A study of the development of the issues in the Hawaiian statehood controversy reveals the paradoxical fact that, while Americans were promoting the mutual interest of Hawaii and the United States, they were also developing a social, economic, and political atmosphere that has resulted in forces inimical to the consummation of a logical realization of Hawaii’s integration as a state. A knowledge of how Hawaii became linked to the United States, and of the institutions developed in the islands prior to annexation in 1898 is essential to an understanding of the contemporary problem.