AHC: Spanish Hawaii
- Thread starter mlp
- Start date
exactly...but how? when?who?
"why" might also be a good question- the Hawaiians themselves might kick the spanish out and bring the british. or the exact opposite.
Although there doesn't appear to be any known direct, irrefutable archeological evidence, I think it's quite probable that there WAS some interaction between the Spanish plying the Manila Galleons and the Hawaiians prior to Cook's 'discovery'.
1. Maps before 1700 appear to show a chain of islands that seem to be located in the region that appear to be closely mimic the actual chain.
2. Could it have been complete coincidence that the Hawaiian 'regal' crowns looked startling similar to conquistadores' helmets?
Again, I acknowledge that my 'evidence' presented is far from irrefutable but I think it should not be discounted re the possible history of Hawaii. Now, of course, if ever a 'smoking gun' becomes unearthed in Hawaii or in Spanish archives proving a link, the question would need be asked as to why the Spanish would have considered the chain nothing more than a watering hole ,if that, and made no efforts to conquer it as they had other previously undiscovered lands.
1. Maps before 1700 appear to show a chain of islands that seem to be located in the region that appear to be closely mimic the actual chain.
2. Could it have been complete coincidence that the Hawaiian 'regal' crowns looked startling similar to conquistadores' helmets?
Again, I acknowledge that my 'evidence' presented is far from irrefutable but I think it should not be discounted re the possible history of Hawaii. Now, of course, if ever a 'smoking gun' becomes unearthed in Hawaii or in Spanish archives proving a link, the question would need be asked as to why the Spanish would have considered the chain nothing more than a watering hole ,if that, and made no efforts to conquer it as they had other previously undiscovered lands.
Were the Hawaiian Islands on the Trade Wind routes across the Pacific? They would have made a nice port of call for the Manila Galleons heading either way I guess. Mind you if they became too important I'm sure the British would have been interested in them as well.
If the Spaniards conquer the Hawaiian Archipelago, expect the following scenarios:
1. A series of intermarriage between the conquistadores and native Hawaiian women, therefore creating a Hawaiian-speaking mestizo population.
2. The native Hawaiian nobility will become part of the principalia or aristocratic class.
3. Hawaiian language will have a significant borrowings from Spanish.
(By the way, the Spaniards will consider Hawaii as the tropical counterpart of Canarias and Baleares, just like in a Mecano song)
1. A series of intermarriage between the conquistadores and native Hawaiian women, therefore creating a Hawaiian-speaking mestizo population.
2. The native Hawaiian nobility will become part of the principalia or aristocratic class.
3. Hawaiian language will have a significant borrowings from Spanish.
(By the way, the Spaniards will consider Hawaii as the tropical counterpart of Canarias and Baleares, just like in a Mecano song)
katchen
Banned
Apparently, it's a pure historical accident IOTL that some Spanish explorer DIDN'T discover Hawaii, mainly because the Spanish Manila Galleons followed the prescribed routes pretty religiously and did not deviate from them once they were established. (And interestingly, the trade with the Philippines was limited to what could fit in ONE SHIP to avoid too much of a leakage of silver from the New World to China. Even though Chinese silks and tea were actually more valuable than silver, Spain needed to inflate IT"S currency too, just as China did. And the Spanish did not figure out how to trade other commodities that the Chinese might want, be they opium, coca, deer antlers, garter and rattlesnakes or even sandalwood (which the Chinese might have figured out IF they had discovered Hawaii).
Hawaii could have been key to establishing a sandalwood trade with China for Spain, and it will be an interesting TL indeed in which Spainish explorers discover Hawaii, just as it will be an interesting TL in which Spanish explorers discover Tahiti, the Marqueasas, the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji New Caledonia and reach Australia without bumping into the Great Barrier Reef by going from New Caledonia to about Port Curtis.
Hawaii could have been key to establishing a sandalwood trade with China for Spain, and it will be an interesting TL indeed in which Spainish explorers discover Hawaii, just as it will be an interesting TL in which Spanish explorers discover Tahiti, the Marqueasas, the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji New Caledonia and reach Australia without bumping into the Great Barrier Reef by going from New Caledonia to about Port Curtis.
How would the Spanish authorities have dealt with mestizo populations in the Islands? I read that the Spanish born Colonists were always treated a bit better than the locally born Spaniard(Creole?) and the mixed races were given status depending on what their parentage was. This resentment had an influence in the South Americans seeking independence during the early 1800s.
Anyway in the Pacific Islands it appears there was less concern over the mixing of the races especially as time went on. Maybe this was due to the later period that other European involvement took place, ie 1800s when ideals of Noble Savage were prevalent and before the prejudice of Jingoism and superior "race" and Darwinism took hold.
Or maybe it was in the paraphrase of one old southern gentlemen not so much the strength of the coffee as how much creams added to it.
Anyway in the Pacific Islands it appears there was less concern over the mixing of the races especially as time went on. Maybe this was due to the later period that other European involvement took place, ie 1800s when ideals of Noble Savage were prevalent and before the prejudice of Jingoism and superior "race" and Darwinism took hold.
Or maybe it was in the paraphrase of one old southern gentlemen not so much the strength of the coffee as how much creams added to it.
And no doubt the Hawaii would have been lost in the Spano-American war 1899-19whatever it was.
Not necessarily--it might be lost to Mexico if/when that country leaves Spain. Like the Philippines, Hawaii will most likely be part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
Or the British might seize it during the eighteenth century.
katchen
Banned
The population will be more white than one might think, and the bulk of the mestizo population will be Mexican mestizos. This is because Hawaiians, like other Polynesians have little resistance to European diseases and the ships that come to them (as opposed to going from them) come from Mexico. Mainly, I suspect, Hawaii will be settled by Spaniards, because of the lack of diseases and the limited amount of arable land. There will of course be a minority of mestizo Hawaiian survivors. ...
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
Spanish colonization of Hawaii, assuming here that someone stumbles upon it in the mid-sixteenth century, would probably mirror that of the other islands it controlled in the Pacific, like Guam. Hawaii would be a place for ships in the Manila-Apapulco galleon routes to stop and restock on supplies. Outside of that, the islands won't really be very important for the Spanish Empire and would otherwise be ignored. Not many Castilians came to the more attractive areas of the Spanish East Indies like the Philippines IOTL so I do not expect many to consider Hawaii to be a destination for Castilians. As for Filipino and Mexico immigration, you can expect to see a lot of it since it would serve as a midway point between the Philippines and Mexico, eventually bringing a synthesis of language, culture and cuisine onto the islands. Expect to see the native Hawaiian language to carry a lot of Tagalog, Spanish and Nahuatl loan-words from the migrants. You might reach a point where a significant minority of the native Hawaiian language comes from these three sources, not to mention whatever from the languages spoken from other migrants to the islands, maybe some that came in OTL like the Japanese and Chinese.
The native Hawaiian population will suffer a lot from diseases introduced by the Spaniards but since Hawaii is rather distant, I do not expect them to suffer the same fate of the native Americans and be completely shut out. Culture and language would be severely repressed by the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish authorities. Resettlement might be practiced as a policy to make sure that the natives are all under the watchful eye of the Spanish garrison. What will remain of the upper class in Hawaii will become integrated and intermarry with what few Spaniards that arrive, forming the criollo population. Native Hawaiians will intermarry with the Mexicans and Filipinos that arrive on the island as soldiers, fishermen, whalers, merchants, farmers and workers in the large plantations, producing a variety of things like sugar, maize, rice, bananas, etc.
Catholicism would be the dominant faith of Hawaii though some indigenous traditions will survive, either by remnants practicing it in isolated rural communities or by missionaries who aren't so strict and allow them to continue, albeit in a rather Christianized setting, much like elsewhere. You'll likely have some Hawaiian Catholics preferring to God the Father by Wakea, etc.
Independence and how they achieve it is probably unknown and you can pretty much go anywhere with your imagination as how they might do it. It is likely that any independence movement will be headed by the criollos or at least have some criollo involvement, if we're murdering butterflies, sometime around the early nineteenth century like the other Latin American countries. Something like the Plan of Iguala (the part of having a European monarch serve as the constitutional monarch of Hawaii) might be attractive to the Hispano-Hawaiians to legitimize their desires for independence and perhaps even put them under the protection of a greater power, even leasing one of their ports.
The native Hawaiian population will suffer a lot from diseases introduced by the Spaniards but since Hawaii is rather distant, I do not expect them to suffer the same fate of the native Americans and be completely shut out. Culture and language would be severely repressed by the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish authorities. Resettlement might be practiced as a policy to make sure that the natives are all under the watchful eye of the Spanish garrison. What will remain of the upper class in Hawaii will become integrated and intermarry with what few Spaniards that arrive, forming the criollo population. Native Hawaiians will intermarry with the Mexicans and Filipinos that arrive on the island as soldiers, fishermen, whalers, merchants, farmers and workers in the large plantations, producing a variety of things like sugar, maize, rice, bananas, etc.
Catholicism would be the dominant faith of Hawaii though some indigenous traditions will survive, either by remnants practicing it in isolated rural communities or by missionaries who aren't so strict and allow them to continue, albeit in a rather Christianized setting, much like elsewhere. You'll likely have some Hawaiian Catholics preferring to God the Father by Wakea, etc.
Independence and how they achieve it is probably unknown and you can pretty much go anywhere with your imagination as how they might do it. It is likely that any independence movement will be headed by the criollos or at least have some criollo involvement, if we're murdering butterflies, sometime around the early nineteenth century like the other Latin American countries. Something like the Plan of Iguala (the part of having a European monarch serve as the constitutional monarch of Hawaii) might be attractive to the Hispano-Hawaiians to legitimize their desires for independence and perhaps even put them under the protection of a greater power, even leasing one of their ports.
Wouldn't Spanish settlement of Hawaii also spur on other European encroachment into the Pacific a bit sooner than OTL?
And Hawaiian Spanish, in turn, heavily influenced by the Hawaiian language itself. Given the phonological structure of Hawaiian, this would produce very interesting results.
With the culture, it depends on who does the missionary work. If it's the Jesuits, expect some cultural preservation. With Dominicans, especially in such a remote area, more likely they suppress those parts of the culture they deem threatening to Spanish rule. Franciscans tended to be somewhere in the middle. Then of course there are the civil authorities, who were much more repressive than the missionaries by themselves could ever be, though the remoteness of the area might make the repression less consistent.
I'm actually thinking of two ethnolinguistic groups from the Philippines that coild intermarry with the native Hawaiians: Tagalogs and Ilocanos