There was an episode in the history of Russian colonial entrepreneurship when Hawaii could become the possession of Russia for some time, if the imperial government showed more courage.
Discovery of Hawaii
The Hawaiian Islands were reliably discovered by Europeans during the third expedition of the English navigator James Cook in 1778. True, there are suggestions that even in the XVI-XVII centuries. The Hawaiian Islands may have been seen by some Spanish sailors, but this remains unproven. In any case, the natives whom the British met acted as if they first learned about the existence of white people. For Cook himself, this discovery was the last, as he was killed by the natives, disappointed with his "wrong" for the deity (for whom he was initially mistaken) behavior.
Despite the lack of contacts with Europeans, the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands (akin to the Polynesians) were already at a fairly high level of social development by that time. They formed early state formations, sometimes uniting several islands. The most adventurous leaders fought to create a centralized monarchy that would unite all of Hawaii. With the arrival of white people selling iron weapons, including firearms, this process has accelerated significantly.
After Cook, the Hawaiian Islands were often visited by English, French and Russian expeditions. By 1810, the leader of the Big Island (Hawaii proper) Kamehamea managed to conquer all the major Hawaiian Islands and founded a state that went down in history as the Kingdom of Hawaii. He overthrew their former rulers or turned them into his vassals.
Russians in Hawaii
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In 1805, Russian ships first appeared in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands. Captain Yuri Lisyansky, who commanded the Neva ship in the first Russian circumnavigation, discovered uninhabited islands, named after Kruzenshtern, himself and his ship. These islands belong to the Hawaiian archipelago.
In January 1815, the Bering ship of the Russian American Company (RAC) was wrecked off the island of Kauai. Kaumualii, the hereditary ruler of the island, confiscated the ship along with the cargo in the amount of 100 thousand rubles. To resolve the delicate situation, the chief ruler of Russian America, Alexander Baranov, sent a German, Dr. Georg Schaeffer, to Hawaii on the American ship Isabella.
Schaeffer's actions
Schaeffer was a flamboyant, eccentric personality, and his temperament certainly brought drama to the situation in Hawaii.
After becoming a doctor of medicine in Germany, the 29-year-old Schaeffer emigrated to Russia in 1808. He was noted in many places: he became a master of the Masonic lodge, helped his fellow countryman Dr. Franz Leppich in his unsuccessful attempt to create the first combat balloon for the war with Napoleon, and in 1813 he decided to test himself in the colonial field. Upon arrival in Alaska on a military sloop "Suvorov" was immediately written off ashore, as "a person who is intolerant on the ship." At the end of his life, Schaeffer recruited German colonists to Brazil and is believed to have initiated the German emigration to this country.
In Hawaii, Schaeffer first went to see Kamehamea, the high king. But, despite the successful treatment of the king's wife, the German failed to achieve a favorable outcome of the negotiations on the ship. Then he went to Kauai to Kaumualiya, who decided to use the opportunity to win independence from Kamehamea. The native leader and the German doctor understood each other well. Kaumualii not only freed the ship along with the cargo, but also granted the RAC a monopoly on the purchase of sandalwood, and most importantly, on May 21, 1816, he signed a petition for a Russian protectorate over his island.
During his stay on Kauai, Schaeffer founded three fortresses there - the stone Elizabethan fortress (in honor of the wife of Alexander I), the earthen fortresses of Alexandrovskaya and Barclay de Tolly, and put garrisons of RAC soldiers and natives there. In September 1816, Schaeffer sailed to Alaska, from where he sent copies of important documents signed by Kaumualii to St. Petersburg.
Petersburg veto
The main board of the RAC in St. Petersburg approved Schaeffer's actions and sent instructions to Alaska to develop relations with Kaumualii, as well as to ensure that he sell the small island of Niihau to the RAC. But everything depended on what was decided in St. Petersburg. Due to the distance of the distances, they learned about the events after many months. The same amount was spent on making decisions in “high instances”. Only in February 1818, Alexander I put down a resolution:
"The acquisition of these islands and their voluntary entry into his patronage, not only cannot bring Russia any substantial benefit, but, on the contrary, in many respects is associated with very important inconveniences."
It is believed that the tsar took a negative stance under the influence of the foreign minister, Count Karl Nesselrode, who feared to arouse England's discontent, and also rushed at the time with the utopian idea of attracting the United States to the "Holy Alliance" of European monarchs.
At the same time, dramatic events took place in Hawaii. American merchants and adventurers, fearing competition from the RAC, began to turn the High King Kamehamea against the Russians and the King of Kaumualia. At the end of 1816, the Americans and the subjects of the high king opened military operations against the Russians and the "separatists". In 1817, the Russians were forced to leave the fortresses on Kauai.
In this story, it remains completely incomprehensible how the captain of the Russian round-the-world expedition on the brig "Rurik" Otto Kotzebue, who visited Oahu and King Kamehamea in the period from November 15 to December 2, 1816, reacted to the events in Hawaii, that is, at the height of the hostilities undertaken by the king and by the Americans against the Russian forts.
And Hawaii was left to the Americans
Despite the negative attitude of St. Petersburg to the plans to take Hawaii under its patronage, in 1819 Kamehamea II, the successor to the supreme king himself, asked the Russians to take all the Hawaiian Islands under his patronage. At this time, many islands rebelled against his rule, and the new supreme king, with Russian help, wanted to restore his sovereignty over the islands, since his hope for American help was unfounded.
His request was delivered to the Russian consul in the Philippines, Peter Dobel (Irish by birth). Dobel visited Hawaii in 1819-1820. and then he wrote several letters to Alexander I, in which he ardently urged to accept the archipelago under a Russian protectorate, "since the annexation of Hawaii is necessary even to preserve the possessions that Russia has [in America]." However, the emperor did not even deign to answer them.
Kamehameah II received, in the end, help from American adventurers, who from that time on firmly established themselves in Hawaii.
Yaroslav Butakov