In 1875, the United States gained exclusive access to the harbor for coaling and repair through the Reciprocity Treaty with the Kingdom of Hawaii. Wealthy, White Americans sought to establish an imperial presence through missionary and economic activity as early as the 1830s, and in 1870, General John McAllister Schofield (namesake of the current Schofield Barracks in Wahiawa) suggested that the United States secure access rights to Pearl Harbor. If Pearl Harbor was critical for projection of imperial and naval power, why was the Great White Fleet unable to dock there? By 1919, Pearl Harbor would have a fully-functioning and established naval base, but not before a Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War finally urged the Navy to recognize HawaiiвЂ™s importance for American strategy in the Pacific.Д«efore the United States formally annexed Hawaii, the natural harbor ( Wai Momi) at the mouth of the Pearl River on Oahu factored into American plans for the islands. вЂњThe Atlantic fleetвЂ¦came face to face here with one of the hard facts of urgent need-that is, the immediate improvement of Pearl Harbor,вЂќ The SunВ emphasized.By the early 1900s, Americans, representatives from Hawaii, and even members of the military recognized Pearl Harbor as an important component for AmericaвЂ™s ascendancy in the Pacific, potentially as вЂњindispensable as Gibraltar to the British Empire.вЂќ Pearl Harbor, then the site of a basic Naval station equipped with the barest of necessities for maintaining a naval presence, was an ideal spot for safeguarding the fleet, but it was in need of improvement-primarily dredging to deepen the channels allowing access to the harbor and a dry dock for repairing vessels. Ironically, вЂњonly eight miles away one of the finest natural harbors in the world, a place of shelter just now more important to the United States from a military and commercial standpoint than any harbor it possesses,вЂќ The SunВ reported on Pearl Harbor after the fleetвЂ™s visit. Even then, there was insufficient space for coaling near Honolulu without difficult maneuvers four of the ships had to travel 70 miles to the Island of Maui to refuel, while others were only able to squeeze one-by-one into the Honolulu harbor. The fleet was forced to drop their anchors in open water near Honolulu as there was not enough room for all 16 ships in the cityвЂ™s harbor. There was just one problem: the Great White Fleet had nowhere to dock in Honolulu. Hawaii, then a territory of the United States and recognized as the вЂњcrossroads of the PacificвЂќ for its position between the West Coast and the United StatesвЂ™ colonial and territorial possessions in the Philippines and Guam, was a natural stopping point for the fleet, reflecting AmericaвЂ™s expanding geographical reach. Crowds gathered to witness what was to be AmericaвЂ™s answer to BritainвЂ™s dominant sea power in a new age of imperial expansion. In July of 1908, the Great White Fleet-President Theodore RooseveltвЂ™s impressive armada of 16 dazzling white battleships under the command of Rear Admiral Robley вЂњFighting BobвЂќ Evans-stopped at Honolulu, Hawaii on its global tour. Top Image: A вЂњMap of the PacificвЂќ featuring Hawaii published in the Illinois Evening Bulletin in 1911.

Territory war 1