Hawaii How Are You?

In Burnished Rows of Steel we learn two important things about Britain expanding its empire in this period. One is that they must raise more troops but not deploy them sufficiently. Two is that in order to carry out a campaign against the West Coast of the United States, they must occupy Hawaii.

From Chapter 7 Part 2

Another battalion and a company of engineers had been dispatched from Mauritius, but their arrival in British Columbia was doubtful; the Americans, British, and French had long had their eyes on the Kingdom of Hawaii, and with the outbreak of war, Kamehameha IV could no longer play the British and Americans off each other. The transports carrying the 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment (2nd Warwickshire) Lt. Col. Charles H. Ellice, CB, and the 21st Company, Royal Engineers were diverted to Honolulu, where they met the steam sloop Charybdis

Just why the British occupy Honolulu is never explicitly stated in the text. However, it is apparently worth the detaching of an entire battalion and company of engineers who would be of much use elsewhere.

Now Honolulu is a strategic spot, that is not up for debate, but why do the British occupy it now of all times? Especially after having willingly given up on forceful annexation of the island in 1843. Do they fear the Union occupying it? This is so unlikely as to be farcical, as USN naval strength in the Pacific is negligible and they could not spare the resources to annex the islands even if they wanted to. Do they think the French might occupy it? Unlikely, as France was currently wrapped up in Mexico and staking claims to Indochina.

However, as usual, this appears to just be a research failure on the part of the author in order to justify taxing the British resources. He states that King Kamehameha IV desired to play the Americans off against the British. This could not be further from the truth.

Kamehameha IV had actually taken the profoundly important step of declaring neutrality in the ongoing American Civil War in 1861 (and doubtless would have been canny enough to declare neutrality when the British intervened), and he also displayed, if not totally anti-American policies, a decidedly pro-British slant in his foreign policies. At the beginning of his reign he dismissed certain American advisers from top positions (notably men who had participated in the annexation movement of 1854) and established the Anglican Church as a counter weight to the American Missionary movement present in Hawaii. Already there was a fear of potential American annexation of Hawaii, and seeking ties with Britain, was a merely natural defence against such a potential move by the United States,

Of course, his dislike of the United States (in institutions and policy) might extent from his own first hand experience in New York while travelling as a prince:

"I found he was the conductor, and took me for somebody's servant just because I had a darker skin than he had. Confounded fool;. the first time that I have ever received such treatment, not in England or France or anywhere else...In England an African can pay his fare and sit alongside Queen Victoria. The Americans talk and think a great deal about their liberty, and strangers often find that too many liberties are taken of their comfort just because his hosts are a free people."

This of course just serves to undermine any idea that he would play the US and Britain off against each other.

In reality this might lead to Britain declaring a protectorate over the island (at the King's request even!) and parking some ships in Honolulu and daring the United States to do something about it. So any idea of Britain outright occupying Hawaii is just another example of the author making up issues to inconvenience the British.