How did Hawaii cease to be a British possession and become American?

[sandyRoe]

?

[ladyalex]

I don't think it was ever a British Possession.

[emmie]

as far as i am aware it was never in Britains possession.

[sandyRoe]

They still have a Union Jack in the corner of their State flag.

[ladyalex]

http://en.wikipedia.o...ory_of_Hawaii#British


Looks as though it was all happening in 1843....

[emmie]

if you read through the wiki piece, it was all over in a matter of months before it was restored to the Hawaii government, though i didn't read right to the very end.

[Old_Geezer]

I find the article less easy to follow than it might be. Looks like it came under US control in March 1897.

[sandyRoe]

I was wrong then. That doesn't happen often.

[jno]

it was apparently a British protectorate from 1794 (as the Sandwich Islands) to 1843, which is where the flag came in.

[ABerrant]

...an 'unofficial' protectorate.

King Kamehameha I (Brit 'assisted' unifier of Hawaiian islands) and Captain Vancouver RN held a cession ceremony in 1794. However, for whatever reasons, the British Government neglected to ratify the treaty.

Kamehameha I and II certainly acted (and may have believed to an extent) that Hawaii was a British Protectorate but it all fell apart during the reign of Kamehameha III which led to the shortlived provisional cession by Paulet and the formal recognition of Hawaiian independence by Britain and France in 1843.

[jno]

this was doubtless due to the erroneous 18th-century belief that anything signed in kava automatically had legal force.

[ABerrant]

It appears that back in 1986 the Admiralty were still awaiting delivery of the letter detailing the 1794 agreement between Kamehameha and Vancouver (something to do with the tardiness of a Spanish postman)...

http://tinyurl.com/6lbfe9b

[sidkid]

I was lucky enough to visit the Islands a few years ago and recall that there was some Russian 'involvement' in the distant past.....

[ABerrant]

Doctor Schäffer and his 'Hawaiian spectacular'

http://en.wikipedia.o...g_Anton_Sch%C3%A4ffer