U.S.-Hawaiʻi Trade Reciprocity in the Hawaiʻi Sugar Industry: A Vessel for Increased American Political Power in the Islands

As evidenced by the Hawaiʻi sugar industry, industrial agriculture serves as a potent vessel for the concentration of political and economic power. The 1876 U.S.-Hawaiʻi reciprocity treaty represents a critical period in the sovereign Hawaiian Kingdom’s political and economic development, spanning decades of negotiation, execution, and repercussions. In this thesis, I pose the question: what was the role of the 1876 trade reciprocity treaty between the U.S. and Hawaiʻi in the increasing American political power in Hawaiʻi’s local government in the late 1800s? More specifically, how did the political and economic dynamics of the trade agreement foster the conditions for the 1887 Bayonet Constitution forced upon King Kalākaua? Focusing on the time period between the 1860s-1890s, I analyze the strategic interactions and political outcomes between the Hawaiian government, the largely-American sugar industrialist class residing in Hawaiʻi, and American federal officials involved in the policy. I aim to explore how the Hawaiian monarchy was so divested of political power despite the local government’s diplomatic and economic achievements and reputation.
Employing a process tracing methodology and scrutiny of archival sources, I elucidate a causal path for American political control of the Hawaiian Kingdom predicated on the substantial power of the sugar industry. Contrasting Hawaiʻi’s constitutions before and after the 1887 coup against the King, I analyze the means, motives, and opportunities behind this political revolt and hypothesize that the entrenched political and economic power of American sugar industrialists emboldened this insurgency. Specifically, the 1876 reciprocity treaty weakened Hawaiian national political autonomy relative to the U.S. government, enabling the explicit (Bayonet Constitution) and implicit transfer of political power from the Hawaiian monarchy to American elites residing in Hawaiʻi and the American government at large. The U.S. government supported the preferential trade agreement despite its limited economic returns on investment, incentivized by imperialist interests and a pathway to the annexation of Hawaiʻi.