Will the US end up giving independence to Hawaii?

Great Britain eventually gave independence to India and other colonies. It makes me wonder if we'll end up doing the same for Hawaii, which used to be a foreign country. I used to live there. There were a lot of people who weren't happy at all with Hawaii's status as part of the United States. If you were a Caucasian person (as I am), many people would automatically resent you over how Hawaii became part of the US. If you read up on the history of it, you'll see that it was a pretty ugly affair. On the other hand, there are benefits to Hawaii for being part of the US. Anyone from there has the right to freely move about the country without any immigration red tape since they're Americans. And exporting goods to the other states is from one state to another instead of being a case of importing.

However, if you ask people there if Hawaii should be an independent country, you'll find many who say it should. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if sometime in my lifetime Hawaii gets independence. It would likely be a blow to Americans' egos.

No, I've lived in Hawaii. There is little chance that the US will give the entire set of islands up just because some of the natives want independence. The US has all five branches of the military operating on Oahu. Plus, the US is responsible for the education system and infrastructure that most of the major Hawaiian islands now have. The advancement of the islands to get into the 21st Century is due to the US.

What would be most likely to happen, if any concession is made, is that those who want an independent government will be given one or possibly a couple of the smaller islands to establish a government there. Of course, I doubt this would be an acceptable compromise for those who want independence, so it probably wouldn't actually happen.

Puerto Rico is the same way. They want Independence from the US, just like Quebec wants Independence from Canada.

SPC said:

Puerto Rico is the same way. They want Independence from the US, just like Quebec wants Independence from Canada.

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Evidently not Puerto Rico has held votes for independence and it has been rejected

snilloctjc said:

Evidently not Puerto Rico has held votes for independence and it has been rejected

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as has Quebec (twice) why does independence for Hawaii not enjoy any electoral support?

Technically Hawai'i isn't legally part of the United States, but that isn't recognized by the US obviously.

I posted the source a while back search my posts you'll find it I'm lazy

Luna Tick said:

Great Britain eventually gave independence to India and other colonies. It makes me wonder if we'll end up doing the same for Hawaii, which used to be a foreign country. I used to live there. There were a lot of people who weren't happy at all with Hawaii's status as part of the United States. If you were a Caucasian person (as I am), many people would automatically resent you over how Hawaii became part of the US. If you read up on the history of it, you'll see that it was a pretty ugly affair. On the other hand, there are benefits to Hawaii for being part of the US. Anyone from there has the right to freely move about the country without any immigration red tape since they're Americans. And exporting goods to the other states is from one state to another instead of being a case of importing.

However, if you ask people there if Hawaii should be an independent country, you'll find many who say it should. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if sometime in my lifetime Hawaii gets independence. It would likely be a blow to Americans' egos.

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There is no way the U.S. will give Hawaii independence.

Hawaii is too important to the strategic interests of the U.S. military to give independence, since it gives the U.S. Navy an excellent point to move all over the Pacific. With China growing as superpower and developing it's naval power, which threatens Taiwan and Japan and possibly South Korea, our allies in Asia, there's no way we'll give that up.

Also, while there may be a group that wants independence, I doubt that Hawaii would actually benefit from it. I don't know if Hawaii could sustain itself economically by being independent, and I'm sure that a good percentage of that state's economy comes from federal money spent into it, and I'm also sure that Hawaii receives more federal dollars than they pay in federal taxes.

At the most, Hawaii may ever get devolved into a protectorate, like Puerto Rico or Guam, but since Hawaii benefits from being a state by getting two Senators and can elect Representatives, something that not even citizens of Washington, D.C., can do, there's not a whole lot of sense in doing so.

Khayembii Communique said:

Technically Hawai'i isn't legally part of the United States, but that isn't recognized by the US obviously.

I posted the source a while back search my posts you'll find it I'm lazy

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I could be wrong, but I'm thinkin not many really give two-hoots-in-hell what you wrote a while back about Hawaii.

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SPC said:

Puerto Rico is the same way. They want Independence from the US, just like Quebec wants Independence from Canada.

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Puerto Rico is not a state, Hawaii is. Huge difference.

Khayembii Communique said:

Technically Hawai'i isn't legally part of the United States, but that isn't recognized by the US obviously.

I posted the source a while back search my posts you'll find it I'm lazy

Click to expand...

Technically it's a state, which makes you technically wrong. Anyone who thinks sinister plots were carried out, need only look at the vote for statehood. And besides, the Democratic Party got them statehood.....and you know they're as honest as the sky is blue.

Due to its importance to the military the answer would be no. But on top of that, while haole's may not be the most liked by locals...generally specifically local youths...I think it'd be incorrect to assume that the majority of individuals on the Islands would prefer independence then to remain a state.

snilloctjc said:

Evidently not Puerto Rico has held votes for independence and it has been rejected

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Actually they voted against statehood, not Independence.

SPC said:

Actually they voted against statehood, not Independence.

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It doesn't seem like very many of their people want independence, since support for the Independence party in Puerto Rico is well below support for both the statehood party and the commonwealth party.

Puerto Rico - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There is a huge difference though between Puerto Rico and Hawaii, and that is that Puerto Rico has the option of voting themselves out of being a US territory. If they really wanted to be an independent country, it would simply take a vote by their people to make them free. If the US refused to allow this, it could be taken to the UN. It was determined in the Civil War that states cannot simply secede from the US. Hawaii is a state. And there is little chance that most people living in Hawaii would be willing to give up Hawaii's statehood, even if it was a possibility. Native Hawaiians only make up about 9.4% of the population. The two major groups of people living in Hawaii are Asians (41.6%) and whites (24.3%). It is not likely that the Asians would care at all about giving Hawaii back to the native Hawaiians, especially since, that would probably mean that almost everyone else living there would face some upheaval of their life, including possibly moving to the mainland, getting a US passport, or accepting Hawaiian citizenship.

The change would lead to many issues that I'm not sure that the Hawaiians have actually thought about, including the fact that they would need a currency, they would no longer be considered citizens of the US, and they would lose federal funding for any projects in the state, since it would be a different country. On top of this, many of the workers for utility companies in Hawaii, such as power plant operators and even a good portion of their tourist industry workers are not going to stay in Hawaii if it becomes its own country.

I don't think any of these things matter though, since it is highly unlikely that the US is going to willingly give up such a strategicly positioned state just to appease a small percentage of people. I doubt that the Native Hawaiians will ever be given full Native American recognition either, since neither side is likely to reach an acceptable set of terms for both the US and the Native Hawaiians.

SPC said:

Actually they voted against statehood, not Independence.

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You are correct. My mistake, that's what I get for relying on memory a my advanced age.