The Tiki style that became so popular in the 1950s and 1960s was the result of a culmination of trends and events stretching back more than a century. Tiki originated as an American phenomena, which was subsequently exported to the rest of the world. As such, Polynesian Pop is definitely an American phenomena. Tiki is unabashedly a faux representation of Polynesian culture. This trend was never intended to be anthropologically accurate, or politically correct. Indeed, historians and philosophers may look back on Tiki in a number of ways. It may be argued that Tiki was a residual representation of Western colonialism, with Westerners lounging in hammocks while being tended to by natives. Another view is that Tiki was a manifestation of racism by whites upon Pacific Islanders. Another theory is that Tiki was a distorted view of Pacific cultures, based on the limited understanding that Americans had about the region. One must be careful not to over analyze the nature of Tiki. However, the origins of Tiki may be traced in conjunction with the experience the United States had in the Pacific stretching back to the early 1800s. Paleo-Tiki c. 1800 to 1898 When President Thomas Jefferson acquired the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, the United States acquired territory stretching to the Pacific Ocean. As the United States expanded between the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase and the Civil War, the notion of Manifest Destiny grew. By the 1840s, it became a de facto American policy to expand the borders of the Pacific. The Oregonian seacoast acquired by the Louisiana Purchase was insufficient, and by 1846, the United States went to war with Mexico. An American victory acquired the coveted coast of California, and by 1850, the first Pacific states were brought into the Union. The United States now had a direct and growing interest in the Pacific Ocean. While the European powers were required to send ships from their home countries around South America or Africa, the United States had a direct line to markets in China and the Dutch East Indies. In 1854, the United States sent a naval expedition to Japan, forcing that country to sign the Convention of Kanagawa, which opened up Japanese markets to western trade. It also stirred an interest in Japan to establish itself as a dominant power in the Western Pacific. Throughout the course of the 19th Century, the European powers scrambled to acquire what Pacific islands they could acquire. Spain already had a presence since the 1500s. The British, French, Dutch, and Germans acquired what possessions that they could. A few islands, such as Hawaii, were independent. By the end of the 19th Century, the United States began to exert it's influence into the central and western Pacific. In the late 1880s, the Germans and Americans faced off over authority of Samoa. Both countries sent ships to Apia, Samoa, in a face off and show-of-force. Just as it appeared hostilities would break out between the two countries, a huge hurricane struck Apia on March 15-16, 1889, wrecking both fleets. The disaster served as a catalyst for a diplomatic settlement to the crisis and the United States acquired American Samoa. In 1893, the American Minister to Hawaii, John L. Stevens, conspired to overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy and bring the islands under American control. By 1898, President William McKinley officially annexed the Hawaiian archipelago. Also in 1898, the United States went to war with Spain. As a result, the U.S. acquired a number of strategic islands throughout the Pacific, including the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island. The aquision of possessions in the Pacific increased American involvement in the Pacific. Although the 'South Seas' were still a remote ideal for most Americans, increased trade and political involvement meant that Polynesia and other Pacific cultures would get increasing consideration by the American people. Next Chapter: Pre-Tiki c. 1898 to 1933. How the 1915 Pan Pacific Exposition helps Polynesian culture take hold in the United States, and how that trend lays the foundation for early Polynesian Pop.