 fire. In April of 1898, the United States went 00:05:24.300 --> 00:05:26.899 to war with Spain. The Spanish -American War. 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:30.000 Exactly. And this is where the sheer physical 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:33.379 geography of Hawaii becomes like its own worst 00:05:33.379 --> 00:05:36.800 enemy. Because the Republic of Hawaii officially 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:39.019 declared its neutrality in the conflict between 00:05:39.019 --> 00:05:41.620 the U .S. and Spain. Officially, yes. But in 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:44.120 practice, they threw that official neutrality 00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:48.040 aside to help United States troops. Once Admiral 00:05:48.040 --> 00:05:50.420 George Dewey secured his major naval victory 00:05:50.420 --> 00:05:53.459 in the Philippines, Honolulu became this absolutely 00:05:53.459 --> 00:05:57.019 vital irreplaceable mid -ocean stopover for American 00:05:57.019 --> 00:05:59.620 troops heading across the vast Pacific Ocean. 00:05:59.839 --> 00:06:02.360 Right, and those American soldiers were enthusiastically 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:04.680 welcomed. I mean, they were given a real tangible 00:06:04.680 --> 00:06:07.680 taste of Hawaiian hospitality. The American colony 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:09.339 that was already established there went out of 00:06:09.339 --> 00:06:11.199 its way to aid the troops. Supplying them in 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:13.620 everything. Providing supplies, rest, logistical 00:06:13.620 --> 00:06:16.269 support, all of it. And this incredible level 00:06:16.269 --> 00:06:19.470 of assistance won widespread, glowing approval 00:06:19.470 --> 00:06:21.889 back on the United States mainland. Suddenly, 00:06:21.930 --> 00:06:24.009 the abstract concept of Hawaii became very real 00:06:24.009 --> 00:06:26.370 and very helpful to the American public. Here's 00:06:26.370 --> 00:06:29.189 where it gets really interesting, though, by 00:06:29.189 --> 00:06:32.230 being hospitable, by opening their ports and 00:06:32.230 --> 00:06:34.290 being overwhelmingly helpful to the American 00:06:34.290 --> 00:06:37.860 war effort. Did Hawaii's actions actually doom 00:06:37.860 --> 00:06:40.300 their own independence? Oh, that's a great question. 00:06:40.620 --> 00:06:43.660 Because all they really did was prove undeniably 00:06:43.660 --> 00:06:46.639 exactly how valuable they were as a mid -ocean 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:49.660 naval base. They showed the US military that 00:06:49.660 --> 00:06:52.649 they were an indispensable asset. If we connect 00:06:52.649 --> 00:06:54.850 this to the bigger picture, you see the exact 00:06:54.850 --> 00:06:57.949 logic that President McKinley and highly influential 00:06:57.949 --> 00:07:00.990 naval strategists like Alfred T. Mahan were actively 00:07:00.990 --> 00:07:03.730 pushing at the time. Right. The Spanish -American 00:07:03.730 --> 00:07:06.009 war proved to the expansionists that if the United 00:07:06.009 --> 00:07:08.529 States was going to evolve into a global empire 00:07:08.529 --> 00:07:11.750 with reach across the oceans, it absolutely needed 00:07:11.750 --> 00:07:14.029 permanent Pacific bases. Because of the coal. 00:07:14.410 --> 00:07:17.269 Exactly. Coal -powered naval ships simply could 00:07:17.269 --> 00:07:19.810 not cross the Pacific without stopping to refuel. 00:07:19.990 --> 00:07:22.920 Strategic military value entirely crushed any 00:07:22.920 --> 00:07:25.500 lingering domestic political opposition in Washington. 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:27.959 And McKinley didn't just rely on the positive 00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:30.519 military value, right? He leaned heavily into 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:32.899 international fear mongering. He absolutely did. 00:07:33.240 --> 00:07:35.620 He started arguing that Hawaii was too fragile 00:07:35.620 --> 00:07:38.720 to survive on its own and that Japan might just 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:40.959 gobble up the territory. I mean, at the time, 00:07:41.279 --> 00:07:43.439 the ethnic Japanese population of the islands 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:46.120 was already around 25 percent. Right. It was 00:07:46.120 --> 00:07:48.399 significant. So McKinley painted this picture. 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:51.360 that if Japan took Hawaii, they would completely 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:54.220 dominate the Pacific, permanently ruining any 00:07:54.220 --> 00:07:57.339 American hopes for large scale lucrative trade 00:07:57.339 --> 00:08:01.519 with Asia. He framed it as a dire strategic necessity. 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:04.639 It was essentially an argument of eat or be eaten 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:07.699 on the global stage. But, you know, while mainland 00:08:07.699 --> 00:08:10.139 politicians are standing in Washington looking 00:08:10.139 --> 00:08:12.680 at giant maps, talking about global strategic 00:08:12.680 --> 00:08:15.060 value and patting themselves on the back for 00:08:15.060 --> 00:08:18.029 finding clever legal loopholes. The reality on 00:08:18.029 --> 00:08:20.689 the ground in Hawaii was starkly different. It 00:08:20.689 --> 00:08:22.389 was a completely different world. And the way 00:08:22.389 --> 00:08:24.829 this is often historically glossed over makes 00:08:24.829 --> 00:08:27.110 it sound like a mutual agreement. But that couldn't 00:08:27.110 --> 00:08:29.620 be further from the truth. No, not at all. The 00:08:29.620 --> 00:08:32.120 annexation occurred without any kind of democratic 00:08:32.120 --> 00:08:34.879 referendum. The Native people living in the islands 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:37.039 were never asked to vote on becoming part of 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:40.019 the United States. Which is wild. They were entirely 00:08:40.019 --> 00:08:42.279 excluded from the decision -making process regarding 00:08:42.279 --> 00:08:44.679 their own homeland. They were incredibly vocal, 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:47.340 organized, and sophisticated in their opposition. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:51.299 Between September and October of 1897, Native 00:08:51.299 --> 00:08:55.440 groups, specifically the Hwiloha 'aina and Hwikulaina, 00:08:56.199 --> 00:08:59.399 organized a massive grassroots petition draft. 00:08:59.559 --> 00:09:02.460 Yeah, the scale of this was incredible. We were 00:09:02.460 --> 00:09:04.419 talking about people traveling across the islands, 00:09:04.460 --> 00:09:06.860 going door to door, village to village. They 00:09:06.860 --> 00:09:11.440 gather 21 ,269 signatures on a formal petition 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:14.580 against annexation. Wow. And to put that in perspective, 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:17.059 at the time, the total population of Native Hawaiians 00:09:17.059 --> 00:09:20.429 was only about 39 ,000. So that's... significantly 00:09:20.429 --> 00:09:23.070 more than half, more than half of the entire 00:09:23.070 --> 00:09:25.350 Native population putting their names on a legal 00:09:25.350 --> 00:09:27.750 document explicitly rejecting American rule. 00:09:28.029 --> 00:09:29.909 And it wasn't just the grassroots level either. 00:09:30.009 --> 00:09:32.769 Queen Lelio Kalani, the deposed monarch, she 00:09:32.769 --> 00:09:35.649 also engaged in fierce diplomatic resistance. 00:09:35.750 --> 00:09:38.649 She traveled to Washington and sent a formal, 00:09:38.990 --> 00:09:41.309 highly detailed letter of protest to the United 00:09:41.309 --> 00:09:43.889 States House of Representatives, stating unequivocally 00:09:43.889 --> 00:09:45.889 that her homeland was being taken against the 00:09:45.889 --> 00:09:47.730 will of its people. Just putting it directly 00:09:47.730 --> 00:09:50.120 on the record. Exactly. and reminding them that 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:52.360 her throne had been taken illegally in the first 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:55.940 place. The visual of the actual transfer of sovereignty 00:09:55.940 --> 00:09:59.320 is just devastating to read about. It took place 00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:02.879 on August 12th, 1898, on the steps of Iolani 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:05.919 Palace. The Hawaiian flag was lowered and the 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:08.620 United States flag was raised. And absolutely 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:11.039 none of the former Hawaiian leadership attended 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:14.000 the ceremony. They boycotted it entirely. Entirely. 00:10:14.179 --> 00:10:16.799 There were no gala celebrations that night. The 00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:19.039 historical accounts describe a heavy atmosphere 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:22.159 of sadness, bitterness, and deep resentment. 00:10:23.080 --> 00:10:24.919 The American authorities were actually terrified 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:26.899 that the frustrated Hawaiians were going to riot 00:10:26.899 --> 00:10:28.960 in the streets. They were bracing for violence, 00:10:29.179 --> 00:10:31.440 yeah. I mean, taking over a country without asking 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:33.899 the residents, blatantly ignoring a petition 00:10:33.899 --> 00:10:37.000 signed by over half the native population, embracing 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:39.299 for violent riots instead of throwing celebratory 00:10:39.299 --> 00:10:42.299 parades, that sounds exactly like a hostile corporate 00:10:42.299 --> 00:10:44.600 takeover just played out on a geopolitical scale 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:47.370 with military warships. That analogy captures 00:10:47.370 --> 00:10:50.649 the mechanics perfectly. It is crucial to understand 00:10:50.649 --> 00:10:53.149 that the Hawaiian petition wasn't just passive 00:10:53.149 --> 00:10:55.769 discontent or grumbling. Right. It was a highly 00:10:55.769 --> 00:10:58.330 organized, heavily documented and near majority 00:10:58.330 --> 00:11:01.710 legal resistance. The native Hawaiians played 00:11:01.710 --> 00:11:04.570 entirely by the established rules of international 00:11:04.570 --> 00:11:07.289 diplomacy and petition. And the U .S. just ignored 00:11:07.289 --> 00:11:10.029 it. The United States Congress simply looked 00:11:10.029 --> 00:11:13.070 at those rules, looked at that overwhelming opposition 00:11:13.070 --> 00:11:15.740 and chose to override it because the strategic 00:11:15.740 --> 00:11:18.179 value of the islands outweighed the localized 00:11:18.179 --> 00:11:20.879 resistance. But the resistance wasn't just localized 00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:24.039 to the islands, right? This aggressive expansion 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:27.100 triggered an absolute ideological civil war back 00:11:27.100 --> 00:11:30.139 on the US mainland. You had imperialists versus 00:11:30.139 --> 00:11:32.360 anti -imperialists fighting for what felt like 00:11:32.360 --> 00:11:34.759 the very soul and future of the American experiment. 00:11:34.970 --> 00:11:37.970 The debate was fierce and incredibly polarizing. 00:11:38.330 --> 00:11:40.629 Former President Grover Cleveland vehemently 00:11:40.629 --> 00:11:43.190 opposed the annexation. When he previously took 00:11:43.190 --> 00:11:45.870 office in 1893, he actually rescinded an earlier 00:11:45.870 --> 00:11:48.629 annexation proposal. He viewed the conquest of 00:11:48.629 --> 00:11:51.149 a lesser state by a greater, more powerful one 00:11:51.149 --> 00:11:54.029 as a deeply immoral action. He even sent a guy 00:11:54.029 --> 00:11:56.470 over there, didn't he? He did. He went so far 00:11:56.470 --> 00:11:59.570 as to send a special representative, former Georgia 00:11:59.570 --> 00:12:03.149 representative, James H. Blount, to Hawaii to 00:12:03.149 --> 00:12:05.889 conduct a thorough investigation of the situation. 00:12:06.309 --> 00:12:09.129 And Blount's role here is a fascinating historical 00:12:09.129 --> 00:12:13.610 paradox because he was known for fiercely opposing 00:12:13.610 --> 00:12:16.769 imperialism, but he was also a leading advocate 00:12:16.769 --> 00:12:19.289 for white supremacy who had effectively ended 00:12:19.289 --> 00:12:21.570 voting rights for southern black Americans in 00:12:21.570 --> 00:12:24.450 the 1890s. Right. It's a very complicated legacy. 00:12:24.590 --> 00:12:27.409 So going into the investigation, many expansionists 00:12:27.409 --> 00:12:30.269 just assumed Blount would naturally support annexation 00:12:30.269 --> 00:12:33.230 because his racist worldview wouldn't allow him 00:12:33.230 --> 00:12:35.929 to believe the Native Hawaiian population could 00:12:35.929 --> 00:12:37.590 govern themselves. That was the expectation, 00:12:37.610 --> 00:12:40.309 yeah. But instead, he shocked Washington. He 00:12:40.309 --> 00:12:43.269 explicitly called out U .S. imperialism, demanded 00:12:43.269 --> 00:12:45.730 that the American military restore Queen Lilio 00:12:45.730 --> 00:12:48.309 Kalani to her throne, and argued the Natives 00:12:48.309 --> 00:12:49.909 should be allowed to continue their own ways 00:12:49.909 --> 00:12:52.690 of life without American interference. Though 00:12:52.690 --> 00:12:55.389 looking at the broader timeline, Blount seemingly 00:12:55.389 --> 00:12:58.269 ignored previous written policy from Cleveland's 00:12:58.269 --> 00:13:00.980 own first term in office. Oh, really? Yeah, back 00:13:00.980 --> 00:13:04.279 in 1887, Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard 00:13:04.279 --> 00:13:07.100 had explicitly authorized the use of Marines 00:13:07.100 --> 00:13:09.679 to protect American commerce and property in 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:13.320 Hawaii in the event of a revolution. Wow. So 00:13:13.320 --> 00:13:15.860 the policy was already highly interventionist 00:13:15.860 --> 00:13:18.610 long before Blount arrived to criticize it. It 00:13:18.610 --> 00:13:21.809 is a totally messy, contradictory political web. 00:13:22.450 --> 00:13:24.669 But looking at the Anti -Imperialist League that 00:13:24.669 --> 00:13:27.029 formed to fight the Newlands Resolution, I mean, 00:13:27.149 --> 00:13:29.230 it featured some of the most famous influential 00:13:29.230 --> 00:13:32.590 names of the entire era. Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, 00:13:33.269 --> 00:13:36.289 William Jennings Bryan, Karl Schur... Huge names. 00:13:36.490 --> 00:13:38.509 These were major intellectuals and titans of 00:13:38.509 --> 00:13:40.549 industry, many of whom came of age during the 00:13:40.549 --> 00:13:43.570 Civil War. They argued that expanding territorially 00:13:43.570 --> 00:13:46.049 and taking over foreign populations violated 00:13:46.049 --> 00:13:48.350 the absolute core of the Declaration of Independence, 00:13:48.750 --> 00:13:51.070 the foundational idea that any legitimate government 00:13:51.070 --> 00:13:53.850 derives its just powers from the consent of the 00:13:53.850 --> 00:13:56.149 governed. Exactly. It seems completely hypocritical 00:13:56.149 --> 00:13:57.929 to champion the Declaration of Independence on 00:13:57.929 --> 00:14:00.590 Monday and annex a country against its will on 00:14:00.590 --> 00:14:02.970 Tuesday. Did the expansionists just plug their 00:14:02.970 --> 00:14:05.269 ears or did they actually invent a justification 00:14:05.269 --> 00:14:07.759 to square that circle? This raises an important 00:14:07.759 --> 00:14:10.019 question about how political narratives are constantly 00:14:10.019 --> 00:14:13.519 constructed and reframed. Because the expansionists, 00:14:13.639 --> 00:14:15.580 people like Theodore Roosevelt, Secretary of 00:14:15.580 --> 00:14:17.779 State John Hay, and massive newspaper publishers 00:14:17.779 --> 00:14:19.899 like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, 00:14:20.620 --> 00:14:22.679 they didn't plug their ears. What did they do? 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:25.519 They entirely shifted the conversation. They 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:28.159 changed the narrative from self -government to 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:31.460 global survival. They argued that a competitive 00:14:31.460 --> 00:14:34.620 modern Navy and Pacific bases were existential 00:14:34.620 --> 00:14:37.480 requirements for the United States. By leaning 00:14:37.480 --> 00:14:40.019 heavily into the fear of the expanding Japanese 00:14:40.019 --> 00:14:43.019 empire and the brutal realities of European colonialism, 00:14:43.620 --> 00:14:46.259 they justified the action not as abandoning American 00:14:46.259 --> 00:14:49.399 ideals, but as securing the very survival of 00:14:49.399 --> 00:14:52.259 the nation in a dangerous, highly industrial. 00:14:52.139 --> 00:14:55.500 world. And having those massive newspaper empires 00:14:55.500 --> 00:14:58.039 at their disposal allowed Hearst and Poulter 00:14:58.039 --> 00:15:00.340 to whip up popular excitement, turning the concept 00:15:00.340 --> 00:15:02.940 of a global American empire into a patriotic 00:15:02.940 --> 00:15:06.259 duty. So the expansionists win the debate. The 00:15:06.259 --> 00:15:08.820 anti -imperialists are defeated, the Newlands 00:15:08.820 --> 00:15:11.919 resolution passes, but the messy aftermath of 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:14.440 actually having to govern this brand new territory 00:15:14.440 --> 00:15:17.559 was just as complicated as the acquisition itself. 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:20.500 Definitely. Congress established a five -member 00:15:20.500 --> 00:15:22.840 commission to figure out exactly what laws were 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:25.500 needed to govern Hawaii. This group included 00:15:25.500 --> 00:15:28.340 Sanford B. Dole, who ultimately became the territorial 00:15:28.340 --> 00:15:31.399 governor, along with Senators Shelby M. Cullum 00:15:31.399 --> 00:15:34.080 and John T. Morgan, Representative Robert R. 00:15:34.179 --> 00:15:37.220 Hitt, and Walter F. Freer. Their mandate was 00:15:37.220 --> 00:15:39.320 to design a government, and their final report 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:41.700 triggered a bitter debate that dragged on for 00:15:41.700 --> 00:15:44.529 well over a year. and the debate got incredibly 00:15:44.529 --> 00:15:47.649 ugly on the floor of Congress. Lawmakers raised 00:15:47.649 --> 00:15:51.269 openly racist objections, expressing deep anxiety 00:15:51.269 --> 00:15:53.570 that establishing an elected territorial government 00:15:53.570 --> 00:15:56.049 in Hawaii would eventually lead to the admission 00:15:56.049 --> 00:15:58.409 of a state with a non -white majority. Yeah, 00:15:58.470 --> 00:16:00.350 they were very vocal about that. They were actively 00:16:00.350 --> 00:16:02.570 trying to engineer a system that would suppress 00:16:02.570 --> 00:16:04.990 the native majority and maintain white mainland 00:16:04.990 --> 00:16:07.750 control. The creation of the territory of Hawaii 00:16:07.750 --> 00:16:11.389 in 1900 was the final formal step in a long history 00:16:11.389 --> 00:16:14.409 of dwindling sovereignty for the islands. But 00:16:14.409 --> 00:16:16.669 if you look closely at the mechanics of the deal 00:16:16.669 --> 00:16:20.029 on a purely financial level, the United States 00:16:20.029 --> 00:16:22.629 structured the acquisition to heavily favor its 00:16:22.629 --> 00:16:25.370 own mainland interests. The economics of this 00:16:25.370 --> 00:16:28.840 are staggering. The United States assumed $4 00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:31.799 million in Hawaiian debt as part of the annexation 00:16:31.799 --> 00:16:34.259 agreement. Right. But if you look at modern economic 00:16:34.259 --> 00:16:37.740 analyses like David R. Barker's 2009 study, the 00:16:37.740 --> 00:16:41.539 annexation was highly, almost aggressively profitable 00:16:41.539 --> 00:16:44.240 for the U .S. Oh, completely. Net tax revenue 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:47.019 extracted from the territory almost always exceeded 00:16:47.019 --> 00:16:48.820 whatever the federal government spent on non 00:16:48.820 --> 00:16:52.039 -defense items there. This yielded an estimated 00:16:52.039 --> 00:16:54.480 internal rate of return of more than 15 percent. 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:57.409 Unheard of. taking on $4 million in debt for 00:16:57.409 --> 00:17:00.009 a guaranteed return of over 15 percent. That 00:17:00.009 --> 00:17:02.250 is like buying a prime piece of Manhattan real 00:17:02.250 --> 00:17:04.789 estate for absolute pennies. It was an incredible 00:17:04.789 --> 00:17:08.069 bargain for Washington. It was undeniably lucrative. 00:17:08.369 --> 00:17:11.190 The annexation formalized duty free trade between 00:17:11.190 --> 00:17:13.849 the islands and the mainland, which was a massive 00:17:13.849 --> 00:17:17.150 boon for agricultural corporations. See, I have 00:17:17.150 --> 00:17:19.170 to push back on the necessity of that, though, 00:17:19.490 --> 00:17:22.589 because historically those major trade perks 00:17:22.589 --> 00:17:26.460 were largely already in place. long before the 00:17:26.460 --> 00:17:28.599 Newlands Resolution. That's true, yeah. King 00:17:28.599 --> 00:17:31.880 David Kalakaua had negotiated a reciprocity trade 00:17:31.880 --> 00:17:34.559 agreement with the United States way back in 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:38.829 1875. That specific agreement already gave Hawaiian 00:17:38.829 --> 00:17:41.910 sugar planters duty -free trade, and crucially, 00:17:42.289 --> 00:17:44.930 it already gave the U .S. Navy a long -term lease 00:17:44.930 --> 00:17:47.630 of Pearl Harbor to use as a naval base. Right. 00:17:47.670 --> 00:17:49.569 They already had their foot in the door. Exactly. 00:17:49.950 --> 00:17:51.630 If the United States already had the duty -free 00:17:51.630 --> 00:17:53.369 trade and they already had the keys to Pearl 00:17:53.369 --> 00:17:55.809 Harbor, did they even need the annexation for 00:17:55.809 --> 00:17:58.769 economic or military reasons? Why buy the cow 00:17:58.769 --> 00:18:01.180 when the milk is already free? That is the great 00:18:01.180 --> 00:18:03.839 paradox of the Newlands resolution. Because the 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:05.900 United States already enjoyed those massive perks, 00:18:06.140 --> 00:18:08.240 the resolution wasn't really about gaining new 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:10.460 access. What was it about then? It was about 00:18:10.460 --> 00:18:13.839 asserting absolute, undeniable sovereign control 00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:18.299 to lock out competing global powers. Wow. A treaty 00:18:18.299 --> 00:18:21.660 or a reciprocity agreement can be broken, renegotiated, 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:24.539 or canceled by an independent Hawaiian government 00:18:24.539 --> 00:18:27.500 at any time, perhaps under intense diplomatic 00:18:27.500 --> 00:18:30.220 pressure from Japan or European towers. Right. 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:33.380 It's temporary. Exactly. Annexation, however, 00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:36.299 fundamentally changed the game. It made the island's 00:18:36.299 --> 00:18:38.779 American soil. It made those strategic advantages 00:18:38.779 --> 00:18:42.079 permanent and entirely exclusive. And legally. 00:18:42.329 --> 00:18:45.690 That permanence has been fiercely, consistently 00:18:45.690 --> 00:18:47.769 defended by the United States government ever 00:18:47.769 --> 00:18:49.970 since, even though the entire foundation started 00:18:49.970 --> 00:18:52.670 with a procedural loophole. Yes, very consistent. 00:18:52.789 --> 00:18:54.569 I mean, the U .S. Supreme Court gave tacit recognition 00:18:54.569 --> 00:18:57.609 to the legitimacy of the annexation in a 1901 00:18:57.609 --> 00:19:00.509 case called DeLima v. Bidwell. Right. And jumping 00:19:00.509 --> 00:19:03.549 much closer to the present, in 2007, the Ninth 00:19:03.549 --> 00:19:06.049 Circuit Court of Appeals recognized the legality 00:19:06.049 --> 00:19:08.289 of the Newland's resolution in a case called 00:19:08.289 --> 00:19:11.190 Arakaki v. Lingle. specifically noting that the 00:19:11.190 --> 00:19:13.230 resolution provided for the Republic of Hawaii 00:19:13.230 --> 00:19:15.970 to cede all public lands to the United States. 00:19:16.309 --> 00:19:18.509 Yet, as we've discussed, the Hawaiian sovereignty 00:19:18.509 --> 00:19:21.089 movement continues to vigorously dispute the 00:19:21.089 --> 00:19:23.470 legality of the acquisition under the United 00:19:23.470 --> 00:19:26.369 States Constitution precisely because of how 00:19:26.369 --> 00:19:28.109 it was achieved. Because it wasn't a treaty. 00:19:28.470 --> 00:19:30.549 Exactly. They point back to that joint resolution 00:19:30.549 --> 00:19:33.250 and say it was never a valid treaty. The legal 00:19:33.250 --> 00:19:36.250 legacy is just as deeply contested today as the 00:19:36.250 --> 00:19:39.579 political history was in 1898. The journey of 00:19:39.579 --> 00:19:42.079 the Newland's resolution is truly astonishing. 00:19:42.700 --> 00:19:45.039 It started as a failed treaty that simply couldn't 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:47.519 get the required votes. It was resurrected from 00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:50.099 the dead as a legislative loophole requiring 00:19:50.099 --> 00:19:52.680 a drastically lower bar to clear. And then pushed 00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:55.380 through by war. Right. propelled over the finish 00:19:55.380 --> 00:19:58.480 line by the strategic panic and military opportunism 00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:01.240 of the Spanish -American war. It was protested 00:20:01.240 --> 00:20:03.440 by over half of the native population through 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:05.819 an incredible feat of grassroots organizing, 00:20:06.200 --> 00:20:08.299 debated by the literary and political titans 00:20:08.299 --> 00:20:11.119 of the age, and ultimately resulted in a highly 00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:14.240 profitable but legally contested territory. It 00:20:14.240 --> 00:20:17.460 really is a massive story. And for you, listening, 00:20:17.819 --> 00:20:20.900 this is exactly why this specific slice of history 00:20:20.900 --> 00:20:24.079 matters today. The Newlands Resolution proves 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:27.259 how obscure procedural loopholes in government 00:20:27.259 --> 00:20:31.400 can literally redraw the map of the world. Absolutely. 00:20:31.700 --> 00:20:33.900 It shows us that the mechanics of the law are 00:20:33.900 --> 00:20:37.019 not always pristine and they are rarely perfectly 00:20:37.019 --> 00:20:39.720 aligned with foundational ideals like the consent 00:20:39.720 --> 00:20:43.559 of the governed. Decisions made in 1898 votes 00:20:43.559 --> 00:20:45.799 tallied on joint resolutions to deliberately 00:20:45.799 --> 00:20:49.039 avoid the strict rules of a constitutional treaty 00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:52.960 still echo loudly in modern legal battles over 00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:55.519 land, identity, and sovereignty. The repercussions 00:20:55.519 --> 00:20:58.059 are still very real. They really are. But leaves 00:20:58.059 --> 00:21:00.099 you wondering about the absolute fragility of 00:21:00.099 --> 00:21:02.180 history. Think back to our game analogy from 00:21:02.180 --> 00:21:03.940 the beginning, where the rules get changed at 00:21:03.940 --> 00:21:05.640 the last minute because someone didn't like the 00:21:05.640 --> 00:21:08.420 score. If the Spanish -American War hadn't broken 00:21:08.420 --> 00:21:11.039 out at the exact moment McKinley's annexation 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:13.759 treaty was failing in the Senate, would the Newland's 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:15.920 resolution have ever passed? That's a great question. 00:21:16.259 --> 00:21:18.140 Without Admiral Dewey's victory in the Philippines 00:21:18.140 --> 00:21:20.599 and the sudden desperate military need for a 00:21:20.599 --> 00:21:23.380 mid -ocean stopover, would Congress have ever 00:21:23.380 --> 00:21:25.559 been able to justify using that loophole to the 00:21:25.559 --> 00:21:28.490 American public? Or would Hawaii have remained 00:21:28.490 --> 00:21:31.829 an independent nation? Or perhaps, as McKinley 00:21:31.829 --> 00:21:34.549 feared, fall into another global power utilizing 00:21:34.549 --> 00:21:36.289 a completely different loophole of their own?