Post by lordroel on Aug 20, 2017 12:42:45 GMT
What if: Russian Hawaii
If things had turned out differently 200 years ago, Russians could today be spending their holidays in the Russian Autonomous Republic of Hawaii. While this might sound far-fetched, in fact, in the early 19th century the Russian Empire had a chance to take control of the Hawaiian Islands.
In the early 19th century, Russian explorers Ivan Kruzenstern and Yuri Lisyansky landed on the Hawaiian Islands and found many Americans already doing business there. Nevertheless, the Russians approached the Hawaiian king with offers of cooperation and friendship. After several years, however, they hastily left. Why?
The two kings
At the turn of the18th/19th centuries, the Hawaiian Islands had two kings: Kamehameha the Great, who united the kingdom in 1810 with his capital in Honolulu on the island of Oahu; and Kaumualii, a vassal who ruled over the two smaller islands of Niihau and Kauai.
King of Hawaii Island, Kamehameha I (1758-1819) and his warriors, 1819.
Members of the Russian expedition met with Kamehameha, an avid ship lover who boasted a small fleet of foreign vessels. Kamehameha welcomed the guests heartily and offered to begin trade with Russia’s colonies in Alaska.
Since the first Russian visit, however, rumors began spreading among the locals and the Americans living in Hawaii that the Czar was bent on conquering the islands.
Enter the German doctor
In 1815, King Kaumualii’s soldiers commandeered the Russian merchant ship, Bering, traveling to California with supplies. The first governor of Russia’s colonies in America, Alexander Baranov, sent his envoy, Dr. George Schaffer,, an employee of the Russian-American Company (RAC) to negotiate with Kaumualii.
Schaffer, a German-born physician in Russian service, had no military, naval or diplomatic education. Schäffer was perhaps best known for his attempts at supporting the Tsar against the Napoleonic invasion where his efforts to back Russia came in the form of trying to construct a “shark-shaped, hydrogen-filled, rotor-wing-powered balloon from which to drop timed-fuse explosives” on invading forces ahead of the Battle of Borodino in 1812, why Alexander Baranov send him to Hawaii, Perhaps Baranov simply had no one else to send. Schaffer was instructed to meet with Kamehameha, asking him to influence Kaumualii to return the ship.
The ultimate goal, however, was not the Bering but instead to establish a way station in Hawaii to accommodate Russian ships carrying furs from Alaska to the booming markets of Canton, China. Also, Schaffer was instructed to negotiate Russia's monopoly in the trade of sandalwood, a very high-priced furniture material. Schaffer brought gifts and a letter from Baranov to Kamehameha.
Things started on the wrong foot, however, immediately upon Schaffer’s arrival in Honolulu in late 1815. Influenced by local American merchants, Kamehameha first refused to receive the doctor, and Baranov's letter was returned unopened. Luckily for Schaffer, however, Kamehameha's wife fell ill, and the doctor managed to save her, which won him the king's trust and an allowance to buy plots of land to build factories. This, however, quickly earned him the reputation as a Russian spy, and living in Kamehameha's lands became more dangerous.
A conquest that never was
In May 1816, Schaffer left Oahu Island and set sail to Kauai, home of King Kaumualii. Upon Schaffer’s arrival, the second king decided to swear allegiance to Russian Emperor Alexander I and agree to exclusive trading rights with Russia and the RAC. The RAC backed Schäffer’s moves. As Aleksandr Baranov, who’d originally assigned Schäffer his task, wrote, should peaceful means fail, “the whole island of Kauai should be taken in the name of our Sovereign Emperor of all the Russias and become a part of his possessions.” But Kaumualii gave his islands and his stewardship freely to Russia, parading in a Russian naval officer’s uniform, in honor of Kauai’s new sovereign.
And that wasn’t all. A few weeks later – “[l]osing all touch with reality,” wrote Bolkhovitinov – Schäffer signed a “secret treaty” by which he would receive some 500 of Kaumualii’s men to lead a military charge against the remaining islands. Once occupied, the islands would not only cut all trade with the United States, but Russia would receive “carte blanche for this expedition and all assistance in constructing fortresses on all islands.” Schäffer pledged ships and ammunition for the assault. Meanwhile, as he continued construction on a pair of new forts and raised the Russian flag over Kauai, the surgeon awaited the RAC’s approval. Schäffer’s line of logic was straightforward:
Through these holdings Russia will soon obtain able and experienced seamen. The Chinese will have to allow the Russian flag to wave in Canton. The English and Americans will have their trade cut off. … The Sandwich Islands must be made a Russian West India and a second Gibraltar. Russia must have these islands at any cost! … No power in the world has more right to these islands than Russia!
Locations of the three Russian forts on kauai island
This haphazard effort at conquest, however, was soon put to an end when in March of 1817 five warships sailed to the island carrying soldiers from the Kingdom of Hawaii, as well as Americans, who demolished all of the Russian facilities that had been intended to supply Alaska and Kamchatka with vegetables and tropical fruits. Three Russians from Schäffer’s contingent were killed in the skirmishes, and forced to quit Hawaii along with the other Russian nationals.
Cool reception in St. Petersburg
A month after Schaffer left Hawaii, St. Petersburg received Kaumualii’s offers of annexation and learned of Schäffer’s plot to conquer the remainder of the Hawaiian islands for Russia, St. Petersburg blanched. Between the unreliability of Kaumualii and the simple matter of distance – to say nothing of risking the ire of the “adventurous” Americans – both the emperor and his foreign minister nixed the idea. Not only had the RAC lost the toehold Schäffer earlier gained, but the surgeon botched the wholesale annexation attempt, leaving Hawaii’s status as independent up to the Americans flooding the archipelago with traders and missionaries.
Moreover, Alexander didn't want the Hawaiian issue to spoil relations between Russia and its close partner, the United States.
Hawaii remained an independent international trading port for many more decades, and the Russians, just like other countries, continued to trade there. Today, Fort Elizabeth, the only reminder of Schaffer’s ill-fated conquest, is a historical park.
If things had turned out differently 200 years ago, Russians could today be spending their holidays in the Russian Autonomous Republic of Hawaii. While this might sound far-fetched, in fact, in the early 19th century the Russian Empire had a chance to take control of the Hawaiian Islands.
In the early 19th century, Russian explorers Ivan Kruzenstern and Yuri Lisyansky landed on the Hawaiian Islands and found many Americans already doing business there. Nevertheless, the Russians approached the Hawaiian king with offers of cooperation and friendship. After several years, however, they hastily left. Why?
The two kings
At the turn of the18th/19th centuries, the Hawaiian Islands had two kings: Kamehameha the Great, who united the kingdom in 1810 with his capital in Honolulu on the island of Oahu; and Kaumualii, a vassal who ruled over the two smaller islands of Niihau and Kauai.
King of Hawaii Island, Kamehameha I (1758-1819) and his warriors, 1819.
Members of the Russian expedition met with Kamehameha, an avid ship lover who boasted a small fleet of foreign vessels. Kamehameha welcomed the guests heartily and offered to begin trade with Russia’s colonies in Alaska.
Since the first Russian visit, however, rumors began spreading among the locals and the Americans living in Hawaii that the Czar was bent on conquering the islands.
Enter the German doctor
In 1815, King Kaumualii’s soldiers commandeered the Russian merchant ship, Bering, traveling to California with supplies. The first governor of Russia’s colonies in America, Alexander Baranov, sent his envoy, Dr. George Schaffer,, an employee of the Russian-American Company (RAC) to negotiate with Kaumualii.
Schaffer, a German-born physician in Russian service, had no military, naval or diplomatic education. Schäffer was perhaps best known for his attempts at supporting the Tsar against the Napoleonic invasion where his efforts to back Russia came in the form of trying to construct a “shark-shaped, hydrogen-filled, rotor-wing-powered balloon from which to drop timed-fuse explosives” on invading forces ahead of the Battle of Borodino in 1812, why Alexander Baranov send him to Hawaii, Perhaps Baranov simply had no one else to send. Schaffer was instructed to meet with Kamehameha, asking him to influence Kaumualii to return the ship.
The ultimate goal, however, was not the Bering but instead to establish a way station in Hawaii to accommodate Russian ships carrying furs from Alaska to the booming markets of Canton, China. Also, Schaffer was instructed to negotiate Russia's monopoly in the trade of sandalwood, a very high-priced furniture material. Schaffer brought gifts and a letter from Baranov to Kamehameha.
Things started on the wrong foot, however, immediately upon Schaffer’s arrival in Honolulu in late 1815. Influenced by local American merchants, Kamehameha first refused to receive the doctor, and Baranov's letter was returned unopened. Luckily for Schaffer, however, Kamehameha's wife fell ill, and the doctor managed to save her, which won him the king's trust and an allowance to buy plots of land to build factories. This, however, quickly earned him the reputation as a Russian spy, and living in Kamehameha's lands became more dangerous.
A conquest that never was
In May 1816, Schaffer left Oahu Island and set sail to Kauai, home of King Kaumualii. Upon Schaffer’s arrival, the second king decided to swear allegiance to Russian Emperor Alexander I and agree to exclusive trading rights with Russia and the RAC. The RAC backed Schäffer’s moves. As Aleksandr Baranov, who’d originally assigned Schäffer his task, wrote, should peaceful means fail, “the whole island of Kauai should be taken in the name of our Sovereign Emperor of all the Russias and become a part of his possessions.” But Kaumualii gave his islands and his stewardship freely to Russia, parading in a Russian naval officer’s uniform, in honor of Kauai’s new sovereign.
And that wasn’t all. A few weeks later – “[l]osing all touch with reality,” wrote Bolkhovitinov – Schäffer signed a “secret treaty” by which he would receive some 500 of Kaumualii’s men to lead a military charge against the remaining islands. Once occupied, the islands would not only cut all trade with the United States, but Russia would receive “carte blanche for this expedition and all assistance in constructing fortresses on all islands.” Schäffer pledged ships and ammunition for the assault. Meanwhile, as he continued construction on a pair of new forts and raised the Russian flag over Kauai, the surgeon awaited the RAC’s approval. Schäffer’s line of logic was straightforward:
Through these holdings Russia will soon obtain able and experienced seamen. The Chinese will have to allow the Russian flag to wave in Canton. The English and Americans will have their trade cut off. … The Sandwich Islands must be made a Russian West India and a second Gibraltar. Russia must have these islands at any cost! … No power in the world has more right to these islands than Russia!
Locations of the three Russian forts on kauai island
This haphazard effort at conquest, however, was soon put to an end when in March of 1817 five warships sailed to the island carrying soldiers from the Kingdom of Hawaii, as well as Americans, who demolished all of the Russian facilities that had been intended to supply Alaska and Kamchatka with vegetables and tropical fruits. Three Russians from Schäffer’s contingent were killed in the skirmishes, and forced to quit Hawaii along with the other Russian nationals.
Cool reception in St. Petersburg
A month after Schaffer left Hawaii, St. Petersburg received Kaumualii’s offers of annexation and learned of Schäffer’s plot to conquer the remainder of the Hawaiian islands for Russia, St. Petersburg blanched. Between the unreliability of Kaumualii and the simple matter of distance – to say nothing of risking the ire of the “adventurous” Americans – both the emperor and his foreign minister nixed the idea. Not only had the RAC lost the toehold Schäffer earlier gained, but the surgeon botched the wholesale annexation attempt, leaving Hawaii’s status as independent up to the Americans flooding the archipelago with traders and missionaries.
Moreover, Alexander didn't want the Hawaiian issue to spoil relations between Russia and its close partner, the United States.
Hawaii remained an independent international trading port for many more decades, and the Russians, just like other countries, continued to trade there. Today, Fort Elizabeth, the only reminder of Schaffer’s ill-fated conquest, is a historical park.