Changes

::Hawaii was a sovereign nation having friendly relations with the U.S., and then a handful of businessmen (Castle, Cook, etc.) manipulated events and leveraged a staged intervention by the U.S. military to overthrow the monarchy.  The outcome was that a former independent nation became a U.S. territory, and the vast majority of the private property in the islands became the holdings of a handful of businessmen and their families.  When I was there in the 1980's and 1990's most people buying homes there still couldn't purchase the land under their houses because of the fee-simple ownership that the businessmens' estates still controlled.  In short, an independent nation was swindled from the natives for the material benefit of shrewd American businessmen, and while native Hawaiians are not looking to secede from the U.S.A., the history of how an independent nation was brought into the U.S. by force (instead of by vote as independent Texans did) should not be glossed over.  --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 13:35, 21 October 2008 (EDT)

::Hawaii was a sovereign nation having friendly relations with the U.S., and then a handful of businessmen (Castle, Cook, etc.) manipulated events and leveraged a staged intervention by the U.S. military to overthrow the monarchy.  The outcome was that a former independent nation became a U.S. territory, and the vast majority of the private property in the islands became the holdings of a handful of businessmen and their families.  When I was there in the 1980's and 1990's most people buying homes there still couldn't purchase the land under their houses because of the fee-simple ownership that the businessmens' estates still controlled.  In short, an independent nation was swindled from the natives for the material benefit of shrewd American businessmen, and while native Hawaiians are not looking to secede from the U.S.A., the history of how an independent nation was brought into the U.S. by force (instead of by vote as independent Texans did) should not be glossed over.  --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 13:35, 21 October 2008 (EDT)