Hawaii's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings and America's First Imperial Adventure
Atlantic Monthly Press
January 2012
On Sale: January 3, 2012
480 pages ISBN: 0802120016 EAN: 9780802120014 Kindle: B006BAEP6I Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
Around 200 A.D., intrepid Polynesians arrived at an undisturbed archipelago. For centuries, their descendants lived with little contact from the western world. In 1778, their isolation was shattered with the arrival of Captain Cook.
Deftly weaving together a memorable cast of characters, Lost Hawaii brings to life the ensuing clash between a vulnerable Polynesian people and relentlessly expanding capitalist powers. Portraits of royalty and rogues, sugar barons, and missionaries combine into a sweeping tale of the Hawaiian Kingdomβs rise and fall.
At the center of the story is Liliβuokalani, the last queen of Hawaiβi. Born in 1838, she lived through the nearly complete economic transformation of the islands. Lucrative sugar plantations gradually subsumed the majority of the land, owned almost exclusively by white planters, dubbed the βSugar Kings.β Hawaiβi became a prize in the contest between America, Britain, and France, each seeking to expand their military and commercial influence in the Pacific.
The monarchy had become a figurehead, victim to manipulation from the wealthy sugar plantation owners. Liliβuokalani was determined to enact a constitution to reinstate the monarchyβs power but was outmaneuvered by the U.S. The annexation of Hawaiβi had begun, ushering in a new century of American imperialism.
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