HAWAII CRUISES
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HAWAII ISLANDS
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HAWAII HISTORY
First Inhabitants
Sugar Industry
Independence
World War II
Statehood |
Sugar Industry of Hawaii
Despite the decline of
the Asian fur trade and the depletion of Hawaii’s once extensive
sandalwood resources by about 1830, Hawaii continued to serve as an
international port of call. The whaling industry in the northern Pacific
Ocean expanded rapidly, and Hawaiian ports formed a base of operations
for whaling vessels, most of them American. A wide variety of commercial
crops were grown in the islands, mainly to supply whaling vessels and
other ships and also for shipment to California.
In the 1860s, as the whaling industry declined, Hawaii turned
increasingly to a new business for its major source of income: the
production of sugar. It was an industry that would transform the social,
economic, and political structure of the islands.
Although the rapidly growing United States was a large potential market
for Hawaiian sugar, the United States maintained a high tariff on
imported sugar. In 1875, after several unsuccessful attempts, the
Hawaiian government negotiated a trade treaty with the United States.
The treaty, which became effective in September 1876, provided for the
duty-free entry of Hawaiian raw sugar and other specified products into
the United States. This gave enormous impetus to the Hawaiian sugar
industry, which consequently began to attract many American investors.
Sugar production, which was concentrated on the sugar plantations of
Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii, increased many times over. By 1890 the
islands supplied about 10 percent of all the raw sugar refined annually
in the United States.
In 1887 the treaty was renewed, with a provision giving the United
States exclusive rights to the use of Pearl Harbor on Oahu. However, in
1890 the Congress of the United States passed the McKinley Tariff Act,
which removed the duty on all raw sugar coming into the United States.
This deprived Hawaiian sugar producers of their privileged status, and
as a result, Hawaiian production fell off drastically. In 1894, however,
passage of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act restored the pre-1890 policy,
and production expanded.
Because much of the work on the sugar plantations was done by hand, the
expansion of the sugar industry required a considerable increase in the
labor force. The native Hawaiian population had continued to decline
throughout the 19th century, largely due to disease, and by 1872 had
fallen to about 50,000. In addition, many native Hawaiians were
unwilling to work as laborers for white planters. At the time, there
were only about 5,000 non-Hawaiians living in the islands.
After the trade treaty was signed in 1876, the Hawaiian government
sought to alleviate the labor shortage by the large-scale recruiting of
foreign workers. Initially, recruitment efforts centered on Chinese
laborers; about 20,000 to 25,000, including about 8,000 Chinese from
California, were brought to Hawaii on contract. However, once their
enlistment was over, the Chinese frequently showed more inclination to
establish businesses of their own than to continue working on the
plantations. Recruiting then concentrated on the Japanese; about 180,000
Japanese were brought to the islands between 1886, when Japan agreed by
treaty to allow laborers to migrate to Hawaii, and 1908, when a United
States-Japanese agreement brought the migration to an end. When their
contracts expired, most of the Japanese either returned home or migrated
to the U.S. mainland, but about one-third chose to stay in the islands.
The growth of the sugar industry concentrated economic and political
power in the hands of a few families, mostly white settlers,
missionaries, and their descendants. Many of these whites favored a
closer relationship between Hawaii and the United States, in part to
guarantee access to the sugar market.
History of Hawaii There are several topics we
could cover when talking about Hawaii History.
We have chose a few of the most popular topics.
We hope you find this information useful and hope you choose us for
your one of your next cruises to Hawaii. Remember that we
specialize in Hawaii Cruises. |
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