Liberalism: Power, Economic Crisis, Reform, War 61sugar industry, so they became prosperous sugar planters. By the late 1800s,
the Hawaiians were tired of the Americans dominating their island—U.S. and
European landholders owned over two-thirds of the territory there and the
value of the sugar produced exceeded $8 million—so their leader, Queen
Liliuokalani, wanted to re-establish independence and nationalist policies. The
Americans in turn overthrew her government in January 1893 and put
Sanford Dole, of the Dole Fruit Company, in charge of the government. After
about five years of debate, the United States formally annexed Hawai’i in
1898, for the sugar of course but also because the island could serve as a coal-
ing station for commerce [ships were powered by coal and had to make stops
to refuel when making the long trip to Asia]. It could also serve as a military
base, especially at Pearl Harbor, where the U.S. Navy could protect merchant
ships as Americans expanded to Japan, China and elsewhere in the Pacific.
In Cuba, one of the few remaining Spanish colonies, the Americans had
similar goals. Wealthy men in the U.S. had been interested in Cuba for some
time—first slaveholders who wanted to obtain Cuba for agricultural reasons
and to have a territory where slavery was legal, and who even created private
armies, called Filibusters, to try to conquer the island. When Cuban rebels
began fighting against the autocratic Spanish rule in the late 1800s and as the
FIGuRE 2-1 Queen Liliuokalani