Nation Sovereignity Only Matters When it's a Colonial One

Conversation around Trump's declaration of wanting Canada to be the 51st state has tickled the latent nationalistic bells from folks on either side of the border. It's reassuring to see that people disagree with the idea of a nation attempting to seize another land as its own, with no clear plan or understanding for the people already living there. As par the course, when these conversations arise, the nature of discontent is only afforded if the dominant genre of people are of European descent.

You see, when Hawai'i was forcibly annexed and its power was usurped by American imperalism from its queen, the people of Hawai'i did what the West would consider "civilized": created a petition in the tongue of the colonizer and despite that, the State department of the United States went around the conventional process for land theft. The executive branch and others (like the canonical corporate interest in Hawai'i, Dole) endorsed this behavior for the better of the American nation:

When King Kalākaua died in 1891, his sister Lili'uokalani succeeded him. Though she introduced a new constitution that would restore her power and Hawaiian rights, she would be Hawaii's last monarch. Her move was countered by the "Committee of Safety," a group of non-native U.S. businessmen and politicians with sugar interests. Led by Sanford Dole, they had monetary reasons for doing so – they feared that the United States would establish a tariff on sugar imports, endangering their profits, and wanted to protect Hawaii's free-trade status. The United States was the major importer of Hawaiian agricultural products.

Supported by John Stevens, the U.S. Minister to Hawaii, and a contingent of Marines from the warship, U.S.S. Boston, the Committee overthrew Queen Lili'uokalani in a bloodless coup on January 17, 1893. The Committee of Safety proclaimed itself to be the Provisional Government.

Without permission from the U.S. State Department, Minister Stevens recognized the new government and proclaimed Hawaii a U.S. protectorate. President Benjamin Harrison signed a treaty of annexation with the new government. Before the Senate could ratify it, however, Grover Cleveland replaced Harrison as president and subsequently withdrew the treaty.

Dole sent a delegation to Washington in 1894 seeking annexation. Instead, President Cleveland appointed special investigator James Blount to look into the events in the Hawaiian Islands. The Blount Commission found that Lili’uokalani had been overthrown illegally, and ordered that the American flag be lowered from Hawaiian government buildings.

Despite the reaction from the Commission, to this day, Hawai'i has been made part of the imperial banner by force. This is to say that this arousal around Canada feels more of a parade to distract from the more pressing and viable harms that Trump is causing to people, domestically and abroad. This behavior of land theft is a natural one for a country built and designed to do just that.

In the case of Puerto Rico, it was no more than a trade of colonial power (to the imperialists), and with the Foraker Act of 1900 drafted by the same man who focused on controlling the Philippines (by putting down the people fighting against American imperalism) and the basis of anti-Caribbean sentiment with his contribution to the Platt Amendment, we see that American governance has a outsized wing in the act of land seizure. These are the basis of liberation of these regions and their deserved reparations. If Canada wanted to be more serious, it could highlight this hypocrisy in behavior. The country is viewed as a "softer" Francophone version of the United States by those south of its borders, for no good reason.