Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Hawaii's Last Queen


After watching the film, "Hawaii's Last Queen," you should have a better understanding of imperialism and the motives that cause strong nations to overpower weaker nations. You saw Queen Liliuokalini's unsuccessful struggle to keep her Hawaiian people independent of foreign rule. You witnessed her faith in the American government as she gave up her throne with optimistic thoughts that her power would be restored in the near future. As we know, this was not the case. Hawaii was annexed as an American territory in 1898 and eventually became the 50th state in 1959.

In your reflection of the film, give a response with a summary (paragraph length) describing how Americans gained political and economic power in Hawaii. Be sure to include specific details about the missionaries, Queen Liliuokalini's childhood, foreign influences on Hawaiian culture, the significance of the sugar plantations, the increased demand for Chinese laborers, etc.

In addition, write a short paragraph on the way the story was portrayed through the Queen's perspective. You often heard excerpts from her diary that described her thoughts and feelings. Was this an effective way to tell the story? Do you think the program tried to persuade viewers to sympathize with the Hawaiian queen and people? Be specific in your argument.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Adrienne Storm

1) Americans gained economical and political control throughout Hawaii from many factors. One factor included the missionaries and their effect over most of Hawaii, spreading the White Man's Burden throughout Hawaii. Also, the sugar plantations poisoned Hawaii with American power because we basically controlled the main crop in Hawaii and that helped us gain a little more power than we should have had.

2) Hearing the Queen's side of the story was surely effective. Maybe the program tried to gain your sympathy for the Hawaiian people and culture, but what the American's did wasn't look proudly upon. We basically were power hungry, and we tried to dominate a nation. I think, I'd rather hear the story from a source that was effected by it, rather than the Americans who would have argued that they did it so the Hawaiians could have a better life. But, what benefits did we give them excatly? We came into their country and disrespected them by cutting up their flag, and we gave it to the missionaries, who were supposed to be devout Christians, but in the end, they ended up looking like terrible people.

Anonymous said...

Rick M. One reason the Americans gained control of Hawaii is how they had more money. The sugar plantations (another reason) helped the Americans and missionaries take over Hawaii little by little. They started with the goverment part. By making Lili watchamacallit less powerful. As her power started to decline Hawaii was becoming more vulnerable to the Americans. When they signed the treaty for a port in Pearl Harbor the natives were left with only 1% of Hawaii. The only real advantages were that the americans brought western cultures that helped the Hawaiians after they were taken over.

To tell you the truth I dont think it was the right way to tell the story because... Well Hawaii is now a state and the point of view should have been from an American. This is because having it from the Queens made you kinda of feel bad but I mean if your gonna tell a story about how the U.S took control of Hawaii you need to atleast see what was goin through the Americans head.

Anonymous said...

TAYLOR RUT.

the americans gained political power by taking hawaii this gave us more power because there is more people voting on decisions. on economic power there is more land for us to go to in times of need, there is another port where we can get useful supplies. queen liliuokalini's childhood was growing up in hawaii culture but being involved in the american way. she was surrounded by both hawaii and american cultures. the significance of the sugar plantations were useful due to more money. the demand on chinese laborers were increased because we needed workers to be working in the plantations.

by having the Queen's perspective included in the film i thought was an effective way to tell the story because it gave you actually views from her of how she felt. i thought it was interesting to see how she felt on seeing her land go into the hands of others. i think the film was trying to go both ways, like wasnt trying to persuade the viewers too much because it gave you points from americans and Queen. it made it seem equal.

Anonymous said...

Ashley Sommermann
Americans gained political and economic powers by the missionaries going to Hawaii to try to get the queen out of office. Also they signed a treaty to allow ships to use Pearl Harbor. They also gained access to the sugar plantations. They also aquirered alot of different trade goods.
I think it was a very good idea to tell the movie in the Queens way of life. I thought it gave you a better understaning of imperialism, also it helped you understand Hawaii in that time. But I thought the big thing about saying it in her perspective was that if you didnt know that she was taken from the thron you would never beable to understand why Hawaii's flag was cut up into pieces, and how the United Stated took control.

Anonymous said...

Jesse O'Neill

i think it was an effective way to tell the story about how hawaii became a state of the united states. i also think the programs tried to tell us just how the island was being controled and what was it was being used for. I also think it shows us how hawaii was taken from the people who lived there and how the queen was dethrowned for what she and her military did

Anonymous said...

Kayla Thornton

Americans gained both political and economical power in Hawaii. A couple of reasons were that Hawiians were getting sick and diseases and losing their land. Americans gained power of Pearl Harbor. Americans also wanted power of the sugar plantations because it was worth a lot of money and was a big deal. Missionaries were also portrayed. They created a school that schooled mostly children that came from royal families. They banned Hawiian traditions such as nudity and hula dancing because they wanted to "westernize" them. By the time the Queen was born, about 1/3 of the population was Christian. Queen Liliuokalani was a good woman. She spent a lot of her time praying. She attended a Royal School and became very good in English which she was schooled in American ways. She later married an American man but wasn't happy with that marriage at all. Queen Liliuokalani just wanted what was best for Hawaii and wanted to preserve Hawaiian culture. She was arrested becasue she was accused of being a trader. Sugar Plantations were a good thing because sugar was like another king in Hawaii. It produced a lot of money for the people because it cost a lot. Many immigrants came over because so many people wanted it.

I think that it was a good in some ways that they viewed the video from her. She loved Hawaii and wanted for perserve Hawaiian culture. She was the embodyment. Even though the US forced her off her throne, she talked very high of the US and thought positive about it. She experianced a lot. One thing I didn't like was that they cut up the flag. I thought it was completely wrong and very disrespectful. I do think that the program tried to persuade viewers to sympathize with the Hawaiian queen and people because you wouldnt ever think that something like that happened to Hawaii. Now that I saw the video, I think different of Hawaii then I did before because I saw what they went through and exerianced.

Anonymous said...

Austin W,

The Americans gained economic power by using the sugar plantations, they gained political power by forcing the Queen to step down from the throne.The missionaries were Americans who wanted to spread roman Catholism and try to take over the island.The sugar plantations were the main way of the money that the people got and we could use it as a good for ourselves and sell it for a prophet to other countries. In order to do this we needed chinese labors because our diseases were killing all of the people.
To play the movie through the quenes eyes was a interesting way to do it because you got to see what she had to put up with in the correctional schools and when her brother dies and also when she gave up her position as queen.

Anonymous said...

kelsey taggart ;

Americans gained political and economic power in Hawaii by taking over most of its land for sugar plantations. The sugar plantations help the Americans get more money. They also gained power over pearl harbor.The missionaries were people who created a school for loyalty , they also banned the Hawaiian dance "hula". Last but not least some of the foreign influences of Hawaiian culture were the diseases and alcohol also the chinese immigrants.
In the movie there were many excerpts from the queens diary. I do feel that this was an effective way to tell the Hawaiian story because she didn't love just the Hawaiian side of her. The queen spoke very highly of America. Therefore she wasn't one sided. Though she loved her country so much she went to jail because of it. Also Queen LiLi is Hawaii...

Anonymous said...

John Patterson

the movie was portrayed by the queens perspective because she was the queen of hawaii and so she experienced the hard time that hawaii went through during the anexation. and her excerpts that she read from her diary expressed her true sorrow as to what was going and for what every hawaiian was experiencing. and it gave you a clear picture so that when she read it you could actually picture what was going on. and the movie did sympthasize with the hawaian because the way the movie was showed with the music and the people that told the story.

the missionaries came over and had treaties for the queen to sign so they could get hawaii. and queen l was educated on American society. and the chinese laborers where brought because there were not enough hawaiians to work on the sugar plantations because the diseases that the chinese immigrantes carried spread throughout hawaii killing alot of people

Anonymous said...

~~Zeke Henry~~
1. Americans gained economical and political control throughout hawaii. One reason was when our govt. went to hawaii and gave the queen no choice but to surender. By doing this it allows more people to vote. This also allowed us access to sugar plantations.

I personaly believe that the story was told in the right perspective from the Queens point of view because i believe i wouldnt of learned as much if i didnt hear it the way it actually happened.

Anonymous said...

Jesse O'Neill

Americans gained political and economic power by making sugar plantations and with making the queen surrender it gave us more land and more people were able to vote for the goverment