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The Story of Sugar

U.S. corporations begin planning for the annexation of Hawai'i.

Date: 1890

The Story of Sugar
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After Congress passes a tariff that shrinks market advantages for Hawai'ian sugar producers, corporations plot to have the U.S. annex Hawai’i to secure an economic advantage for the sugar industry. This decision sparks resistance from Indigenous Hawaiian nationalists. In particular, Indigenous Hawai'ians fight against the slow encroachment of sugar plantation interests, so as to keep their land and cultural practices.

The occupation of Hawai'i by corporate and settler interests continues to this day, including the constant cultural extraction by the tourism industry as Native Hawai'ian culture is packaged and sold to a constantly growing non-Hawai'ian consumer base.