The expansion of the United States into the Pacific was also vigorous, if less firmly supported by public opinion. Ever since Commodore Matthew C. Perry opened Japan to American trade in 1853, American businessmen had taken an increasing interest in the commerce of the Pacific. Supported by farm-state representatives,.
Congress in 1856 passed a law enabling the President to annex any island which was rich in guano, a natural fertilizer. As a result, the United States acquired a considerable number of tiny islands in the Pacific. Other islands such as Samoa, with its fine harbor of Pago Pago, were desired as coaling stations for the United States Pacific trading ships. In 1878 a treaty with the ruling Samoan monarch gave the United States the harbor rights sought by American businessmen. But in 1889 the Germans, who also had economic interests in the islands, sought to undo this agreement by overthrowing the Samoan government. The matter was temporarily settled in that same year when Britain, Germany, and the United States established a joint "protectorate" over Samoa. Ten years later a new agreement gave Pago Pago to the United States and the rest of Samoa to Germany.
Far more important to the United States in its expansionist mood was the acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands, first visited by American missionaries in the 1820's. Economic ties soon strengthened the religious connection. American immigrants produced sugar and pineapples there for the home market, and sailed their whalers into Hawaiian ports. Increasingly concerned about the dangers presented by imperialist rivalries in the Pacific, the Americans strengthened their naval power by securing from the Hawaiian government in 1887 the exclusive right to use Pearl Harbor. In the same year, seeking still greater control, American businessmen engineered the overthrow of the corrupt government of King Kalakaua of Hawaii and forced him to accept a new form of government&endash;called the "Bayonet Constitution" by the Hawaiians&endash;which gave white foreigners the vote and disfranchised the bulk of the native population.
