The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 between the…

The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 between the Kingdom of Hawaii and the United States allows for duty-free importation of Hawaiian sugar (from sugarcane) and rice into the United States beginning in 1876.

This promotes sugar plantation agriculture.

In exchange, Hawai'i cedes Pearl Harbor, including Ford Island (in Hawaiian, Moku'ume'ume), together with its shore for four or five miles back, free of cost to the U.S.

The United States had demanded this area based on an 1873 report commissioned by the U.S. Secretary of War.

This treaty explicitly acknowledges Hawai'i as a sovereign nation.

Although the treaty also includes duty-free importation of rice, which is by this time becoming a major crop in the abandoned taro patches in the wetter parts of the islands, it is the influx of immigrants from Asia (first Chinese, and later Japanese) needed to support the escalating sugar industry that provides the impetus for expansion of rice growing.

High water requirements for growing sugarcane result in extensive water works projects on all of the major islands to divert streams from the wet windward slopes to the dry lowlands.