{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.jacky.wtf//essays/2025/sovereignity-nations",
  "path": "/essays/2025/sovereignity-nations",
  "publishedAt": "2025-03-11T15:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:e2ctbutx6kya6si4if5ngjmm/site.standard.publication/3mniussyp2d2g",
  "tags": "essay",
  "textContent": "Conversation around Trump's declaration of wanting [Canada to be the 51st\nstate][1] has tickled the latent nationalistic bells from folks on either side\nof the border. It's reassuring to see that people _disagree_ with the idea of a\nnation attempting to seize another land as its own, with no clear plan or\nunderstanding for the people already living there. As par the course, when\nthese conversations arise, the nature of discontent is only afforded if the\ndominant genre of people are of European descent.\n\nYou see, when Hawai'i was forcibly annexed and its power was usurped by\nAmerican imperalism from its queen, the people of Hawai'i did what the West\nwould consider \"civilized\": created [a petition in the tongue of the\ncolonizer][2] and despite that, the _State department_ of the United States\nwent around the conventional process for land theft. The executive branch and\nothers (like the canonical corporate interest in Hawai'i, Dole) endorsed this\nbehavior for the better of the American nation:\n\n> When King Kalākaua died in 1891, his sister Lili'uokalani succeeded him.\n> Though she introduced a new constitution that would restore her power and\n> Hawaiian rights, she would be Hawaii's last monarch. Her move was countered\n> by the \"Committee of Safety,\" a group of non-native U.S. businessmen and\n> politicians with sugar interests. Led by Sanford Dole, they had monetary\n> reasons for doing so – they feared that the United States would establish a\n> tariff on sugar imports, endangering their profits, and wanted to protect\n> Hawaii's free-trade status. The United States was the major importer of\n> Hawaiian agricultural products.\n>\n> Supported by John Stevens, the U.S. Minister to Hawaii, and a contingent of\n> Marines from the warship, U.S.S. Boston, the Committee overthrew Queen\n> Lili'uokalani in a bloodless coup on January 17, 1893. The Committee of\n> Safety proclaimed itself to be the Provisional Government.\n>\n> Without permission from the U.S. State Department, Minister Stevens\n> recognized the new government and proclaimed Hawaii a U.S. protectorate.\n> President Benjamin Harrison signed a treaty of annexation with the new\n> government. Before the Senate could ratify it, however, Grover Cleveland\n> replaced Harrison as president and subsequently withdrew the treaty.\n>\n> Dole sent a delegation to Washington in 1894 seeking annexation. Instead,\n> President Cleveland appointed special investigator James Blount to look into\n> the events in the Hawaiian Islands. The Blount Commission found that\n> Lili’uokalani had been overthrown illegally, and ordered that the American\n> flag be lowered from Hawaiian government buildings.\n\nDespite the reaction from the Commission, to this day, Hawai'i has been made\n[part of the imperial banner by force][3]. This is to say that this arousal\naround Canada feels more of a parade to distract from the more _pressing_ and\n_viable_ harms that Trump is causing to people, domestically and abroad. This\nbehavior of land theft is a _natural_ one for a country built and designed to\ndo just that.\n\nIn the case of Puerto Rico, it was no more than a trade of colonial power (to\nthe imperialists), and with the [Foraker Act of 1900][5] drafted by the same\nman who focused on controlling the [Philippines][5] (by putting down the people\n_fighting_ against American imperalism) and the basis of anti-Caribbean\nsentiment with his contribution to the [Platt Amendment][6], we see that\nAmerican governance has a outsized wing in the act of land seizure. These are\nthe basis of liberation of these regions and their deserved reparations. If\nCanada wanted to be more serious, it _could_ highlight this hypocrisy in\nbehavior. The country is viewed as a \"softer\" Francophone version of the United\nStates by those south of its borders, for no good reason.\n\n[1]: https://archive.ph/56bzU\n[2]: https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/hawaii-petition#background\n[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow_of_the_Hawaiian_Kingdom\n[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foraker_Act\n[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Organic_Act_(1902)\n[6]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platt_Amendment",
  "title": "Nation Sovereignity Only Matters When it's a Colonial One"
}