Three Key Reasons Behind the US Annexation of Hawaii

1. Strategic Location – Hawaii's mid-Pacific position gave the U.S. Navy a critical forward base and a stepping stone for operations in Asia.
2. Economic Interests – American sugar planters had invested heavily in the islands; annexation protected those investments and secured duty-free access to Hawaiian sugar.
3. Manifest Destiny – The prevailing belief that the U.S. was destined to expand across the continent and into the Pacific made annexation seem like a natural progression.

These factors converged in 1898, when Congress passed the Newlands Resolution, formally annexing the Republic of Hawaii.