ABSTRACT
Sun Yatsen visited the Hawaiian Islands twice as a child, up to the age of 17, and again five times as an adult, making for seven visits in total between the years 1879 and 1910. The Committee of Safety and its early supporters looked to the wellspring of moral authority for the justification of their actions as defensive: that is to say, protective of their existing rights. Proposals for Hawai‘i’s annexation to the USA were almost as old as the 19th century, and thus of Hawai‘i’s diplomatic history as a sovereign nation in the age of Western imperialism, colonialism and global expansion. The superior threat of superior violence underpinned the Republic’s birth as the Provisional Government in January 1893. Political violence accounted for perhaps ten or 12 lives lost in combat over these five years.
