Missionaries were the first group from the United States to settle in Hawaii. They were followed by the businessmen. Then, the military came.
American Protestant missionaries lead by Reverend Amos Starr Cooke settled in Hawaii on 1837. He set up a school to educate future monarchs. He became the unofficial adviser to the King, one of his previous students. Cooke influenced the king's decision to devise a land reform that allows businessmen to buy land from the locals and become sugarcane planters.
Hawaii's location is ideal for strategic warfare, thus, the military settled there.
