On 4/30/2022 1:31 PM, William Herrin wrote:
Strictly speaking, the U.S. government didn't overthrow Hawaii. U.S.
expats acting on their own (with some funny business that looked like
bribery of U.S. military in the area) overthrew Kamehameha's
descendant.
That would be the Committee of Safety formed of very, very rich people
expressly to overthrow the Hawaiian Kingdom:
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_of_Safety_(Hawaii)"
(Their families are still extraordinarily rich to this day)
The U.S. President at the time denounced it (especially
the part about suborning the military) but half a decade later the
U.S. government agreed to admit the already-conquered territory rather
than leave it to be picked off by someone else.
The president at the time of the overthrow attempt saw the lies the
Committee of Safety was saying about the lives of Americans being in
danger and said no to the overthrow. Extraordinarily rich mainland
Americans (steel/rail guys, I think) bought the next president and he
was the one that authorized the overthrow. There's a lot more to the
story, including US government military marching up Richards St in
downtown Honolulu to `Iolani palace and arresting queen Lili`uokalani
under gun point.
Countries whose law derives from English Common law have a concept of
adverse possession. Details vary but mainly if you can hold the land
for 20 years against the owner's wishes then it's your land.
Conceptually it applies to nations just as surely as individuals.
Hawaiians did not have this concept. It was forced on them militarily.
scott
(use your filtering tool to ignore this... :))
This
is wise - it allows folks now alive to avoid an endless descent into
the murderous history of land changing hands.
Regards,
Bill Herrin
